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Ecuador: Mother of Great Rivers { 56 images } Created 12 Jan 2015

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  • Chimborazo Volcano, the furthest point from the center of the earth (because of the earth's equatorial bulge) rises above the high, sandy "el arenal" semi-desert.  Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador (6,268 metres [20,564 ft]).
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_001_(lighter_...jpg
  • Quilatoa, a volcanic caldera lake formed 800 years ago when the volcano erupted and then the summit collapsed, creating a 250 m (820ft) deep lake at an elevation of 3,914 m (12,841ft).  Ecuadoran Andes.  The last eruption send lava flows and lahars all the way from these Andean heights to the Pacific Ocean and spread volcanic ash throughout the northern Andes.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_002_(lighter_...jpg
  • Pailón Del Diablo (Devil's Cauldron) waterfall near Baños,Ecuador as glacier-melt from Cotopaxi Volcano squeezes through this cataract on its way from the Andes highlands to the Amazon basin.  Ecuador's volcanoes have lost 40% of their mass in a generation due to global warming, meaning that there is less water for highlands residents and for the Amazon basin below.  Also weather patterns have grown more extreme with more floods and draughts.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_003.jpg
  • Equatorial glaciers clothe Cotopaxi Volcano [5,897 m (19,347 ft)] at about 5,000 meters elevation, considered by some to be the world's highest active volcano.  Ecuador.  Since 1738, it has erupted more than 50 times.  <br />
Cotopaxi is believed to mean "Neck of the Moon" and has been considered a sacred mountain since before Inca times.<br />
Scientists say that Cotopaxi has lost 40% of its glacier cover since 1976.  Cotopaxi is one of the sources for the Amazon Watershed.  Its glaciers are sources to the Rio Napo and Rio Pastaza, which in turn feed the mighty Amazon River.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_004.jpg
  • Kichwa family, living on the highland slopes of Chimborazo Volcano, returns to their home from their farm fields.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_005.jpg
  • Kichwa children engage in calisthenics with their teacher outside of their thatched-roof school house in the morning high up where the "paramo" grassland meets the desert-like "arenal" on a high 4,100m (13,451ft) pass near Chimborazo Volcano that separates the altiplano high plateau heartland of Ecuador from the steamy Pacific Coast.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_006.jpg
  • Chimborazo Volcano (6,268 metres [20,564 ft]) peeks through a break in the clouds above a Kichwa herder returning to her high settlement at 4,100 m (13,451ft) on the desert-like "el arenal" from the crossroads to where her family raises sheep and alpaca.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_007.jpg
  • Wild vicuñas, cousins to the llama, have been reintroduced to the páramo and el arenal habitats on the high slopes, mostly above 4,000m (13123 ft) around the Chimborazo Volcano.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_008.jpg
  • Settlement on a high pasture for Kichwa herding families in the desert-like "el arenal" environment on the plateau pedestal upon which Chimborazo Volcano, Ecuador's highest mountain, sits.  This settlement is above 4,000m (13123 ft) and, being on the equator, the temperatures change little, meaning it can snow 12 months a year in this harsh, wind-swept, treeless environment.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_009.jpg
  • Kichwa woman barters with owner of livestock at the weekly animal market in Saquisili.  Highlanders come down to the main altiplano, or high plateau, market town to trade their livestock.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_010.jpg
  • Barley fields and pastures at an elevation of almost 4,000m (13,000 ft) where is cool but, being on the equator, the climate varies little throughout the year.  Above Zumbahua, Ecuador.  The humid winds from the Amazon Basin in June are caught by the mountains, form clouds that bring rain nearly every day spawning the great rivers that feed the Amazon River system.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_011.jpg
  • Kichwa woman works at the entrance of her thatched-roof, partially subterranean home at a bus stop on a 4,100m (13451 ft) mountain pass below Chimborazo Volcano on the wind-swept semi-desert "el arenal".  Because this mountain pass sits on the equator, it has the same cold climate all year long.  Ecuadorian Andes.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_012.jpg
  • Lone Kichwa man descends from one of the glacier running down from the summit of Cotopaxi Volcano [5,897 m (19,347 ft)] at about 5,000 meters elevation, considered by some to be the world's highest active volcano.  Ecuador.  As important as the volcanoes raw power, its glaciers are one of the primary sources feeding the vast river system of the Amazon Basin.<br />
<br />
Cotopaxi is believed to mean "Neck of the Moon" and has been considered a sacred mountain since before Inca times.<br />
Scientists say that Cotopaxi has lost 40% of its glacier cover since 1976.  Cotopaxi is one of the sources for the Amazon Watershed.  Its glaciers are sources to the Rio Napo and Rio Pastaza, which in turn feed the mighty Amazon River.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_013.jpg
  • Looking down the bare slopes of Cotopaxi Volcano from 5,000m (16400 ft) elevation, at ravines with stripes of layers of air laid down from past eruptions, exposed by glacial runoff that one of the sources of the great Amazon Basin of rivers.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_014.jpg
  • Layer upon layer of compressed volcanic ash, exposed in a road cut, representing major eruptions of 5,897 m (19,347 ft) Cotopaxi Volcano.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_015.jpg
  • Kichwa woman dressed warmly on a chilly Ambato city street, because the Ecuadorian Altiplano, despite sitting the equator, is high and chilly all year round.  Ambato, Ecuador.  During the northern summer, moist tropical winds from the Amazon Basin climb the mountains, building cool billowing clouds that send down rain showers that feed green pastures and snow squalls building equatorial glaciers higher up that run right back down into the Amazon Basin through deep canyons joining together as great rivers.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_016.jpg
  • Highway weaves down a deep canyon beside the rain-swollen Rio Pastazo draining the Andes above and delivering it to the Amazon Basin.  Below Los Baños, Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_017.jpg
  • Fishermen right on the Ecuador/Peru border, were the Yasuni River joins the Napo River, which is several kilometers wide at this point.  Nuevo Rocafuerte, Ecuador.  The Amazon Basin is all about water and few places is it more true than at Yasuni National Park.  The equatorial glaciers of Ecuador's massive volcanoes are a mere memory in the vastness of the Amazonian forests.  From here, it is possible to hitch a ride on a twice monthly cargo riverboat from the Peruvian side to go two days further downstream to Iquitos on the Amazon River.  There is no schedule.  The boat doesn't leave until it is full.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_018.jpg
  • A flooded forest so thick with vegetation that it has become almost abstract in Yasuni National Park's core ITT section, a bio hotspot because of the richness of life.  Near the Peruvian border, Ecuador.  It gets its name because the the Ishpingo, Tambococha, Tiputini Rivers run through it.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_019.jpg
  • Bus stop on one of the windy mountain passes between Pujili and Tigua, Ecuador.  On the equator, the weather does not change much leaving Kichwa communities like this one, at about 3,500 m (11,400 ft) perpetually washed over by chilly winds and passing rain showers, which eventually wash down into the Amazon Basin, feeding great rivers down there.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_020.jpg
  • A Kichwa family return to their high paramo farm, which is over 4,000m (13123 ft) in elevation, with Chimborazo Volcano (6,268 metres [20,564 ft]) peeking above the slope.  Ecuador.  At this elevation, the equatorial sun warms the skin while the perpetual winds simultaneously cool the body.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_021.jpg
  • Man makes his way through the historical old city of Quito, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_022.jpg
  • The rain-swollen and muddy Rio Pastazo, draining the Andes, thunders through a narrow canyon of volcanic cliffs as it leaves the highlands and drops into the long series of canyons that deliver the glacier melt to the Amazon Basin.  Ecuador.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_023.jpg
  • Without roads, the boat is the only way to travel long distance: Young Kichwa boy sits on the bow of the launch (lancha) speeding along the Rio Napo to navigate around logs, rocks and sand bars in the river for the owner who is operating the outboard engine in the back.  Ecuadorian Amazonas.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_024.jpg
  • Squirrel monkey, lacking fear of humans, at the riverfront in Coca.   Ecuadorian Amazonas.
    Delano_Ec_River_Mother_025.jpg
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