Activities
The city of Riobamba, being located in the center of the country, is and obligated site of transit for tourists, and a link between north and south, coastal and oriental regions.
It’s also the center of expeditions and excursions to the mountains and National Parks such as Sangay, the nature reserve of Chimborazo and Carihuairazo. The most beautiful mountains in Ecuador are found surrounding Riobamba, forming one of the most spectacular landscapes in our Andes Mountain Range:
- Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador (6.310 Mts.)
- Carihuairazo (5.020 Mts.),
- Igualata, which is over 4.000 Mts., high,
- Tungurahua (5.087 Mts.),
- Altar (5.404 Mts.), with its difficult peaks of ice and rock.
- The Cubillines (4.711 Mts.).
- Quillimas (4.680 Mts.).
- Sangay (5.320 Mts.) which is the most active Volcano in Ecuador
- Soroche (4.750 Mts.), and Achipungu (4.650 Mts.), these last two are found surrounding the myth filled lakes of Ozogoche.
The majestic beauty of the high Andes, with it’s great wealth of flora and fauna in the highlands and Andean regions, is refuge of the great biodiversity of the ecosystems of the highland and the brow of the mountain.
From Riobamba, almost every day you can visit the most original inter-ethnic markets of Ecuador, such as Zalarón, Guamote, Colta, Licto and Riobamba. Markets are where the different ethnic groups of Chimborazo manifest their principal social and economic relationships.
The Province of Chimborazo also has archeological vestiges of pre-Columbian and Spanish periods, such as the Puruha culture, the ancient city of Riobamba, the trail of the Incas, and the regal lodges of this pre-Columbian culture.
Riobamba continues to be the center of the railroad to the south, the old train offers tourist a ride departing from Riobamba and unfolds the impressive landscapea of the river Chanchán, and the gigantic excavation in the Andean granite know as “the devil’s nose”.
