Bucay: Find hotels and explore travel interests

When looking for a hotel in Bucay, you can plan your trip around the themes that interest you most. The wider Chimborazo destination offers a range of highlights: high-mountain landscapes, lagoons, wildlife watching, historic architecture, and traditional crafts. The following places and activities are part of the Chimborazo destination.

Landscapes and nature in Chimborazo

The Chimborazo volcano reaches 6,263.47 meters. Its glacier-covered, conical silhouette defines the Andean landscape. The Chimborazo Fauna Production Reserve protects Páramo and Puna ecosystems, as well as native vicuñas, llamas, and alpacas. This natural area therefore showcases both the distinctive shape of the volcano and the highland ecosystems and their camelids.

Volcán El Altar also combines a striking mountain landscape with lagoons. Its glaciers formed, among others, the Amarilla Lagoon, also known as Caldera, as well as the Azul, Verde, Pintada, and Mandur lagoons. The Lagunas de El Altar wetland is also located in Sangay National Park, south of the volcano, and includes the Verde, Azul, Estrellada, Mandur, and Quindecocha lagoons. UNESCO declared the national park a World Heritage Site on December 7, 1983.

Activities and varied landscape experiences

Activities at Chimborazo volcano include mountaineering, hiking, cycling, and landscape photography. Trekking and climbing are possible at Volcán El Altar; the route leads to its lagoons. These options offer different highlights: at Chimborazo, activities range from mountain sports to photography, while the description of El Altar links trekking and climbing with the lagoons as a destination.

At Laguna de Colta, visitors can enjoy walks, photography, nature and landscape observation, and other adventure activities. Native bird species live there, and the lagoon is also home to a wide variety of colorful fish. Compared with the activities at the volcanoes, the focus here is on the shore, wildlife, and observing the landscape.

The Desierto de Palmira in the canton of Guamote offers a different setting: the area covers ten hectares of sand dunes and pine forest. Activities available there include camping, ecotourism, photography, hiking, and horseback riding on the dunes. From the summit of Cerro Puñay, meanwhile, visitors can see the Andean landscape and Ecuador’s coastal plains. These examples show just how varied the landscape themes are across the wider Chimborazo destination.

History, architecture, and crafts

The Iglesia de Balbanera in Colta was founded in 1534 and is considered the first Catholic church built on Ecuadorian soil. Its colonial façade was made from limestone blocks joined with clay; Indigenous and Spanish workers took part in its construction. A local material is also used for crafts at Laguna de Colta: the totora that grows there is used to weave mats and handicrafts.

Estación del Tren Sibambe is the terminus of the railway line over the Nariz del Diablo between Alausí and Sibambe. The station includes a café, a small museum, and the Plaza del Tren, where the community performs traditional dances for tourists. If you plan to visit, check train operations and the availability of visitor services in advance.

Consider which of these experiences matter to your plans, then search for a suitable hotel in Bucay.

Explore more destinations: Guano, San Isidro, Alausi, Guamote, Cajabamba, Riobamba, Alao, Chunchi

For the wider travel overview: Chimborazo.