Ecuador’s Chakana Reserve offers glimpses of wildlife like the Andean condor and Andean bear

A white-tailed deer pausing among the moss and grass of the Ecuadorian paramo – a graceful guardian of the high Andes, perfectly at home in this windswept wilderness.

By dawn, mist clings to the Andean sky over the Chakana Reserve, the air sharp at 5°C.

Our four-wheel drive sputters its last breath on a rain-slicked slope at 3,000m – beyond this point, only boots and resolve will do.