Fly Fishing in Ecuador - 2/2016 - Trout on the Equator?

     I thought it would be easy and I could be wrong about this but Google never lies. Hours of searching failed to reveal guides, regulations, fishing reports, fly shops, stream flows, or fishing lodges near Quito in Ecuador. Once there it appeared that "Pesca Deportiva" meant a concrete tank filled with rainbow trout, a piece of broom stick, a hook attached to a piece of string, and a ball of bread dough. You hook a fish, cough up $3 and then eat it grilled.
     Like many countries, Morocco for example, Ecuador is focused on ocean fishing at present and fresh water fishing is not yet on the radar. From facebook post, none within 2 years, I guessed that you could take a bus from Quito to Papallacta and fish the streams in the high Andes coming out of the Cayambe-coca Ecological Reserve.
     Brenda and I booked a night at the hot springs resort Termes del Papallacta. It looked to be about 2 hours away on an iffy road well up in the Andes on the way to the jungle. We were just finishing a tour of Machu Picchu and the Galapagos so I asked our tour leader to help me get a reliable taxi. He hooked us up with the transit company for the tour. It seemed a little salty at $75 but at least I had recourse if things fell apart. This is the vehicle that showed up to take us and only us to the resort. The road turned out to be new highway with little traffic and not nearly a scary as the 8 hour trip from Santiago, Chile to Mendosa, Argentina over the same mountain range.

 The road turned out to be new highway with little traffic and not nearly a scary as the 8 hour trip from Santiago, Chile to Mendosa, Argentina over the same mountain range.

Crossing over the highest pass. Note the latitude. 0 degrees, of course,  means almost on the equator.

Termas de Papallacta also turned out to be exactly what I'd hoped for except, when I asked the front desk about guides or maps for fishing she said, "Oh no. There's no fishing here. We are in the middle of an ecological preserve." Well damn. 

Luckily, as is the usually the case with the front desk around the world, no one really knows anything about fly fishing. Only 100 yards from the front desk I encountered this sign at the entrance to the ecological reserve.

The fifth line reads,

 I always "only fish under normal regulations," so I got out my Tenkara and hiked up the trail.  I'm more than happy to buy a license if only there is a way to do it. I've had the same problem in France, Morocco, Turks and Caicos, China, Fiji, and India. I give it three honest tries and then tie on a parachute adams, or in this case a tenkara fly.

There was plenty of fishing looking water similar to the small streams in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Elevation was about 9,000 feet. Stream temperature was about 50F. 

Aha. A rainbow on the equator. Apparently rainbow trout were brought to Ecuador in the 1970's, probably to be farmed for "Pesca Desportiva." This little stream was loaded with their descendants. They were healthy and hungry and not that large as you would expect at this elevation. I hooked and released about 20 in two hours. There were decent hatches of mayflies and midges taking place. 

Overall a very satisfying fly fishing for trout on the equator experience.