Elope in Ecuador's Cloud Forest and Amazon

Ecuador compresses an extraordinary range of environments into a small geographic footprint. Within four hours of Quito you can be in cloud forest, primary Amazon, or high paramo. For elopement photography the western cloud forest and the Amazon basin lodges are the two environments I work in most, and within those I have four or five specific locations that I use repeatedly because they consistently deliver.

Mindo Cloud Forest Reserves

The Mindo valley has several private cloud forest reserves with guided trail access, and I have sessions with couples in the reserve that borders the main tarabita canyon. The trail runs through primary cloud forest with orchids and bromeliads at eye level, and the canopy overhead creates the consistent diffused light that makes this environment so good to photograph in. The reserve owner lets me book exclusive morning access so there are no other hikers during the session. The river at the bottom of the canyon gives a secondary location when the trail session is complete.

Napo River, Amazon Basin

The lodges on the Napo River accessible from Coca in the Orellana province are where I go when a couple wants the Amazon. Sacha Lodge and La Selva both have canopy walks that I have photographed couples on, and the river itself as a photography surface, the reflections of the forest in the calm water in the early morning, is something the cloud forest reserves do not offer. The logistics are more involved than Mindo, requiring a flight to Coca and then a boat transfer, but the lodge experience is fully organized and the wildlife encounters, particularly birds and monkeys, add a dimension to the elopement story that is specific to this place.

Papallacta Cloud Forest

Papallacta sits at 3,300 metres on the eastern Andean slope, an hour from Quito on the road to Coca, and its natural hot spring complex sits within the cloud forest at high altitude. The geothermal pools have the forest on every side and the steam that rises from the water in the morning mixes with the natural cloud cover in a way that is visually extraordinary. I have used Papallacta as a secondary location on trips that start in Mindo, and the contrast between the lush lower cloud forest and the higher altitude paramo environment gives a range that a single-location elopement cannot match.