El Corazon (The Heart) is an eroded extinct volcano ca. 40Km southwest of Quito in the western Cordillera of the northern Andes near the agricultural town of Machachi. This tour leads you through the wide pasteland and the grasslands of the Paramo up to the summit from which you can oversee the famous “Avenue of the Volcanoes”. This name has been given to the central valley of the northern Ecuadorian Andes by the german explorer Alexander von Humboldt due to the many volcanoes that stand here lined up: Rucu and Guagua Pichincha, Atacazo, Corazon, Illiniza North and South and Chimborazo to the west and Antisana, Pasochoa, Sincholagua, Ruminahui, Cotopaxi and Tungurahua to the east.
