Palmpje, the Llanganates claims about a dozen adventurers, both Ecuadoreans and tourists, every year. They go in, often looking for the fabled Inca treasure that is said to be in there somewhere, and they never come out again, and although rescue teams are mounted, bodies are never found. Others are able to visit the park and survive, normally those who hire very experienced guides and are very selective about the time of year they attempt their visit. Those who have come back, and the rare few who have managed to cross the park, say that it is heartbreakingly beautiful, and that they will never return. I have made short excursions into the cloud-forest portions of the Llanganates, and it is by far one of my favourite places in the country. If you'd like to locate it on a map, it's the cordillera to the east, between the city of Ambato and the cities of Puyo and Tena. The remote interior of the park is one of Ecuador's last remaining untouched Vicuña habitats, as well as one of the only remaining wild Alpaca habitats in the world.
However, there are quite a few other untouched places in this country, that fit your descriptions, and that are relatively less dangerous to visit and explore. (Ecuador's lower Amazon is one such area - lots of it has never been seen by human eyes, or seen only by the tribes that live there.)
The bamboo in the Llanganates is a mixture of Neurolepis species, predominantly
N. nana (Flechettes, which have fairly wicked spikes); Chusquea species -
C. aperta, an endangered species, is common on the lower slopes; and Guadua species, primarily
G. aculeata although on the lower slopes
G. angustifolia, our native timber bamboo, starts to take over. Neurolepis and Chusquea, which are cascading runners, are extremely hardy paramo bamboos; Guadua, a clumping bamboo, is more tender and generally found in the cloud forest stages of the park.
This is
Neurolepis nana, which I photographed on a trip to the paramo at Guarumal, near Quito.
