Ecuador from Above

Take an aerial tour of the fascinating South American country of Ecuador in this compilation video, which was created using footage from the "Ecuador from Above" collection.  You'll be treated to bird's eye views of the country's massive volcanoes, expansive rainforests, and impressive cities such as Quito. 

Interested in sponsoring the Ecuador collection?  As part of the sponsorship package, this compilation video will be re-branded with the sponsor's name, and will be available for use on the sponsor's website and social media pages.  

Like most of the countries in the western and northern parts of South America, Ecuador is split between a portion which is part of the Amazon River Basin and a portion which is part of the Andes Mountains system.  This video by top contributor semberadventure features epic views of "both Ecuadors".  Shot throughout this beautiful South American country with a blend of aerial and GoPro ground camera footage, you'll see everything from the towering snow-capped Cotopaxi Volcano to the depths of the Amazon Rainforest.  

Take a tour of the South American country of Ecuador in this fantastic travel reel by top contributor Proepics.  The journey begins in the capital city of Quito before heading to the Quilotoa volcano lagoon, at the western end of Ecuador's volcanic belt.  Then it's on to Baños de Agua Santa, near the geographic center of the country, followed by a stop in Riobamba for a climb on the mighty Chimborazo volcano.  After a stop in Guayaquil, you'll head to the Galapagos Islands, stopping at a few more spots on the mainland at trip's end.      

In this peaceful DVOW nominated video, foggy jungles, softly lit during the golden hour, are captured by content creator Marcel Bastida.  The title of the breathtaking piece translates to "Among Trees in the Jungle of Ecuador," and it, he showcases the Arpía Lodge, which is set amongst the exotic flora and fauna of the remarkable Amazon.  The Ecuadoran Amazon basin is known to be home of a stunning range of biodiversity, as well as uncontacted tribes, deliberately living away from the modern world.

Ecuador is less well known to international tourists compared to Colombia and Peru, its two neighbors in South America.  That's beginning to change now as travelers are discovering the spectacular beauty and cultural heritage of this land, which is named for its position astride the Equator.  Contributor Karl Veca used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this stunning aerial portrait of Ecuador, which features spectacular bird's eye views of the Amazon headwaters, the Cotopaxi volcano, the centuries-old capital city of Quito, and more.  

Take an aerial tour of Ecuador in this fantastic compilation by contributor MARCQS QC.  The video opens with some shots of the country's Pacific coastline, including its great port city of Guayaquil (the country's #2 city).  Then it shifts inland to shots of the capital city Quito, which sits high in the Andes foothills.  From there the video will take you into the Andes Mountains, which cover much of the western part of the country, before taking a run through the Amazon region which covers much of eastern Ecuador.  

Here's a very professionally done drone reel from the South American country of Ecuador.  It features a mix of footage from natural and cultural sites from this nation, with some great action shots thrown into the mix.  It opens with shots of one of the country's many beautiful waterfalls as well as a canyon, then moves to some of the top sights in the capital city Quito (one of the highest major cities in the world) such as the Basilica del Voto Nacional, the statue of El Panecillo, and the Plaza de la Independencia square. 

While Quito is the capital of Ecuador, it is actually its second largest city after Guayaquil.  The city is at a high altitude - at 2.9k meters above sea level (9.3k ft) the only national capital at a higher altitude is La Paz in neighboring Bolivia.   It's also one of the best-preserved cities on the continent, the center of which has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Creator thedroneexperience mounted an X5 camera to his DJI Inspire 2 drone to create this amazing aerial tour of the great city.

Ecuador's largest city and its commercial capital, Guayaquil became one of South America's worst "hotspots" during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020.  As the national death rate spiked to three times the normal rate (with most Covid-19 related deaths unconfirmed), the health care system in this large port city was overwhelmed.  In this video by Drone del Aire, you will see aerial footage of Guayaquil during the crisis; shots of empty streets and stadiums are interspersed with shots of the same places during normal times.

Contributor and drone pilot created this excellent aerial collage from the South American nation of Ecuador.  Most of the video was shot in and around the city of Quito.  The country's capital and most populous city, Quito lies on a plateau of the Andes Mountains range.  It's situated in the north-central part of the country.  Considered one of the world's best-preserved historical cities, Quito's old town was one of the first UNESCO World Heritage sites.  The city has a base elevation of 2.9k meters (about 9.3k ft.) above sea level.  

Top content creator and drone pilot Msmember took a combination of ground cameras and a DJI Mavic Pro drone to San Cristobal Island, the easternmost of the Gallapagos Islands.  The result is a stunning look at the wildlife and landscape of this amazing island archipelago, which is a territory of Ecuador located in the Pacific Ocean.  The Gallapagos ecosystem was made famous by English scientist Charles Darwin, who visited them as part of an expeditionary survey by the HMS Beagle from 1831-36.  

Contributor and pilot Rufo_Adventure created an amazing drone video of Ecuador's Cotopaxi Volcano, one of the highest volcanoes in the world.  Part of the Andes, the peak of the mountain stands at 5.9k meters (19.3k ft) above sea level, making it the second highest peak in Ecuador after Mt. Chimborazo.  It's also one of the most active, with about 50 known eruptions in the past 250 years, most recently in 2016.  The video was taken as part of an  expedition that reached the south summit of the mountain, which lies just to the south of Quito.  

Esteban Barrera may very well have set a record by flying his drone over the Antisana Volcano in Ecuador.  Using his DJI Phantom 3 drone, he hit an altitude of of 5.7k meters (18.7k ft) atop the volcano, the fourth highest peak in this South American country.  It lies just an hour's drive to the southeast of the capital city Quito.  The volcano is part of the Andes Mountains, a geological system which runs much of the length of western South America and covers most of the western portion of Ecuador. 

Top AirVuz contributor and pilot nevinxavier brings us this fantastic video from the Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador in South America.  Incorporating both drone and ground camera footage, the video was filmed in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, the second-largest of Ecuador's national parks and reserves.  It's located in the Sucumbíos Province in the northeastern part of the country.  It's considered one of the most important nature preserves in Amazonia, the name for the portion of Ecuador which lies east of the Andes Mountains.  

Carchi is a province in the northern part of the South American nation of Ecuador.  Here rises the Apaqui River, a short waterway which feeds into the larger river systems of South America.  Gruta La Paz is a sanctuary located on the Apaqui River, one that has been discovered by tourists in recent years.  Contributor and pilot Jorge Suarez used a drone to treat us to a stunning aerial view of this preserve in the Ecuadorian highlands, a region which sits between the country's Andean and Amazon Basin portions.  

Contributor and drone pilot Qualico Drones gives us a marvelous view of a portion of the Andes Mountains in Central Ecuador.  The centerpiece of this is Mt. Chimborazo.  This volcanic mountain stands 6.3k meters (about 20.7k ft.) above sea level, making it the highest mountain in this South American country.  The mountain is part of the Cordillera Occidental range, which is a sub-range of the Andes.  The peak of this monster can be seen from Guayaquil, the capital city which lies 140 km (about 85 miles) away! 

Contributor and pilot Quilico Drones used a DJI Phantom 4 drone to create this magical aerial video of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador.  The video was shot in El Cajas National Park, which is located in the Azuay province in the west central part of this South American country.  Shot during a time of year when much of the landscape is covered in clouds, the footage beautifully captures the effect of the mountaintops poking out above the clouds.  Prepare to be amazed by these epic views of the Ecuadorian Highlands.  

Check out this amazing drone video of a well-known "disappearing" waterfall in the South American country Ecuador, compliments of AirVuz contributor GaiaDron Filmmakers.  It "was" called San Rafael Falls, located on the Coca River in the Cayambe Coca Ecological Reserve near Quito.  That was before the partial collapse of the riverbed upstream of the falls in February, 2020, which changed the flow of the river.   The loss of what had been Ecuador's tallest waterwall is thought to have been possibly triggered by an upstream hydroelectric dam.  

Check out these outstanding drone views of a famous volcanic crater lake in Ecuador, compliments of sebasutraras96.  Quilotoa is the westernmost of a chain of volcanoes which run through this South American country, all of which are part of the Andes Mountains system.  The mountain is now topped by a three km wide (two mi.) caldera, the result of a massive eruption which occurred about 600 years ago.  Now a popular hiking destination, the 250 meter deep (820 ft.) lake sits at an altitude of 3.5k meters above sea level (11.5k ft.).  

In this drone video, contributor and pilot Drono del Aire takes you around the province of Manabi, Ecuador as it recovered from a devastating earthquake in April, 2016.  The quake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale, had an epicenter in the sparsely populated Esmeraldas Province, which is in the northwest corner of the country.  The province of Manabi, which lies immediately to its south and has roughly 3x the population, saw extensive damage.  The quake killed nearly 700 and injured thousands more.   

Contributor nachoboveri brings us this great drone's eye view of the Cayambe Coca Ecological Reserve, a National Park in the South American country of Ecuador.  The park covers just over 4k square km (around 1.5k square mi.) in the north-central part of the country, less than an hour's drive east of the capital city of Quito.  Located more or less right on the Equator, the park is known in part for its birds of prey, over 100 species of mammals which inhabit the area, and a number of hot springs and other geological sites.   

Contributor Joss FPV brings us this excellent drone video from the El Altar volcano in Ecuador.  Known locally as Capac Urcu, it's an extinct stratovolcano located about 170 km (around 110 mi) south of the capital city of Quito.  The mountain has a peak elevation of about 5.3k meters above sea level (around 17.5k ft.).  The mountain is part of the Sangay National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The climb to the peak of the mountain is considered one of the most technically demanding in Ecuador.  

The Monument to San Miguel Arcángel is a prominent landmark in the Ecuadorian city of Ibarra.  It's situated in the hills overlooking the city, which is one of the main urban centers in the northern part of the country.  Founded in the early 17th century, Ibarra lies at the foot of the Imbabura Volcano.  It's about an hour's drive northeast of the Ecuadorean capital city, Quito.  Get an aerial view of this impressive-looking structure in this drone video by AirVuz contributor and pilot ContemporAd.  

Mindho is a region of northern Ecuador, South America.  It forms a convergence zone where the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena lowlands along the Pacific coast meet the northernmost branch of the Andes Mountains.  Sitting in the middle of some of the most biodiverse lands in the Western Hemisphere, the Mindho area is one of the more popular tourist spots in Ecuador.  Check out this eco-tourism paradise from above in this drone video by Santiago Uribe, whose first video uploaded to AirVuz garnered a Drone Video of the Week nomination.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot sebasutreras96 brings us this excellent drone video of an extinct volcano in Ecuador called Pasochoa.  It's located in the Guayllabamba Basin in the heart of the Andes Mountains, which run on a roughly north-south axis through this South American country.  The (now-extinct) volcano has a current peak elevation of about 4.2k meters above sea level (around 13.8k ft.).  The collapsed crater which sits atop the mountain is a relic of a giant eruption which occurred about 100k years ago.

Ecuador's Devil's Nose railroad route is considered one of the most treacherous in the world.  The restored train runs from the town of Alausí in the Chimborazo Province (near the geographic center of this South American country) into the spot in the Andes Mountains known as the La Nariz del Diablo (Devil's Nose).  While the ride is not for the feint of heart (imagine what it took to build it!) it's become a popular tourist destination in Ecuador.  Check it out from above in this drone video by etrax.  

Check out this stunning DVOW-nominated drone video of the Galápagos Islands, compliments of contributor Santiago Uribe.  A territory of Ecuador, the group consists of 18 main islands plus over 100 smaller ones, the largest of which is the island of Isabela.  The islands straddle the equator, just over 900 km (around 560 mi.) from the mainland at their closest point.  Famously described by Charles Darwin in his book Voyage of the Beagle, the islands are one of the world's top eco-tourism destinations.