On the drive to Cotopaxi National Park in Ecuador, I was reading up on some of the wildlife in this part of the Andes. It seemed spectacled bears and jaguars are in the park, but are extremely rare to spot. So I was happy to settle for some birds, and maybe some llamas.

One thing I wasn’t aware of before arriving was that there are wild horses in Cotopaxi National Park. I liked the white one most in the group above, but there were also black and brown ones and varied colours.

As with wild horses in other destinations, they’re a little rougher and shaggier than your typical riding horses. There were actually many groups of wild horses in Cotopaxi, if you scan across the rolling hills chances are you’ll find many herds grazing away.

I definitely saw more horses than llamas or foxes or condors at Cotopaxi – not what I expected, but it still made for a fun day of exploring and wildlife watching.

These horses are pretty much care-free, as any herds near the gravel roads that run through the park won’t give your vehicle a second look, so you can get some very close photos like the black horse above.