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From Baeza, the road to Lago Agrio courses through the broad Quijos valley for almost 70km, passing only a handful of settlements on the way. On your right the vast Cayambe-Coca reserve stretches off high into the northern sierra, while on your left you'll see the Rio Quijos, its rocky shores banked by grazing land and fruit farms. The Trans-Ecuador Oil Pipeline hedges the road like a hard shoulder much of the way to Lago Agrio. After 8km you'll pass the nondescript village of San Francisco de Borja, and 10km further on is EL CHACO , the largest town before Lago Agrio, known for producing cheese and naranjilla . From El Chaco a dirt road and footpaths access the lowland section of the Cayambe-Coca reserve, allowing hikes up the Rio Oyacachi. The river is reputed to be rich in gold, though while panning for the stuff is a reasonably common pastime for jungle tours out of Tena, you won't get anything more than a few specks of fine gold dust; walking along, however, is far more rewarding, with great views of the valley before it enters dense primary forest. The trail eventually leads up to the highland village of Oyacachi, but this three-day uphill hike is best attempted with a guide coming downstream - and downhill - from Oyacachi . El Chaco only has a pair of very basic pensions at the truck stop, where there's also a reasonable restaurant , though if you do need to stay, two better cabin complexes have been built nearby; one at the northern edge of town, and the other 4km further north. For the next 60km or so, the road traverses increasingly remote territory. Colonization here came to an abrupt end in March 1987, when a major earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, rocked the area and sent cascades of mud and debris down the hillsides, engulfing scores of hamlets and homesteads, and killing over a thousand people. The damage was so bad that the road wasn't fully repaired for months. As the road continues and buses and oil trucks hurtle over single-lane bridges, the valley gradually broadens and the occasional waterfall plunges down its diminishing sides. At 48km beyond El Chaco, the two biggest natural attractions of the area, La Cascada de San Rafael - Ecuador's largest waterfall - and Volcan El Reventador , a brooding active volcano part-clothed in forest, stand either side of the road 9km apart.
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