The Most Beautiful Water Wonders in Ecuador
5 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful water wonders in Ecuador are Quilotoa, Bartolomé Island and Kicker Rock (León Dormido). The list covers 5 lakes, waterfalls, islands and beaches. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Ecuador's water wonders come from volcanoes. Along the Andes, collapsed and extinct craters have filled with water to form vivid lakes, rivers plunge off the eastern slopes toward the Amazon, and a thousand kilometres offshore the Galápagos Islands rise from the ocean as the tops of volcanoes, ringed by clear water full of marine life.
Quilotoa is a crater lake about three kilometres across, whose water changes from emerald to turquoise inside steep caldera walls. Bartolomé Island in the Galápagos is known for Pinnacle Rock, a leaning spire of tuff above two crescent beaches, and a landscape of fresh lava and spatter cones. Kicker Rock, or León Dormido, off San Cristóbal, is the remnant of a tuff cone split in two by the sea. Cuicocha, at the foot of the Cotacachi volcano, is a crater lake with two forested islands in the middle. Pailón del Diablo, near Baños, is a powerful waterfall on the Pastaza River that crashes into a narrow rocky cauldron.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quilotoa | Volcanic crater lake | |
| 2 | Bartolomé Island | Island | ✓ |
| 3 | Kicker Rock (León Dormido) | Stack | |
| 4 | Cuicocha | Volcanic crater lake | |
| 5 | Pailón del Diablo | Waterfall |
01 Quilotoa
Ecuador · 32.9 km from Latacunga0.861° S 78.897° W
Image by Marisa04 from Pixabay The calm is deceptive. Quilotoa is a volcano, and the caldera is the scar of a violent eruption around 1280, about eight centuries ago, rated 6 on the volcanic explosivity index, the scale of the great historic eruptions: its pyroclastic flows and mudflows travelled far enough to reach the Pacific Ocean. After the eruption the collapsed crater slowly filled with water, producing one of the most photogenic landscapes in Ecuador.
Did you know? The lake holds about 0.35 cubic kilometres of water, and fumaroles still vent gas on its floor.
02 Bartolomé Island
Ecuador · 35.3 km from Santa Cruz0.285° S 90.549° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Stephen Montgomery from Kallangur, Australia · CC BY-SA 2.0 The landscape looks freshly made, and in geological terms it is. Like most of the Galápagos, Bartolomé is entirely volcanic, and almost nothing grows on its slopes apart from a few hardy pioneer plants. Pinnacle Rock, the island's landmark, is the eroded remnant of a volcanic formation built of thin layers of basalt, standing alone at the water's edge.
Did you know? Silvery mats of Tiquilia, a pioneer plant adapted to dry volcanic ash, are almost the only vegetation along the slopes.
03 Kicker Rock (León Dormido)
Roca León Dormido
Ecuador · 16.3 km from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno0.777° S 89.519° W
Xxchangwoo0120xx · CC BY-SA 3.0 The rock is what remains of a volcanic tuff cone — a crater built not of lava but of densely compacted volcanic ash, laid down in explosive eruptions and then almost entirely worn away by the ocean. Erosion has cut the remnant in two, leaving a narrow channel of deep water between the halves. Looking up from a boat into that slot, with the walls closing overhead, is the moment that visitors remember.
Did you know? Underwater the channel between the two halves is roughly 35 metres deep at its mouth and shallows to around 12 metres further in.
04 Cuicocha
Ecuador · 26.7 km from Ibarra0.301° N 78.363° W
Tequendamia · CC BY-SA 3.0 The crater was born in violence. Roughly 3,100 years ago a major eruption at the base of Cotacachi sent out about five cubic kilometres of pyroclastic flows, leaving the great hollow that the lake now fills. Volcanic activity continued afterwards: the two islands, Teodoro Wolf, the larger, and Yerovi, the smaller, are domes of dacitic lava that pushed up inside the crater, and the last activity is dated to around 650 CE.
Did you know? The caldera walls are so steep that little sediment settles along the shore, leaving too little ground for most water plants to take root.
05 Pailón del Diablo
Cascada el Pailón del Diablo
Ecuador · 35.6 km from Puyo1.404° S 78.297° W
Krosto · CC BY-SA 3.0 Local folklore gives the place a companion. A short way off is the San Miguel waterfall, said to stand for the archangel Michael, who keeps watch so that the devil stays trapped down in his cauldron. Between the two lies the Encañada del Duende, a small hidden lagoon of emerald water ringed by tropical plants.
Did you know? The shorter route with its viewing balconies was developed in the 1990s by Donald Wolfram, who first called the site Isla del Pailón.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful water wonders in Ecuador?
- On our list, Quilotoa ranks first, followed by Bartolomé Island and Kicker Rock (León Dormido).
- How was Quilotoa Lake formed?
- Quilotoa is a volcanic caldera formed by a massive eruption around 800 years ago. The collapsed crater later filled with water, and minerals give the lake its green colour.
- Why is Kicker Rock called León Dormido?
- Seen from one side, its outline resembles a sleeping sea lion, which is what León Dormido means in Spanish. In English it was named Kicker Rock for its shape like a boot.
- Are the Galápagos Islands volcanic?
- Yes. The islands were formed by volcanoes above a hotspot on the Nazca plate, and several of them, such as Isabela and Fernandina, are still active.
- How many lakes, waterfalls, islands and beaches are on this list in Ecuador?
- The list covers 5 lakes, waterfalls, islands and beaches.