After a reference, here, recently, to the city of Guayaquil, I thought of exploring, today, the Northern Andes some more. This is in spite of my first impressions of the MSFS rendition of these regions, at this moment, falling short of expectations...I'm sure it would improve with subsequent scenery updates. Nonetheless, the (whole) Andes regions remain an amazing and very unique part of the world to explore. One can read and look at pictures, about them, but, flying over them, albeit virtually (brings out the remarkably different perceptions of this region...) ...

The Andes Range, after being fairly collocated, for nearly, 5,000 miles of its span along the coast, fancifully splits into two chains north of Ecuador/Quito, in Columbia. One chain heads northwest towards the coast and the other heads northeast into the inlands. Bogota Airport (SKBO), my ORIG airport, at an altitude of 8,360 ft, sits in the high valley between these two chains. So, a flight from Bogota to the coastal city of Guayaquil (with SEGU airport at sea-level elevation 20 ft) makes for an interesting journey, across the highlands (valleys, so to speak), and also the high mountains that one must cross heading from the inlands to the coast.

I flew, today, southwest, over about 475 nms, from Bogota to Guayaquil over/via Quito. Guayaquil is a charming and historic city that remains a popular destination from EU/NAR, with routine (but long) flights available. I noticed the airport being served by the likes of American, KLM, Air Europa, Spirit, JetBlue, in addition to the expected ones such as Avianca (my choice, here), Iberia, LATAM etc., e.g., I caught, on FlightAware, one IBERIA 12-hrs non-stop flight from Madrid to Guayaquil. The long-hauls from EU (operating 787s and 330s) may however make one transit stop at Bogota, my ORIG airport here, or Quito, before flying into Guayaquil. 

One thing became clear, from my journey...the variation and topography of the landscape, across this ~500 nms of Andes, is most fascinating. To inspect the terrain, I've (purposefully) flown at 22,000 ft cruise. I've set up a (mostly) straight-path (LNAV) route (via Quito VOR), similar to the RW flights. On my direct (fully FMC controlled) route, see ND display, an unexpected coincidence occurred. A glacier-clad peak, unmistakably appearing like Mount Chimborazo (if you wish, please see my earlier Ecuador post), loomed ahead in front of me (see shot #s (7-9) below) as I've flown just past it...) ...I need to still confirm if it was indeed the famous volcanic friend of my earlier post...🙂...In that post, unlike here, I'd intentionally set my FlightPlan destined for the summit of the peak ...

Regarding the intervening terrain, I invite you to examine few of these screenshots below, which, I believe, gives a fairly reasonable impression of the actual structural features (the MSFS scenery quality not being optimal, here). The Northern Andes of Ecuador and Colombia are believed to be of slightly different origin from the rest of the Andes, formed from the intense collision of oceanic volcanic ashes, as opposed to the collision of continental plates, hence the variety of rocks, ridges and hills that are abundantly seen during such a flight, in addition to the numerous lakes and rivers...

Hope you enjoy this Avianca 787-10 (complete) flight across the Northern Andes, from Bogota to the River city of Guayaquil. During the final approach, I've included one image (shot #6 from end) of the 787 (and its image reflected below on the Guayas River, the national river of Ecuador, that has shaped the history of the city of Guayaquil...) ...

Thanks for viewing.

Edited January 28, 20242 yr by P_7878

Very interesting variations in topography along that route. I'm beginning to realize (from your shots) that these South American locales do not look nearly the same on Xbox as they do on my PC. Or is that just an artifact from your screenshot processing?

John, rmeier: Thanks for the responses.

 

2 hours ago, John F said:

Very interesting variations in topography along that route. I'm beginning to realize (from your shots) that these South American locales do not look nearly the same on Xbox as they do on my PC. Or is that just an artifact from your screenshot processing?

Agree, John, the topography, here, is very different from what we're used to elsewhere in the world...including other regions of high mountain density. I think it's primarily because of the high plains, with airports/cities of 8,000 ft or more elevations being so common, and then the mountains rise above it, so, even if the mountains could be just 5,000 ft above the ground, they are actually much higher...In this flight descending from 20,000 ft to sea-level (for Guayaquil) was interesting...

And, about scenery-quality, I am at a loss...As you see, I've recently visited Alaska, Sion Switzerland, and PNW/Oregon, all appear excellent for me...but for my both outings in S.A., the landscape appears "washed-out", so to speak ...could be a server issue, maybe ...And what you see in the screenshots, above, is same as what I see from Xbox output on my HDR TV... there is no processing involved...

BTW, I just now found a Topic, as below, in the neighborly MSFS2020 Sub-Forum, with someone commenting on S.A. scenery and also looking for additional (MSFS) updates, and there are lots of (custom) enhancements/add-ons been suggested in the topic itself to enrich the flying experience in S.A... (I'll continue to investigate...) ...

Thanks again, and Cheers. Enjoy S.A....!

 

 

Very nice shots! 😉 

Another fine set, as always !

cheers 😉

Will and pmplayer:

Thanks for the additional comments...!!