Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Cayambe - Town and a Volcano


San Pedro de Cayambe, or simply Cayambe, is a town in the northeast of the province of Pichincha in Ecuador.

It is the seat of the canton Cayambe; which takes its name from Cayambe volcano.

The town is situated at the foot of volcano’s west slope.

The equator cuts through the town.
  


VOLCANO CAYAMBE

The volcano Cayambe is the secret of a few climbers in Ecuador.

It is much less popular than Cotopaxi but offers a climb just as beautiful, just a much less traveled route.

Humboldt after his visit to Ecuador Volcano wrote about this: "This mountain can be considered one of the monuments with which Nature has made ​​a big difference on Earth."

The volcano’s summit is just 3km north of the equatorial line.



HISTORY OF CAYAMBE

Cayambe has a long history and a big part in the struggle for the indigenous people’s rights in the Ecuador.

Transito Amaguaña and Dolores Cacuango were both pioneering women who fought against the slavery and mistreatment of indigenous people.

According to the oral memory of Kayambi people their territory was located in the provinces of Pichincha, Imbabura and Napo.


Their territory was limited in the north by Lake San Pablo, in the south by the Guayllabamba River, in the east by the Eastern Cordillera and in the west by the Western Cordillera.

Its capital was Puntiatzil  which is the town of Cayambe.

Located three blocks from Central Park was a place worship with a large cylinder in silver.


This cylinder was used as calendar and solar time piece, which was dismantled by the Spaniards.

The Kayambi chiefdom had astronomical observatories and monitoring points throughout its territory; from Quito Loma Pambamarca (Cangahua parish) to Pesillo (parish of Olmedo) that maintained a communication system with each other.


FESTIVITIES OF CAYAMBE

The festivities of Cayambe are very important and known throughout Ecuador.

They begin in mid-June and end in early July, with many acts and especially its popular bull fights.

It is the time of the feast of San Pedro, and the Indigenous festivity known as Intiraymi held in the "Harvest Festival".


There are many performances of Ecuadorian traditional music that are worth seeing and hearing.

In its traditional celebrations, there are a variety of dishes, but the best known is the mote (a type of white corn) served with potatoes, and with peanut sauce.

Of course you can never leave Cayambe without first tasting roasted guinea pig.

Cayambe’s biscuits and cheese are also very famous and many people come to taste them year round.



CAPITAL OF THE ROSES

The town is also known as one of the most important cities in the production of flowers worldwide.


Most of the famous Ecuadorian giant roses come from Cayambe or the nearby villages.

39 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous place, so rich in history and tradition. The photos are just lovely and show a real love for this place. I love that the rose has helped to make it famous and they are beautiful flowers..

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  2. It's a beautiful volcano. What about its history of eruption? I also want to see how the crater looks like.

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    1. The volcano isn't active anymore. The last eruption was hundreds of years ago, if I remember corectly, but it could be more. I don't have pictures of the crater because you have to be a really good climber before you can rise to the sumit. It's a really tough rise in the snow and ice.

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  3. Such a peaceful beautiful town... The volcano view is so amazing!

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  4. Love to know this place when my knowledge needs this information. Such more info you gave with this article.

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  5. Thank you for introducing us to this town. So laid back and rural on one aspect with majestic volcano there. Yet also the origin of those famous Ecuadorean roses!

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  6. It's a beautiful town..I guess the volcano has been inactive for many years now? Roasted guinea pig! Now that peculiar delicacy of the town.

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  7. What is the best time of year to visit Ecuador? You have such a beautiful lens on the country that it really is on our vacation list!

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    1. It depends a bit on what you want to do and where you want to go. If you want to have a hot climat and go to the beach, the best time would be around the january and february. But that is also the rainy season and the Andes are wet and cold. To go to the mountains the weather conditions are better from July on. In the Amazon June and July are the months of the heaviest rain. The best time to visit here would be around November and Dicember when it's not too hot yet and it's not raining as heavily.

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  8. Wow that volcano looks stunning and such a beautiful town.

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  9. The volcano Cayambe and the town both look so incredible. I would really love to visit!

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  10. beautiful photos! you make me want to visit ecuador one day

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  11. These are beautiful pictures! Wish I can visit one day.

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  12. Wow! Such amazing pictures. Thank you for sharing them.

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  13. It looks like a nice place. I would love to visit one day.

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  14. I know very little about Ecuador so find it very interesting to read about different cultures and histories.

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  15. Lovely you can travel, really taking the culture in, and nice post

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  16. I hope to visit Ecuador, it sounds lovely.

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  17. Wow, that is beautiful! I have never seen a volcano in person!

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  18. I think it would be fun climbing the Cayambe Volcano. Cayambe looks like a really scenic town with a view of the volcano.

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  19. thank you for all beautiful pictures, the city is very lovely & rich of tradition, i hope someday i can traveling there :-D

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  20. Thank you for all beautiful pictures, the town looks like very rich tradition..I hope someday I can traveling there & see the beauty by my own eyes <3

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  21. Wow, this is one fantastic looking sculpture, so much going on in there.

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  22. I love looking at all your photos. it's such a different culture to mine and so lovely to see bits of it.

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  23. How amazing that the equator runs through the town. I'm guessing there have been no rumbles from the volcano for years.

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    1. No, it's been hundreds of years since it erupted. It's not active anymore.

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  24. An interesting read and gorgeous pictures!

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  25. This looks like such a beautiful place I would love to visit. i always look forward to your posts!

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  26. What's so special about the biscuits and cheese? As in how is it different from the usual cheese we get in supermarkets?

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    1. It is a fresh cheese, a bit like mozzarella. Very delicious. And the bisquits are sold fresh from the wood oven, light and extremely tasty. It's a simple snack but delicious, especially with hot chocolate.

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  27. Those scenery photos at the beginning are amazing x

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  28. I would love to be able to visit there to see those beautiful flowers

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  29. Lovely photographs and those flowers are just stunning!

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  30. WOW! this is one of my dream destinations! now i'm stoked to come knowing that it is where the production place of flowers worldwide.

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  31. The Cayambe Volcano looks like the mountain in the lord of the rings. Amazing

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  32. OMG! I super want to try the roasted guinea pig, i really hope you feature that next time. I can also see how it is a great resource for roses, those blooms are beautiful!

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  33. Your photos are so beautiful! It looks like such a fascinating place to visit.

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  34. Really beautiful place. Hope I can travelling there <3

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  35. What a stunning location. I am fascinated by volcanoes and would love to visit it

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