Loja Province is one of 24 provinces in Ecuador and shares its southern border on the west with El Oro Province, on the north with El Azuay, and on the east with Zamora-Chinchipe. Founded on its present site in 1548 by Captain Alonso de Mercadillo (Spanish), the site had been previously moved and rebuilt from La Toma due to earthquakes. It also is named as "Cuxibamba Valley", from the Quichua language, which means the "Smiley Valley".
Macará Mountains
Amazon parrot
Wild cherimoya plants in Vilcabamba, Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) west of the mainland. The country's capital is Quito, but its largest city is Guayaquil.
A Venus (2,300-2,000 BCE) of the Valdivia culture (from Santa Elena Province) displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence.
Figure of the Jama Coaque culture (300 BCE-800 CE) (from Manabí Province). Walters Art Museum.
Ruins of Ingapirca, was an outpost and supplier for the Incan troops, and also was a coricancha, a place of worship to the Sun (Inti), the main god
The colonial Quito, capital of the Real Audiencia of Quito, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
