ZOO IN CAYAMBE

Cayambe is an agricultural service town (population 39,028 at the last census on November 28, 2010) in highland Ecuador. It lies at the foot of the Cayambe volcano. While the town is mainly peopled by mestizos, the surrounding rural population is primarily composed of indigenous people who are mainly involved in subsistence agriculture, dairy farming and procurement of lumber. Cayambe's indigenous people of today are descendants of the pre-Inca Kayambi people. The Kayambi were resistant to Inca expansion and were only definitively conquered by Huayna Capac (the eleventh Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire) after a bloody 20-year war. At that time, the Kayambi people adopted the Kichwa language, a dialect of the Quechua family of languages. Not long afterwards, in the 16th century, the first Spanish conquerors arrived in the region. Kichwa survives in some of the hamlets today, while in others it has given way to Spanish.There are two monuments to the Equator in Cayambe: One, is the Quitsato Sundial, a touristic sundial, and very possibly one of the most accurate places in the world created to determine equator position. Two, is a globe monument, known there as "La Bola" (The Ball) located in the 46km from Quito at Pan-American Highway. In the surroundings of Cayambe are some interesting points to visit: The waterfalls of Cariacu, the virgin forests of Paquiestancia and the archaeological museum near Puntazil. (Wikipedia)