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Joya de los Sachas, Ecuador
September 30, 2025
Joya de los Sachas, Ecuador - a town in northern Ecuador in the Amazon basin, has a population of, well, don't know. The canton (county) has about 52,000. Sachas is the biggest town in the canton. But there is no data for the town itself separate from the county. The town, my guess, has at least 20,000, based on my experiences throughout South America and visiting around 300 towns/cities. Being in the Amazon it rains frequenty. During my 4 days here, there was one day with no rain. The others had some rain, but what's nice is it never lasts very long - 10, 20 minutes. And from what I saw, it doesn't pour buckets, it's just a steady or light rain. “Sacha” is a word in Kichwa meaning “forest, jungle, wilderness.” So “Joya de los Sachas” loosely means “Jewel of the Forests” (or “of the jungles”).
Reference: Ecuador Lives
El Coca, Ecuador
September 22, 2025
Wedged between three rivers and surrounded by endless green, Coca is a town you don’t stumble into by accident. It’s the Amazon’s launchpad — equal parts oil town, jungle gateway, and riverside pause. Coca is built between these three rivers - the Napo, the Coca, and the Payamino. The city has a population of around 52,000, and was founded as "San Antonio de la Coca," then it was changed to "Puerto Francisco de Orellana," and then again, in 2019, the name was changed to "El Coca." Although the town dates back to the colonial years, it wasn't until the mid-20th century that it started to grow in earnest. That was due to the discovery of nearby oil fields.
Reference: wikipedia
Chicha: The Many Faces of an Andean-Amazonian Drink
September 21, 2025
When you travel through Ecuador and Perú, the word chicha pops up in conversations like it’s one universal drink. But here’s the trick: chicha doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere — and what arrives in your cup (or gourd bowl) might surprise you.
Read MoreSan Antonio, Ecuador
September 18, 2025
San Antonio de Pichincha, Ecuador, AKA Mitad del Mundo, sits about 26 kilometers north of central Quito. The town has a population of about 70,000. The town was formally established in 1901. But, it's history goes back to before the colonial era. The original name was Llanura de Lulumbamba, it means "plain of ripe fruit," that was followed a name change to San Antonio de Lulumbamba and then changed again, when it was formally established in 1901, to San Antonio de Pichincha. Why is it called "The middle of the world" when there are other cities on the equator in other countries? Because it is not only the fact that it is on the equator, but it is also the highest elevation on the equator. Thus making it the closest to the sun of any on the planet, so they say at the museum.
Read MoreCalacalí, Ecuador
September 17, 2025
Calacalí is a small town on the northwestern edge of Quito’s canton, population somewhere around four thousand. It’s a gateway town — the last flat before the road shoots up toward the cloud forests and eventually Mindo. The surrounding hills connect into the Chocó Andino, with Pululahua’s volcanic crater and Yunguilla’s misty forests not far off. The place has deep roots, once home to the Yumbo people before the Spanish dragged their sugar mills and trapiches into the valley. Today, it’s a sleepy little town with a couple of plazas, murals splashed on walls, and the kind of laid-back pace that makes you forget the capital is less than an hour away.
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I used to teach English as a foreign language in Barranquilla, Colombia. Now I'm retired and traveling throughout South America.
I'm from Kennewick, Washington, USA. In my previous life, as I call it, I was an IT guy, systems administrator, computer tech, as well as a shipping/receiving guy and also worked as a merchandising guy in a RV/Camping store.