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Puyo, Pastaza
Puyo is the capital of Pastaza, a province in Ecuador. It is also the most important city in the province. Puyo is located by the Puyo River, a tributary of the Pastaza River, which feeds into the Amazon in Peru.
Puyo was founded in 1899. Located between Banos, and the Amazonian cities of Tena and Macas, "El Puyo" is a beautiful small city (with a small-town feel) in the east of central Ecuador and capital of the province of Pastaza. It is the commercial, cultural and political capital of the region. The city is connected by road with Ambato and from there to the central urban area of the country. It also has a small airport situated about ten kilometers to the north. Population of the province is 45,825 inhabitants (year 2000). Puyo has a remarkable climate, with very little seasonal changes: Daytime temps in the 70s and low 80s, with sun and generally short periods of heavy rain daily, year-round.
The populated part of the province of Pastaza is located in and around El Puyo, reduced to a small zone: Pastaza extends out towards the vast plain of the east. The territory starts in the hills of the eastern Cordillera, below the town of Banos, with impressive landscapes of mountains, rivers and plains. There are not many high points. One of them is Habitahua, 1,820 meters above sea level. The climate in the zone is hot and humid. Its average temperature is between 18 and 24 C, and the area away from the roads is almost all virgin rainforest.
The river system of the province is very large with a great number of small and larger rivers, the main ones being: the Conanaco, navigable along much of its course towards the east; the rivers Pintoyacu, Cunambo, Corrientes; the Bobonaza, which flows out into the Pastaza; the Copastaza, tributary of the Pastaza; the indians of the river Tigre; and the torrential Pastaza, on the southern border with the province of Morona, which becomes a tributary of the Amazon.
El Puyo, considered to be one of the gateways to the Amazon rainforest, shares its characteristic climate, temperature, and the large unpopulated areas due to the density of the forest.
Tourist attractions
Tourists, especially foreigners, marvel at the incomparable landscape of mountains, rivers, wildlife and vegetation, that extends from the depressions of the Cordillera coming out of the Banos canton to the great plain of the river Pastaza and along the road to El Puyo.
The city of El Puyo is located 100 km from Ambato, 110 km from Riobamba, 79 km from El Tena, 129 km from Macas, and 239 km from Quito. It is linked to them with a road system that allows unlimited access. Land and river routes and some airports connect this province with cities in the sierra or in the Amazon itself. There are also air services to the most important towns.
In the city of El Puyo, entertainment parks as well as sports complexes have been built beside the river. The weekly market is an event, because it is the focal point of the whole town's activity, enabling tourists to witness the customs belonging to each place. Complementing this, there are crafts and other examples of indigenous cultures such as the shuar, achuar, huaorani and alama. Private companies have responded to the challenge of tourism, developing a good infrastructure of hotels, restaurants and other services.
Approximately 10 Km. North West is a small town called Shell, where there is an airport, small aircraft fly from this point to the small jungle airstrips.
Missionaries, private and comercial pilots daily fly through the rainy jungle, the indian people that live in these small grass hut towns live of the land, cattle and fishing.
In 2006 Puyo was the fastest growing city in Ecuador, small stores and family owned bussineses are all throughout the town, rains constantly though, end and beginning of the year are the rainiest seasons.
Popular festivals
The most attractive ones are the commemoration of the Day of the Ecuadorian East Amazon on October 12th, in memory of the discovery of the river Amazon in 1542 by Francisco de Orellana, as well as the tree or chonta-palm festival, in which the huaorani tribe take part.
Carnaval which is February 3rd and fourth is also a famous Ecuadorian holliday, the custom is to have small neighbourhood parties, wetting eachother is involved.
Typical food
There is one dish known as "mayto" which is a preparation of meat and plantain, wrapped in bijao (Heliconia bihai) leaves.
The catfish stew is recommended, and so are the meals stewed with agouti, tapir and carachazas (river fish).
In drinks, as in the other provinces of the region: the cassava chicha, chonta, plantain liquor and those prepared with other plants and roots such as guayusa and ayahuasca are commonly used, generally at weekends or when there are local markets.
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Puyo, Pastaza
