MANGAHURCO, Ecuador – With the turn of the year, visitors to southern Ecuador this month are witnessing a unique natural spectacle with the Festival of the Blossoming Guayacanes.
MANGAHURCO, Ecuador – With the turn of the year, visitors to southern Ecuador this month are witnessing a unique natural spectacle with the Festival of the Blossoming Guayacanes.
The towns of Magahurco, Bolaspamba and Cazaderos in Zapotillo Canton, located in Loja Province in southern Ecuador, are surrounded by a vast forest of guayacanes, the largest forest of its kind in the country. With a dry climate and location nearly 1,000 feet above sea level, the forest is considered one of the most important tropical dry forests in the region. The New Year marks the start of the winter season and the arrival of the first rains of the year, which leads to the blossoming of the guayacanes.
Cave Paintings and Sculptures
A map of decorated caves in western Europe with the names of a few notable or outlying sites. The broken line encloses caves decorated in the distinctive Mediterranean Style which seems to have been little influenced by the master artists of France and Spain. It often features simple, stark animal representations together with quite elaborate geometrical designs. There are important caves decorated in the Mediterranean style in southeast Spain, the Ardèche canyons in southern France, the heel of Italy, and in Sicily.
There are now some 200 Painted caves known in southern France and northern Spain. Several new discoveries in the remote Spanish Basque country appear to be closing the gap between these two main regional groups which, in any case, certainly share many correspondences of style and theme.