Catamayo Canton is a canton of

Loja Province Loja Province () is one of 24 Provinces of Ecuador, 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 Province, Zamora-Chinchipe. Founded on i ...

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. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Its seat is

Catamayo Catamayo is a city in the Loja Province, 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. It ...

. It is located in the north of the province, bordered by the cantons of Loja,

Gonzanamá Gonzanamá is a small town and also part of one of the 16 cantons ( Gonzanamá) in Loja Province, Ecuador. History The name of the city was created by two different native languages of Ecuador: Spanish and Quechua. The name of the cacique from ...

, Olmedo, and Chaguarpamba. In it is located the largest and most fertile valley of the province, and is the location of the Monterrey Sugar Cane Processing Plant, a major

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

operation which is a financial boon to the province and country. The town of

La Toma ''La Toma'' ( Spanish: ''The taking'') was a significant legal declaration made by Don Juan de Oñate on April 30, 1598. This event marked the formal assertion of Spanish sovereignty over the territories north of the Rio Grande, in present-day Texa ...

in Catamayo is the seat of the city of Loja's airport.

Geography

The canton covers 651.9 km² situated between altitudes of 500 - 1700 m, and has a population of 35,240. Main exports are

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s Attractions include: * Boqueron River - with sandy beaches and warm water, the river is a popular tourist destination

Demographics

Ethnic groups as of the

Ecuadorian census The Ecuadorian census is conducted by the governmental institution known as ''INEC'', ''Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos'' (National Institute of Statistics and Census).INEC The census in Ecuador is conducted every 10 years, and its obj ...

of 2010: *

Mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

88.0% *

Afro-Ecuadorian Afro-Ecuadorians (), also known as Black Ecuadorians (), are Ecuadorians of predominantly Sub-Saharan African descent. History and background Most Afro-Ecuadorians are the descendants of enslaved Africans who were transported by predominantly B ...

7.5% *

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

3.8% *

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

0.3% *Montubio 0.3% *Other 0.3%

References

Cantons of Loja Province {{Cantons of Ecuador