Cangochamba

Cangochamba lies in the Catamayo country of southern Ecuador, among lands inhabited by the Paltas and their neighbours. In the 1540s the Spanish captain Alonso de Mercadillo founded an early settlement called La Zarza in this region, but it did not last. In 1548 the town of Loja was established in the cooler valley of Cuxibamba, to the east.

The later city of Loja lies here.