Qualla: Zaruma https://qualla.com/zaruma en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Zaruma https://qualla.com/zaruma Zaruma: Introduction https://qualla.com/zaruma/ Between 1536 and 1820, Spain extracted approximately 2,700 tonnes of gold from beneath this town. That gold paid for empires, fleets, cathedrals across two continents, and almost nothing remained in Zaruma itself. What remains is the town on top of the holes: a Pueblo Mágico of pastel-painted wooden balconies and narrow stepped streets clinging to a ridge in El Oro Province, watched over by a clock tower and a saint, and standing on an underground labyrinth that occasionally opens up beneath someone's house.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/7/zaruma-wp/6pr7-zaruma-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Zaruma: Corn Head, Gold Head https://qualla.com/zaruma/ The name comes from two Quichua words: sara meaning corn, and uma meaning head. Corn head, named both for the maize that grew on the surrounding slopes and for the color of the gold mined here, which the Quechua-speaking people compared to a corncob. Why the spelling drifted from...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/7/zaruma-wp/6pr7-zaruma-corn-head-gold-head.mp3 0:06 2 full Zaruma: Cañari, Inca, Spanish https://qualla.com/zaruma/ The Cañari people settled this country between 500 and 1400 CE, leaving archaeological sites at Guayquichuma, Chepel, Payama, Trencilla, and elsewhere. In the 1480s the Inca arrived under Huayna Capac and enslaved the Cañari for fifty years. When Atahualpa was captured by the Spa...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/7/zaruma-wp/6pr7-zaruma-ca-ari-inca-spanish.mp3 0:06 3 full Zaruma: The Earthquake and the Slow Resurrection https://qualla.com/zaruma/ On January 20, 1749, an earthquake destroyed the city and most of its mines. To make matters worse for the Spanish, an indigenous rebellion erupted in the aftermath, and the survivors fled. Zaruma fell into deep depression. Over decades the town was slowly rebuilt, with the Crown...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/7/zaruma-wp/6pr7-zaruma-the-earthquake-and-the-slow-resurrection.mp3 0:06 4 full Zaruma: El Oro and the Tarantula https://qualla.com/zaruma/ On November 29, 1882, Zaruma joined Machala and Santa Rosa to declare a new province in honor of the gold beneath them: El Oro. Zaruma served as the capital until 1884, when administrative reorganization moved the seat to Machala. The town has been on UNESCO's tentative list for ...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/7/zaruma-wp/6pr7-zaruma-el-oro-and-the-tarantula.mp3 0:06 5 full Zaruma: The Town Above the Holes https://qualla.com/zaruma/ Modern Zaruma lives with a problem its colonial founders never planned for. Centuries of largely unregulated mining beneath the town, much of it illegal in recent decades, have left the bedrock under streets, schools, and homes riddled with tunnels. In December 2017 a sinkhole op...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/7/zaruma-wp/6pr7-zaruma-the-town-above-the-holes.mp3 0:06 6 full