Pile Paja Toquilla

The Spondylus Trail shows us more than 11,000 years of history in museums, archaeological sites and excavations.  Learn about the social organization of the main pre-Columbian cultures and their supernatural interpretation of their environment very connected to life in the ocean.

The Spondylus shell (Mullu in Quechua), was used thousands of years ago to predict droughts, times of abundance, and was traded all the way up to middle America ( the modern territories of Mexico and Central America) by the navigators of the Manteña balsawood sailing vessels; and was known as the Red Gold of the Incas.

Spondylus

Visit the museums of Guayaquil, Manta and Bahia and the archaeological sites of: Valdivia and Sumpa in the province of Santa Elena; Agua Blanca, Japotó, Cerro de Jaboncillo, Chirije, San Isidro and Coaque in the province of Manabí and La Tolita Pampa de Oro in the province of Esmeraldas.

Get to know the ethnic groups that inhabit picturesque villages located on the beaches and to the interior of the coastal regions including from national cultural heritage cities like Zaruma. As the heirs of ancestral cultures, they form an important part of the conglomeration of live cultures of Ecuador.

Enjoy the diversity of the indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian groups, the montubios and mestizos of the coastal region and the autochthonous peoples of the southern Andes. Share with these cultures their music, religious customs, exquisite cuisine and handicrafts. Come and experience the Cultural Mosaic of the Spondylus Trail.