Roaming South America

The Town Where the Mountain Tells the Time: My Visit to Zamora

February 9, 2026

Zamora, Ecuador - population about 18,000, the canton (county) is about 30,000. The town sits in a tight valley between the Amazon Basin and the Andes Mountains. The town sits at 970 meters (3,182 ft) and the Rio (River) Zamora cuts through town, and there is a very nice park alongside the river. The Rio Bombuscaro runs alongside the opposite side of town and flows into the Rio Zamora at the edge of town, making quite a large confluence. There is a creek (Quebrada) that cuts through the suburban neighborhood called El Limon and dumps into Rio Zamora. That is called Quebrada El Limon, though on Google Maps it's not labeled and mostly not even shown to exist.

Zamora's claim to fame

Zamora's claim to fame is it's clock - it's built into the side of a mountain, facing the city center. It's said to be the biggest ornamental AND working clock in the world, even keeping time to within 2-3 minutes per year. Every hour it chimes, but in the last couple of years they added a music clip of 15-20 seconds before the chimes (bongs). The music and bongs are loud enough to be heard throughout almost all of the valley. The one draw-back: it starts at 6am. I guess they want it to be the town's alarm clock. It stops all that "sound" at 10pm (or 11pm, I don't remember). It's well lited at night making for a great photos. I have some in the photo album

My Impressions

I like Zamora, very much, and it is in the #1 spot on my list of potential new home towns. This town is quiet, there are few noisy motorcycles, no mototaxis (3-wheel motorcycles that make a horrendous racket and terrible air pollution), and no horn honking. The town does get rain, as expected since it's in the Amazon region, but it is almost always limited to the mornings and is short lived. There is a shoe store here that has Merrell brand shoes, but right now that is only one style - the Speed 2 shoes. I've owned two pairs of those over the years and they're very comfortable shoes for lots of walking and also great for trail running. I think the store is called Original Sport. It's located across the street from the Tía supermarket on Av. Amazonas near the corner with Calle (Street) 24 de Mayo.

My Top Five Choices for a new home town

Since I mentioned that I have a list of potential new home towns, I should you the list (in no particular order other than country) -

• Zamora, EC
• Catamayo, EC
• Puyo, EC
• Moyobamba, PE
• Oxapampa, PE
• Ica, PE

Those are the top 5, there are a few in Paraguay I like very much, but I have to visit them again, which I plan on doing this year. And, I'll be visiting Bolivia this year, so I might add a town or two to my list of some I have in mind there. I guess I'm still a ways off from making a choice. Oh, well, that just means I keep backpacking through South America and discovering more wonderful small towns and the people who make up these very interesting and fun cultures.