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From Macas, a bumpy dirt road trails down into the southernmost reaches of the Oriente, eventually climbing back up to the highlands at the town of Zamora, 324km down the road. The sporadic farming villages and small towns dotted along its length offer little scope for getting into the rainforest further east, and - with the exception of the little town of Gualaquiza, 184km south of Macas - tend to be pretty uninviting places for a stopover. As you follow the road south from Macas, the first large community you come to is SUCUA , 23km down the road, whose main interest is that it houses the headquarters of the Federacion Shuar on Domingo Comin 17-38 (tel & fax 07/740926), a large organization representing the interests of the Shuar people, and a good place to enquire about community-based ecotourism programmes in the province. Built around a long, straggly main street, Sucua has little else to recommend itself, and you're unlikely to want to stay here - if you get caught out, however, you'll find clean rooms with parquet floors, shiny wooden furniture and a private bathroom at the Hotel Gyna on Domingo Comin and Kiruba (tel 07/740926; $5-9). A further 48km south you pass the drab, dusty village of MENDEZ , where you'll find emergency accommodation at the spick-and-span Hostal Los Ceibos , just off the plaza on Calle Cuenca (tel 07/760133; $5-9). Continuing south, the next major stop is LIMON (General Leonidas Plaza on some maps). 43km on from Mendez, with a pleasant climate and tidy streets dotted with trees, but little else. Should you need to stay here, try the Hotel Dreamhouse on Quito and Bolivar (tel 07/770166; $5-9) for modest but comfortable rooms . Eight kilometres south of Limon, the road forks in two, with the right fork climbing dramatically up into the sierra to Cuenca, 100km west, while the left one continues 70km south to GUALAQUIZA , sitting at the confluence of the Zamora and Bobonaza rivers, against a backdrop of forested hills. With its quaint, colonial-style church and cobbled streets, Gualaquiza is by far the most attractive little town along the there's nothing much to do here and no compelling reason to stop over. If you do, you'll find spacious, comfortable rooms at Hostal Guadelupe and Pesantez and Garcia Moreno (tel 07/780113; $5-9), and a couple of basic places to eat around the main square. South of Gualaquiza, the road heads into the tiny province of Zamora Chinchipe, through remote gold-mining territory dotted with macho, rough-edged mining settlements like Yantzaza , before reaching the hill town of Zamora , 120km down the road , where it joins the paved highway to Loja in the sierra .
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