Ecuador

Abstract

Ecuador is the second smallest country in Latin America, covering some 280,000 km² in the northwest of the continent, between Colombia and Peru. It comprises three very different terrains. In the west, lie partly barren coastal lowlands, supporting extensive banana plantations and the busy port of Guayaquil, at the head of a gulf with the same name. Next follow the impressive Andean ranges, capped by active volcanoes rising to over 6,300 m, with the capital Quito, lying in a verdant intermontane valley. In the east, is the so-called Oriente, a vast tract of tropical rain forest, drained by the headwaters of the Amazon. Also of mention are the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, whose exceptional fauna was made famous by the pioneering studies of Charles Darwin in 1836.