INDEX 1. LOC AT ION 2. CAPI TAL CITY 3. LANGUAG E 4. CLIMATE 5. RELIGION 6. EXPORTS 7. POPUL AT ION 8. REGIONS 9. GOVERNMENT TYPE AND CURRENCY 10. CREDIT S
The f ourth-smallest country i n South America, Ecuador i s located o n the west coast of the continent and i s crossed by the equator (the country g ets i ts n ame f rom the S panish w ord for "equator"). The Galápagos I slands, a province o f Ecuador with a n area t otaling 8,010 s q km (3,093 sq mi), are approximately 1,130 km (700 mi) off the coast on the equator at 89° to 92° W . The total area of the republic a nd i ts t erritory i s estimated at 283,560 sq km (109,483 sq mi). Ecuador also claims about 200,000 sq km (77,000 sq m i) of l and awarded t o Peru under the 1942 Protocol of Rio de Janeiro. Ecuador's capital city, Quito, i s located i n the north central part of the country. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
Quito, f ormally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city of Ecuado r, and at an elevation of 9,350 feet (2,800 meters above sea level). It i s the s econd highest capital city i n the world housing the administrative, legislative and judicial functions. It is located in north-central Ecuado r, on the eastern s lopes o f Pichincha, a n active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains. With a population of 2,197,698 a ccording t o the last census (2001), and, as e stimated by the municipality,
approximately
2,504,991 in 2005,
Quito is the s econd most populous city in Ecuador, a fter Guayaquil, and i t's the new economic capital city in Ecuador. It is also the capital of the Pichincha province and the seat of Metropolitan District of Quito. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
Spanish i s the most-widely spoken language in Ecuado r, though great variations a
re present
depending on several factors, the most important one being the geographical r egion where it is spoken. According to this, it could be divided in 3 groups . However, as mentioned before, there are several other sociolinguistic factors that influence in the way of speaking, such as the ethnic or social class of the speaker, and if the speaker lives in an urban or r ural a rea. S ince the C oast and the H ighlands are the most populated areas, these dialects are the m ost relevant ones in the c ountry, both of which are quite different one from each other. For instance, there are many idioms specific to each region or province, and others that are used and understood nationwide. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
Ecuador’s capital, Quito, lies in the Central
Valley
between the A ndean Mountains’ eastern a nd weste rn r idges. The equator i s less t han 20 m iles north o f the c ity, y et at an a ltitude of 9 ,350 f eet (2,900 m eters), Q uito’s c limate is spring-like year around: about 50° F (10° C) a t night and as high as 76° F (25° C) during the day. The sun makes the difference. The equatorial sun is intense, but when it’s obscured by c louds, you r ealize how high in the Andes you really are. The beaches a nd r ainforests, o n the other hand, enjoy the t ropical t emperatures t hat one would expect from equatorial lowlands, with highs ranging between 8 0º F and 90º F. B etween t hese two extremes, just about any type of weather can be found in Ecuador. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
Approximately 1,330 different religious g roups, churches,
societies,
Christian
fraternities, a nd
foundations coexist in Ecuado r. H owever, introduced by the S paniards with the conquest in 1540, Roman Catholicism is b y far t he d ominant religion. I n fact, the Roman Catholic Church is considered t o
be one of the three pillars of
society, a long w ith the Government and t he military. According to 1998 e stimates, over 95% of t he population identify themselves as Roman Catholics. Some
i ndividuals
combine customs and
beliefs of traditional indigenous religions with their practice of Catholicism. P rotestants, i ncluding Anglicans, B aptists, a nd M ethodists, make up about 2% of the population. Other denominations include
Lutherans,
Jehovah's
Mormons, Anglicans, etc. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
Witnesses,
Ecuador i s the
world's p remier
exporter
of
Bananas which a re a vailable a ll year r ound d ue to the 0.00 Latitude that the country sits on there
-
fore enjoying a ll year r ound t ropical climates. Currently t he c ountry e xports t o the main c ountries of the United S tates, Russia, Japan, C hina and the European Union. Some 325,000 acres or 130,000 hectares currently exists i n the planting a llocation o f bananas i n Ecuador while t he fruit i s exported with strong polybag lined protection, contained within boxes and put on pallets for onward shipping. Ecuadorian plantains as w ith Bananas a re a vailable throughout the year and are shipped mainly to the United States, with smaller quotas sent to El Salvador, Belgium, Portugal and France. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
Ecuadorian people consist of a diverse collection of e thnic g roups, almost a ll r elated to another group in one w ay o r anothe r. The g reat m ajority of E cuadorans trace t heir origins t o one o r more of t hree geographical sources of Human m igrations: t he p re-Hispanic indigenous Amerindians who settled the region over 15,000 years ago, the Europeans ( principally Spaniards) who arrived over five centuries ago, and ultimately the black sub-Saharan Africans whom they i mported as slave l abour during the same period. The m ixing of two or more of these three groups established other mixed ethnic groups. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
Ecuador is full of contrasts in a relatively small space, this is what makes it s imply magical. I n a few words Ecuador is "South America
in a
nutshell" . Divided in 4 geographical regions: i n the Coast the splendour o f its beaches awaits you; the Andes "Avenue of t he Volcanoes" in t he A ndean Sierras; the emerald forest in the Amazon and the enchanting Galapagos Islands. Ecuador w ith only 102.854 s q. m iles (270.670 sq. Km.) i n extension, condenses s ingular attractions together with boutique hotels, ancient haciendas, and u nique hotels and hostels w ith a local flair. The enchantment r elies in combining t he diversity of its geography, flora, fauna and its cultures. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /
The Republic o f
Ecuador i s a representative
democracy. The Gover nment is divided into three branches: executive,
legislative,
and judicial.
There i s also a n autonomous electoral agency called the "Tribunal Supremo Electoral". The country is separated into 21 provinces each of which is further d ivided i nto administrative cantones a nd parroquias. Relatively unstable with regards to who is president. They have had 17 p residents in the last 20 years even though he is elected for a 4-year term by popular vote . US Dollar was accepted as the national currency of Ecuador o n January, 2 000, thereby replacing Sucre, the initial Ecuador Currency. It was nationally adopted in Ecuador from September , 2000. Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel /