Go and see Ecuador's Enchanting Destinations: Inca Ruins, Andes, Amazon And Galapagos

Go and see Ecuador's Enchanting Destinations: Inca Ruins, Andes, Amazon And Galapagos

by Wesley Vanderhill

Its approximately 175 thousand sq mi, brings Ecuador in the realm of Colorado, USA, or half the seize of France, and it is much smaller than most other South American countries. For tourism, it is a major advantage, because so many distances anywhere in the country can be traveled by road in only a day. Traveling by bus is quite inexpensive and when you pay a bit extra for the ticked you will get rather comfortable ride. Flying from Quito to the larger cities takes 30-45 minutes and many destinations have daily flights.

The mainland has three unique regions, being the Eastern and Western lowlands, divided by the mountain chain of the Andes. Since the earth is a somewhat flattened sphere, it is wider around the equator, and there the distance to the middle of the earth is larger than from the poles. With 6,267 m above sea level, the Chimborazo , is farther away from the middle of the planet than Mount Everest. The Andean highlands along with the Galapagos Islands have many very active volcanoes.

You will find 7 climate zones in Ecuador, with precipitation varying from extremely wet along the Andes slopes to semi arid in the southern coast and temperatures varying from tropical in the lowlands to permanently cold high up in high altitude climates. The Central valley with the Andes is specially at ease with a permanently spring-like climate.

Advanced indigenous cultures flourished in Ecuador well before the land was conquered by the Incas at the late 15th century whilst still about a dozen languages are spoken besides the official Spanish language and the widely spoken Inca language, Quichua.

Quito was declared the administrative centre or "audiencia" (administrative district) of the northern Spanish colony in 1563. In 1717 it was incorporated in the Vice-royalty of New Granada, which combined the lands of what's now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. New Granada declared independence in 1822 and took the name Gran Colombia.

Ecuador separated from the Federation in 1830. Between 1904 and 1942, Ecuador had several border wars with its neighbors, each time losing more territory, while several areas along the borders remained in dispute. Permanent borders were agreed in 1999 after a war with Peru in 1995. That conflict had trigger a round of peace talks headed by Brazil and aided by Argentina, Chile as well as the USA. Ecuador enjoyed democracy in the past forty years.

Ecuador's has over 15 million inhabitants which, until quite recently mostly lived in the central highlands. Within the last few decades however, major shifts have taken place and today the people are equally distributed over the highlands and the coastal lowlands. Many people have migrated to urban areas which now constitute 60% of the population, with Guayaquil and Quito being the largest cities with over 2,000,000 inhabitants each. But Ecuador's Amazon, the "Oriente" (East) remains lowly populated with no more than 3% of the inhabitants.

The nation's economy is heavily dependent on oil , while complimented by manufacturing for the internal market, commerce and agriculture. Besides oil, bananas, shrimp, flowers, plus some other minor agriculturalgoods for the export. In 2010, oil oil sales made u 56% of the export earnings. As the world's largest exporter in the worldwide of bananas and plantains its annual sales exceed $2 billion per year while Ecuador also is a major player on the markets of shrimp ($800 million) and cacao ($400 million) markets. Non-traditional export goods are flowers ($600 million), canned fish ($600 million), and cars ($375 million).

Particularly over the last 2 decades, Ecuador has developed into a prime tourism destination with highlights including Galapagos National Park, colonial Quito, world heritage site Cuenca, National ParkCuyabeno, Cajas National Park, Cotopaxi National Park and the Otavalo Indian tapestry market



Discover why <a href='http://tinyurl.com/aeeaxgj'>Ecuador</a> is such a great place to <a href='http://tinyurl.com/9wvtkl5'>go on vacation</a>. For 4 decades Wesley Vanderhil has lived in South America and tells you where to go and what to do in Ecuador.

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