Ecuador has territories in both the Northern and the Southern hemispheres. It borders Colombia to the north and shares a border Peru to the south and to the east. The Pacific Ocean is Ecuador’s western border. Ecuador, 256,370 square kilometers in size, is geographically divided into four regions (the Amazon, the Highlands, the Coast, and the Galapagos Islands) and is politically split into 22 provinces, which, in turn, are split into 205 cantons. The coastal provinces (from north to south) are Esmeraldas, Manabí, Los Ríos, Guayas, and El Oro. Highlands provinces are Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Chimborazo, in the north, and Bolívar, Cañar, Azuay and Loja, in the south. Ecuador’s 22nd province the Galapagos Islands.
Spanish governors ruled Ecuador for nearly 300 years, first from Lima, Peru, then later from the viceroyalty of Colombia. The Spanish introduced Roman Catholicism, colonial architecture, and today's national language. Independence was won in 1822, when the famed South American liberator Simon Bolivar defeated a Spanish army at the Battle of Pichincha.
Bolivar united Ecuador with Colombia and Venezuela, forming the state of Gran Colombia. His plan was to eventually unite all of South America as a constitutional republic, and one can only wonder what such a nation would have been like if his dream had been realized. After eight years, however, local interests sparked Ecuador to secede from the union. Colombia and Venezuela soon split.
Ecuador's modern history has had its struggles. A long-standing, internal dispute between the conservative city of Quito and the liberal Guayaquil has at times boiled over into violence. Near the turn of the century, leaders on both sides were assassinated, and military dictators have ruled the country for most of its recent history. Ecuador returned to democracy in 1979, however, and free elections have continued since. A border dispute with Peru exists to this day, and some skirmishes recently flared in the Amazon, though fighting has subsided for the time being.
Ecuador's climate is equally generous to the traveler. Embracing the Pacific, Ecuador rests squarely on the equator (hence its name). Here, seasons are defined more by rainfall than temperature. A warm rainy season lasts from January to April, and May through December is characterized by a cooler, drier period that is ideally timed for a summer trip.
The Pacific coast of Ecuador's has a rainy season between December and May and a dry one from June to November. Ecuador's temperature oscillates between 23 and 26 degrees centigrade. The Highlands, on the other hand, has a rainy, cold climate from November to April and a dry one from May to October. Ecuador's temperature is between 13 and 18 degrees centigrade. In the Amazon, the climate is rainy and humid between January and September, with temperatures between 23 and 36 degrees centigrade, and it is dry between October and December. The Galapagos has a temperate climate with temperatures ranging between 22 and 32 degrees centigrade.
Ecuador , a multiethnic and multicultural nation has a population of more than 12.6 million. Of these, five and a half million live in the highlands. Six and a half million of Ecuador’s inhabitants live on the Pacific coast. The Amazon region of Ecuador is home to more than six hundred thousand inhabitants and nearly seventeen thousand live in the Galapagos Islands. More than 14 indigenous groups live on the Ecuadorian mainland, maintaining their own traditions and ways of life. The following are the principal indigenous groups of the Amazon region: Huaoranis, Achuar, Shuar, Cofán, Siona-Secoya, Shiwiar and Záparo.
Los Tagaeri, related to the Huaorani, are another group from this area. The Tageri were declared “intangible” by the State, in order to respect their wish to live far from civilization.
Ecuador with the greatest number of immigrants are Pichincha and Guayas. Migration abroad has also grown in recent years due to the economic crisis. The are sizable communities of Ecuadorians in the USA, Spain, and Italy. The official language of Ecuador is Spanish, but other languages, such as Quichua Shimi, Awapit, Cha´palachi, Tsafiqui, Paicoca, A´ingae, Huaotirio, Shuar-chichan, and Záparo, are widely spoken in areas with large indigenous populations. The predominant religion of Ecuador is Catholicism but many communities still preserve their ancient beliefs of worship of the earth, the mountains, and the sun.
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