'Ecuador' (
IPA: /
ɛk.wə.doʊɹ/), officially the 'Republic of Ecuador' () is a representative democratic republic in
South America, bordered by
Colombia on the north, by
Peru on the east and south, and by the
Pacific Ocean on the west. The country also includes the
Galápagos Islands (Archipiélago de Colón) in the Pacific, about 965 kilometers (600 miles) west of the mainland. Ecuador straddles the
equator, from which it takes its name, and has an area of 256,370
square kilometers (98,985
mi²). Its capital city is
Quito; its largest city is
Guayaquil.
History
Main articles: History of Ecuador
Pre-Columbian
First settlements
Evidence of human cultures in Ecuador exist from c. 3500 B.C.
[1] Many civilizations rose throughout Ecuador, such as the
Valdivia Culture and
Machalilla Culture on the coast, the
Quitus (near present day
Quito) and the Cañari (in present day
Cuenca). Each civilization developed its own distinctive architecture, pottery, and religious beliefs. After years of fierce resistance the Cañari fell to the Incan expansion, and were assimulated loosely into the Incan empire.
Part of the Incan empire
Cotopaxi volcano.
Through a succession of wars and marriages with the different nations that inhabited the valley, the region became part of the
Inca Empire.
Atahualpa, one of the sons of the Inca emperor
Huayna Capac, could not receive the crown of the Empire since the emperor had another son,
Huascar, born in
Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire. Upon Huayna Capac's death, the empire was divided in two: Atahualpa received the north, with his capital in Quito, and Huascar received the south with its capital in
Cusco. Finally, in 1530, Atahualpa defeated Huascar and conquered the whole Empire for the crown of
Quito.
Colonization
Barely a week later, in 1531, the
Spanish conquistadors, under
Francisco Pizarro, arrived in an Inca empire torn by civil war. Atahualpa wanted to reestablish a unified Incan empire. The Spanish, however, had conquest intentions and established themselves in a fort in
Cajamarca, captured Atahualpa during the
Battle of Cajamarca and held him for ransom. The Incas filled one room with gold and two with silver to secure his release. Despite being surrounded and vastly outnumbered, the Spanish executed Atahualpa. To escape the confines of the fort, the Spaniards fired all their cannons and broke through the lines of the bewildered Incans. In subsequent years the Spanish colonists became the new elite centering their power in the Vice-Royalties of
Nueva Granada and
Lima.
The indigenous population was decimated by disease in the first decades of Spanish rule — a time when the natives also were forced into the "
encomienda" labor system for Spanish landlords. In 1563,
Quito became the seat of a
royal audiencia (administrative district) of Spain and part of the Vice-Royalty of Lima, and later the Vice-Royalty of
Nueva Granada.
Independence
After nearly three hundred years of Spanish colonization, Quito was a city of around ten thousand inhabitants. It was there, on
August 10,
1809 (the national holiday) that the first call for independence from Spain was made in Latin America ("Primer Grito de la Independencia"), under the leadership of the city's ''criollos'' like Carlos Montúfar,
Eugenio Espejo and Bishop Cuero y Caicedo. Quito's nickname, "
Luz de América" ("Light of America") comes from the inspiration that this first attempt produced the aspiration for the rest of Spanish America, creating a domino effect that would ultimately lead to the expulsion of Spain from the continent. On
October 9,
1820 Guayaquil became the first city in Ecuador to gain its independence from Spain. It was not until
May 24,
1822 that the rest of Ecuador gained its independence from Spain after Field Marshal Antonio José de Sucre beat the Spaniard Royalist forces at the Batalla del Pichincha (Battle of Pichincha) near Quito. Following the battle, Ecuador joined
Simón Bolívar's
Republic of Gran Colombia, only to become a separate republic in 1830.
Building a nation
View of Old Quito, one of the highest cities in the world.
The nineteenth century for Ecuador was marked by instability, with a rapid succession of rulers. The first president of Ecuador was the Venezuelan born
Juan José Flores, who was ultimately deposed, and followed by many authoritarian leaders like
Vicente Rocafuerte,
José Joaquín de Olmedo, José María Urbina,
Diego Noboa, Pedro José de Arteta,
Manuel de Ascásubi and Flores's own son,
Antonio Flores Jijón, among others. The conservative
Gabriel Garcia Moreno unified the country in the 1860s with the support of the
Roman Catholic Church. In the late nineteenth century, world demand for
cocoa tied the economy to commodity exports and led to migrations from the highlands to the agricultural frontier on the coast.
A coastal-based liberal revolution in 1895 under
Eloy Alfaro reduced the power of the clergy and the conservative land-owners of the highlands, and this liberal wing retained power until the military "Julian Revolution" of 1925. The 1930s and 1940s were marked by instability and populist politicians, such as five-time President
José María Velasco Ibarra.
Territorial dispute
Control over territory in the
Amazon basin led to a long-lasting dispute between Ecuador and
Peru. In 1941, in the midst of fast-growing tensions between the two countries, war broke out.
Peru claimed that Ecuador's military presence in Peruvian-claimed territory was an invasion while Ecuador, on the other hand, claimed Peru invaded Ecuador. In July 1941, troops were mobilized. Peru had an army of 11,681 troops, facing a poorly supplied and badly armed Ecuadorian force of 5,300 soldiers, of which a little over 1,300 were deployed in the southern provinces of the country. Hostilities broke on
July 5,
1941, when Peruvian forces crossed the Zarumilla river on several spots, testing the strength and disposition of the Ecuadorian border troops. Finally, on
July 23,
1941, the Peruvians launched a major invasion, crossing the Zarumilla river in force and advancing into the Ecuadorian province of El Oro. Over the course of the war
Peru gained control over all the disputed territory and occupied the Ecuadorian province of
El Oro, now
Tumbes and some parts of the province of
Loja (some 65% of the former country), demanding that the Ecuadorian government give up their territorial claims. The
Peruvian Navy blocked the port of
Guayaquil, cutting supplies to the Ecuadorian troops. After a few weeks of war and under pressure by the U.S. and several Latin American nations, all fighting came to a stop. Ecuador and Peru came to an accord formalised in the
Rio Protocol, signed on
January 29,
1942, in favor of hemispheric unity against the
Axis Powers in
World War II. As a result of its victory, Peru was awarded the disputed territory. Two more wars, and a peace agreement reached in 1999, would follow to finally end the dispute. Both wars were undeclared. (See
Paquisha Incident and
Cenepa War.)
Government instability
Recession and popular unrest led to a return to populist politics and domestic military interventions in the 1960s, while foreign companies developed oil resources in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 1972, the construction of the Andean pipeline, which brought oil from the east to the coast was completed, making Ecuador South America's second largest oil exporter. That same year a "revolutionary and nationalist" military
junta overthrew the government, remaining in power until 1979, when elections were held under a new Constitution.
Jaime Roldós Aguilera was elected President, and he governed until
May 24,
1981, when he died in a plane crash. By 1982, the government of
Osvaldo Hurtado faced an economic crisis, characterized by high
inflation, budget deficits, a falling currency, mounting debt service, and uncompetitive industries, leading to chronic government instability.
Many years of mismanagement, starting with the mishandling of the country's debt during the 1970s military regime, had left the country essentially ungovernable. By the mid 1990s, the government of Ecuador has been characterized by a weak executive branch that struggles to appease the ruling classes, represented in the legislative and judiciary. The three democratically elected
presidents during the period 1996-2006 all failed to finish their terms.
Today's government
The emergence of the indigenous population (app. 25% see demographics below) as an active constituency has added to the democratic volatility of the country in recent years. The population have been motivated by government failures to deliver on promises of land reform, lower unemployment and provision of social services, and by historical exploitation by the land-holding elite.
Their movement, along with the continuing destabilizing efforts by both the Elite and Leftist movements, have led to a deterioration of the executive office. The public and the other branches of government give the president very little political capital to work with, as happened when in April 2005 Ecuador's Congress ousted President
Lucio Gutiérrez.
The Vice-President,
Alfredo Palacio, took his place and remained in office until the presidential
election of 2006, which did not produce a conclusive winner until a
runoff election on
26 November elected
Rafael Correa over
Alvaro Noboa.
[1]
Politics
Main articles: Politics of Ecuador
The
constitution provides for concurrent 4-year terms of office for the president, vice president, and members of Congress. Presidents may be re-elected after an intervening term, while legislators may be re-elected immediately.
The executive branch includes 15 ministries. Provincial governors and councilors, like mayors and aldermen and parish boards, are directly elected. Congress meets throughout the year except for recess in July and December. There are twenty 7-member congressional committees. Justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Congress for indefinite terms.
Foreign Relations
Main articles: Foreign relations of Ecuador
Ecuador has often placed great emphasis on multilateral approaches to international issues. Ecuador is a member of the United Nations (and most of its specialized agencies) and also is a member of many regional groups, including the Rio Group, the Latin American Economic System, the Latin American Energy Organization, the Latin American Integration Association, and The Andean Pact.
Geography
Main articles: Geography of Ecuador
Map of Ecuador
Ecuador has three main geographic regions, plus an insular region in the
Pacific Ocean:
★ ''La Costa,'' or the coast, comprises the low-lying littoral in the western part of the country, including the Pacific coastline.
★ ''La Sierra'' ("the highlands") is the high-altitude belt running north to south along the center of the country, its mountainous
terrain dominated by the
Andes mountain range.
★ ''El Oriente'' ("the east") comprises the
Amazon rainforest areas in the eastern part of the country, accounting for just under half of the country's total surface area, though populated by under 5 percent of the population.
★ The ''Región Insular'' is the region comprising the
Galápagos Islands, some 1,000 kilometers (620
mi) west of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean.
Capital City
Ecuador's capital is
Quito, which is in the province of
Pichincha in the Sierra region. Its largest city is
Guayaquil, in the province of
Guayas on the Coast.
Cotopaxi, which is just south of
Quito, features one of the world's highest active volcanoes. The top of
Mount Chimborazo (6,310 meters) is considered to be the most distant point from the center of the Earth, given the
ovoidal shape of the planet, making it wider at the equator [the top of Mt. Everest is the highest point above sea level].
Provinces and cantons
Main articles: Provinces of Ecuador,
Cantons of Ecuador
Ecuador is divided into 22
provinces, each with its own administrative capital:
|
|
 Map of Ecuador
|
The provinces are divided into 199
cantons and subdivided into
parishes (or ''parroquias'').
Climate
Because of its three mainland regions (as delineated in the preceding section), Ecuador's climate cannot be generalized. La Costa (Pacific coastal area) is tropical, La Sierra (Andes highlands) is temperate, and El Oriente (eastern sode of the mountains) shares the jungle climate of the upper Amazon rain forest.
Because of its location at the equator, Ecuador does not experience variations in daylight hours during the course of a year. Except for a few minutes resulting from a slight wobble in the earth as it rotates, sunrise and sunset are always at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., respectively. Although it is in the same time zone as the eastern United States (except for the
Galápagos Islands, which correspond to the U.S. central time zone), Ecuador does not switch to daylight savings time.
Biodiversity
Ecuador is one of 17
megadiverse countries in the world according to Conservation International.
[2] With 1600 bird species (some 15% of the world's known bird species) in the continental area, and 38 more
endemic to the Galápagos. There are also 25,000 species of plants recorded, it has 106 endemic
reptiles, 138 endemic
amphibians, and 6,000 species of butterflies. The
Galápagos Islands are very well known as a region of distinct fauna, famous as the place of birth of
Darwin's Theory of Evolution, and a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
[3] Despite being on the UNESCO list, the
Galapagos have become endangered by many different situations that now threaten the existence of this exotic
ecosystem.
[4]
Economy
Main articles: Economy of Ecuador
Ecuador has substantial
petroleum resources and rich agricultural areas. Because the country exports primary products such as oil,
bananas, flowers and
shrimp, fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic impact. Industry is largely oriented to servicing the domestic market, and some exports to the Andean Common market. Deteriorating economic performance in 1997-98 culminated in a severe economic and financial crisis in 1999. The crisis was precipitated by a number of external shocks, including the El Niño weather phenomenon in 1997, a sharp drop in global oil prices in 1997-98, and international emerging market instability in 1997-98. These factors highlighted the Government of Ecuador's unsustainable economic policy mix of large fiscal deficits and expansionary money policy and resulted in an 7.3% contraction of GDP, annual year-on-year inflation of 52.2% and a 65% devaluation of the national currency in 1999, which helped precipitate a default on external loans later that year.
On
January 9 2000, the administration of President
Jamil Mahuad announced its intention to adopt the
U.S. dollar as the official currency of Ecuador to address the ongoing economic crisis. The formal adoption of the dollar as currency on
September 10,
2000, as opposed to pegging the local currency to it, as Argentina has done, theoretically meant that the benefits of
seigniorage would accrue to the U.S. economy. Subsequent protest related to the economic and financial crises led to the removal of Mahuad from office and the elevation of Vice President
Gustavo Noboa to the presidency.
However, the Noboa government confirmed its commitment to dollarize as the centerpiece of its economic recovery strategy. The government also entered into negotiations with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), culminating in the negotiation of a twelve-month stand-by arrangement with the Fund. Additional policy initiatives include efforts to reduce the government's fiscal deficit, implement structural reforms to strengthen the banking system and regain access to private capital markets.
Buoyed by high oil prices, the Ecuadorian economy experienced a modest recovery in 2000, with GDP rising 1.9%. However, 70% of the population was estimated to live below the
poverty line that year, more than double the rate in 1995.
In April 2007, after winning a referendum on Constitutional reform, President Correa announced that he no longer intended that the country would make repayments to the
IMF nor deal with the
World Bank.
Demographics
Guayaquil at night from the east.
Ecuador's population is ethnically diverse. The largest ethnic group is comprised of ''
Mestizos'', the mixed descendants of Spanish colonists and indigenous Native Americans, who constitute 65% of the population.
Amerindians are second in numbers and account for 25% of the current population. Whites, mainly ''
criollos'', the unmixed descendants of early Spanish colonists, as well as immigrants from other European and Latin American countries, and account for some 7%. The small
Afro-Ecuadorian minority, including
Mulattos and ''
zambos'', and largely based in Esmeraldas and Imbabura provinces, make up 3%.
There are sizeable expatriate Ecuadorian communities in
Spain and
Italy, as well across
Europe, the
United States,
Canada and
Japan. It is estimated that 700,000 people emigrated from Ecuador following the 1999 economic crisis, and in total the expatriate Ecuadorian population is approximately 2.5 million.
The tropical forest region to the east of the mountains remains sparsely populated and contains only about 3% of the population.
The public education system is free at the point of delivery, and attendance is mandatory from ages five to fourteen. Provision of public schools falls far below the levels needed, and class sizes are often very large, and families of very limited means will often pay for education. However, the Ministry of Education reports that only 76% of children finish six years of schooling. In rural areas, only 10% of the children go on to high school. Ministry statistics give the mean number of years completed as 6.7. Ecuador has sixty-one universities, many of which now offer graduate degrees, although only 87% of the faculty in public universities possess graduate degrees. 300 Higher Institutes offer two to three years of post-secondary vocational or technical training.
Religion
Approximately 95% of Ecuadorians are
Roman Catholic [2]. In the rural parts of Ecuador, indigenous beliefs and
Christianity are sometimes syncretized. There is also a growing number of
Protestant denominations.
Most festivals and annual parades are based on religious celebrations.
There is a small
Muslim minority numbering in the low thousands. The
Jewish community numbers just over one thousand and is mostly of
German and
Italian origin. There are also
Sephardic Jews (Judeo-Spanish Jews).
Culture
Main articles: Culture of Ecuador
Ecuador's mainstream
culture is defined by Ecuador's
mestizo majority and, like their ancestry, is a mixture of
European and
Amerindian influences infused with
African elements inherited from
slave ancestors. Ecuador's indigenous communities are integrated into that mainstream culture to varying degrees, but some may also practice their own autochthonous cultures, particularly the more remote indigenous communities of the
Amazon basin.
The
Panama hat is of Ecuadorian origin, and is known there as a
Jipijapa, after the town which is claimed to be its origin. Its manufacture, and particularly that of the ''Montecristi superfino'', is considered a great craft.
Notable people born in Ecuador include painters
Tábara,
Guayasamín,
Kingman,
Rendón,
Arauz,
Constanté,
Viteri,
Molinari,
Maldonado,
Gutierrez,
Endara Crow,
Villacís,
Egas,
Villafuerte and
Faini; animator
Mike Judge; poet and statesman
José Joaquín de Olmedo, scholar
Benjamín Urrutia, and tennis player
Pancho Segura.
Sports
The Ecuador Team.
The most popular sport in Ecuador, as in most South American countries, is soccer. Its best known professional teams include ''
Barcelona S.C.'' and ''
C.S. Emelec'', from Guayaquil, ''
Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito'', ''
Deportivo Quito'' and ''
El Nacional'' (the Ecuadorian Armed Forces team) from Quito, ''
Olmedo'' from Riobamba, and ''
Deportivo Cuenca'', from Cuenca.
The matches of the
Ecuadorian national football team are the most watched sports events in the country. In June 2007
FIFA adopted a resolution prohibiting international soccer games at 2,500 metres or more above sea level. Rafael Correa, and his presidential counterparts in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia, issued a joint letter of protest against this ruling.
[3]
Ecuador qualified for the final rounds of both the
2002 and
2006 FIFA World Cups. Ecuador finished ahead of Poland and Costa Rica to come second to Germany in Group A in the 2006 World Cup.
Futsal, often referred to as ''índor'', is particularly popular for mass participation.
There is considerable interest in
tennis in the middle and upper classes in the Ecuadorian society, and several Ecuadorian professional players have attained considerable international fame, including
Francisco Segura,
Andrés Gómez and
Nicolas Lapentti.
Basketball also has a high profile, while Ecuador's specialities include
''Ecuavolley'', a 3-person variation of
volleyball.
Bullfighting is practiced at a professional level in Quito, during the annual festivities which commemorate the Spanish foundation of the city. Bullfighting can also be found in smaller towns, notably El Chaco east of Quito.
Ecuador obtained its first Olympic gold medal in Atlanta's 1996
Olympic Games, through
Jefferson Pérez, on the 20 km race-walk. There is flourishing activity in non-traditional sports such as mountainbiking, motorbiking, surfing, and
paintball. Since 2005 Ecuador has the
Guayaquil Marathon an international foot race.
Food
Guatita plate.
The food in Ecuador is very diverse, varying with altitude as do the agricultural conditions. Pork, chicken, meat or “cuy” (
guinea pig) are popular in the mountain regions served with an immense variety of cereals, potatoes or rice. A street food in mountain regions of Ecuador is potatoes served with roasted pig (hornado).
Fanesca is also a dish that has been made famous in Ecuador, it is a soup made during the time of
Lent and is made with 12 types of bean (i.e. green beans, lima beans, lupini beans, fava beans, etc.) and milk and is usually served with codfish.
Beef jerky was invented in Ecuador.
There is a great variety of fresh fruit available, particularly at lower altitudes. Seafood is popular at the coast, particularly
prawns. Shrimp and lobster are key parts of the coastal diet as well.
Plantain and
peanut based dishes and foods are the basis of most coastal meals, which in general are served in two courses: a "caldo", or
soup, which may be "aguado" (a thin soup, usually with meat), or "caldo de leche", a cream vegetable soup. The second course might typically include rice, some meat or fish in a "menestra" (stew), and salad or vegetables.
Patacones are popular side dishes with most coastal meals.
Some of the typical dishes in the coastal region are:
ceviche,
pan de almidón,
corviche,
guatita,
encebollado and
empanadas; in the mountain region:
hornado,
fritada, humitas,
tamales,
llapingachos,
lomo saltado,
churrasco, etc.
In the rainforest, a dietary staple is the yuca, a root (elsewhere called
cassava). The starchy root is peeled and boiled, fried, or used in a variety of other dishes. Many fruits are also available in this region, including bananas, tree grapes, and peach palms.
Art
Maldonado's, ''El Campo de Los Toros'', Pastel and Ink on paper, 1960.
Museum of Anthropology and Contemporary Art (MAAC), near the breakwater in
Guayaquil.
There are many contemporary Ecuadorian writers, including the novelist
Jorge Enrique Adoum; the poet
Jorge Carrera Andrade; the essayist
Benjamín Carrión; the poet
Fanny Carrión de Fierro; the novelist
Enrique Gil Gilbert; the novelist
Jorge Icaza (author of the novel ''
Huasipungo'', translated to many languages); the short story author
Pablo Palacio; the novelist
Alicia Yanez Cossio; the prominent author and essayist,
Juan Montalvo, and U.S. based half Ecuadorian poet,
Emanuel Xavier.
Ecuador has produced many world renowned master painters including:
Oswaldo Guayasamín,
Camilo Egas and
Eduardo Kingman from the Indiginist Movement; and
Manuel Rendon,
Enrique Tábara,
Aníbal Villacís and
Estuardo Maldonado from the Informalist Movement.
Film
★ The
Waorani tribe (located in Ecuador) is heavily portrayed in the 2006 theatrical release of "
The End of the Spear," the story about five missionaries speared to death, as told through the eyes of a Waorani
tribesman.
★ The 2006 film ''Qué Tan Lejos'', written and directed by
Tania Hermida takes place in the rural sierras and Pacific coast of southern Ecuador. A workers' strike delays a bus from Quito to Cuenca and the story unfolds as two young women decide to take their journey into their own hands, hitchhiking the rest of the way. Along the way they meet interesting characters who help them re-evaluate the purpose of their journey. Notable scenic shots throughout the movie and some great Ecuadorian humor that sometimes gets lost in translation.
★ The 2005 film ''Crónicas'', written and directed by Ecuadorian
Sebastián Cordero and starring
John Leguizamo in his Spanish-language debut, is set and filmed entirely in Ecuador.
★ Although set in Colombia, the 2004 film ''
Maria Full of Grace'' was partially shot in Ecuador.
★ The 2003 film ''The Dancer Upstairs'', directed by
John Malkovich and starring
Javier Bardem, was filmed in Ecuador.
★ ''Beyond the Gates of Splendor'' (2002), directed by Jim Hanon, is a documentary about five missionaries killed by the
Huaorani Indians in the 1950s. He recycles the story in the 2006 Hollywood production ''The End of the Spear''. Most of this film was shot in Panama.
★ The film ''
Proof of Life'' (2000), starring
Meg Ryan and
Russell Crowe, was filmed in Ecuador; the story takes place in a fictitious South American country named "Tecala". The guerrilla movement depicted in the film is reminiscent of
Peru's
Shining Path or
Colombia's
FARC.
★ ''Ratas, Ratones, Rateros'' (1999) written and directed by
Sebastián Cordero, relates the story of an 18 year-old
quiteño whose cousin, a thief from Ecuador's coastal city
Guayaquil, embroils all those around him in his affairs. The film has been accused by several critics of painting an extremely distorted contrast between the coast (Guayaquil) and the highlands (Quito), which stems from the ever-present feelings of
regionalism.
★ ''Entre Marx y una Mujer Desnuda'' (''Between Marx and a Nude Woman'', 1995), by Ecuadorian
Camilo Luzuriaga, provides a window into the life of young Ecuadorian leftists living in a country plagued by the remnants of feudal systems and coup d'etats. It is based on a novel by
Jorge Enrique Adoum.
★ The 1991 film ''Sensaciones'' was shot in Ecuador and directed by Ecuadorean siblings Juan Esteban Cordero and Viviana Cordero. Viviana Cordero was subsequently involved in the production of ''Ratas, Ratones, y Rateros'' (see above) and later produced ''Un Titán en el Ring'' (2002).
★ The 1980s film ''
Vibes'', starring
Cyndi Lauper and
Jeff Goldblum, was shot in Ecuador. The Andean cities served as a backdrop for the film.
In addition to film, there are numerous books and novels based on Ecuador, including the science fiction novel by Rod Glenn,
''The King of America'', and the science fiction novel "Galápagos", by
Kurt Vonnegut.
Transportation
Ecuador has a network of
national highways maintained by the ''Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Comunicaciones'' (Ministry of Public Works and Communication) government agency
[4]. The
Pan-American Highway connects the northern and southern portions of the country as well as connecting Ecuador with Colombia to the north and Peru to the south. The quality of roads, even on trunk routes, is highly variable. There is an extensive network of inter city buses on these highways.
See also
References
1. With less than 4% of the poll to be counted (364,000 votes), Correa's lead is more than 850,000 ''Bloomberg''
2. Conservation Internation Site
3. Unesco World Heritage
4. Time Magazine Report
External links
'Government'
★
Presidential Government Site (Presidential Site)
'General Information'
★
Ecuadorian Restaurants Find all the information about Ecuadorian Restaurants, Bars and Coffee Shops.
★
Ecuador Facts Cia (Official Cia world book)
★
BBC country profile of
BBC Ecuador
★
BBC News General Timeline
★
Free Trade With US Report
★
Ecuador web directory
'Tourism'
★
'Other'
★
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español