Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ecuadorian Woman
But convenience takes a backseat to the country's eclectic ethnic cultures and biodiverse
ecological species, and though Ecuador is being thrust into modernity, you'll find its envir-
onmental and cultural roots brazenly thriving just below the surface. Its mostly
mes-
tizo
(that is, Spanish and Indian) population represent Ecuador's history, characterized by
its successful struggle to create a mixed national identity that's purely one-of-a-kind. For
instance, pre-Inca
Kichwa
communities flourish in accordance with traditional customs up
and down the Andean cordillera while Amazonian tribes like the
Huorani
and
Shuar
dot
the East, or
Oriente
. Heavily concentrated in the country's northwest
Esmeraldas
Province
are varied communities of Afro-Ecuadorians while the ancient
Valdivia
culture that hailed
from the southeast represents one of the oldest settled peoples in the Americas.
In terms of ecological roots you can count Ecuador as one of the 17 megadiverse countries
on the planet, harboring a plethora of endemic species that call the Amazon, Andes or
Galápagos home. Along the blurred borders between these contrasting regions you'll find
subzones where they clash and give birth to rare terrain like the humid high-
alpine
páramo
and subtropical cloud forests that slope off mountaintops. This is what
makes Ecuador one of the world's top places to view wildlife in its natural habitat: funky
