Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
velop within the merging worlds of tourism, environmental preserva-
tion, and economic development. The time to go is now.
Location
Ecuador is located on the northwestern coast of South
America. It covers approximately 104,550 square miles,
plus the Galápagos. It straddles the equator on the Pacific
Coast of SouthAmerica and is bordered by Colombia to the
north and Peru to the south and east. The Galápagos Islands form an
archipelago over 600 miles off the coast of mainland Ecuador.
The name Ecuador is the Spanish term for the equator, the invisible
line that divides the Earth horizontally in theNorthern and Southern
hemispheres and crosses the country (there is a monument near
Quito, latitude 0
°
).
History & Politics
A view into the window of Ecuador's historical life is the
first step in understanding and appreciating the beauty of
this land.
Pre-Inca
Ecuador's earliest inhabitants lived in the Andes as hunters and
gatherers, having arrived fromAsia across the Bering Strait between
30,000 and 50,000 years ago. As agriculture developed, they settled in
the fertile valley of the Andean Sierras. On the coast, related tribes
with different dialects hunted, fished, practiced agriculture, traded
andmade war with each other, as well as with tribes of the highlands.
Spear tips belonging to the earliest groups from as far back as 10,000
BC have been discovered. Though there is little evidence about Ecua-
dor's pre-Incan past, by around 3,500 BC a fairly well developed cul-
ture known today as the
Valdivians
lived in the central coastal plain
near what today is Santa Elena, along the south-central coast. Small
earthenware figurines, most likely related to fertility rites and reli-
gious rituals within the Valdivia culture, have been discovered in this
region and are on display in small archeological museums, as well as
in Quito and Guayaquil. Other, more recent archeological sites exist
in Esmeraldas and Manabí coastal provinces, and in the Northern
Highlands.
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