A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY NAMED ECUADOR

One of the smaller countries of the Andean republics, Ecuador, is one of the most beautiful and interesting countries too, not only for its magnificent geography but also for its people.

In the nort west of South America, between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador lies on the Pacific coast and is bisected by the Andes. It takes its name from the equator, the circle perpendicular to the earth's axis of rotation and equidistant from its poles, which divides the surface into northern and southern heminspheres. It runs through the northern part of the country, right near Quito, the capital city, wich is one of the highest cyties in the world.

An amazingly varied country, Ecuador boasts magnificent scenery, with lofty volcanoes proudly studding the two cordilleras that form the country's backbone. It also features: superb religious monuments that bear witness to the era of Spanish colonization; a huge, luxuriant forest that covers the lysterious Amazon region that seems to stretch endlessly into the distance; scores of picturesque little native villages, which, perched in the Andes, seem frozen in the time; and finally, of course, the extraordinary world of the Galapagos Islands.

Taken of Ecuador travel guide