Booklet ECUADOR

INDEX1. LOCAT ION

2. CAPI TAL CITY

3. LANGUAGE

4. CLIMATE

5. RELIGION

6. EXPORTS

7. POPUL ATION

8. REGIONS

9. GOVERNMENT TYPE AND CURRENCY

10. CREDITS

The fourth-smallest country i n South America,

Ecuador i s located o n the west coast of the

continent and i s crossed by the equator (the

country gets i ts name f rom the Spanish word for

"equator").

The Galápagos I slands, a province o f Ecuador

with a n area t otaling 8,010 s q km (3,093 sq mi),

are approximately 1,130 km (700 mi) off the coast

on the equator at 89° to 92° W . The total area of

the republic a nd i ts t erritory i s estimated at

283,560 sq km (109,483 sq mi).

Ecuador also claims about 200,000 sq km (77,000

sq m i) of l and awarded t o Peru under the 1942

Protocol of Rio de Janeiro. Ecuador's capital city,

Quito, i s located in the north central part of the

country.

Text from : http://www.ecuador. travel/

Quito, formally San Francisco de Quito, is the

capital city of Ecuador, and at an elevation of

9,350 feet (2,800 meters above sea level).

It i s the s econd highest capital city i n the world

housing the administrative, legislative and judicial

functions. It is located in north-central Ecuador,

on the eastern s lopes o f Pichincha, an active

stratovolcano in the Andes mountains.

With a population of 2,197,698 a ccording t o the

last census (2001), and, as estimated by the

municipality, approximately 2,504,991 in 2005,

Quito is the s econd most populous city in Ecua-

dor, a fter Guayaquil, and i t's the new economic

capital city in Ecuador. It is also the capital of the

Pichincha province and the seat of Metropolitan

District of Quito.


Spanish i s the most-widely spoken language in

Ecuador, though great variations a re present

depending on several factors, the most important

one being the geographical r egion where it is

spoken. According to this, it could be divided in 3

groups.

However, as mentioned before, there are several

other sociolinguistic factors that influence in the

way of speaking, such as the ethnic or social class

of the speaker, and if the speaker lives in an urban

or rural area. S ince the Coast and the H ighlands

are the most populated areas, these dialects are

the m ost relevant ones in the c ountry, both of

which are quite different one from each other. For

instance, there are many idioms specific to each

region or province, and others that are used and

understood nationwide.


Ecuador’s capital, Quito, lies in the Central Valley

between the A ndean Mountains’ eastern a nd

western r idges. The equator i s less t han 20 m iles

north o f the c ity, yet at an a ltitude of 9 ,350 feet

(2,900 m eters), Q uito’s c limate is spring-like year

around: about 50° F (10° C) at night and as high

as 76° F (25° C) during the day. The sun makes the

difference. The equatorial sun is intense, but when

it’s obscured by c louds, you r ealize how high in

the Andes you really are.

The beaches and rainforests, on the other hand,

enjoy the t ropical t emperatures t hat one would

expect from equatorial lowlands, with highs rang-

ing between 80º F and 90º F. Between these two

extremes, just about any type of weather can be

found in Ecuador.


Approximately 1,330 different religious g roups,

churches, societies, Christian fraternities, and

foundations coexist in Ecuador. H owever, intro-

duced by the Spaniards with the conquest in

1540, Roman Catholicism is b y far t he d ominant

religion. I n fact, the Roman Catholic Church is

considered t o be one of the three pillars of

society, a long w ith the Government and t he

military.

According to 1998 estimates, over 95% of t he

population identify themselves as Roman Catho-

lics. Some i ndividuals combine customs and

beliefs of traditional indigenous religions with their

practice of Catholicism. P rotestants, i ncluding

Anglicans, B aptists, a nd M ethodists, make up

about 2% of the population. Other denominations

include Lutherans, Jehovah's Witnesses,

Mormons, Anglicans, etc.


Ecuador i s the world's p remier exporter of

Bananas which are available a ll year round due

to the 0.00 Latitude that the country sits on there -

fore enjoying a ll year r ound t ropical climates.

Currently t he c ountry e xports t o the main c oun-

tries of the United S tates, Russia, Japan, China

and the European Union.

Some 325,000 acres or 130,000 hectares currently

exists i n the planting a llocation o f bananas i n

Ecuador while t he fruit i s exported with strong

polybag lined protection, contained within boxes

and put on pallets for onward shipping.

Ecuadorian plantains as w ith Bananas a re a vail-

able throughout the year and are shipped mainly

to the United States, with smaller quotas sent to El

Salvador, Belgium, Portugal and France.


Ecuadorian people consist of a diverse collection

of e thnic g roups, almost a ll r elated to another

group in one way o r another. The g reat majority

of Ecuadorans trace their origins to one o r more

of t hree geographical sources of Human m igra-

tions: t he p re-Hispanic indigenous Amerindians

who settled the region over 15,000 years ago, the

Europeans ( principally Spaniards) who arrived

over f ive centuries ago, and ultimately the black

sub-Saharan Africans whom they i mported as

slave l abour during the same period. The m ixing

of two or more of these three groups established

other mixed ethnic groups.


Ecuador is full of contrasts in a relatively small

space, this is what makes it s imply magical. I n a

few words Ecuador is "South America in a

nutshell" .

Divided in 4 geographical regions: i n the Coast

the splendour o f its beaches awaits you; the

Andes "Avenue of the Volcanoes" in the Andean

Sierras; the emerald forest in the Amazon and the

enchanting Galapagos Islands.

Ecuador w ith only 102.854 s q. m iles (270.670 sq.

Km.) in extension, condenses s ingular attractions

together with boutique hotels, ancient hacien-

das, and u nique hotels and hostels w ith a local

flair. The enchantment r elies in combining t he

diversity of its geography, flora, fauna and its

cultures.


The Republic of Ecuador i s a representative

democracy. The Government is divided into three

branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

There i s also a n autonomous electoral agency

called the "Tribunal Supremo Electoral". The coun-

try is separated into 21 provinces each of which is

further d ivided i nto administrative cantones a nd

parroquias.

Relatively unstable with regards to who is presi-

dent. They have had 17 p residents in the last 20

years even though he is elected for a 4-year term

by popular vote .

US Dollar was accepted as the national currency

of Ecuador o n January, 2 000, thereby replacing

Sucre, the initial Ecuador Currency. It was nation-

ally adopted in Ecuador from September , 2000.


Booklet ECUADOR

Documents

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capital city of ecuador

s located o n

province o f ecuador

s econd highest capital

t ropical t emperatures

eastern s lopes o f

ccording t o