Ecuador

Ecuador or 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 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.

Capital: Quito

Languages: Spanish

Currency: U.S. dollar (USD)

Geography

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% 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.

Ecuador's capital is Quito, and is located in the province of Pichincha in the Sierra region. Its largest city is Guayaquil, located in the province of Guayas in the Coast. Cotopaxi, which is located just south of Quito, in the neighbouring province of that same name, is one of the world's highest active volcanoes. 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 Earth, which is widest at the equator.Ecuador is one of seventeen megadiverse countries in the world according to Conservation International.

Climate

There are only two real seasons in Ecuador - the rainy season and the dry season - but there are significant variations among the geographical regions, and temperature is often a factor of altitude. Even during the rainy season, most days are sunny until the afternoon.