Ecuador, the smallest country in the Andean mountain range, is named after the equatorial line that divides the two hemispheres of Earth. The country is located in the northwest of South America along the Pacific coast and is no bigger that the state of Nevada! Ecuador is bordered by Colombia in the north, by Peru in the south and east, and its capital city, Quito, has the second highest altitude of any capital in the world. The country’s currency is the US dollar. The weather in Ecuador is very interesting: while it is cloudy most of the time, the temperature is usually in the eighties, with a rainy season that lasts from December to May.

There are two fantastic national parks in Ecuador: Cotopaxi and Chimborazo, both of them situated south of Quito. Cotopaxi National Park is famous because Mount Cotopaxi is the world’s highest active volcano! Chimborazo National Park has Mount Chimborazo as its star: its summit marks the farthest point from the center of the earth.

Located 960 kilometers west of Ecuador’s coast is the Archipiélago de Colón, the official name of the Galapagos Islands, When Charles Darwin arrived there in 1885, he saw such amazing animals and it was the wildlife on these islands that eventually inspired his book The Origin of Species. The sixty islands are made out of sub-oceanic lava (like the Hawaiian Islands) and a full ninety-seven percent of the land is a national park. Twelve thousand people currently live on the islands and the weather there is usually mild. If you want to explore these islands, you will have to do it by boat. That way you will be able to watch the giant tortoises, the seals, and both marine and land iguanas, all in their natural element. They will not hide from you because they have been isolated for so long that they are not afraid of humans. You will also see amazing coral and fish if you scuba dive. Something interesting to know is that between the 16th and 18th centuries these islands were a favorite hideout of the pirates! They used to get their water and food supplies there and they were especially fond of the tortoise meat. In fact, the islands were named after the impressive, giant tortoises that the first explorers found there.

In 1978 the Galapagos Islands were declared a World Heritage site in honor of their universal value to mankind.