Ecuador: geography, history, and culture

Features & Diversity of Ecuador

Ecuador consists of four regions with each region containing its own features and activities. Popular activities include mountain and water activities, as well as cultural festivals. Ecuador's most salient features include variability of religious beliefs (Raymond, 2003), including the practices of natural healing remedies and symbolism of supernatural beings.

The Galapagos Islands are located 600 miles off shore from the main inland of Ecuador (Regions, 2004). It has tropical weather year round and has been designated as a National Park. Galapagos is popular for water activities of water rafting, surfing, and wildlife watching.

The Coast has a tropical atmosphere with palm trees that act as shading spots. The Coast is made of four parts with Esmeraldas, northern part, being the richest for shrimp, oysters, clams, and lobsters. Manabi, south of Esmeraldas, is known for late night activities of dancing that includes different cultural dancing. Next to Manabi, Guayas handles the majority of Ecuador's imports and exports. The deep south of the Coast is El Oro, known for banana and shrimp production.

The Andes Mountains is the most developed for tourism. It contains villages with their own historical centers with 17th century churches and monasteries (Introducing Ecuador, 2013). The Andean and Kichwa Villages include textile markets. The popular activities in the Andes include hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, white water rafting, surfing, and wildlife watching. It contains wildlife of tortoises, marine iguanas, doe-eyed sea lions, and blue footed boobies.

The Amazon is the rainforest and contains vast amounts of plant, frog, and natural herb species. Nine tribal groups occupy the area, still live a traditional lifestyle, and still practice natural and spiritual healing practices. The Amazon River contains huge islands and otters. The rainforest produces avocado, black pepper, Brazilian nuts, cayenne pepper, cashews, cocoa, cinnamon, eggplant, figs, ginger, sugarcane, vanilla, and yams, as well as medicines. The Amazon also produces industrial products of latex, resins, timber, oil, and other minerals. Wildlife in the Amazon consists of monkeys, sloths, toucans, river dolphins, anacondas, and numerous bird species.

Ecuador is similar to other countries, such as Africa, in respects to religious features, such as ancestor worship. The various cultures demonstrate similar worldview and logic in religious practices. In some religions, the female body symbolizes supernatural beings with social and ritual roles.

Entertainment activities, such as surfing, hiking, horseback riding, and wildlife watching are similar to countries, such as the United States, except the wildlife has different animals than the United States that contain deer, elk, bear, etc. Hiking in Ecuador is different than the United States because the Andes have the tropical climate and are usually muddy where U.S. Mountains are mostly dry areas.