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The essentials of Ecuador in eight easy-going questions, from its mountains to its islands. No expert knowledge needed: everyone can play along and learn something new.
Curious traveller 0–3 · Andes adventurer 4–6 · Ecuador at heart 7–8
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In the late 2010s, more than a third of all the bananas sold from one country to another came from Ecuador, much of it to the United States and Europe. Banana plants look like trees, but they are really giant herbs, and the banana itself is a kind of berry.
Photo: Philippe Lavoie, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Cacao beans grow inside big pods that sprout straight from the trunk of the cacao tree, and they are fermented, dried and roasted before they become chocolate. Some of the oldest signs of people growing cacao, more than 5,000 years old, have been found in south-eastern Ecuador.
Photo: Didier Descouens, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Galápagos tortoises are among the longest-living animals with a backbone, and some in zoos have lived beyond 170 years. The islands are even named after them: 'galápago' is a Spanish word for a tortoise.
Photo: Mfield , Matthew Field, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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That is a huge number for such a small country: fewer than 25 kinds have ever been recorded in the whole United States. Hummingbirds beat their wings so fast that they hum, up to about 99 times a second for the tiniest ones, and they can fly in any direction, even backwards.
Photo: Charles J. Sharp, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Marine iguanas are the only lizards in the world that look for their food in the sea, diving and grazing on seaweed. All that salty food fills them with salt, which they get rid of through special glands in their nose with a sneeze.
Photo: RAF-YYC from Calgary, Canada, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Cotopaxi rises to about 5,900 metres, and its glacier, one of the few in the world so close to the equator, starts at about 5,000 metres. On a clear day, its almost perfectly symmetrical cone can be seen from Quito, about 50 km away.
Photo: Gerard Prins, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Darwin spent about five weeks on the islands during his voyage around the world on the ship HMS Beagle. He noticed that the mockingbirds differed from island to island and heard that the tortoises did too, clues that later helped him work out how new kinds of animals come about.
Photo: Charles_Darwin_seated.jpg : Henry Maull (1829–1914) and John Fox (1832–1907) (Ma, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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In the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, curious Galápagos sea lions lounge on the decks of boats and have taken over the park benches. The town even keeps a small beach just for them, and the local people treasure their noisy, sleepy neighbours.
Photo: Casey Klebba, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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