Ecuadoran Americans
Overview
Ecuador is a small country on the northwestern coast of South America. It measures 280,000 square kilometers—roughly the size of Colorado. It is bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the south and east, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. The earth's equator, for which the country is named, runs through Ecuador only a few miles from its capital, Quito. Ecuador's flag consists of horizontal stripes—a wide yellow stripe above narrower blue and red stripes—surmounted by the national seal. This seal contains various national symbols, including a huge bird of prey with wings outspread, the sun in the sky, a white mountain and a boat on a river.
Geography divides Ecuador into three regions, western, central, and eastern. In the west is the coast, or costa. Flat and streaked with rivers, this region is a lush, hot jungle. East of that are the Andes, or the sierra. For centuries this was the most populous and dominant region. The highest peaks fall into two ranges that run parallel to each other, north and south; between them is a long, fertile plateau, which the nineteenth century explorer Alexander von Humboldt called "the Avenue of the Volcanoes." This "avenue" and the lower slopes of the great mountains are crowded with history and human settlement.
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