Government:
Presidential republic, independent from Spain since 1822. President: Lucio Gutiérrez.

State Name:
República del Ecuador.

National flag:
Yellow / blue / red with a state emblem in the middle, consisting of sun, condor, Chimborazo, Río Guayas u. Steamboat.

State borders:
In the north with Colombia, in the south u. East with Perú, west of the Pacific Ocean.

State area:
About 272,000 square kilometers (including the Galapagos Islands / 8,010 square kilometers), which are divided into 21 provinces.

State Language:
Officially Spanish, in the highlands also Quechua (almost 2 mill. Pers.), In the Amazon and in the northern coastal area still isolated tribal languages ​​(especially Shuar in the south Oriente).

Currency:
US dollar. US American notes and coins are in circulation, plus their own, Ecuadorian coins (1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents).

Population:
The total population is almost 13 million inhabitants.

The state capital is Quito (1.8 million inhabitants), the largest city is Guayaquil (2.8 million inhabitants, overseas port and industrial center).

Other important cities are Machala (450,000 inhabitants, banana handling port), Manta (400,000 inhabitants, fishing port and automobile industry), Cuenca (350,000 inhabitants, cultural and tourist stronghold). Other cities over 100,000 inhabitants are Durán (opposite side of Guayaquil), Portoviejo (Manabí / coast), Santo Domingo (inner coast), Ambato (central highlands), Esmeraldas (north coast), Loja (southern highlands), Babahoyo (inner coast), Quevedo (inner coast), Milagro (inner coast), Daule (inner coast), Chone (Manabí / coast), Riobamba (central highlands), Ibarra (northern highlands).

About 60% of Ecuadorians live in these metropolitan areas! The rest is spread over small towns, villages and. Hamlet, where one third of the total population is employed in agriculture.
Average population density:
46 inh. Per sq. Km. Growth rate: 2.2% per year, with about 40% of the population under 15 years old!

Life expectancy:
67 years for men and 72 years for women. Illiteracy rate: 10% (large city-country gradient).

GNP:
About $ 1,200 per capita.

Inflation rate:
On average over 50% (1988-92).

unemployment rate:
10-15% (underemployment rate about 30%). Working population: 30% university graduates, 18% lower secondary school graduates, 50% without or only a very short degree. The statutory minimum wage is around $ 150 a month!

 

health care:
Avg. 12 doctors and 20 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants.

Racial distribution:
30% Indians (mostly living in highlands and Amazonia), 50% mestizos and cholos, 8% blacks, mulattos and zombos, 10% whites, Asians and Arabs (including 5,000 Germans, 3,000 Swiss and 20,000 Koreans). Despite religious freedom (since 1904), 93% of the population is exclusively Roman Catholic!

Social structure:
Almost 2% of all Ecuadorians belong to a rich white upper class. Another 10% are wealthy or at least wealthy. Together, these family minorities have over two thirds of the total national income!

The proportion of middle classes has declined noticeably in recent years and today amounts to just 25%. More than 60% of the population can be described as poor, of whom a good third live practically below subsistence level!

Provinces in the Andean Highlands (sierra):
Azuay (8,100 sq km, 650,000 inh, capital Cuenca), Bolivar (4,000 sq km, 200,000 inh., Capital Guaranda), Cañar (3,100 sq km, 200,000 inh., Cape Azogues), Carchi (3,600 sq. Km, 240,000 inh., Cap. Tulcán), Cotopaxi 6,000 sq km, 350,000 inh., Cap. Latacunga), Chimborazo (6,600 sq km, 480,000 inh., Cape Riobamba), Imbabura (4,600 qkm, 350,000 inh., Cap Ibarra), Loja (11,000 qkm, 500,000 inh., Cap Loja), Pichincha (13,000 sq. Km, 2.5 Mill. Inh., Cap. Quito), Tungurahua (3,340 sq. Km, 450,000 Inh., Cap. Ambato).

On the coast (costa):
El Oro (5,850 sq km, 700,000 inh., Machala cape), Esmeraldas (15,200 sq km, 450,000 inh., Esmeraldas cape), Guayas (20,500 sq. Km, 3.6 mill. Inh., Guayaquil cape), Los Ríos (7,200 sq. Km , 750,000 inh., Cap. Babahoyo), Manabí (19,000 square km, 1.6 mill. Inh., Cape Portoviejo).

In Amazonia (oriente):
Morona Santiago (25,700 sq km, 100,000 inh., Macas cape), Napo (34,000 qkm, 150,000 inh., Cape Tena), Pastaza (30,000 qkm, 100,000 inh., Cape Puyo), sucumbios (18,300 qkm, 120,000 inh , cape Lago Agrio), Zamora Chinchipe (23,000 square km, 100,000 inh., cape Zamora).

Insular Region Galápagos:
8,010 sq. Km, 30,000 inh., Cap. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno).

Highest surveys:
Chimborazo 6.310m, Cotopaxi 5.897m, Cayambe 5.790m, Antizana 5.704m, El Altar 5.320m, Illiniza Sur 5.260m, Sangay 5.230m, Illiniza Norte 5.126m, Carihuayrazo 5.020m, Tungurahua 5.016m, Cotacachi, 4.944m, Sincholagua 4.900 m, Quilindaña 4.878m, Guagua Pichincha 4.794m, Corazón 4.788m, Chile 4.768m, Rumiñahui 4.712m, Rucu Pichincha 4.698m, Sara Urcu 4.676m, Imbabura 4.609m.

Largest flow systems:
To the Pacific, the Río Guayas (confluence of Babahoyo and Daule, the largest water intake system on the American Pacific coast), Río Esmeraldas, Río Cayapas / Santiago, Río Mataje, Río Chone, Río Jubones. To the Amazon to the Río San Miguel / Putumayo, Río Aguarico, Río Napo, Río Cononaco / Curaray, Río Pastaza, Río Santiago (confluence of Zamora, Paute and Upano).

Traffic, Communication & Supply:
40,000 km of road network. 965 km of railway lines. 2 international airports in Quito and Guayaquil. 1 telephone per 20 inhabitants, 1 TV per 12 inhabitants, 1 radio per 3 inhabitants.

Estimated hydroelectric power potential 100,000 megawatts, over 2,000 megawatts of electricity used (mainly by the dams of Paute and Agoyan), with nationwide power outages lasting up to 10 hrs being the norm in the absence of rainfall. Nearly 600 km of Transekuadorian oil pipeline, from the Oriente to the Andes, to the refinery in Esmeraldas (coast).

 

The Equator country Ecuador can in principle be traveled all year round. Every season has its particular advantages, at least for outspoken nature lovers.

In the months of July to September, and December to January, the country is visited by most foreign tourists. Since Ecuador belongs to the inner tropical belt, the prevailing temperatures correspond mainly to the different altitudes with a pronounced microclimate.

While it can be quite cold in the highlands, sweeping blizzards over the Páramo peaks, the port city of Guayaquil is under a barely tolerable tropical-sweltering heat-bell and only a room with air-conditioning provides refreshing refreshment.

However, the cold Humboldt Current also plays an important role on the peninsula of Santa Elena, which has advanced to the Pacific. Otherwise, there are no noticeable temperature swings in the course of a year, so therefore no seasons as in the northern and southern hemisphere.

The rainy season runs on Galapagos, on the coast and in the highlands, from late January to early May.

In the humid-hot Amazonian lowlands, the months of June, July and August are usually the wettest, even when the actual rainy season begins in February. Floods and landslides are often the result.

However, a high level of humidity prevails throughout the year. Sudden, violent tropical rain showers, incidentally, are not uncommon even during the “dry season”. The annual precipitation is the highest in the country. They are partly at 5000 mm.

In the highlands, it is usually most beautiful from mid-June to early September, when the equatorial sun often shines all day long.

A temporary “Indian summer” (veranillo), sometime between October and January, but sometimes brings the sunniest hours in the afternoon.

The veranillo is usually interrupted around November, when partly torrential rain and hail showers equate to a premature “onset of winter”. It rains the most between the end of January and the end of May.

“Scottish” weather conditions often hit the mood in April and almost make you forget about being in tropical South America. In order to make the slightly confusing climate of the highlands easier to understand, there is a general rule of thumb in the capital: spring in the morning, summer at noon, autumn and rain in the afternoon, and balmy winter nights up to five degrees. In locations over 4,000 meters, it can even come to snowfall.

On the coast is expected in the rainy months from the end of January to early May, with an increase in temperatures, and an erratic increase in mosquitoes and other pests.

In the northern, hot and humid coastal area around Esmeraldas, this usually means nocturnal rainfall and strong sunshine in the late morning. The summer months from June to December are much drier, but the sky is often cloudy in the morning.

In the southern, dry-hot coastal area, the months of July, August and September can be relatively cool. A light jacket is then usually necessary. In Salinas, the otherwise hot and dry temperatures can drop to as much as 12 degrees at this time of year. December and January usually brings sunnier days and long-lasting tan.

Ecuador can with nearly 25,000 different plants u. Come up with trees. There are almost 10,000 species u. Subspecies in the Amazon, another 10,000 in the Andean region, and over 5,000 on the coast. About 20% of the total flora is endemic. In order to better understand the diverse spectrum of Ecuadorian flora and fauna, it is first necessary to follow the already mentioned thermal stages. Only in this way can the observer form a coherent picture of the complicated interactions between climate, temperature and the like. Moisture, their associated biological habitats, and their diverse species stock.
jungles
In the evergreen tropical rainforests of the Amazon lowland, as well as its hilly margins, the evergreen tropical mountain jungles of the eastern Cordilleran foothills provide heavy precipitation periods for a relatively balanced flora and fauna.

The shallow rainforest consists for the most part of nutrient-poor, washed-out solid earth, constantly marshy pantanos, or time-flooded leaves u. Palm forests, which are crossed by brown-colored rivers and quiet lagoons. In the mountain jungle forests at the foot of the Andes Cordillera, the precipitation is even higher than in the lowlands .. Here, the dammed Amazon clouds rain on the slopes. The biodiversity is even higher in these hilly areas.

Only 1% of the sunlight can penetrate the dense treetops, where a large part of the jungle animals are hidden. Underneath this foliage carpet of jungle cathedrals up to 60m high, herbs, shrubs, shrubs and tree ferns wrestle for the sparse light. The fight for sun, water and nutrients for the purpose of photosynthesis usually takes place at altitude! Strangler figs surround the thickest trunks until they suffocate, die off, and thus make room for new life. Lianas hang down from the tree tops. Bromeliads sit completely detached from the ground on the thickest branches.

In its pineapple-like calyx perennial rainwater collects, which in turn is used by insects and frogs as a miniature ponds for further development. The latter are haunted by equally well camouflaged tree snakes.

Only 100 years ago, the entire coastal region was covered by dense jungles, which have almost disappeared with the advance of extensive plantation cultivation (first cocoa, then bananas). Only in the northern province of Esmeraldas there are still contiguous wet and hot jungle areas.

The tidal, mangrove forests tied to salt water in the shore area between the sea and the hinterland have also been put to rest in the last 25 years. Over 80% of the manglares have since fallen victim to the camaroneras (shrimp farms).

The south of the coastal province of Manabí is for the most part still covered with savannah-like dry forests that turn into green, impenetrable thickets during the rainy season from May to November. During the dry season, the trees throw u. Shrubs then gradually clear all their leaves, giving the appearance of a thorn bush steppe. The only tree that can be seen from afar is the one from this low bush. Cactus forest stands out, the up to 50m high, bottlenose-bellied Ceibo (Kapokbaum).

A special feature is the evergreen subtropical cloud forest, which is located on both the western and eastern Andes mountains at altitudes between 1,000 and 2,500m. As the name implies, the cloud forest is characterized by low-lying, constantly up. descending cloud masses as well as an increased temperature gradient.

Only a few spots of intact Hochlandurwälder are still in average altitudes between 3,000 u. 4,000m. The proud remainder had to give way to agricultural land in the course of centuries of deforestation. Among the few remaining primeval forest z. As well as the nearby Quitos Pasochoa Reserve.

Plant growth in the high mountains is considered to be unique in tropical America, not least because of the predominantly strong temperature fluctuations (up to 30 degrees). The Andean flora has evolved over the past 60 million years and is characterized by smaller thicker leaves that can easily withstand frosty nights, sharp winds, and intense sunlight. Typical highland trees are the fast-growing, fragrant eucalyptus, cedar, cypress, and now rare, deformed appearing, dark red-bred Quinua trees and the reforested throughout the Cotopaxi National Park pine trees.

The present state territory of Ecuador in pre-Inca times included several small, largely independent tribal areas between the great empires of Chimu in the south and the Chibcha in the north.

In the 15th century, the Inca overran the entire area to the area of ​​Pasto and established the capital Quito as the northern capital of their empire. From here, the last Inca emperor Atahualpa won the power in a short civil war against his brother Huáscar.

In the wake of the Conquista conquered shortly after Sebastian de Benalcazar, a captain of Francisco Pizarro, the areas between present-day Peru and the Chibchareich and founded in 1534, the current capital San Francisco de Quito. From here, the expedition of the Gonzalo Pizarro discovered the Amazon in 1546, which is why Ecuador has repeatedly claimed in vain for access to this stream.

As a forerunner of today’s Ecuador existed throughout the colonial era, the Real Audiencia de Quito, which was counted alternately and often with indeterminate status and even less certain limits to the viceroyalty of Peru or the viceroyalty of New Granada (‘Colombia’).

In 1802 Alexander von Humboldt traveled and explored the area and ascended the Pichincha and the slopes of Chimborazo.

The end of the colonial rule came when Marshal Antonio José de Sucre, a lieutenant of Simón Bolívar, beat the Spaniards in 1822 at the Battle of Pichincha near Quito and expelled them from the country.

On 24 May 1822, the territory of today’s Ecuador as the southern part of Gran Colombia (now Ecuador Colombia, Venezuela and Panama) became independent from Spain

The Republic of Ecuador was created in 1830 by the collapse of Gran Colombia. The naming goes back to the Franco-Spanish expedition (with the participation of Charles-Marie de La Condamine, Pierre Bouguer, Louis Godin, and Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa) back in the 18th century, including the first time the exact Location of the equator had measured. First President of the Republic of Ecuador was General Juan Jose Flores.

In 1832, Ecuador occupied and annexed the hitherto more or less uninhabited and abandoned Galapagos Islands, some 1,000 km off the coast of the country. Three years later, in 1835, Charles Darwin visited the famous archipelago as part of the British expedition of the Beagle, where he gained insights that later led him to the development of the theory of evolution.

The entire history of the country was marked by the harsh contrasts between Liberals and Conservatives, landlords and indigenous landless peoples, mestizos and Indians, backward provinces and cities, highlands and coastlines, and competition between the capital, Quito, and the largest port city Guayaquil shaped. These contrasts caused a more or less continuous chaotic political development, which was characterized in short succession by coup and counter-coup, short civil war episodes and regional particularism. At times, up to three ‘presidents’ simultaneously ruled in Ecuador, the last time in 1997.

In the last third of the 19th century, President García Moreno established a rigid Catholic dictatorship, which was replaced by the liberal-revolutionary rule of Civil War general Eloy Alfaro at the end of the 19th century. Military dictatorships and civilian governments also changed rapidly in the 20th century. On average, the government was overthrown about every one and a half years by a military coup or civil coup d’état, which earned Ecuador the reputation of the classic banana republic.

A more significant role played in the second half of the 20th century, the conservative Velasco Ibarra, who was five times president since the forties and finally in 1972 in connection with the discovery of large oil reserves in the Amazon lowlands by the coup of General Rodríguez Lara final was overthrown. Ecuador joined OPEC. The successors of this initially relatively stable self-proclaimed revolutionary military dictatorship were later replaced by the freely elected social-democratically oriented president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, who in turn died in a mysterious plane crash in 1981. The later presidency of his corrupt heir Abdalá Bucaram ended in 1997 in a fiasco, when the president after a conservative coup completely discredited fleeing the country had to leave for Panama.

 

A new constellation emerged when in turn left-wing military coalition clashed with Indian groups in 2000 and overthrew President Jamil Mahuad Witt. The old opposition between liberal and conservative forces is still reflected today in the power struggle between the urban elites and the new social movements of the Indian population, whose representative pretends to be the former coup d’état of 2000 and today’s president Lucio Gutiérrez.

The notorious political instability of the country made use of foreign powers again and again, not least because in the largely untapped jungle areas in the east of the country known or suspected oil deposits lured. In 1904 Ecuador lost large parts of its nominal territory in the north and east to its neighboring countries of Peru and Colombia, where it had never really controlled these areas.

In 1941, the Peruvian army invaded the south of Ecuador, burning down the city of Santa Rosa, occupying the important banana port of Machala and threatening Guayaquil. Ecuador then had to surrender in 1942 in the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro half of its remaining territory to Peru, which here again mostly areas were affected, especially in the east and southeast of the Amazon, in which an Ecuadorian administration since the colonial era had de facto never existed.

The last border war with Peru around the Cordillera del Condor area on the Río Cenepa, ignited in 1995 to disputes over the interpretation of this contract and was officially ended only in 1999 by a now designated as ‘final’ border and peace treaty.

From 1995, the Americans carried out the covert operation “Safe Border” here to secure oil production facilities and pipelines against the effects of the border skirmishes.

Recently, Ecuador is threatened with involuntary involvement in the Colombian civil war, as the rebels of the FARC repeatedly cross the northern border of the country in order to misuse the impassable areas south of the Putumayo as a rest area. Furthermore, in 2000, the US set up a naval base on the Pacific coast in Manta to crush Colombian coca fields from the air and fight the guerrillas.

Ecuador belongs to the Andean Community, founded in 1969, which since 1995 has established a free trade zone between the member states.

 

The Ecuadorian cuisine, comida criolla or comida nacional, is a relatively young gastronomy. If this hardly has a meaning in the international cousin, its independence can not be doubted.

In addition to the regionally different staple foods, whose simple main dishes are often made up of old-fashioned peasant recipes, play in the ekuad. Gastronomy especially European, especially Spanish and North American influences a decisive role.

The Spanish conquerors have largely replaced Indian foods such as guinea pigs and llamas with other meat carriers such as pigs and cattle. This z. B. the nowadays expensive guinea pig (cuy) preferably still consumed in rural areas of the highlands, while the almost extinct ekuad. Llama nowadays only serves wool production. The population has recently risen sharply due to imports from Chile and Peru.

On the other hand, the life of the coastal inhabitants has almost always been determined almost exclusively by the wealth of fish. A tender, juicy steak is therefore still a rarity in most places and small towns, except in big cities.

Ecuador is just a third world country! Central European hygiene concepts can therefore not always be met.

Ecuador is a pronounced “soup country”. Perhaps nowhere in the world is so much soup (sopa) consumed as in the cool Ecuadorian highlands. The list ranges from the popular chicken broth (caldo de gallina), over hearty fish soups (sopa de pescado), vegetable soups (sopa de verduras), a kind of “blood sausage pot” (yaguarlocro), tasty potato cottage cheese soups with avocado (locro de queso ), to the caldo de patas (in its most traditional form: potato soup with pork knuckle, boiled manioc root, boiled corn, milk, onions, garlic and possibly peanuts or culandro (coriander), an extremely strong herb spice.) A protein-rich Sopa Marinera (seafood soup ) is especially in the coastal area to the more exquisite culinary delights.

Another, widely popular soup dish, is called Sancocho. It consists mainly of beef or pork, boiled cassava root, plantains and peas. Originally from the coast, the court is today but also in the highlands widespread.

Those lucky enough to be invited by Ecuadorians to one of these last two culinary specialties should not miss out on this. Homemade, these simply prepared national dishes usually taste much more delicious than in any restaurant.

Originating from the Pacific Ocean, “cebiche” is simply the Ecuadorian national dish. The marinated in vinegar, oil, lemon and orange juice, usually with tomato slices, onion rings u. Herbs, raw seafood cocktail made from whitefish, crabs, clams or lobsters, is, of course, only a small, yet fine figurehead of independent culinary art.

Ají is a spicy sauce made from red chili peppers, which is served in almost every restaurant, and is prepared differently depending on the local conditions or personal taste. The degree of severity ranges from mild to devilish-burning seasoning. The purpose of the cause is, in addition to an amelioration of the taste buds, a durchgeputzter, amoeba-free stomach.

Among the most popular Ecuadorian main u. Secondary courts include:

Churrasco usually means a generous helping of whitewashed rice, under a more or less large piece of meat with two fried eggs over it, a few greasy French fries, fried onion rings, and a little vegetable salad.

Apanado is a Wiener schnitzel with French fries, rice and rice. Vegetable salad.

Lomo a la Plancha is a flat-fried piece of beef fillet with French fries or mashed potatoes, with a little vegetables.

Seco de Chivo, a kind of spicy goat’s goulash with dry rice.

Seco de pollo (also seco de gallina), cooked chicken with dry rice and a sliced ​​avocado fruit.

 

Menestra (con carne y patacones), grilled piece of meat with lentils, rice u. small, mashed banana buffers.

Locro is sometimes the most authentic ekuad. National dish. It is a soup of potatoes and cheese.

The red spots on the soup come from the spice achiote, which is often added. Locos can be enriched with meat, eggs, pumpkin and also cabbage.

Guatita, stew of venison, usually with a peanut sauce, boiled potatoes and. an avocado fruit.

Fritada, in a deep, sometimes almost one meter in diameter pan, pork pieces are braised in their own juice. There is usually a corn supplement (for example, mote).

Hornado, baked, sweet spiced pork (also skin), served with mashed potatoes or llapingachos (small cheese-filled potato pancakes), usually a little salad.

Pescado frito (fried fish), Camarones al ajíllo or Camarones apanado (shrimp in garlic sauce or breaded shrimp), calamares (a type of squid), as well as cangrejo (crab cancer), are now among the nationwide food.

Viche, viscose fish soup with plantain pieces. Not only on the coast a popular snack!

Humitas, sweet corn and pickled in a banana leaf. Batter. Additional ingredients, such as. Ground peanuts or grated cheese are mostly regional.

Quimbolitos are sweet maistaschen m. Raisins, often rounded off with a shot of cane brandy.

Empanadas are a kind of pastry in patty shape with filling and baked in lard. There are different varieties, depending on the filling: z. B. meat (de carne), banana (de verde), or cheese empanadas (de queso).

Tapao, also a very typical dish from the green province of Esmeraldas, consists mainly of boiled fish and plantains.

Breakfast means in Spanish desayuno, and usually consists of coffee (café), bread rolls (pan), margarine (margarina), jam (mermelada) o. A piece of white cheese (queso), as well as fried eggs (huevos fritos), scrambled eggs ( huevos revueltos), or two almost hard eggs in the cup (huevos a la copa).

Served in almost all popular restaurants, usually two-course lunch menu, is called in Ecuador almuerzo. It consists of a mostly tasty soup (sopa), el segundo (the second course) of rice with e.g. Chicken and a halved cooking banana, or a tiny piece of meat with a few lentils. In addition there is a juice, or a colada, a beaten mixed drink of “Köllnflocken” and cornmeal! The 1 to 2 dollar meals are not always filling.

A complete dinner, consisting of lunch consisting of two courses, is called merienda. The supper from the menu (a la carta) of a restaurant or at home, is called cena.

Cookrooms and snack stands:

The puestos de comida, which are widespread on all roads in the country, are a cheap alternative for many locals to the restaurants. At these snack stalls, the most diverse dishes are prepared. Since hygiene does not comply with European standards, it is not recommended to consume the meals there. It is preferable to spend a few thousand bucks more in a clean restaurant than to spend the rest of your days on stomach colic, or even catch a hepatitis.

 

Beverages:
Mineral water (agua mineral) is available with carbon dioxide (con gas) and non-carbonated (sin gas), and is now available everywhere. In the many brands in plastic u. Glass bottles should be paid attention to the seal on the bottle cap. Even with these products, “forgeries”, i. unfair refills crept in.

Freshly squeezed juices (Yugos) are offered with more or less water, or with milk, depending on which.

Pipas Heladas (“Ice Whistles”) are iced coconuts stuffed with delicious juice, and a long straw inside!

Alcohol is also a widespread widespread disease in Ecuador, with all its devastating effects on family life, transport and the economy. At the end of 1996, this even led to the then President Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz having passed a new law on unrestricted consumption. Lately, alcohol is officially no longer allowed to be served on Sundays. Although this looks different in the countryside, and some restaurants in the cities on Sundays u. Holidays cerveza (beer) serve, the ban is largely observed, especially in the urban centers. Also during the week a curfew is announced in the entertainment districts. All bars, nightclubs and nightclubs have officially closed at 2am from Monday to Saturday.

The most consumed alcoholic beverage is next to the “burning” punta (a home-made cane brandy in mainland rural areas), the cerveza (beer) available everywhere. At national level, there are two local brands: the bright Pilsener, and the somewhat beerier club. A chilled Nevada, which is almost only in the south of Ecuador in practical liter bottles to get, is probably the most European. Brewing standards.

Good wine (vino), especially red wine from Chile, but also from Argentina, California or Spain, is not only available in the big supermarket chains. Many better-stocked retailers sometimes have some pretty usable brands.

At village festivals in the Andes highlands (fiestas del pueblo), and district festivals in the south of Quito, sometimes Canelazo, a spicy hot cane brandy, is served cheaply in small drinking cups. Be careful when dealing with the devil stuff, before all the sheets fly away!

 

Ecuador has numerous hotels to offer, so there are accommodation options in almost every location.

Hotel (hotel), Hostal (small hotel), Hostería (country inn), Residencial (guesthouse), Pension, Posada (bed & breakfast style accommodation), Albergue (hostel), Parador (rest stop), or Cabañas (Holiday cabins and cottages of all Preiklassen), call themselves the numerous, completely differently procured sleeping quarters in Ecuador. An aparthotel has more spacious rooms, or much more suites to offer than a conventional hotel.

In the Andean highlands, there are still many colonial and historic estates from the 18th u. 19th century, some of which have been converted into stately Hacienda hotels (Hosterías), or luxuriously appointed ranchos. Some of these haciendas once had thousands of acres of land, which over time was shared among the heirs of the landlord as well as the Indian communities in the surrounding area.

Incidentally, a motel is always a neon-lit hour hotel with a car park, and a high wall around it, mostly in the fringes and on the arterial roads of larger towns.

From cockroach and bug-haunted, window-less “one-quarter dollar dwellings,” to the noblest noble lodging with panoramic views, the country offers a colorful array of accommodation options.

Most hotels have double u. Shared rooms. Single rooms are rare. Especially during the high season (June to September in the highlands, or Christmas to April on the coast) this usually means for single travelers to pay almost the same price as for a double room.

Reservations can be an advantage in the high season. Especially in August (highlands, Galápagos) and around New Year (coast, Galápagos), renowned hotels and holiday villages are often fully booked. In addition, in many tourist resorts on the coast, the high season double or triple prices for nights are required. Even on certain festivals and local celebrations, the existing amount of beds in a city can suddenly be exhausted.

In most upmarket hotels, and in many mid-range hotels, 20% impuestos (VAT and service taxes) must be added to the room rate.