this country is located in south america, west of colombia and peru, and it has a long coastline to the pacific ocean. the population of ecuador is 17 mio, and the capital city is quito. the - unique and famous - galapagos islands in the pacific, 1000 km to the west, are part of the country. in historic times, ecuador was part of the inca empire. from 1560 to 1820 it belonged to the spanish empire, then it acquired independency. quito as well as cuenca were main cities in spanish times. ecuador's highest mountain is 6268m, the equator runs thru ecuador (see map). my voyage to ecuador occurred in 2000.
