Ecuador

    Ecuador is one of the easiest and most rewarding countries to explore in South America. Small (just 110 sq. miles) but geographically varied, Ecuador's incredible natural diversity has made it the focus of worldwide biological research. The country has more species of plants and birds than the United States, which is 34 times larger. Sadly, these precious ecosystems are being degraded by a rate of deforestation higher than any nation in South America, but INEFAN, the Ecuatorian National Park Service, with the help of national and international conservation organizations, currently protects 17 percent of the  total landmass in national parks and ecological reserves. For a developing nation with a per capita GDP of $1,534, these conservation efforts are admirable.
    Outdoor activities are Ecuador's biggest tourist draw. Within a day's drive or flight from the capital city of Quito you can experience virgin Amazon jungle, snow-capped peaks, tropical sandy beaches, and Darwin's Galápagos Islands. Outfitters are set up for mountaineering, trekking, jungle canoe trips, mountain biking, rafting, paraskiing, scuba diving, and horseback riding.
    Eight active volcanoes periodically erupt, spewing columns of ash and melting glaciers that cause mud flows to destroy Sierran villages. When the Andes are uplifted along geological faults from the coastal plain, powerful earthquakes can shake the hillsides.
    Although the country is traditionally divided into four regions - Sierra, Coast, Oriente and Galapagos - these regions blend at the margins to form a rich mosaic. Perhaps most telling of Ecuador's identity is the flow of goods and people between regions.
    In the 10th century AD, the Caras - forefathers of the modern Otavaleños ' settled in the Quito area. They built an observatory to mark the solstices, and identified the equator as "the path of the sun." They were animists who worshiped the sun, and believed the moon to be inhabited by humans. Their economy was based on weaving, and the law required women to spin wool whenever possible, even when walking mountain trails.
    Their successors were the Duchilela dynasty, who established the powerful Kingdom of Quitu, which was eventually conquered by the Inca Tupac-Yupangqui. Ecuador soon played an important part in the collapse of the Inca Empire, with the execution of the Inca Atahuallpa by the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro. Ecuador was initially administered by the Spanish as a province of the Vice-Royalty of Peru, and was the first cultivation of wheat and bananas in South America.
    Twentieth-century Ecuador experienced mainly military rule, the last period of which was from 1972-79. In 1978, the army drew up a new constitution and an election was held the following year. Ecuador became the first Latin American country to return to democracy after a military era that engulfed most of the South America during the 1970s.
    Modern Quito spreads North and South into the intra-Andean valley each year, globbing up rural farms. Most visitors stay in the Mariscal neighborhood, north of Parque El Ejido, where old Quito meets new, as the city's old colonial center is more pleasant to explore than the polluted modern sprawl.