Quito is the capital of Ecuador. The word Quito means, in one of the indigenous languages, ‘the middle of the world’. The old, pre Incan, indian cultures already knew that Ecuador is right on the equator and thus in the middle of the earth. This is the main reason the Incas occupied the region and […]
The Galápagos Islands are a small group of islands some 1000 km West of Ecuador. The archipelago, consisting of 13 major islands, is one of Ecuador’s 21 provinces and lies on the equator. It was uninhabited until it was discovered by the Spanish in 1535. A lot has happened since then. It was used as […]
Everybody has heard of the famous and mysterious Nazca lines but nobody seems to know for sure how they were ever created and why. The lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, stretched out over an arid area of 500 sq km. They form a network of more than 800 lines, […]
There are 12 species of coca. Coca is traditionally cultivated in the lower altitudes of the eastern slopes of the Andes. It is widely consumed by the Andean peoples of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia. It’s used to overcome fatigue, hunger and thirst. It is also used as an anesthetic to alleviate pain. The […]
