For a large portion of its history Ecuador was a part of the Spanish colonial empire, and only gained its independence in 1830 and became a presidential republic. Despite its large tourism industry, Ecuador still has over 38.3 per cent of its population that lives below the poverty line (the minimum wage is $148 per month) with 11 per cent unemployed, and its GDP per capita is $3700. The capital of Ecuador is Quito, a perfectly preserved and least tampered-with historic centre in Latin America.

The UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in the 1970s, and it stands with the other city of Cuenca which was added in to the list in 1999 for the beautiful preservation of a Spanish style colonial city. Ecuador is also proud of being one of the seventeen mega diverse cities due to its variety of endemic species both on the Galapagos Islands and on mainland Ecuador. To prove they take their biodiversity seriously they are the first on our planet to legally and constitutionally (from 2008) enforce the Rights of Nature.

The people of Ecuador are largely Roman Catholic (due in a large part to their Spanish colonial past), and there are parts where people practice a mixture of their indigenous beliefs with Catholic customs thrown in. Majority of the Ecuadorians live in the central regions or along the Pacific coast. And among Ecuador’s natural resources there are petroleum, fish, shrimp, timber, coffee, sugar, palm oil and flowers.

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