Sunday, March 1, 2009

Less than 48 hours now before we board the plane in Albuquerque on the first leg of our trip. It has come to my attention that a lot of people are a little vague on just where Ecuador is, and why anyone might want to go there, so I will here give a brief background.

Ecuador is the Spanish word for "equator", and so, as you might guess if you are really sharp, the country of Ecuador sits on the equator. It is on the west coast of South America, south of Columbia and north of Peru. The Andes mountains run from north to south through the country, with the highest peak, Cotopaxi, [oops, my bad. It is actually Chimborazo] sticking over 20,000 feet above sea level. Actually, due to the fact that the earth is not perfectly round, and a little fatter at the equator [like a few people I know/resemble?], the peak of Chimborazo has the distinction of being the point on the earth that is farthest from the center of the earth. We are NOT planning to climb it, although quite a few people do, I hear.

The east side of Ecuador slopes off into the headwaters of the Amazon River, while the west side very quickly ends when it runs into the Pacific Ocean. The Humboldt Current carries cold water north from the Antarctic regions, so even at the coast the temperature tends to be cooler than what you would normally consider to be tropical or equatorial, and daytime highs rarely exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or so I have read. In Quito, the capitol city, temperatures rarely reach 80 degrees, since it sits at an elevation of over 9000 feet. Nor do temperatures ever drop below 50 degrees, and since it is less than an hour's drive south of the equator, temperatures tend to be about the same all year round.

Given the variety of elevations and the tropical location, most crops, fruits, etc., that grow anywhere in the world, can be grown in Ecuador. We will take and post pictures of what we find there, but the pleasure of eating and enjoying them will be ours.

We speak of North and South America, but many people do not realize that South America also sits quite a lot farther east. The farthest west part of South America, which is part of Ecuador, is still to the east of Orlando, Florida. As a consequence, Ecuador is in the Eastern Time Zone, but because it is on the equator, the days are all the same length, twelve hours when the sun is up and twelve when it is down. Thus, they have no reason to mess around with Daylight Savings Time.

That's the quick introduction to Ecuador. More to follow.

2 comments:

  1. Your description is quite apt of the area! In fact, I believe the "Mitad del Mundo" Monument is less than 20 miles from Quito.

    Oh how I miss the food and especially the people.

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  2. Have a nice trip. I can't wait to see the pictures.

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