ECUADOR – one state with four genuinely distinguishing geographic regions

The three main geographic regions on the mainland are:

• The coast also designated “La Costa” on the Pacific Ocean
• The highlands also designated “La Sierra” which means the mountain range of the Andes running from North to South through the whole state
• and the Amazon rainforest also called “El Oriente”.

The Galapagos Islands – the fourth region is an insular region in the Pacific Ocean.

All this makes Ecuador to one of the most variegated states in the world. Ecuador is besides Chile the only country in South America that has no border to Brazil. In the north you find Columbia, in the east and south Peru and in the west there is the Pacific Ocean. The name Ecuador originatesfrom fact that the country is located at the equator. This explains also the small variation in daylight hours over the year.

We discovered a part of the Andes doing some trekking. Main intnetion was to climb the volcano called Cotopaxi Ecuador. Cotopaxi is 5.897 m high and is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and the second highest mountain in Ecuador. Because it is so high it is inevitable to acclimate before climbing this mountain. So we did some other ascents before to volcanoes like “Rucu Pichincha” near to the capital Quito and the “lliniza Norte”.

These trips were only amazing, just imagine standing there over 5.000 m on the top of a mountain after walking from midnight to the sunrise through the darkness and then all of a sudden the sun rises it gets bright and you are looking to the valley above seeing the sun rising above the clouds and there is nothing else just the glacier that twinkles in the sunlight and the sun shines so bright that you nearly cannot see – only the blue sky behind… you cannot describe it you have to experience it – it is amazing…

My conclusion for this trip is that it was just perfect for Ecuador trekking. The diversity of this country makes it a worthwhile experiences.