ECUADOR

Ecuador is the smallest of the Andes' states in South America and a land that derived its name from the Equator. A natural paradise with a living Indian culture and captivating colonial towns that was once part of the Inca Realm and later the sought-after possession of various European colonial powers. Quito, the "divine city", is the capital of Ecuador. Steep and narrow steps lead downhill to the Centro Historico in which many of its small buildings have been rebuilt several times due to devastating earthquakes. In 1536, Quito was newly founded and built on the ruins of an Inca town. West of Quito the edge of the extinct Pululahua Volcano is accessible by car. It is the largest volcanic crater in South America and the huge caldera with its steep slopes has a diameter of four to five kilometres and is hundreds of metres deep. One and a half hours from Quito are the Termas De Papallacta, the most beautiful spa baths in Ecuador. Hot springs were discovered here and an infrastructure built to make them accessible to tourism, an idyllic spot set in remote nature and at an altitude of around four thousand metres above sea level. The southern sierra of Ecuador is a green and fertile landscape. The Andes is flatter here and the peaks of the volcanoes are free from snow. This is the most important monument of Incan culture in Ecuador, the ruins of Ingapirca, a location with a long and dramatic past. Around a thousand kilometres from Ecuador, within the Pacific Ocean, is a ...

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Orignal From: ECUADOR