Travel guide Ecuador

The banana is THE fruit of Ecuador, and one of the staples of the local population's diet. The country exports almost 7 million tonnes of bananas a year, representing around 18% of its total exports. It can be found in all its forms: fresh, fried, prepared... an essential accompaniment.

Buen vivir (good living) is a central principle of the worldview of the native peoples of the Andean and Amazon regions, for development centered on well-being and respect for the natural environment. This veritable philosophy and vision of life is aimed at living together in diversity, in harmony with Mother Nature.

Ecuador is often cited as the country that produces the best cocoa. In fact, for several years now, it has been receiving the highest awards in the world, and the media have not stopped mentioning its name. The recent discovery of ceramics dating from 3300 BC and containing cocoa remains, proves that the country is the cradle of this plant.

It's a little-known fact, but Ecuador is the second-largest exporter of shrimp to the United States, and the export of this crustacean is the country's second-largest export, just after black gold. It is also France's leading supplier of shrimp. Ecuadorian shrimps are renowned for their quality and traceability.

If you want to be successful with the Ecuadorian people, it's a good idea to know how to dance; not rock'n'roll, which nobody knows in Ecuador, but salsa, merengue or cumbia. Quite simply, everyone dances here! Ecuador lives and breathes music, and any party is an excuse to dance the night away.

While this term may have a pejorative connotation in the eyes of Europeans, in Ecuador, the term "indigenous" - and not "Indian" - is commonly used to refer to ancestral peoples. The country has sixteen distinct indigenous nationalities. Each has its own language, traditions and ancestral customs.

The Festival of the Sun (in Quechua) is Ecuador's most important festival, held on June 21 to celebrate the southern hemisphere's winter solstice. This festival of Inca origin is celebrated mainly in the Andes, with parades, dances and convivial meals, attended by natives in traditional multicolored costumes.

This French explorer and scientist is certainly better known to Ecuadorians than to the French, and the French Lycée in Quito bears his name. He was part of the first French geodetic mission to Ecuador, from 1736 to 1743, during which scientists succeeded in measuring an arc of the earth's meridian.

You're in the middle of the world! The equator is the imaginary line marking the separation between the northern and southern hemispheres. While the equator mainly crosses the oceans, it also crosses Ecuador in several places. From the Cayambe volcano to Isabela Island in the Galapagos, it also crosses the heart of the Amazon region at Cuyabeno.

A trip to Ecuador must include a visit to the market. From the most famous market in South America in Otavalo, to the big Thursday morning cattle market in Saquisili, there's plenty to do. Small craftsmen, producers and farmers set up shop in the squares to the delight of locals and tourists alike.

Discovered in the Amazon in 1970, it has revolutionized the country's economy, making Ecuador the second largest exporter in Latin America behind Venezuela. Many foreign companies are present in the country for the extraction as for the marketing, and one can observe, along the roads, the pipelines transporting it.

Cultivated for over 5,000 years, it is the sacred plant of the Incas, who called it the "mother of all grains". This easily digestible cereal is highly nutritious: gluten-free, low in fat, rich in iron and protein. At the time of the conquest, the Spaniards, anxious to impose their culture, replaced it with wheat.