The Country Ecuador

Ecuador is divided into three geographical regions. The Pacific coastal area, which is 150 kilometres wide in some places, extends over nearly a quarter of the country. The central highland of the Andes, the Sierra, is made up of two parallel mountain chains, enclosing a small central plateau. In this area there are about 30 active volcanoes. The Oriente, on the east side of the Andes, covers about half of the country and is part of the watershed area of the Amazon River.
The highest point in the country is the extinct volcano Chimborazo, which is 6310 metres high. Cotopaxi, 5897 metres high, is one of the tallest active volcanoes in the world. The Galápagos Islands (Archipiélago Colón) are made up of 13 large and a number of small islands with many – mostly extinct – volcanoes.

Climate:

The climate is characterized by being in the inner tropical area, as well as by the luv-lee effect. Oriente and Costa have moderate yearly temperatures of 25 to 28°C. In the Sierra the temperature depends on the altitude and ranges from 7 and 21°C. Quito is located at an altitude of 2850 metres and has a yearly average temperature of 12.8°C. While the yearly rainfall in the Oriente area is an average of 3000 millimetres, the Costa area is rather dry because of the cold Humboldt Stream. The outer sides of the Sierra get 5000 millimetres of rain, while the central plateau has up to nine months of uninterrupted dry weather.