Ecuador is a country located in the northwest and adjacent to the west coast of South americas, which borders the mainland to the north of Colombia and Peru to the south and east, in addition to coast in the Pacific Ocean to the west. It won its independence from Spain in 1822, becoming part of Gran Colombia along with the current Colombia, Venezuela and Panama, until his separation from the same in 1830.
Ecuador is a multicultural country with a rich cultural, natural and archaeological sites. It is named as a sovereign state, the Republic of Ecuador, named because of the equator, which crosses the territory of this country. It occupies an area of 256,370 square kilometers, which includes the Galapagos Islands, located about 956 kilometers from the mainland. Its capital is San Francisco de Quito and the city’s most populous country is Santiago de Guayaquil, one of the largest ports in South americas and main engine of the Ecuadorian economy. This country is divided administratively into 24 provinces, all but one mainland which consists exclusively of the Galapagos Islands, also known as Archipelago Columbus (although the coastal provinces also have a lot of islands near the coastline).
