Ecuador is divided into three continental regions—the Costa (coast), Sierra (mountains), and Oriente (east) — and one insular region, the Galápagos Islands (officially Archipiélago de Colón). The continental regions extend the length of the country from north to south and are separated by the Andes Mountains.
La Costa
The coastal region consists of the provinces to the West of the Andean range — Esmeraldas, Guayas, Los Ríos, Manabí, El Oro, Santa Elena. It contains the western coastal area of Ecuador, bordering the Pacific Ocean, rising from coastal plain with many mangrove, tropical dry and wet forests and farmlands, to the foothills of the Andes Mountains to the east; there are many banana, cacao and coffee plantations, as well.
In the north coast of Ecuador the port of Balao in Esmeraldas is used for oil export and the port of Manta is used by the United States Air Force as a control point for narcotics traffic control.
It is the country’s most fertile and productive land, and is the seat of the large banana exportation plantations of the companies Dole and Chiquita. This region is also where most of Ecuador’s rice crop is grown. The truly coastal provinces have active fisheries.
Guayaquil, located on the southern part of the coast is the biggest city of the country.
La Sierra
The sierra consists of the Andean and Interandean highland provinces — Azuay, Cañar, Carchi, Chimborazo, Imbabura, Loja, Pichincha, and Tungurahua. This region is the central belt of Ecuador that includes the Andes Mountains, inland from the coast; with volcanoes and mountain peaks that sport year-round snow on the equator; many areas long since deforested by agriculture; a number of cut-flower growing operations; at a certain altitude zone may be found cloud forests.
The northern Ecuadorian Andes are divided into three parallel cordilleras which run in what is similar to an S-shape from north to south: the western, central (Cordillerra Real) and eastern (Cordillera Occidental) cordilleras. The cordilleras were formed earlier in the Cenozoic era (the current geological era), as the Nazca Plate has subducted underneath the South American Plate and has raised the mountain range. In the south, the cordilleras are not well defined.
Quito, the capital city, is located in a high mountain valley on the foothills of the Pichincha. The town of Baños features hot springs swimming pools on the foothills of the Tungurahua in the Central Cordillera. The road from Baños to Puyo has long been known for its narrowness, curves and sheer drops (only one lane in some places, in one area, actually cut into the side of a cliff so that the cliff roofs over it).
The most important east-west road across the Andes is the road from Quito to Lago Agrio, which is unpaved for most of its length yet is heavily traveled by tractor-trailers — and the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline serves as the guardrail for long stretches of this road.
This land contains most of Ecuador’s volcanoes and all of its snow-capped peaks. Agriculture is focussed on the traditional crops of potato, maize, and quinua and the population is predominantly indigenous Kichua.
The largest sierran city is Quito.
El Oriente (La Amazonía)
The oriente consists of the Amazon jungle provinces — Morona Santiago, Napo, Orellana, Pastaza, Sucumbíos, and Zamora-Chinchipe.
This region is primarily made up of the huge Amazon national parks and indigenous intangible zones, which are vasts stretches of land set aside for the Amazon indigenous tribes to continue living traditionally. It is also the area with the largest reserves of petroleum in Ecuador, and parts of the upper Amazon here have been extensively exploited by petroleum companies.
Much of the Oriente is tropical moist broadleaf forest, on the east slopes of the Andes Mountains and descending into the Amazon Basin, with strikingly different upland rainforest with steep, rugged ridges and cascading streams (can be seen around Puyo) and lowland rainforest.
The oil fields are located in the Amazon basin, headquartered at Lago Agrio; some of the rainforest has been seriously damaged in this region and environmental degradation is severe, with catastrophic oil pollution in some areas. Some 38% of Ecuador’s land is forested, and despite a 1.5% annual deforestation rate remains one of the most biodiverse locations on the planet.
The Oriente is also home to a large number of Ecuador’s indigenous groups, notably the lowland Quechua, Siona, Secoya, Huaorani, and Cofán. The population is primarily mixed indigenous Shuar, Huaorani and Kichua, although there are numerous tribes in the deep jungle which are little-contacted.
In addition, Ecuador still lays claim to a large area of lowland rainforest to the east of this region, although Peru invaded it years ago and has held it ever since.
The largest city in the Oriente is probably Lago Agrio in Sucumbíos, although Macas in Morona Santiago runs a close second.
Región Insular
The insular region of Ecuador consists of the Galápagos Islands. The Galápagos are located 1,000 km west of the Ecuadorian coast. They are noted for their association with Charles Darwin, whose observation of animals here during the voyage of the Beagle led to his formation of the theory of natural selection as a means of evolution.