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Cheapest Flights to Ecuador
"Ecuador, so tiny on the map of the world, has always possessed the grandeur of a great country to those who know her well."
- Albert B. Franklin, Ecuador: Portrait of a People
Sitting on the equator between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador is the smallest of the Andean nations, covering an area no bigger than Nevada. For all its diminutive size, however, the country is packed with the most startling contrasts of scenery, taking in steaming tropical rainforests, windswept highlands, ice-capped volcanoes and palm-fringed beaches, all within easy reach of the capital, Quito. It's a land of bold contours and heightened colours, where you can find yourself beneath a canopy of dripping vegetation amongst clouds of neon-coloured butterflies one day, and in a highland market, mixing with scarlet-ponchoed indígenas the next. It's also a country of astounding biodiversity, boasting 1600 species of bird (more per area than any other South American country), 4500 species of butterfly and over 3500 species of orchid, to cite just a few examples. Add to this the country's stunning colonial architecture and diverse indigenous groups, and it becomes clear why Ecuador is regarded by many as a sort of South America in miniature, offering a pocket-sized microcosm of almost everything travellers hope to find on this bewitching continent. As if more were called for, its attractions are triumphantly capped off by the Galápagos Islands, whose extraordinary wildlife has gone down in history for its pivotal role in shaping Charles Darwin's theories on evolution.
All this provides a home to some fourteen million people, the majority of whom live on the coast and in the sierra. They are descendants, for the most part, of the various indigenous populations that first inhabited Ecuador's territory, of the Incas who colonized these lands in the late fifteenth century, of the Spaniards who conquered the Inca empire in the 1530s and of the African slaves brought by the Spanish colonists. Although the mixing of blood over many centuries has resulted in a largely mestizo (mixed) population, the indigenous component remains very strong, particularly among the Quichua-speaking communities of the rural sierra, and the various ethnic groups of the Oriente such as the Shuar, the Achuar, the Huaorani and Secoya, while on the north coast there's a significant black population. As in many parts of Latin America, social and economic divisions between indígenas , blacks, mestizos and an elite class of whites remain deeply entrenched, exacerbated here by a slew of recent economic and political crises. And yet, even as poverty and unemployment increase, as their national currency is lost to the US dollar and their political leaders continually fail to tackle the country's problems, the overwhelming majority of Ecuadorians remain resilient, remarkably cheerful, and extremely courteous and welcoming towards visitors.
We offer low price flights to Ecuador through our online flight reservation service. We have various vacation packages for cheap flights to Ecuador, discounted flights to Ecuador, and more.
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