Ecuador

A small country holding four utterly different worlds, including one that changed how everyone understands life. Ecuador contains Pacific coast, Andean sierra, Amazon basin and the Galapagos, where Darwin's observations in 1835 contributed to the theory of natural selection - the islands are now a national park with strictly limited access. Quito was the northern capital of the Inca empire before Spain took it, and its colonial centre was among the first World Heritage sites listed. Independence came with Sucre's victory at Pichincha in 1822, and the country joined Gran Colombia before leaving it in 1830. Cacao and then bananas dominated exports, and the country was the world's largest banana exporter for decades. Oil found in the Amazon from the 1960s brought revenue and also the pollution case against Texaco that has run in courts on two continents for thirty years. Ecuador adopted the US dollar as its currency in 2000 after a banking collapse, and inflation stopped. Its 2008 constitution was the first anywhere to grant enforceable rights to nature. Quito sits at 2,850 metres, among the highest capitals. Yasuni is one of the most biodiverse places measured. The country has about eighteen million people and is the smallest Andean state. Its name simply means equator. Cotopaxi and Chimborazo are among its active and dormant volcanoes, and Chimborazo's summit is the furthest point from the centre of the earth. Panama hats are made in Ecuador and always were. Quechua is widely spoken in the sierra. The Galapagos lie about a thousand kilometres offshore.

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