Ecuador: The Lure Of A River

In Ecuador’s Guayas Province near Salitre, a teenage cowboy can’t resist a dip into the warm Vince River as a canoe just brought him across it.

    

Most travelers visiting Ecuador limit themselves, no doubt for lack of enough time, to its Andean region. The reasons are its spectacular snow-capped volcanoes, its picturesque indigenous villages and markets, and its capital Quito, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

     But Ecuador’s western lowlands and coast hide equally wonderful sights and culture. They include, from north to south, jungle villages of Indians and Afro-Americans, a colorful fishing activity, a Panama-hat-weaving industry, cattle ranches and cowboys, banana plantations, beaches and surf, and a net of rivers that periodically floods the surrounding country, transforming its whole landscape.

     There, too, is Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city and, under its palm trees, a world apart from Quito in appearance and culture. But it has its own charms, including the stunning four-kilometer long malecòn, or promenade, and Las Peñas, an area of the city built on a hill (Cerro Santa Ana) whose 400-year-old wooden houses have been artistically remodeled. The top of the hill gives a panoramic view of the city and Guayas River.

     The wonderful thing about Ecuador is that it’s small enough, by South American standards, to allow you to drive from Quito to the Amazon, to its most impressive Andean mountains and markets, and to the coast in only a few hours.

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