Geography of Ecuador

Galapagos Islands: An island archipelago in the Pacific Ocean west of the mainland; famed for the studies by Charles Darwin that led to this theory of evolution through natural selection (note: evolution was not a theory original with Darwin; natural selection was).
La costa: meaning "the coast"; the western coastal province of Ecuador, bordering the Pacific Ocean, rising from coastal plain with many mangroves, although many of these have now been destroyed by shrimp farming, to the foothills of the Andes Mountains to the east; many banana, cacao and coffee plantations, as well. Guayaquil, located on the southern part of the coast is the biggest city of the country, with some beautiful beaches and an ocean port. 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 US Air Force as a control point for narcotics traffic control.
La sierra: meaning "the jagged mountain range"; the central belt of Ecuador that includes the high Andes Mountains, inland from the coast; includes a number of large volcanoes such as Pichincha, overlooking Quito, and Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world, several peaks snow-capped year-round, even 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 the cloud forests, los bosques nublados. Quito, the capital city, is located in a high mountain valley on the west side of the highest mountains. 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 petroleum, fish, timber, hydropower