Geography Of Ecuador

Ecuador is a small country in the northwestern part of South America, on the equator. It has four main geographical regions: The Costa, The Sierra, The Oriente, and The Galapagos Islands. The Costa is a coastal plain 10-100 miles wide along the Pacific coast that takes up one quarter of the area of Ecuador. In the Costa, there are three main types of ecosystems: rainforests, savannas, and dry forests. The temperatures in the Costa range from 65-90 degrees Fahrenheit. The Sierra is made up of highlands 3,000-10,000 feet high in the central part of Ecuador, where the Andes mountains make a plateau. Quito, the capital city, is located in the northern Sierra. Here, the temperatures are usually from around 35 degrees to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The Sierra houses many volcanoes, including Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano  in the world. The array of volcanoes stretching across the Sierra is nicknamed the “Avenue of Volcanoes.” There are two seasons in the Sierra, a wet season from November to May and a dry season from June to September. The Oriente is a 199,954 square kilometer area of rolling jungle and rainforest lowlands east of the Andes. It makes up about half of the area of Ecuador and is part of the Amazon watershed. The major rivers in the Oriente are Rio Napo and