Ecuadorean folk music Way of life. Most of Ecuador's whites live in cities, and their lives resemble those of Europeans. Most of the whites in Guayaquil and other coastal cities work in business or as traders. Some of the whites own large plantations that grow crops for export. Most mestizos and blacks rank far below the whites in wealth and importance.
Many mestizos live on the coastal plain in wooden homes with thatched roofs.
Large numbers of the people work as day laborers on large banana or cacao plantations. Cacao is a seed used in making chocolate and cocoa. Other people cultivate small plots of land that they have cleared in the forest. These farmers move from place to place as the soil wears out. Mestizo farmers in the Andes own land or work as day laborers on haciendas.