It's a small country but tremendously varied. Quito, the capitol, is high in the Andes. Volcanoes, many capped with snow, make it a beautiful place. Yet a short drive from the city leads to tropical cloud forest, a Tarzan-like jungle turned on its side. Tree ferns grow on steep mountainsides.
Vines hang from dense foliage.
A different route from Quito leads to the paramo, a kind of Andean high plains with its own harsh beauty. And this is only a small part of the central corridor. To the East is the Oriente, true rainforest draining to the Amazon basin. To the West are the lowlands with rice paddies, mangrove swamps, and Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and the country's major port on the Pacific Ocean. Farther west, far enough to be in a separate time zone, are the Galapagos Islands.