Ecuador

Ecuador has a history of vegan eating along with current day options.
==Development==
===Past===
The incas (their Tahuantinsuyo empire included Ecuador), had a most vegetarian diet based of cassava (yuca), variety of coloured corn and potatoes, oca, arracacha (white carrot), maka, mashua, amaranth, quinoa, spices and fruits, but they were making exceptions in festivities with meat and fish. The chasquis (inca messages runners) diet had kamcha (toasted corn), leaves of coca (for cold temperatures) and machica. A message could travel up to 320 kilometers in just one day.
==Present==
Actually, Ecuador have a large list of vegetables, tubers, grains and fruits that changes by climate region. But this country is so small, so you can find all these products in almost all markets.
====Costa (Coast)====
The vegan food you easily find is variety of juices and beach fruits like watermelon. You can eat chifles (thin slides of fried green plantains), patacones (fried green plantains), maduros (low fried ripe plantain), rice with menestra (lentils or beans), just avoid the portion of meats and moro (butter with rice and lentils).
====Sierra (Andes)====
The vegans options are amazing, you can buy in bulks any kind of grain. Vegan street food are cevichocho (lupin ceviche, be careful avoiding pork rind), caramel pop corn and rarely you also can find ceviche de palmito (hearts of palm ceviche). On Ibarra people make putzucutanda, a kind of corn flour with panela inside leaves.
====Oriente (Amazon)====
There isn't any accidentally vegan dish, but you can buy a variety of cheap bulbs like cassava (yuca), plantains and fruits.
====Galapagos Islands====
You can't find any vegan food, but you can buy patacones everywhere or freezed vegetal meat in Mundo Naturista (between Charles Darwin and Thomas de Berlanga Avenue) on Santa Cruz Island.
==Snacks, Sweets and Drinks==
===Snacks===
Fried potatoes and chifles are the most popular snacks. There are soy rind or wheat rind besides pork rind since 2015.
===Sweets===
These sweets are available in markets and on the streets:
*Melcocha with / without peanuts and flavors: orange, soursop, blackberry, etc.
*Piloncillo (panela sweets)
*Dulce de membrillo (guava and cane sweets)
But on the Coast (especially in Manabi province) a variety of snacks are offered, cocadas contain milk but there are vegan products such as:
*Sweets of: sweet potatoes, green papaya, banana and pineapple.
*Maní garrapiñado (confit peanuts with panela)
*Sesame sweets.
*Chifles of green plantain, cassava(yuca), sweet potatoes.
===Drinks===
Coconut water, tea, natural juices and shave ice are sold on streets.
A famous drink in Day of the Deceased (November 2th) is colada morada: a mix of dark purple corn flour, naranjilla, babaco, pineapple, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, lemongrass, cloves and more spices. Bakeries rarely have this drink all year.
Soy milk and fruit oatmeal bottles are famous now in stores and bakeries.
==Foreign influence==
Chinese and indians families arrived in Guayaquil city decades ago. Since that, another colonies from Asia like Korea and Taiwan arrived too. In consecuence there are a lot of lactovegetarian restaurants and the biggest buddist temple of American Continent called Yuan Heng.
==Vegan activism collectives==
There are some vegan collectives, but they are incresing:
* ADLA - Activistas por la Defensa y Liberación Animal
* Reacción Vegana
* Veganos Ecuador
* RED Vegana de Guayaquil
==Vegan career in nutrition or culinary arts==
Sadly, every career include meat and dairy knowleadge. The graduated degree learn about vegan diet by themselves and offer small conferences about it. In the case of chef students who are vegan, they launch their empretreneurship (restaurant or products), take courses or travel to foreign countries to learn, the nearest vegan course in other country is the Vegan School of Lima in Peru.
==Raw vegans topics==
Terra Frutis has a volunteer program in Ecuador and it is one of the most famous in the world.
==Bibliography==
Inca
*https://books.google.com.ec/books?id=F3kAzQdfmgYC&lpg=PA6&dq=inca%20diet%20quinoa%20potatoes&hl=es&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=inca%20diet%20quinoa%20potatoes&f=false
Chasquis
*http://cuzcoeats.com/chasquis-communication-incas-time/
Nueva Vida
*https://www.facebook.com/CarneVegetalNuevaVida/photos/a.1021228064569132.1073741827.138260136199267/1021228071235798/?type=3&theater
Vegan Snacks and recipes in Ecuador
*https://www.facebook.com/VeganoChiroEc/
Taiwanese temple Yuan Heng
*https://www.facebook.com/TemploYuanHeng/
Vegan Collectives
*ADLA: https://www.facebook.com/ADLAEcuador/
*Reacción Vegana: https://www.facebook.com/2015rv/
*Veganos Ecuador: https://www.facebook.com/Veganos-Ecuador-240145949447811/
*RED vegana de Guayaquil: https://www.facebook.com/RED-vegana-de-Guayaquil-188032531253378/
Terra Frutis
*https://www.facebook.com/TerraFrutis/?fref=pb&hc_location=profile_browser
Category:Culture