Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Up with Geography: Ecuador

Country Name:
Ecuador

Capital:
Quito

Continent:
South America

Maps:
South American continent. Ecuador
outlined in dark ink.

A close-up of Ecuador & its neighbors.

Neighbors:
Colombia, Peru

Water Borders:
Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Guayaquil

Total Area:
109,484 square miles

Five Largest Cities:
Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca, Santo Domingo, Machala

Famous Geographical Point:
Pichincha Volcano

Famous Person:
Raquel Verdesoto Salgado de Romo Dávila, writer, poet, teacher, feminist, and activist

Book Set In/About:
The Queen of Water by Laura Resau

This fictionalized account of a true story follows the life of a young indigenous girl who's sold by her family to a wealthy couple to work as a servant. While she suffers abuse and humiliation, she also gains tools to create a brighter future that is at odds with her family and her past.

Movie Set In/About:
"Sin muertos no hay carnaval (Such Is Life in the Tropics)" (2016), directed by Sebastián Cordero

A young man inherits property from his father, but comes into conflict when he tries to evict squatters from that land.

Headline of the Day:
"Ecuador Expects $1 billion in Mining Revenues for 2018" on mining.com.

2 comments:

Patricia said...

It is entirely possible that the subject of my sixth grade study of South America has come up during this blog post series. If so, I apologize for the repeat information. If not:

In sixth grade, we divvied up all the South American countries and did a unit of study, which culminated in South American Football. This was spoken of with much excitement in the years leading up to sixth grade. It turned out to be a trivia game styled after an (American) football game. I no longer remember which countries I studied (three in the north part of the country maybe?) nor do I remember any facts about any countries in South America. But I do feel a shine of warmth every time I encounter a South American country in an Up with Geography post.

balyien said...

I don't believe you've told me this story before! I like it. That's a lovely memory.

I took a geography course in college that featured the only group project I recall doing. I remember two things about it: that I had to report on Brunei, which I'd never heard of before, and that one person in the group didn't pull their weight, pissing off the rest of us. So that's my unhappy memory whenever I think of either geography or Brunei.