Ecuador is a country of boundless diversity, friendly people and spectacular natural wonders. Similar in size to Italy, you can travel in a day from tropical lowlands where bananas grow, to the Andes Mountains where llamas graze beneath volcanoes over 20,000 feet high, and on to the edge of the mystical Amazon Basin. Prime tropical color! Orchids. Rainbow-hued toucans. Indians costumes as red as bright lipstick and blue as morning sky. As one tours from one geographic area to another, Ecuador’s exciting ethnic diversity is clearly apparent. The country has the second-highest percentage of indigenous people in South America, with over a dozen distinct ethnic and language groups. As for nature…. you’ve never seen such abundance. Over 1,500 bird species, comprising almost 20% of the world total. More butterflies than in all of Africa. Hundreds of mammal, reptile, amphibian and fish species. And a veritable botanical gardens of exotic plant species. Few places on earth offers so much diversity in such small space!