CULTURE
Amazonian frontier towns,
Pacific coast fishing villages, rambling old haciendas, packed
markets, and colonial cities provide the stage on which Ecuador's
cultures intermingle; each striving to maintain its own identity
and history while also charting a meaningful path into the future.
Even outside these cultural crossroads, in a day, because of Ecuador's
compactness, one can experience any number of Ecuador's distinct
cultures.
Eleven different peoples make
up Ecuador's Indigenous population. By far the largest of these
is the Andean Quichua, who number more than 2 million. In addition
to the Quichua, the Otavalenos, Salasacas, and Saraguros - all
modern-day couriers of the ancient tongue of the Incas - reside
in the Ecuadorian Andes.
The Amazon basin is equally
as rich in indigenous culture as the highlands. Despite increasing
pressures from the industrialized world, shamanistic traditions
still thrive within the rainforest worlds of the Huaorani, Zaparo,
Cofan, lowland Quichua, Siona, Secoya, Shuar, and Achuar.
In addition to the numerous
native cultures, Ecuador is home to a Mestizo culture, and a sizable
Afro-Ecuadorian culture (approximately ½ million), the
descendants of African slaves who worked on coastal sugar plantations
in the sixteenth century. Today's Afro-Ecuadorians are famous
for their marimba music and dance festivals.
Modernization has not robbed
Ecuador's cities and towns of their distinct local flavors largely
because it is people not just historic sites that give these places
their character. Otavalo, long famous for its warm, enterprising
indigenous people, continues its friendly tradition in the twenty-first
century. Banos, with its hot springs and agreeable climate, welcomes
visitors day in and day out with unwavering smiles. And Quito,
the country's political center, has developed into a cosmopolitan
city while maintaining its small town candor and geniality.
