Yay! With this post, we’re kicking off Marie’s feature: Souvenirs from Across the World. A fantastic idea to get to know each other better and also share more about our coutries/cities!

Today, I’m talking about my country, Ecuador, and some of my favorite things about it!

 

The Biodiversity

If you’ve heard anything about Ecuador before, then you’ve probably heard about biodiversity. I have mixed feelings about this, you know. I wish we were known because of what we do, not only because we have a lot of plants. But, that issue aside, I do think it’s pretty cool!

I love being able to have tropical jungle, freezing winter, and summer all in one small piece of land, and therefore we have a ton of things that grow and live in these different kind of climates.

And Galapagos has this real cuties :3

 

In fact, in deference to our diversity, in Guayaquil, my city, we have three landmarks that depict a different iconic animal from the country.

This one is just in front of a shopping mall, and you see it when you go to the beach!

Haha, I see this one every day on my way to college.

I live in the north of the city, so if you want to go downtown, the fastest way is through the tunnel. The monkey is a must if you take that route. On the hill you can see the colorful houses of the famous Cerro Santa Ana, the place where Guayaquil first started as a small community of fishermen who fought pirates :O

And also, did you know people from the coast get called monkeys by the people from the highlands? XD I’ve heard it’s because we’re so active and always on the move. Like annoying little monkeys. 

 

The Food

Yeah, I really didn’t want to put this as the first item because I didn’t want you guys to think I’m obsessed with my country’s typical food, but who am I trying to fool? I FREAKING LOVE IT.

First, given how excited I am about Labyrinth Lost, by Zoraida Córdova, fellow ecuadorian, I’m going to talk a bit about food for the Day of the Dead in Ecuador.

Here, our Day of the Dead is very low key. We don’t paint our faces. We actually just visit cementeries a lot to pay our respects to the dead. But we do have a food tradition, and that is the guaguas de pan, (bread children*),  and colada morada. 

*’Guaguas’ is in fact a word from the indigenous language, and means kids, or children.

Guaguas de pan 🙂

Guaguas and colada morada

Now on with coast food!

These are patacones, and they’re heaven. Anything that’s made with green bananas is heaven. We have patacones, chifles, bolones, tortilla de verde… Endless deliciousness. In restaurants here almost everything will be accompanied if not with fries, then with chifles, or patacones. 

There are some places that cook them dry and yuck, and others that make them crunchy and beautiful. I’ll get into that in another post for this feature that will be all about the food!

 

This is encebollado, a weekend breakfast tradition. This is our bacon, waffles, eggs and toast all rolled into one steaming bowl of goodness! (And, yes, we eat it with chifles!). It’s made with fish -but some people add in some shrimp-, onion (obviously since spanish for onion is cebolla, hence the name encebollado), tomato and yucca. 

Almost in every neighborhood there will be at least one small place where you can find it, and mostly they will be open on sundays. Ironically, those are the best places to get a good one, over restaurants and hotels.

No, really, I’m so looking forward that food post! I’ll be getting into the good food nooks, and also sharing a recipe of my grandma’s with green bananas!

 

These are things you will find more of in the Coast. The highlands and the Amazon have their own traditional dishes they can’t live without.

 

The Root Culture

I think ecuadorians, and me, included don’t appreciate enough our culture. I think it’s mainly because people from outside so often think we’re uneducated and iliterate and don’t even realize that yes, we do have internet, and we do have cable, and iPhones. We don’t live in the jungle. So, ecuadorians kinda grew to be a bit dismissal of our roots.

But I love that these communities still exist and refuse to give up on their traditions, on their original culture. Our constitution recognizes their rights and nobody dares to mess with them XD

 

 

The Beaches

I don’t go as much as I’d like, but I love going whenever I can. This is Salinas, one of the most visited beaches. If you live in the coast, the beach is always at least under three hours away. A while back I shared some pics about my last trip and talked a little about the experience! You can check it out here.

 

And that’s pretty much it, in general terms! What do you like the most about your own country/city?

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