Introduction to Santa Cruz Manor in Ecuador Coffee Manor

The country is divided into three parts: the western coast, the central mountainous region and the eastern region.

Map of Ecuador

Map of Ecuador

West coast: including coastal plains and foothills, high in the east and low in the west, generally below 200 meters above sea level, with some hills and low mountains at an altitude of 600 to 700 meters. Belongs to the tropical rain forest climate, the southernmost end begins to transition to the savanna climate. The average annual precipitation decreases from more than 3000 mm to about 500mm from north to south.

Central mountain: after entering Ecuador from Colombia, the Andes is divided into the eastern and western Cordillera mountains, with a plateau high in the north and low in the south, averaging between 2500 and 3000 meters above sea level. The Andes run through the middle of the border. The ridges crisscross, dividing the plateau into more than ten intermountain basins. The most important are the Quito basin and the Cuenca basin in the south. There are many volcanoes and frequent earthquakes in the territory. The famous Kotopaxi volcano, 5897 meters above sea level, is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Chimborazo Mountain in central Ecuador, 6262 meters above sea level, is the highest peak in Ecuador, Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. It is 6384.1 kilometers from the center of the earth to the top of the mountain. Mount Chimborazo, located in the West Cordillera in the Andes, has long been mistaken for the highest peak in the Andes. It is a dormant volcano with many craters and glaciers at the top of the mountain, about 4694 meters above, covered with snow all the year round.

Eastern region: part of the Amazon River basin. The foothills of the foothills with an altitude of 1200 to 250 meters above sea level are rapid. below 250 meters are alluvial plains. The river is open, the current is gentle, and there are many rivers.

Located in the Pacific Ocean, the Cologne Islands (Galapagos Islands) is more than 900km east from the continental coast and covers an area of 7800 square kilometers. it includes seven large islands and about 70 small islands, all composed of volcanic cones and lava.

In the mid-15th century, there were legends about enchanted mysterious islands among fishermen fishing in the western Pacific Ocean of South America. It is said that the islands can sometimes be seen clearly from a distance, but when the ship approaches, it disappears again; sometimes it looks like a galleon, sometimes it shows the shape of a witch. Fishermen call these islands "Devil Island", thinking that they may be ruled by demons like the sea banshees in the Odyssey. The island, which fishermen call "Magic Island", is now the Galapagos Islands.

In 1535, Frey Thomas de Belanga of Spain and others stumbled upon the Galapagos Islands. Thomas was born in 1487 on the Douro River in the province of Soria, Spain, and was the fourth bishop of Panama at that time. He was ordered to go to Peru. When his ship set sail from Panama on February 23, under the impact of a strong current, they were taken to the unknown sea, and on March 10, they discovered a small island in the Galapagos Islands. At that time, there were only two days of fresh water left on the ship, and the sailors landed in lifeboats and found a large number of seals, sea turtles, giant tortoises that could carry people, and iguanas that looked like venomous snakes, but they did not find fresh water, so they sailed to another larger island more than 20 kilometers away. As there was still no wind, it took them several days to get there, and the water ran out quickly and they had to starve, including the horses on the boat without grass.

When Thomas and the crew landed on the island, they were frantically looking for water and were so thirsty that they squeezed juice from the fat leaves of the cactus to drink. At last a source of water was found in a rocky gully. Thomas attributed it to the gift of God, because it was good Friday, and they had piously celebrated mass before they set out in search of water. But Thomas will never know that the island they landed on is the only island in the Galapagos archipelago that has plenty of fresh water, today's St. Cristobal Island (Saint Cristobal).