Ecuador - Identidad Sigsena

Sent by John, a Facebook friend from Guayaquil in Ecuador.

This is from Wikipedia : Sigsig Canton is a canton of Ecuador, located in the Azuay Province. Its capital is the town of Sigsig. Its population at the 2001 census was 24,635.

Ecuador - Jeans Bazar in Pelileo

Jeans at the bazar in Pelileo in the Province of Tungurahua.

Sent by John, a Facebook from Guayaquil in Ecuador.

This is from Wikipedia : Pelileo (full form, San Pedro de Pelileo) is a city located at the center of the Andean region of Ecuador called La Sierra ("the highlands"). It is the seat of Pelileo Canton (48,988 inhabitants, 2001 Census), and forms part of Tungurahua Province.

Pelileo is the second largest city in Tungurahua Province behind neighboring Ambato and is famous for the production and sale of blue jeans. Many travelers pass through Pelileo on their way from Ambato to Baños.

Pelileo was founded by Antonio Clavijo in 1570 and was elevated to the status of county on July 22, 1860.

On August 5, 1949, Pelileo was totally destroyed by an earthquake. Some 5,000 people died within the limits of the county. The only remaining structure still visible from the old city is a broken stone pillar, once part of Pelileo's magnificent main church.

A new city was rebuilt in a nearby location. Currently it is therefore possible to visit both the Great Pelileo (Pelileo Grande), and the New Pelileo (Pelileo Nuevo).

Pelileo is also known as the Blue City, because of its booming jean industry, mainly located in the El Tambo parish. Another of the parishes of Pelileo is the world famous Salasaca, home to a native American tribe originally from Bolivia that came to the Ecuadorian Andes as mitimaes. The Huambalo parish is well-known as the home of artisans of fine furniture.

Pelileo is also known for the distillation of a local liquor called aguardiente. A hard, clear sugarcane-based alcohol, it is one of Pelileo's main products outside of blue jeans.

The main market days in Pelileo are Saturday and Tuesday.

Ecuador - Quito - Mitat del Mundo

Monument of Heroes in Mitad del Mundo or Middle of The World (Coordinates 0°00′07″).

The first ever postcard received from Ecuador. Sent by Sebastian from Quito in Ecuador.

This is from Wikipedia : The Mitad del Mundo (Spanish: Middle of the World) is a tract of land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. It is located in the San Antonio parish of the canton of Quito, north of the center of Quito.

The grounds contain the Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, a museum about the indigenous ethnography of Ecuador. The 30-meter-tall monument, built between 1979 and 1982, was constructed to mark the point where the equator passes through the country in the geodetic datum in use in Ecuador at that time. A line down the center of the east-facing staircase, and across the plaza, was meant to mark the equator, and countless tourists over the years have had their pictures taken straddling this line. In the modern datum of the World Geodetic System (WGS84), which is used in GPS systems and computer mapping products like Google Earth, the equator is placed about 240 meters north of the marked line. This discrepancy is partially due to increased accuracy but primarily due to a different choice of mapping datum. Similarly, the line marking the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in England is roughly 100 meters from the exact zero of longitude as indicated by GPS receivers.

The pyramidal monument, with each side facing a cardinal direction, is topped by a 4.5 meter diameter, 5-ton globe. Inside the monument is a small museum that displays elements of indigenous Ecuadorian culture, such as clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic groups, and examples of their activities. Mitad del Mundo contains other attractions such as a Planetarium, an amazing miniature model of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and restaurants. On weekends, Mitad del Mundo's Central Plaza is host to varied musical and cultural presentations for tourists.

A small town surrounding the monument at the Museo Etnográfico functions as the tourist center, replicating a colonial Spanish town and called "Ciudad Mitad del Mundo" (Middle of the World City).