Ecuador is a country in western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator, for which the country is named. Ecuador encompasses a wide range of natural formations and climates, from the desert-like southern coast to the snowcapped peaks of the Andes mountain range to the plains of the Amazon Basin. Cotopaxi in Ecuador is one of the world's highest active volcanos. It also has a large series of rivers that follow the southern border and spill into the northwest area of Peru.
Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and composed collections of children's songs. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878. With her sister during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Kate Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labor.
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the Equator 900 km (560 mi) west of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of slightly over 33,000 (2020). The province is divided into the cantons of San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, and Isabela, the three most populated islands in the chain. The Galápagos are famous for their large number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin in the 1830s and inspired his theory of evolution by means of natural selection. All of these islands are protected as part of Ecuador's Galápagos National Park and Marine Reserve.
The Galápagos hawk is a large hawk endemic to most of the Galápagos Islands.
Lesléa Newman is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.
The marine iguana, also known as the sea iguana, saltwater iguana, or Galápagos marine iguana, is a species of iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador). Unique among modern lizards, it is a marine reptile that has the ability to forage in the sea for algae, which makes up almost all of its diet. Marine iguanas are the only extant lizard that spends time in a marine environment. Large males are able to dive to find this food source, while females and smaller males feed during low tide in the intertidal zone. They mainly live in colonies on rocky shores where they bask after visiting the relatively cold water or intertidal zone, but can also be seen in marshes, mangrove swamps and beaches. Large males defend territories for a short period, but smaller males have other breeding strategies. After mating, the female digs a nest hole in the soil where she lays her eggs, leaving them to hatch on their own a few months later.
San Cristóbal Island, also known as Chatham Island, is the easternmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, as well as one of the oldest geologically. It is administratively part of San Cristóbal Canton, Ecuador.
Gail Carson Levine is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998.
Isabela Island is the largest of the Galápagos Islands, with an area of 4,586 km2 (1,771 sq mi) and a length of 100 km (62 mi). By itself, it is larger than all the other islands in the chain combined and it has a little under 2000 permanent inhabitants. The island straddles the equator.
Española or Espanola Island is the most southerly of the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador, about a 10 to 12-hour trip by boat from Santa Cruz.
North Seymour Island is a small island near Baltra Island in the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. It was formed by uplift of a submarine lava formation and is now covered with low, bushy vegetation. It has an area of 1.9 km2 (0.73 sq mi) and a maximum elevation of 28 meters (92 ft). There is no permanent population but a visitor trail has been established approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) in length for guided tours crossing the interior of the island and exploring the rocky coast.
Marguerite de Angeli was an American writer and illustrator of children's books including the 1950 Newbery Award winning book The Door in the Wall. She wrote and illustrated twenty-eight of her own books, and illustrated more than three dozen books and numerous magazine stories and articles for other authors.
Edna Iturralde is an Ecuadorian author who has won multiple national and international awards. She is considered the most important figure in children and young adult's literature of her country and, with fifty-seven books published, some of them in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Spain, this author has attained significant international recognition. She is a 2014 International Latino Book Awards Finalist. Edna has six children and nine grandchildren. She lives in Quito, Ecuador in the Valley of Tumbaco with her husband and four dogs, who keep her company while she writes. She visits school children who read her books often.
Iguana Girl is a 1992 manga written and illustrated by Moto Hagio. A 52-page one-shot originally published in the manga magazine Petit Flower, the story follows a mother who rejects her daughter because she perceives her as an iguana; the daughter internalizes this rejection, and in turn comes to regard herself as an iguana.
Howard L. Snell is an American ecologist and professor at the University of New Mexico. His research and conservation efforts have focused on the Galapagos land iguanas, which were in danger of extinction.
María Isabel Salvador is an Ecuadorian politician, diplomat and professional in the tourism industry. Currently, she serves as the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Haiti, appointed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in March 2023. She has served in two administrations as Minister of Tourism, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the Organization of American States, Parliamentarian at the Andean Parliament, and President of the Governing Council of the Galápagos. Before the public service chapter of her life she worked in the tourism industry as CEO of Air France in Ecuador and vicepresident of the national tourism chamber of commerce CAPTUR.
Todo Sobre Camila (All About Camila) is a 2002 telenovela produced by Venezuelan production company Venevisión in conjunction with Peruvian production company Iguana Producciones. The telenovela was shot in two countries (Peru and Ecuador). Scarlet Ortiz and Segundo Cernadas starred as the main protagonists while Bernie Paz and Carla Barzotti starred as the main antagonists.
Alice McLerran was an American anthropologist and author.
Beyond the Islands is a novel by the Ecuadorian writer Alicia Yánez Cossío, published in Quito, Ecuador in 1980. The plot, framed in the genre of magic realism, follows the story of eight people who travel to the Galápagos Islands to escape Death. The work was translated into English in 2011 by Amalia Gladhart.
Doña Francisca Coya, also known as María de Sandoval or simply La Coya, was a Princess of the Inca Empire. She was the daughter of Emperor Huayna Capac and his cousin-wife Mama Runtu Coya. She was born in Cuzco, Peru in 1515 and died in Popayán, Colombia, around 1543–44.
