Ecuador
Ecuador's capital is Quito, which is in the province of Pichincha in the Sierra region. Its largest city is Guayaquil, in the Guayas Province. Cotopaxi, just south of Quito, is one of the world's highest active volcanoes. The top of Mount Chimborazo (6,268 m, or 20,560 ft, above sea level), Ecuador's tallest mountain, is the most distant point from the center of the Earth on the Earth's surface because of the ellipsoid shape of the planet.
Geography of Ecuador
Quito, the capital city, is located in a high mountain valley on the foothills of the Pichincha. The town of Baños features hot springs swimming pools on the foothills of the Tungurahua in the Central Cordillera. The road from Baños to Puyo has long been known for its narrowness, curves and sheer drops (only one lane in some places, on one area, actually cut into the side of a cliff so that the cliff roofs over it). The most important east-west road across the Andes is the road from Quito to Lago Agrio, which is paved for most of its length yet is heavily traveled by tractor-trailers—and the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline serves as the guardrail for long stretches of this road.Partial, incomplete table of volcanoes in the north of the Ecuadorian Andes, from north to south: