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Ecuador: Quito & the Highlands

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

Item EXEDR29. Buy these 3 items as a set for $46 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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The Panama Hat Trail

The Panama Hat Trail

by Tom Miller

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

An entertaining and insightful social history of Ecuador -- as told through its hat-making history. It's a classic example of travel writing, and one of the best things written on Ecuador. (EDR15, $14.00)

Insight Guide Ecuador and Galapagos

Insight Guide Ecuador and Galapagos

by Insight Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

Presenting the natural history, politics, culture, wildlife and attractions of Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands with style and authority. Contributors include Tui de Roy (Galapagos photography), Lynn Meisch (arts, crafts and customs) and Rob Rachoweicki (Oriente/Amazon). (EDR01, $22.99)

Ecuador Map

Ecuador Map

by Borch Maps

  • 2005
  • MAP

A detailed laminated map of Ecuador at a scale of 1:1,000,000, with detailed insets of Quito, Guayaquil, Galapagos and the Ecuadorian Amazon on the reverse. (EDR03, $10.95)

 
Quito and Northern Ecuador

Quito and Northern Ecuador


by ITMB

  • 2009
  • MAP

A full color map of Quito and surroundings for the traveler, at a scale of 1:12,500. (EDR10, $10.95)

Ecuador in Focus, A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture

Ecuador in Focus, A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture


by Wilma Roos | Omer van Renterghem

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 100 PAGES

This slim guide provides a lively overview of Ecuador's history, cultural heritage and political, environmental and economic challenges. (EDR02, $12.95)

Lonely Planet Ecuador & Galapagos Islands

Lonely Planet Ecuador & Galapagos Islands


by Lonely Planet

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

An excellent practical guide to Ecuador and Galapagos for independent travelers. (GPS04, $24.99)

Viva Travel Guides Ecuador, Climbing and Hiking

Viva Travel Guides Ecuador, Climbing and Hiking


by Rob Rachowiecki

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 308 PAGES

This practical guide draws on the Viva online community for its in-depth recommendations. (EDR33, $23.95)

Banana, The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World

Banana, The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World


by Dan Koeppel

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Koeppel traces the history, natural and otherwise, politics and precarious current status of modern monoculture, touching down in India (world center of banana diversity), Ecuador (world's largest producer) and Central America. (CAM137, $16.00)

Ecuador Reader, History, Culture, Politics

Ecuador Reader, History, Culture, Politics


by Carlos De La Torre | Steve Striffler

  • HISTORY
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 437 PAGES

A portrait of a nation. This lively sourcebook gathers selections from long out-of-print travel accounts, articles, interviews, poems, literary excerpts (and even a recipe) to document the vitality and diversity of modern Ecuador. (EDR24, $26.95)

Forgotten Continent

Forgotten Continent


by Michael Reid

  • HISTORY
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

Economist editor Reid draws on his years in the cities, presidential palaces and shantytowns of Central and South America in this portrait of a region rich in oil, farmland and culture, and its prospects in the face of globalization. (SAM123, $24.00)

Portrait of a Nation, Culture and Progress in Ecuador

Portrait of a Nation, Culture and Progress in Ecuador


by Osvaldo Hurtado

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • HARD COVER
  • 215 PAGES

President of Ecuador from 1981 to 1984, Hurtado writes of cultural values and obstacles to change. (EDR37, $35.00)

Weaving and Dyeing in Highland Ecuador


by Ann Pollard Rowe | Lynn Meisch

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2007
  • HARD COVER

A well-illustrated, authoritative overview of textiles and textile traditions in the Andes of Ecuador. (EDR23, $45.00)

Woven Stories, Andean Textiles and Rituals

Woven Stories, Andean Textiles and Rituals


by Andrea Heckman

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2003
  • HARD COVER
  • 214 PAGES

An illustrated survey of Quechua textiles, traditions, designs and daily life. (AND43, $45.00)

Cloud Road

Cloud Road


by John Harrison

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 388 PAGES

A captivating account of a 1,500-mile journey along the Andes from Ecuador to Peru. Mostly on foot, either alone or with his girlfriend Elaine, sometimes by bus and, partly in the company of the obstreperous donkey Dapple, Harrison weaves a tale of the people he meets with history and lore. (SAM154, $14.95)

Ecuador, A Travel Journal

Ecuador, A Travel Journal


by Henri Michaux | Robin Magowan

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 144 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

A brief, querulous and entirely wonderful narrative of the modernist painter Michaux's travels with the poet Gangotena, strong on color and personality. Its many pleasures include an unbeatable description of Quito's accursed mountain weather. (EDR16, $17.95)

Living Poor

Living Poor


by Moritz Thomsen

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 280 PAGES

Moritz's heartfelt account of his small triumphs and tragedies as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village on the Ecuadorian coast is a classic. (EDR13, $28.95)

Fire from the Andes, Short Fiction by Women from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru

Fire from the Andes, Short Fiction by Women from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru


by Susan E. Benner

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

Mostly personal, many of the contemporary stories revolve around peasants, the urban poor and other marginalized members of the Andes society. (AND17, $29.95)

Through the Eyes of the Condor, An Aerial Vision of Latin America

Through the Eyes of the Condor, An Aerial Vision of Latin America


by Robert B. Haas

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2007
  • HARD COVER
  • 232 PAGES

This collection of stunning, oversized photographs, taken from above, shows the jungles and favellas, the reefs and ruins, wildlife and diverse landscapes of Latin America. (SAM122, $50.00)

Volcanoes, Fire From the Earth

Volcanoes, Fire From the Earth


by Maurice Krafft

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 175 PAGES
  • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE

By the great French volcanologist (who died on the job on Mount Unzen in Japan in 1992), this pocket guide features hundreds of full-color paintings and traces the study of volcanoes from early myth and legend to modern science. (GEO06, $15.95)

Birds of Ecuador, A Field Guide

Birds of Ecuador, A Field Guide


by Paul Greenfield | Robert Ridgely

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 740 PAGES

A comprehensive, gorgeous and exhaustively researched field guide to the birds of Ecuador (and adjacent countries), featuring 96 color plates. It's also the best bird guide for travelers in the Peruvian Amazon. (EDR08, $55.00)

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Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.