A brief, querulous and entirely wonderful account of travels in Ecuador with the poet Gangotena, strong on color and personality and thin on travel practicalities. First published in 1929, the unlikely modernist Belgian-French painter and poet in Quito includes an unbeatable description of the accursed weather among his many impressions. The translator, who also provides an introduction, called "Ecuador" the first modern travel book and its sketches, prose poems, diary fragments and ruminations are certainly closer to the surrealists than the Victorians.  (EDR16, $17.95)