The Colours of Ecuador

Only one country on Earth is named after a line of physics. Ecuador sits on the equator itself, and just north of Quito you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere. But here's the twist most people miss: because the planet bulges at the middle, the summit of Ecuador's Chimborazo volcano, not Everest, is the point on Earth's surface closest to the sun and farthest from the planet's centre. Ecuador quietly owns the top of the world. Nobody told you.

Where it all began

Quito was a northern capital of the Inca empire before the Spanish arrived in 1534, and its old town, the first city ever inscribed by UNESCO in 1978, alongside Kraków, remains the best-preserved colonial centre in the Americas: gold-drenched churches, cobbled plazas, Andean light. Independence came with the battle of Pichincha in 1822, fought on the volcano's slopes above the city, under the wing of Bolívar's general Sucre, whose name the old currency carried. And in 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to write the rights of nature into its constitution. The land has legal rights here. That tells you everything about the relationship.

The minds

In 1835 a young naturalist stepped off the Beagle onto the Galápagos Islands, Ecuadorian territory, and what Charles Darwin saw there, finches with different beaks on different islands, became On the Origin of Species. Modern biology has an Ecuadorian birthplace. The country's own minds match the setting: painter Oswaldo Guayasamín, whose anguished, monumental canvases hang in his Capilla del Hombre above Quito; writer Jorge Icaza, whose Huasipungo shook Latin American literature in 1934; and scientist Eugenia del Pino, elected to the US National Academy of Sciences for her work in developmental biology, the first Ecuadorian so honoured.

Made in Ecuador

Ecuador is the world's largest exporter of bananas, and its cacao arriba fino de aroma is the darling of the world's best chocolatiers, some of the oldest cacao traces on Earth, 5,000 years plus, were found here. Roses grown at 3,000 metres on the equator grow straighter and larger than anywhere, and fill florists from Moscow to Miami. Shrimp, tuna, oil from the Amazon. And the famous "Panama" hat? A historical injustice: it has always been Ecuadorian, woven in Montecristi and Cuenca; the finest take months to make and hold water like a cup. Say Ecuador hat. Spread the word.

Where to go

Quito's old town at golden hour, then the TelefériQo cable car to 4,000 metres for the volcano skyline. Cuenca, the elegant southern city of cathedrals and river walks that expats refuse to leave. Guayaquil, the Pacific port with its riverfront Malecón and iguanas lounging in the central park like they pay taxes.

Then the fantasy list. The Galápagos, where the animals never learned to fear humans, sea lions will nap on your bench. Cotopaxi, the perfect snow cone you can climb with a guide. The Quilotoa crater lake, jade water inside a collapsed volcano, hike the rim and stay in a village lodge. Baños, the adventure town under the very active Tungurahua. Mindo's cloud forest, hundreds of hummingbird species in the mist. And the Amazon at Yasuní, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet: more tree species in one hectare than in all of North America.

Culture, on a plate and in the ear

Eat ceviche Ecuadorian style, with popcorn and chifles, don't question it, adopt it. Locro de papa (potato-cheese soup with avocado) in the highlands, encebollado to cure any morning, llapingachos off a grill. Drink canelazo hot in the Andes night. Music runs from Andean pasillo, melancholy and lovely, to the marimba rhythms of Esmeraldas, UNESCO-listed. And on New Year's Eve, Ecuadorians burn años viejos, paper effigies of the old year, in the streets at midnight. The whole country starts fresh in flames and laughter.

Every colour is someone's home. I print it the way memory keeps it: vintage-washed, distressed, made to order.

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P.S. Yellow for the harvest, blue for sea and sky, red for the founders' courage, and the condor above Chimborazo on the crest. The mountain closest to the sun, remember. Find your flag.