Ecuador Bibliography

If you cannot find these works at your local vendor or for purchase on-line, ask your public library if you can obtain them through interlibrary loan (there may be a small fee for this service). Libri Mundi bookstores in Quito also carry many of these titles.

For books and other works specifically on the Galápagos, see: Suggested Sources About The Galápagos.

This is just a sample of works about Ecuador. Please write us with more of your suggestions.

Guides and Travelogues

Crowder, Nicholas. Cultureshock Ecuador: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette. Tarrytown, NY : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2009. – A crash course in how to behave in Ecuadorian society.

Nelson,Tyrel. Stories from Ecuador. [Minnesota?] : T. Nelson, 2009. – Nelson came to Ecuador to teach English and ended up traveling off the beaten track.

Pombo, Connie. Living and Retiring in Cuenca: 101 Questions Answered. Amazon Digital Services, 2011. – A how-to guide about setting down roots in Cuenca.

Rachowiecki, Rob and Mark Thurber. Ecuador: Climbing and Hiking Guide. Quito: VIVA Travel Guides, 2009. -- The updated classic guide for mountain climbers and hikers.

Thomsen, Moritz. Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990. – A Peace Corp volunteer’s experiences in one of the poorest parts of Ecuador. Later, Thomsen settled in Esmeraldas and wrote The Farm on the River of Emeralds (Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1978).

Literature

Benner, Susan E., Kathy S. Leonard and Marjorie Agosín, ed. Fire from the Andes: Short Fiction by Women from Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.

Carrera Andrade, Jorge. Century of the Death of the Rose: Selected Poems. Montgomery, Ala. : NewSouth Books, 2002.

Icaza, Jorge, and Bernard M. Dulsey. The Villagers. Carbondale: South Illinois University, 1964.

Levitin, Alexis and Fernando Iturburu, ed. and trans. Tapestry of the Sun: an Anthology of Ecuadorian Poetry. San Francisco, Ca.: Coimbra, 2009.

Mera, Juan León. Cumanda: The Novel of the Ecuadorian Jungle. Bloomington, Ind. : AuthorHouse, 2007.

Wishnia, K.J.A. Twentieth-century Ecuadorian narrative : new readings in the context of the Americas. Lewisburg, Pa. : Bucknell University Press, 1999.

Nature Guides

Herrmann, Steven. Birding Northwest Ecuador (Birding Areas of Ecuador). Amazon Digital Services, 2012.

Jiggins, Chris, Pablo Andrade and Eduardo Cueva. Equador Nature Guide: Southwest Forests. Canada: Lone Pine Publishing , 2001.

Quintana, Catalina Medina., and Adela Tobar. Wild Plants in the Dry Valleys around Quito, Ecuador: An Illustrated Guide. Quito: Herbario QCA, PUCE, 2010.

Pearson, David, Les Beletsky, and Priscilla Barrett. Travellers’ Wildlife Guides Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2010.

Policha, Tobías. Plantas de Mindo: Una Guía de Bosque Nublado del Chocó Andino / Plants of Mindo: A Guide to the Cloud Forest of the Andean Choco. Eugene, Or.: American Herbal Dispensary Press, 2012.

Ridgely, Robert S., Paul J. Greenfield and Frank Gill. The Birds of Ecuador: Field Guide. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.

Non-fiction

Becker, Marc. Pachakutik: Indigenous Movements and Electoral Politics in Ecuador. Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. – The modern history of Ecuador’s indigenous movements and politics.

Cruz Cevallos, Ivan. The World of Spirits in Precolumbian Ecuador. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2013. – An examination of spiritual beliefs in pre-conquest Ecuador.

Hemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. London: Macmillan, 1971. – An historical explanation of the 16th century Spanish conquest led by Francisco Pizarro.

Hurtado, Osvaldo, and Barbara Sipe. Portrait of a Nation: Culture and Progress in Ecuador. Lanham: Madison, 2010. – A non-fiction tale about the nature of development in Ecuador.

Kane, Joe. Savages. New York: Knopf, 1995. – A critically-acclaimed ''must read'' for anyone interested in visiting the Amazon. An anthropological field-guide into the conflicts between isolated Amazonian tribes and the Oil Industry.

Klein, Daniel and Ivan Cruz Cevallos, ed. Ecuador: The Secret Art of Precolumbian Ecuador. Milan: 5 Continents, 2007. – A beautifully illustrated guide on Ecuador’s pre-Columbian art.

Lourie, Peter. Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon: A Chronicle of an Incan Treasure. New York: Atheneum, 1991. – Lourie travels into the Andes in search of a long-lost Inca treasure.

Robarchek, Clayton Allen, and Carole Robarchek. Waorani: The Contexts of Violence and War. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College, 1998. – A study of human violence, relating case studies of villages across the globe; one based in Ecuador. The Waorani tribe is again explored.

Striffler, Steve. In the Shadows of State and Capital: The United Fruit Company, Popular Struggle, and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador, 1900-1995. Durham: Duke University Press Book, 2001. – Ecuador’s saga as a banana republic.

Tidwell, Mike. Amazon Stranger. New York: Lyons & Burford, 1996. – A natural history about the Cofan people and oil exploration.

Torre, Carlos De La, and Steve Striffler. The Ecuador Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Durham: Duke UP, 2009. – An anthology of writings by and interviews with Ecuadorians.

Here are some related tips to help plan your trip to Ecuador: Suggested Sources About The Galápagos,