Ecuador resources
Explainers
Clear context on how Ecuador works and why it matters.
History & Culture
Series: Piracy On the Ecuadorian coast · Part 1 — Piracy on Ecuador’s Coast — From Drake to Guayaquil Night on the Guayas River is the wrong kind of quiet: black water, mangrove shadows, and the sense that the city is there—but hidden inland, beyond bends you can’t see. In 1709, when the English privateer Woodes Rogers finally turned away from Guayaquil, he didn’t slip out like a thief.
Series: Piracy On the Ecuadorian coast · Part 2 — 1) The Pacific wasn’t supposed to have pirates In the late 1500s, Spain’s enemies raided the Caribbean all the time—but the Pacific still felt like a private Spanish lake. One modern summary captures the shock bluntly: privateers were common in the “Spanish Main” but “were unheard of in the Pacific.” (Wikipedia) That assumption is the first reason Drake matters to Ecuador. When Golden Hind slipped through the Strait…
Series: Piracy On the Ecuadorian coast · Part 3 — The “Esmeraldas interception”: how Drake actually took the Cacafuego off Cabo San Francisco (1579) When people say “the Esmeraldas interception,” they’re usually talking about the moment Francis Drake’s ship (Golden Hind) finally caught and seized the Spanish treasure ship Nuestra Señora de la Concepción—nicknamed the Cacafuego—near Cape/Cabo San Francisco, on the coast of today’s Esmeraldas Province.
Living in Ecuador
Series: Piracy On the Ecuadorian coast · Part 4 — Modern piracy on Ecuador’s Pacific coast has little in common with the pirates of popular culture. It usually involves armed men in fast fibreglass boats attacking artisanal fishermen to steal their motors, fuel, equipment, catch—or the entire boat.