I’m from the tropics!
As the name suggests, Ecuador is bisected (in the north) by the Equator, the imaginary line that divides the Earth into two halves, and where the day lasts 12 hours throughout the year. Therefore, one would expect an equatorial climate, hot and humid with year-round rains, but this is only true for the eastern part of the country and the northernmost part of the coast, both covered by forests.
In fact, the central part is crossed by the Andes and is therefore more or less cold depending on altitude, while almost all of the western part, on both the plain and the coast, is affected by a cool ocean current (the Humboldt current), which lowers a bit the temperature and makes the climate more arid, especially from May to December.
I am from Quito, and I have had fewer opportunities than you might think to go to the coast, the Pacific coast, because our lives were very much based in the city.
In fact, the central part is crossed by the Andes and is therefore more or less cold depending on altitude, while almost all of the western part, on both the plain and the coast, is affected by a cool ocean current (the Humboldt current), which lowers a bit the temperature and makes the climate more arid, especially from May to December.
I am from Quito, and I have had fewer opportunities than you might think to go to the coast, the Pacific coast, because our lives were very much based in the city.