Word: ecuadorians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...extinct for millenniums, prowl the islands. Giant tortoises, resembling prehistoric tanks, lurch slowly along their beaches. Lewin, aided by Photographer Sally Anne Thompson, does his usual excellent job of showing what Darwin saw when he landed in this natural laboratory of evolution. And not a moment too soon. The Ecuadorian government, which owns these islands, is fortunately taking steps to discourage tourism. Unless it does, the clock could start running, and though Darwin's world will never be forgotten, a large part of it could be destroyed...
...Ecuador, where the armed forces have ruled since a 1972 coup, free elections produced at least the prospect of a civilian winner. In fact, there are now two runoff candidates for the country's presidency. The current favorite is the candidate least beloved by the Ecuadorian military: Jaime Roldós Aguilera, 37, leader of the populist Concentration of Popular Forces party (CFP). Roldós received 31% of the 1,408,316 votes cast. His closest rival in a six-candidate field was Sixto Duran Ballén, 57, the army's favorite, with 23%. The runoff...
...spirals upward faster than California real estate, even the largest treasures are not safe. Last month a quarter-ton stone figure of an ancient priest chewing coca, known as El Coquero and dating back some 3,000 years, vanished from its site in San Agustin in southwest Colombia. Ecuadorian officials are trying to retrieve an entire 11,000-item collection of Andean treasures that somehow managed to turn up in Milan and Turin, where they were being put up for sale...
...years scientists have flocked to the Ecuadorian village of Vilcabamba, deep in the Andes, to study its amazingly vigorous people. Along with two similar mountain regions in the Soviet Caucasus and Pakistani Kashmir, Vilcabamba was believed to be populated by a large number of remarkably old inhabitants. A 1971 census listed 11.4% of the villagers in the over-60 category (compared with 4.5% elsewhere in rural Ecuador) and reported that nine of the 819 residents were 100 or older...
...Vilcabambans exaggerated their ages, Leaf believes, in hopes that the fountain-of-youth publicity would bring a flood of tourist dollars. Indeed, the Ecuadorian government was influenced by the influx of scientists and tourists to step up development of the area, and a Japanese group has announced plans to build a health spa and longevity research center there. But it will take more than a sampling of the Vilcabambans' vaunted regimen of hard work, low-calorie and low-animal-fat diet and high-altitude living to extend the normal life span. Concedes Leaf: "This lifestyle, although it kept them...