Image id: 09ECU-1288

The village of San Pablo nestles beneath Imbabura Volcano, in Imbabura Province, Ecuador, South America. Imbabura, an inactive stratovolcano, has not erupted for at least 14,000 years, but may not yet be extinct. Imbabura is intermittently capped with snow and has no permanent glaciers. Covered in volcanic ash, the slopes of Imbabura are especially fertile. In addition to cloud forests, which are found across the northern Andes to an altitude of 3000 m, the land around Imbabura is extensively farmed. Maize, sugarcane, and beans are all staple crops of the region. Cattle are also an important commodity, and much of the land on and around Imbabura, especially the high-altitude meadows above the tree line, is used for grazing.