Newspapers
Ecuador produces several high-quality daily newspapers. Leader of the pack is the Quito-based El Comercio , a traditional broadsheet that has good coverage of home and international news, and comes with supplement sections on sport and business. The more progressive Hoy , again from Quito, also enjoys a high standard of writing, particularly in its robust editorials. The Guayaquil broadsheets, El Universo and El Telégrafo , are solid publications, the latter printing a news summary in English. There are a number of regional newspapers too, such as El Mercurio in Cuenca and Metropolitano in Manta. Just about all of these major dailies have their own Web sites, which hold a selection of the day's articles and headlines .

The gravity of the broadsheets is counterbalanced by a racy tabloid press, such as La Segunda and La Tercera in Quito, which try to find the lighter side of the most grisly news stories, and have been known to run headlines like " Murió hecho farol " ("Died becoming a lamppost") when someone was electrocuted. Últimas Noticias , Quito's afternoon tabloid, somewhat equivalent to the UK's London Evening Standard , isn't as flippant, but Guayaquil's Extra , available across the country, manages to plumb the depths of tabloid journalism. An unsavoury mix of sex and violence, the front-page picture is invariably a bloody murder scene or traffic accident, usually alongside a photo of a bikini-clad woman.

A handful of English-language quarterly magazines are published in Quito, such as the worthy, but thin, Ecuador Times , and several pocket-sized city guides that have tourist information and the odd article in English and Spanish, such as Descubra Quito, Inside Ecuador , or the weekly Explorer , the best for the latest entertainment and events listings. Imported news magazines - Newsweek, Time and The Economist - are usually only found in the tourist centres, where you're also likely to get copies of the International Herald Tribune , and the overseas edition of the Miami Herald newspapers.

Television
Ecuador has five main national television stations, and several other regional channels . Of the nationals, Ecuavisa and Teleamazonas are the most highbrow, with the best news bulletins and the occasional quality imported documentary. At the other end of the spectrum, there's Gamavision, based in Quito, which has a penchant for screening soaps ( telenovelas ) of the big hair, shaking sets, rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags variety; and Telesistema, from Guayaquil, which favours epic-length game shows, over-dubbed US imports and home-grown comedy. Telecentro holds the middle ground with a balance of popular programming interspersed with news and sport.

Cable TV is making big inroads in Ecuador, and even some cheaper hotels are beginning to get it installed in their rooms. The number of channels you'll get depends on how much the hotel owner has paid in subscription, but if it's installed you'll almost always have an English-language film channel and MTV. Only the top-end places are likely to have TV Direct, a satellite set-up with dozens of familiar channels in English and Spanish.

Radio
Radio is an important part of community life in Ecuador, particularly in the rural regions where local stations are used to pass news and messages between villages. There are hundreds of such stations across the country, the majority broadcasting on AM, with a significant minority on shortwave frequencies. Religious broadcasting from evangelical Christians is also widespread and can be picked up across the country; the best known station, HCJB, features programmes and news in English and Spanish. With a shortwave radio, you'll also be able to pick up BBC World Service and Voice of America; you can check their frequencies and schedules on www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequencies/samefreq.shtml and www.voa.gov/allsked.html#E .