Ecuardor, officially Republic of Ecuador, is a representative democratic republic located in South America bounded to the north by Colombia, to the east and South by Peru, and to the West by the Pacific Ocean. It is one of two countries in the region that do not have common borders with Brazil, besides Chile. In addition to the continental territory, Ecuador also has the Galapagos Islands, about 1000km from the mainland, being the country closest to those islands. Its territory of 256 370km² is cut in half by the imaginary line of Ecuador.