Ecuador

On the comments of my previous post, an anonymous reader asked if I could make "a more distinctive flag for Ecuador". Yes, I can, why not? If you have a suggestion to a future post, you're welcome to do the same!

The problem alluded by the dear anonymous commenter is due to Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela were once part of a bigger country, called Gran Colombia. To show the shared heritage, they all adopted very similar flags based on Gran Colombian yellow-blue-red pattern. Below, you can see the Ecuatorian flag, and, more below, the Colombian and Venezuelan flags. You can notice Ecuatorian flag is no more than the flag of Colombia charged with a coat of arms.

Ecuador

Colombia	Venezuela

I'd like to come with something that still remembers the Gran Colombian colors, but with enough distinctiveness. I've come with two similar proposals, basically two variants of same theme.

The first is this:


I've made the blue stripe wider, to put, on the middle of the flag, a theme from national coat of arms. The sun represents the independence, and had very importance to the Inca Empire, that included the biggest part of Ecuatorian territory. The symbols of Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer constellations, representing the months March to July, the period that comprised the 1845 March Revolution.

The second flag removes the astrological symbols, gaining a new symbolism.


Instead of the ecliptic (zodiac line), the white stripe represents the equator, that gives the country its name.

The rest of the symbolism, originary from the Gran Colombian flag, fits the country very well: yellow for the fertile soil, blue for the sky and the Pacific Ocean (in this proposal, you could separate upper blue stripe to sky and lower blue stripe to the ocean), red for the blood spilled to achieve the liberty.

Comments are welcome.
Which of the two proposal is your favorite: with or without the signs?