The Santa Elena Peninsula is a peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 in Santa Elena Province, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

. The Santa Elena Peninsula contains the westernmost point on mainland Ecuador and is bordered by the Gulf of Guayaquil

Gulf of Guayaquil

The Gulf of Guayaquil is a large body of water of the Pacific Ocean in western South America. Its northern limit is the city of Salinas, in Ecuador, and its southern limit is Punta Pariñas, in Peru.The gulf takes its name from the city of Guayaquil...

 to the south and the Santa Elena Bay to the north.

The peninsula region is dry and contains resources such as salt mine

Salt mine

A salt mine is a mining operation involved in the extraction of rock salt or halite from evaporite deposits.-Occurrence:Areas known for their salt mines include Kilroot near Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland ; Khewra and Warcha in Pakistan; Tuzla in Bosnia; Wieliczka and Bochnia in Poland A salt mine...

s and a significant oil field at Ancón. The settlement of Chinchipe is the closest settlement to the tip of the peninsula; it is served by Ecuador Highway 70, which extends to the tip of the peninsula.