Quito

CAPITAL CITY OF Ecuador: Quito
LANGUAGE OF Ecuador: Spanish
CURRENCY OF Ecuador: US dollar (USD)
COMMENTS ABOUT Ecuador:
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean on the west.
Cities :Quito (capital), Cuenca, Guaranda, Azogues, Tulcan, Riobamba, Latacunga, Machala, Esmeraldas, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Guayaquil, Ibarra, Loja, Babahoyo, Portoviejo, Macas, Tena, Puerto Francisco de Orellana, Puyo, Nueva Loja, Ambato, Zamora
Best Places : Agua Blanca, Babahoyo, Canoa, Cotopaxi, Galapagos Islands, Guaranda, Mindo, Montañita, Papallacta, Piedra Blanca, Puerto López, Puyo, Quilotoa, Loop, San Miguel, Tena, Vilcabamba
Electricity : 110-220V/60Hz (USA & European plugs)
Calling Code : +593
Time Zone : UTC-5

CLIMATE OF Ecuador: Tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher elevations; tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands
RELIGION OF Ecuador: Approximately 95% of Ecuadorians are Roman Catholic. In the rural parts of Ecuador, indigenous beliefs and Christianity are sometimes syncretized. There is also a growing number of Protestant denominations.
POPULATION OF Ecuador: 13,212,742 (July 2004 est.) mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 65%, Amerindian 25%, Spanish and others 7%, black 3%>
HISTORY OF Ecuador: The "Republic of the Equator" was one of three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Colombia and Venezuela). Between 1904 and 1942, Ecuador lost territories in a series of conflicts with its neighbors. A border war with Peru that flared in 1995 was resolved in 1999.
ECONOMY OVERVIEW OF Ecuador: Ecuador has substantial petroleum resources, which have accounted for 40% of the country's export earnings and one-fourth of public sector revenues in recent years. Consequently, fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic impact. In the late 1990s, Ecuador suffered its worst economic crisis, with natural disasters and sharp declines in world petroleum prices driving Ecuador's economy into free fall in 1999. Real GDP contracted by more than 6%, with poverty worsening significantly. The banking system also collapsed, and Ecuador defaulted on its external debt later that year. The currency depreciated by some 70% in 1999, and, on the brink of hyperinflation, the MAHAUD government announced it would dollarize the economy. A coup, however, ousted MAHAUD from office in January 2000, and after a short-lived junta failed to garner military support, Vice President Gustavo NOBOA took over the presidency. In March 2000, Congress approved a series of structural reforms that also provided the framework for the adoption of the US dollar as legal tender. Dollarization stabilized the economy, and growth returned to its pre-crisis levels in the years that followed. Under the administration of Lucio GUTIERREZ, who took office in January 2003, Ecuador benefited from higher world petroleum prices, but the government has made little progress on fiscal reforms and reforms of state-owned enterprises necessary to reduce Ecuador's vulnerability to petroleum price swings and financial crises.