Ecuador Country Info - South America

Description and Basic Information

Ecuador with its capital Quito is located in South America (Western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator). It covers some 283,561 square kilometres (slightly smaller than Nevada) with 13,927,000 citizens. Spanish is the language used in Ecuador. It is charing borders with Peru and Colombia.

Ecuador is a country in South America with a Pacific Ocean coastline and the world's highest active volcano (Cotopaxi). Intercity buses travel to almost everywhere in Ecuador. Many cities have a central bus terminal, known as the terminal terrestre. Quito is a great place to learn Spanish. Quite a few private Spanish academies exist. Quality varies greatly, so check reviews online and speak to current students before enrolling. Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as its currency. Other types of currency are not readily accepted. Water from the tap is unsafe to drink. Even Ecuadorians generally only drink bottled (or boiled) water. Ecuador offers great opportunities for hiking and climbing, unfortunately, some travelers have been attacked and robbed in remote sections of well known climbs. Travelers are urged to avoid solo hikes and to go in a large group for safety reasons. You can always ask tourist police officers, police officers or in Tourist information center for the dangerous regions. Outside the major cities and tourist areas, malaria can be a problem along the coast during the rainy season.

Pictures from Capital (Quito)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Ecuador

The topography features coastal plain (costa), inter-Andean central highlands (sierra), and flat to rolling eastern jungle (oriente). The average density of population is about 49 per km². The climate in Ecuador can be described as tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher elevations with tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands. Potential natural disasters are frequent earthquakes or landslides, volcanic activity, floods or periodic droughts.

To reach someone in Ecuador dial +593 prior to a number. There are 2,004,000 installed telephones. And there are 13,635,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 1800 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".ec". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 120V - 60Hz. The following list are the 24 regions/states in Ecuador we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Ecuadorian population grew at a rate of 1.47% (or by 216,830 citizens). With 73,953 deaths and 300,545 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.53%. -9,762 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Ecuador: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.