Informations générales sur le pays

Capital city: QUITO

Population: 12.156.608

Surface: 283.560 Km²

Time zone:: -6h with respect to Italy; - 7h in case of Daylight Saving Time

Spoken Languages: Spanish

Religions: Catholic

Currency: Sucre (ECS), but USD is actually used

Préfix: 00593

Tourism in Ecuador has been constantly growing during the last 10 years. The number of foreigners went from 627,000 in 200 to 850,000 in 2005 and over 1 million in 2008.(source: un.org)

Ecuador, like many other nations in Latin America, includes contrasting elements: charming natural beauties and metropolitan decay, hospitality of its peopled as well as guerrilla warfare and tourists kidnapping. Despite some negative aspects it is an interesting place and one of the most promising nations in the South-American continent.

The country is rich in natural resources including gold, silver and petrol, at the origin of numerous conflicts with surrounding countries, mainly Peru’. Moreover, it owns great geographical resources thanks to its diverse territory and offers the possibility to follow an itinerary from the beauty of Galapagos Islands, offering their unique heritage of plants and wildlife, to the blue and crystal clear coastline, up to the Sierra highlands with the capital Quito (at 2500 m sea-level), to the peaks of Andes and finally to the astonishing Amazonia Forest. (source: www.paesionline.it)