ECUADOR

Republic of Ecuador República del Ecuador CAPITAL: Quito FLAG: The flag consists of three horizontal stripes, the yellow uppermost stripe being equal to the combined widths of the blue center stripe and the red lower stripe. ANTHEM: Salve, O Patria (Hail, O Fatherland). MONETARY UNIT: The sucre has been replaced by the U.S. dollar as the official currency as of March 2000 at a rate of 25,000 sucres for 1 U.S. dollar. The dollar ($) of 100 cents is a paper currency with a floating rate. There are coins of 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents and 1 dollar, and notes of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollars. Although issuance of higher notes ceased in 1969, a limited number of notes of 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 dollars remain in circulation. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES: The metric system is the legal standard, but local and old Spanish units also are used. HOLIDAYS: New Year’s Day, 1 January; Epiphany, 6 January; Labor Day, 1 May; Battle of Pichincha, 24 May; Simón Bolívar’s Birthday, 24 July; Quito’s Independence Day, 10 August; Guayaquil’s Independence Day, 9 October; Columbus Day, 12 October; All Saints’ Day, 1 November; All Souls’ Day, 2 November; Cuenca’s Independence Day, 3 November; Foundation of Quito, 6 December; Christmas Day, 25 December. Movable holidays include Carnival and Holy Week. TIME: Mainland, 7 AM = noon GMT; Galápagos Islands, 6 AM = noon GMT.