Essential Spanish phrases

The Ecuadorian ID card, issued by the Registro Civil once your visa is granted. Banks, the IESS, the SRI and employers all work from the cédula number rather than your passport.

The higher-education authority that registers foreign degrees. If you are applying for the professional visa, this registration is the whole application — start it months early.

The unified basic salary, USD 482 for 2026. Almost every visa income threshold and social-security floor in Ecuador is expressed as a multiple of it, and it is reset each December.

Registro Único de Contribuyentes — your SRI taxpayer number. You need one to invoice, to run a business or to let a property. Employees on a payroll usually do not.

Ecuador has used the US dollar as its currency since 2000. There is no exchange rate to watch, no devaluation risk on your savings, and US coins circulate alongside Ecuadorian centavos.

The social security institute. Employees are enrolled by their employer from day one; everyone else can affiliate voluntarily and pay a percentage of a declared base.

Altitude sickness. At 2,850 metres, headaches, breathlessness and poor sleep in your first week are ordinary rather than alarming. Coca tea is the local answer and hydration is the real one.

The weekday driving restriction by last digit of your number plate, applied during peak hours in the metropolitan district. Check the current schedule — it has been varied more than once.

Cumbayá, Tumbaco and the valleys east of the city, some five hundred metres lower and markedly warmer and sunnier. Thirty minutes on the Ruta Viva and a completely different climate.

The set lunch — soup, a main, juice and sometimes dessert — served everywhere between noon and two for a few dollars. It is how the country eats and it is excellent value.

ECU 911 is the single national emergency number for police, fire and ambulance. The old separate lines have been progressively folded into it.