Ecuadorian is the word for a person from Ecuador, and for things that belong to that country: an Ecuadorian friend, Ecuadorian food, an Ecuadorian passport. Ecuador itself is a country on the west of northern South America, between Colombia and Peru, with the Pacific Ocean on one side. The capital is Quito, high in the mountains. Along the coast the land is lower and more built-up; then the Andes rise, with volcanoes; and east of the mountains there is a huge area of hot, wet forest. A 2014 count put the population at about fifteen million; there are more people now. The country’s name is the Spanish word for the equator, the imaginary line around the middle of the earth, which runs through it. People there mostly speak Spanish. Though actually, Ecuador uses the US dollar as its everyday money, which surprises many students. The Galápagos Islands, far out in the Pacific, are part of Ecuador too.