Ecuador Trivia
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48 free Ecuador trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Ecuador trivia questions with answers. Ecuador is small enough to cross in a day and packed with superlatives: the point on Earth farthest from its centre, one of the highest capital cities in the world, the islands that gave Charles Darwin his big idea, and the world's biggest banana exports. This quiz covers the geography, history, wildlife, food and sport of the country named after the equator. You will meet Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, Quito's colonial centre and Guayaquil's riverfront, the Galápagos tortoises, penguins and sea-going iguanas, the last Inca emperor, the real story of the Panama hat, guinea pig on the menu, and La Tri's World Cup debut. Questions run from easy geography to expert-level history, so it works for a classroom, a travel night or a pub quiz round. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, mostly the relevant Wikipedia article, and the citation is attached to each question.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ecuador's name is literally the Spanish word for what?
Equator
Ecuador is Spanish for 'equator'; the line of zero latitude crosses the country just north of the capital, where the Mitad del Mundo monument marks it.
Q 02Which two countries share a land border with Ecuador?
Colombia and Peru
Colombia lies to the north and Peru wraps around the east and south, with the Pacific Ocean on the west. Ecuador is one of the smallest countries in South America but still bigger than Uruguay.
Q 03What currency has Ecuador used since 2000?
The US dollar
Ecuador adopted the US dollar in 2000 after its old currency collapsed to 25,000 to the dollar in the 1998–99 banking crisis; the country issues its own centavo coins alongside US notes.
Q 04Ecuador's former currency, in use from 1884 to 2000, was named after which independence hero?
Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre led the patriot army that won the 1822 battle freeing the Ecuadorian highlands from Spain; the currency named after him lasted from 1884 until it was replaced in 2000.
Q 05The Galápagos Islands, part of Ecuador, lie roughly how far west of the mainland?
1,000 km
The Galápagos lie about 1,000 km west of mainland Ecuador in the Pacific; Ecuador annexed the islands in 1832 and made them a national park in 1959.
Q 06The Galápagos Islands take their name from the Spanish word for which animal?
Giant tortoise
Galápago is an old Spanish word for tortoise. The islands' giants are the largest living tortoise species, weighing up to 417 kg, and one captive individual, Harriet, lived at least 175 years.
Q 07Which naturalist visited the Galápagos in 1835 and noticed mockingbirds differed by island?
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin, aboard HMS Beagle, spent five weeks in the Galápagos in 1835; ornithologist John Gould later told him the birds he had lumped together were a dozen distinct finch species.
Q 08Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galápagos, is on which island?
Santa Cruz
Puerto Ayora sits on the south coast of Santa Cruz, the most populous island in the Galápagos and the base for most of the archipelago's tourism; the provincial capital is on San Cristóbal.
Q 09Which unusual bird lives in the Galápagos, the only one of its kind found in the Northern Hemisphere?
A penguin
The northern tip of Isabela Island crosses zero latitude, so a few Galápagos penguins technically live north of the line. Cold currents make it possible.
Q 10Which Ecuadorian mountain's summit is the farthest point on Earth's surface from the planet's centre?
Chimborazo
Chimborazo's summit, at 6,263 m, is Ecuador's highest point, and Earth's bulge around its middle carries it about 2 km farther from the planet's centre than Everest's summit.
Q 11Who first summited Ecuador's highest peak in 1880, 78 years after Humboldt's record-setting attempt?
Edward Whymper
Humboldt and the botanist Bonpland turned back at about 5,875 m with altitude sickness. Whymper, already famous for the Matterhorn, made the first ascent on 4 January 1880.
Q 12Cotopaxi, about 50 km south of Quito, is notable as one of the world's highest what?
Active volcanoes
Cotopaxi, a 5,897 m cone, is one of the world's highest active volcanoes and Ecuador's second-highest summit; it entered a new eruptive phase in October 2022.
Q 13Quito sits at about what elevation above sea level?
2,850 m
The city sits at about 2,850 m in a high Andean valley, which leaves many visitors short of breath; the line of zero latitude runs roughly 25 km north of the city centre.
Q 21Which US president's 1906 visit to the Panama Canal works popularised the Panama hat?
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was photographed wearing a Panama hat while inspecting the canal works in November 1906; the hats were woven in Ecuador from toquilla straw and shipped through Panama.
Q 22The finest Panama hats are named after which Ecuadorian town where they are woven?
Montecristi
Montecristi, in Manabí province near the coast, weaves the finest and most expensive Panama hats; UNESCO added toquilla-straw hat weaving to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2012.
Q 23Which Ecuadorian city was founded in 1557 on the ruins of the Inca city of Tomebamba?
Cuenca
Q 14In 1978 Quito shared with which European city the honour of being the first UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site?
Kraków
Kraków's historic centre was inscribed in UNESCO's first batch of World Heritage Sites in 1978, alongside Ecuador's capital and the Galápagos Islands.
Q 15Guayaquil, Ecuador's main port, stands on the bank of which river?
Guayas
The Guayas River runs past Guayaquil's Malecón 2000 waterfront promenade and empties into the Gulf of Guayaquil on the Pacific.
Q 16Which two liberators met in Guayaquil in July 1822 to plan the defeat of Spanish rule?
Bolívar and San Martín
The meeting's details were never made public. San Martín soon withdrew from politics, leaving Bolívar to finish the campaign in Peru.
Q 17The battle that secured Quito's independence on 24 May 1822 was fought on the slopes of which volcano?
Pichincha
The Battle of Pichincha was fought on the volcano's slopes above the city; about 3,000 patriots beat 1,900 royalists under Melchor Aymerich in roughly three hours at around 3,500 metres.
Q 18In which year did Ecuador break away from Gran Colombia to become a separate republic?
1830
Ecuador declared itself a separate republic in May 1830 as Gran Colombia broke apart; Juan José Flores became its first president.
Q 19On Ecuador's flag, which colour takes up half the height?
Yellow
Yellow fills the top half of Ecuador's flag, twice the height of the blue and red bands; it stands for the crops and fertile soil, blue for ocean and sky, and red for the blood of independence heroes.
Q 20Ecuador is the world's largest exporter of which fruit?
Bananas
Banana exports were worth $3.38 billion in 2017, and the country supplies roughly a third of the world's traded bananas. Shrimp and cut roses are the other big non-oil earners.
Cuenca was laid out in 1557 on the site of Tomebamba, a northern Inca centre favoured by the emperor Huayna Capac; its ruins are preserved at the Pumapungo archaeological park.
Q 24Ecuador's mainland is divided into three regions: the Costa, the Sierra and which Amazon region?
Oriente
The fourth region is the insular Galápagos. Oriente simply means 'east' in Spanish.
Q 25How many provinces is Ecuador divided into?
24
Ecuador has 24 provinces, the newest being Santa Elena and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, both created in 2007; they range from the tiny Galápagos to Amazonian giants like Pastaza and Orellana.
Q 26A single hectare of Ecuador's Yasuní National Park holds more than how many insect species?
100,000
A hectare of Yasuní is estimated to hold more than 100,000 insect species; the park also sets local records for tree, amphibian and bat diversity and shelters the uncontacted Tagaeri and Taromenane.
Q 27In an August 2023 referendum, Ecuadorians voted to stop what activity inside Yasuní National Park?
Oil drilling
Voters chose to halt oil drilling in Yasuní's Block 43, obliging Petroecuador to dismantle its wells; an earlier plan to leave the oil underground in exchange for international payments had collapsed after only $336 million was pledged.
Q 28Ecuador's 2008 constitution was the first in the world to do what?
Grant legal rights to nature
Ecuador's 2008 constitution was the first to grant legal rights to nature, so rivers, forests and ecosystems can be defended in court in their own name; Ecuador is one of 17 megadiverse countries.
Q 29Which highland delicacy, roasted whole, is a traditional Ecuadorian dish that surprises many visitors?
Cuy (guinea pig)
Cuy (guinea pig), roasted whole on a spit, is a highland specialty served at festivals; llapingachos, fried potato-and-cheese patties, are a classic side.
Q 30What kind of dish is encebollado, one of Ecuador's most popular everyday meals?
A tuna soup
Encebollado is a tuna soup, usually albacore simmered with yuca and topped with pickled red onion; fanesca, a salt-cod soup with a dozen grains and beans, is the special dish of Lent.