The main language spoken by the majority of people is Spanish. In the rural areas surrounding Riobamba, people also speak Kichwa. It is the language of the Incas but it has changed over time. Some people speak English as a second language, but very few. Spanish is the principal language that people use to communicate.
In 2000, Ecuador made the choice to shift their economy to one based on dollars. Basically, this means they stopped using their currency, which was the sucre, and started buying and selling with the American dollar. It made it easy to come here since I didn't have to trade my money for anything different. However, they do not use bills larger than twenty, so it's difficult to trade larger bills and most people use coins. Fifty cent and dollar coins are found as well, which is fairly uncommon to use as payment in the U.S.
A large bottle of water costs between fifty and seventy cents. A smaller one ranges between twenty-five and forty cents. It's important to drink bottled or filtered water because the tap water is unsafe to drink.
