Ecuadorian Currency

I took a trip to Ecuador not too long ago, and I did no research on the country before I left. I landed at the airport, took a cab to my hotel, checked in and slept for an hour or two, and then I decided to step out and get a feel for this country. The people at my hotel warned me not to take cabs out of the neighborhood, but that didn't matter, I didn't even have any cash to pay them. In fact, I didn't even know what Ecuadorian money looked like. So I asked the guy at the front desk of my hotel where I could change out some money for Ecuadorian cash. There was a language barrier and we were both really confused, I so I asked how I could get online. He pointed me to a computer lab where I typed into Google, "Ecuador currency." If you do the same thing, you'll find out just as I did that Ecuador uses the U.S. Dollar. So maybe there wasn't a language issue with the guy at the front desk.