in 2000 ecuador switched from the sucre to the u.s. dollar primarily because their economy was going down the toilet and in fact my wife and I at the time were living in quito and i remember when president mahuad announced the change over because it was just after my son was born and shortly after there was a coup d'état and a junta installed gustavo noboa as the president and in the days before the sucre was to be made totally worthless there were long lines outside of the banks of people trying to exchange their sucres for dollars. i know the casino plaza very well because i use to play poker every friday with some co-workers until i got transferred back to the u.s. which i was glad to do but it was also a pain in the ass because my son who was born in ecuador had to have a ecuadorian passport even though my wife and i are born and raised u.s. citizens.

jake r. thompson