Quito and Quilotoa

After a long traveller's way, through the mountains, coast and jungle i finally reached the capital of Ecuador - Quito - Luz de America :) a city that is truly shaped by the mountains that surround it. This is the reason Quito is so long and narrow, because on both sides it is bordered by steep mountains, preventing its expansion and creating one gorgeous view from the city center.

Of course when you're in Quito you have to visit Mitad del Mundo. This is a museum about the settlement of the equator line. There are actually a bunch of small museums on the premises of Mitad del Mundo, with very interesting information regarding how the original equator line was settled and the circumference of the earth calculated. However, with the appearance of GPS it turns out that the calculated equator line is actually about 200m off south from the actual one, thus the existence of another museum...

the museum Inti-Naan is exactly this. However besides the actual equator line it has a bunch more interesting experiments to perform on each side of the equator line (one involving the infamous direction of water flushing).

of course everyone wants to take a pic at the equator line...

Then i visited the TeleferiQo, or cable car to one of the neighboring mountains to get a view of the city.

As we went up in the cable car, the views were amazing...

Very soon though the city was engulfed in clouds since at the equator it rains every day at around 4pm.

Every country has its "Vladimir Ilich" statue :)

The next day I went to visit La Basilica cathedral. I gotta say, I've been in many cathedrals in south america and europe but this one was in my opinion the most beautiful of them all.

Gorgeous frescas occupied every one of its massive windows and the entire setting breathed of peace and tranquility. If you're ever in Quito this is a must see in my opinion.

The streets of the historical part of Quito.

Me posing with a classic guard of the presidential palace. On the left is my good buddy Marco. I met him while crossing the border from Peru to Ecuador and he was so nice as to give me his contact info and said to call him up when I was in Quito. While in the city, he truly proved a great host, meeting with me every evening and telling me what to see/do in his hometown and even gave me a gift at parting :) It's people like this that truly inspire hospitality, generosity and represent how truly friendly are the south american people.

Me and Marco, exploring one of the myriad gorgeous old churches in the capital city.

Me admiring the city from one of its highrise parks.

The view from the city is truly amazing, mountains rule here.

My last day in Quito I went to Laguna Quilotoa. This is a crater of a volcano, now filled with water and surrounded by volcano peaks. You can walk around the laguna on the peaks or you can go down to the  water, which is what we chose to do, otherwise the trip takes 2 days.

This place is really huge...

The water of the laguna is actually salty, and the legend has it that it connects to the ocean through a tunnel underground. Having stayed at the water level i decided to go up on a different path than the main one...surprise? :) I figured I gotta explore everything around this place. These are the views you get.

Climbing higher on the path. you can see the main path curving in the distance.

Self shot just to prove that I was there :)

On the way to Colombia from Quito you pass some ridiculous scenery like this mountain + volcano peaks dancing together in unison. But the best scenery I've seen is after you cross the border with Colombia on the road to Cali. By the way, Colombia received me with the most warmest welcome on the border that I've gotten so far in my travels. The people here are awesome!