Mitad del Mundo
Quito, Ecuador is the world’s highest capital city, it’s nearly on the equator, and surrounded by volcanoes. Due to the setting, I felt anticipation for my visit to my sixth and final capital. However, my time in Quito didn’t grab me in the same way as other South American big cities. The city even has Bus Rapid Transit and an open street event every Sunday called Ciclopaseo.
It’s okay for this city to be a little less exciting! Here are a few reasons why I had some frustrations:
On a few evenings, the buses stopped running around 9pm. Once it was a holiday, but another time it was Saturday night. I don’t stay up all night long, but I like to use the bus after dinner.
Likewise, businesses were closed at unusual times, and almost every restaurant was closed on Monday.
The historic center, where I stayed, isn’t as seamlessly pedestrianized. And it also gets really empty at night.
Luckily, Quito is a great place to take a few day and overnight trips. First was a cloud forest:
I also visited the coast, and an island with some Galapagos species (without the expensive travel):
And I crossed the equator several times! I saw six different monuments and signs for it. Some of them are slightly off because they were measured a long time ago. At one, there were some fun, goofy, false demonstrations like swirling water and balancing eggs. The last one I saw was exact according to my GPS, and the guide told me some good info about stars, solar clocks, and nearby pre-Columbian archaeology that aligns with the equator.
