We spent the day in Quito to explore and see the sights. The historic centre of Quito is a Unesco registered site and after a day spent on the city’s red bus one can see why. It was mentioned that the beauty of the city is attributable to the historic poverty. Because the Ecuadorian government didn’t have the money to tear down the old buildings and rebuild, the newer parts of the city simply contributed to urban sprawl and what used to be the old poverty ridden areas are now considered the historic centre and a lot of the properties have been carefully renovated making the area unique and beautiful.
Quito is built high up in the Andes at an altitude of 2800m. Although it is only 50km south of the Equator and one would think the temperatures would be sweltering, many of the main cities near the equator around here are built at high altitudes, I assume to escape the heat. The year round temperatures are between 11 and 22C and seldom change.
Tomorrow we leave Ecuador and head into Colombia, our final country for the 2nd leg of the Americas trip. Our time in Ecuador has been amazing. This country is incredibly diverse including the Galapagos islands and my only regret is that we don’t have enough time to stay longer to explore other parts of it. In 2001 Ecuador adopted the US dollar as its primary currency in order to curb inflation and boost its economy. One of the side effects of this is that Ecuador has become an expensive country to visit although fuel is cheap. Quito and Ecuador in general is definitely worth visiting. It is a magnificently beautiful country…countryside and towns!
The presidential office in the middle of the historic centre.
