Quito, Ecuador

Quito sits in northern Ecuador, at an elevation of 2,850m or 9,350f, is the highest capital city in the world!    
                  
The city is surrounded by beautiful mountains

Meghan and I stayed at Posada del Maples in what looked like Harry Potter's room

The hostel was located near the Mariscal district aka gringo land : ) which was a great area to be able to walk around and explore various shops, restaurants, bars.

We did a tour of the city checking out the various sites and architecture

Our tour bus. We were able to hop on and off the bus as we pleased. Great way to see the city

Occupy Quito? Not sure what they were protesting

The Basillica.  What beautiful architecture.  It's hard to imagine people putting so much time and dedication into a building.

The Basillica is technically considered to be unfinished. It's believed that when it is finished the end of the world will come.

One famous site in Quito is the giant Madonna, that sits upon El Panecillo, overlooking the city.  The monument was given to the people of Ecuador by the French.   

                                        
Of course I also had to go see the monument to the Equator.  Equador/Quito get this distinction of being the equator city because of its altitude.  Although in reality the equator line also runs through many countries-Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia and Kiribati.


At the GPS calculated Equator

There are actually two equator monuments now.  One, the GPS calculated, has not been around for very long.  Did a very interesting tour here where they taught us about indigenous tribes and there rituals.  I now know how to make a shrunken head! and showed us how water drains clockwise in the S. hemisphere and counterclockwise in the N. hemisphere.  Although I'm skepitical on this one- as I'm pretty sure not to long ago they were doing these same experiments down the road at the other monument.  Any thoughts?

At the original Equator line

Ended our time in Quito with this delicious Empanada.  Dig in!!!