Quito Ecuador, no photos

I finally got south of the equator.  Quito, the capital of Ecuador is about 16km south of the equator and at an elevation of over 9,000 feet, a temperate to cool place, rather than hot.

I thought I was mostly over a minor head cold when I flew out of Panama, but the elevation change sapped my energy and I am sure delayed my recovery.  I spent most of 5 days not doing much, walking a couple blocks, watching movies and reading.

Finally I felt like I was up to doing a little and went into the central bar and restaurant area, a very short walk from my hostel.

Man did I feel old.

Although the general population of Quito is a mix of old and young much like most other places, what I was wandering through was very much party central, and there were more bars than I have ever seen in that small an area ever before.  The vast majority of people there were under thirty.  Maybe even under twenty-five.  Mixed in with the bars were hostels, averaging over two per block, along with cafes and the odd high end restaurant.  During the day there were not that many people about, but when the sun went down, the locals came out to play, and they came out in large numbers.

The main district is about six blocks by four, but slowly blends into a commercial area to the south, full of shops hotels and professional services.

The evenings tended to be cool, and needed either a light jacket or sweater to be comfortable, but ti was well worth it to wander around and see everyone having a great time.

Quito itself is a modern city, stretched out roughly north - south in a valley.  At night the lights of the city are all but impossible to see from one spot, the valley rolls far too much and there are short ridges hiding some of the suburbs as well.  this means though that from the higher places, you can see a lot of the lights laid out below you, and if you go to a place in the lower levels where there are not many high buildings, you can see the lights spreading up the sides of the valley.

The number of truly tall buildings are few, most seem to top out in the fifteen floor range, but in a place prone to earthquakes, that makes total sense to me.

All in all it is a very nice place to visit, although I have heard it is not the safest place to walk around in after the bars close, the same can be said of a great many cities.

If the clouds clear off a bit tomorrow, I will take a tram ride to the top of a volcano that over looks the city and grab a few photos, but from what the weather forecast says, that is unlikely.

I am drawn to travel over the spine of the Andes next and into the Amazon Rainforest, a small town called Lago Agrio near a large national park.  I plan to spend a few days there, and then back to Quito to fly out for Peru.