Quito the doors of the Andes....

After 10.000 Km I arrived to Panama and flew to Quito. My bike arrived yesterday morning and I spent most of the day to release it from customs, there were some minor damages (mirror broken and windshield with a small fracture) that shows there was some issues in the transportation.

While waiting for paperwork (and eating banana fried) I went to the dealer and find some spare mirror and I change it in the custom deposit, I need both …....

 Quito is located in Pichincha province, where the Pichcincha volcano is located, usually the provinces takes the name from the volcanoes (there are a lot of them) or the rivers.

The day I arrived I visited some typical areas of the city. Quito has been built in the middle of the mountains, there are some similarities with San Jose de Costa Rica. The temperature is cool (18 Celsius) and dry, completely different climate compared with Panama, at night you have to use a sweater.

 The city has an old area that is preserved as it was during the colonial times; there are plenty of beautiful colonial churches and seven of them are aligned after the local cathedral in one street call “The siete cruces”.

The old city is not only preserved as it was in the old times but you can see that the people and traditions are still alive and are for real....food, dresses, etc.

The city is overview by “El panecillo” (small bread) where you have the sculpture of the Virgin with wings, never seen something like this before, and here they say is the only one in the world.

 I'm ready to leave today down south towards the border with Peru, I'm planing to arrive there in two or three days depend on the mountain crossing, but before leaving I will visit “El medio del mundo” (the center of the world) a place located 50 km from Quito to the north where the equinoctial line pass.

I'll share tomorrow the details of that.

Jorge