Day trips to Quito and the middle of the world

Quito is the 2nd largest city in Ecuador and it’s capital.  While staying in our “country home” in La Merced, we made multiple 3 hour round trips to this lovely area to see the old square.  This area of Quito has one of the largest collection of Spanish colonial buildings in South America dating back 300 plus years.  We spent hours just strolling the area, having coffee or lunch, and then climbing to the highest areas for a view on the city.

Quito is at 10,000 feet in elevation and is surrounded by no less than 11 volcanoes.  One of them was active only a few years ago and the residents of Quito had to wear masks to keep out the ash from their lungs……can you say St Helens?
Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) sits exactly on the equator, or really close anyway, it depends on when the measurements were taken.  This was very touristy, but we had a good time and even straddled the equator and stood in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres - we just went with it.

After we had our fill of the big city......we were off to the rain forest of Mindo and our last stop in South America!