Discover Quito.

Tour of Quito… well, as much as we could fit in between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM… on Christmas day. Actually, it was a good day to cruise through the city of 3.5 million at 9,200 feet elevation, because everybody had the day off. The roads were clear (as opposed to a regular work day with traffic congestion). We drove to a hill that overlooked the city of Quito next to a large mostly-glass building. Quito sprawls for miles in a valley between the towering peaks of the Andes with sprawling suburbs on its hillsides.

We went for a two and half hour walk around the part of Quito with government buildings, parks and squares, churches, through narrow streets where no vehicles were allowed, and street vendors lined the curbs… it was a day off and people and families were milling and ambling about enjoying the day with family and friends. We had lunch at a posh hotel and took plenty of pictures along the way.

Then we went to the middle of the world… to a museum of sorts on the outskirts of town, located smack-dab on the equator. We got a quick official tour of dioramas showing local indigenous tribes and models demonstrating how natural events are different north and south of the equator, like hurricanes in the north and typhoons in the south. Just before leaving to go back to the hotel, we got official "middle-of-the-world" stamps in our passports.

Tomorrow… a flight from Quito to Guayaquil, Ecuador, and then to the Galapagos.