Ecuador (Quito, and areas around Quito)
In Ecuador we visited Quito and some areas around Quito. The photos start with Quito, then our little hike to see some lamas with our French Bulldog tour guide. Also included are some photos from the Termas de Papallacta (wonderful thermal baths) and Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (monument to the middle of the world). They built the monument to the middle of the world about 200-300 meters off the actual location of the equator, so there also some pictures from the Intiñan Museum, which is supposed to be the actual GPS measured correct location.
Plaza de San Francisco, and in the background is the top of El Panecillo hill with the statue of La Virgen de Quito.
View looking out over Quito from inside the Basílica del Voto Nacional.
In front of the Basílica del Voto Nacional in Quito.
Calle La Ronda in Quito.
On a hike with our french bulldog guide.
Feeding a couple lamas some carrots.
One of the lamas wasn't too happy when we ran out of carrots, so he decided to block the trail. He said, "None shall pass", which is a Monty Python reference for those of you who are wondering.
Our tour guide was rewarded when we returned from our hike.
On our drive out to the Termas de Papallacta thermal spas.
These thermal spas were awesome. It's a little over an hour drive out to these thermal spas from Quito, but well worth the trip.
If possible, I would recommend going during the week when no one is there, instead of the weekend. We pretty much had to whole place to ourselves, and it is cheaper during the week. Highly recommend this place. 5 stars.
There are all kinds of different pools that are at different temperatures, and it is also a spa with all kinds of options for different things. We did a combo package that was an awesome deal.
This is from the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, which is a monument that is on the equator, but there is some dispute that this isn't really exactly at the equator. I guess this was built pre GPS and they are off by about 200-300 feet. At this location there are restaurants, stores and all sorts of attractions. Since they thought that this wasn't exactly at the equator, there was another attraction built that is right next to the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, which is called: the Intiñan Solar Museum, and now they are not sure if that is exactly at the equator.... so who knows.
Another picture from the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo.
This picture is from the Intiñan Solar Museum. We decided to go to both places (Ciudad Mitad del Mundo and Intiñan Solar Museum) since they were right next to each other.
And another picture from the Intiñan Solar Museum.
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