I'm surprised to see how many cities in south america have a rather long name that is not used in the praxis. Quito is one of them; its official name is San Francisco de Quito. Bogotá used to be called "Santafé de Bogotá" until 2001 when they shortened their name. Santiago de Cali, San Carlos de Bariloche, ... its a long list. It shows the strong religious influence the Spanisch conquistadores had when founding the new cities in the colonies.
My visit to Quito started with a tour to the Middle of the World; a park located a few kilometers north of Quito, in a place where the Earth's equatorial line crosses Ecuador.
It was just a few days before the summer solstice and the sun clock showed the time very accurately, 12:30!
Quito is located in a wide valley and has several mountains, volcanos and hills around. Below are photos from Panecillo, a small hill crowned with a statue of La Virgen de el Panecillo of Virgen of Quito.
The next day was very sunny, ideal weather of a walking tour. We visited the old town and at the end took the cable list to the Pichincha volcano's viewing point.
Here some photos of the visit to the Pichincha viewing point. It is one of the highest lifts in the world, rising from 3,117 m to 3,945 m over the see level, traveling about eight minutes.
From the viewing point is possible to hike to the Pichincha's summit in about 2 hours. Unfortunately it was 2pm already and the weather had turned cloudy. I went back down with the feeling I need to do some hiking again.
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