Quito for a couple of days
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2008
1
103
125
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008

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Almost did not land and the pilot was telling us about going to Medellin instead. The bad weather was to blame, not rare for a city 2,400m high,but here I am.
The size of the Ecuadorian capital seems a lot more reasonable than Lima with only 2.5 Millions people. Still, it is 50km long. I hope the weather will let me walk around to visit the center and parks.
Not only the weather let me walk around but I managed to get a sunstroke during the 2h of daily sunshine. I now have really big headaches and take a lot of paracetamol. After so much protection during my trek, the Quito weather made me leave cream and hat in my room, how unlucky.
Did a walk in town with Colleen, whom I met on the minibus from the airport and Tom + Shelley, a couple met in Santiago and whom I saw randomly during breakfast. Small world.
The historical center is really nice with a lot of colonial buildings. The city is a lot cleaner and organised than Lima. We spent the afternoon on the bus and in an outside museum situated exactly on the equator line. There were a lot of funny experiences and it was impressive to see the difference between being ON the line and only 3 meters away: opposite Coriolis vortex, double sided solar clock... I must have changed of hemisphere a dozen times today. I even received a certificate for balancing an egg on a nail, not too hard when you are ON the line.
The size of the Ecuadorian capital seems a lot more reasonable than Lima with only 2.5 Millions people. Still, it is 50km long. I hope the weather will let me walk around to visit the center and parks.
Not only the weather let me walk around but I managed to get a sunstroke during the 2h of daily sunshine. I now have really big headaches and take a lot of paracetamol. After so much protection during my trek, the Quito weather made me leave cream and hat in my room, how unlucky.
Did a walk in town with Colleen, whom I met on the minibus from the airport and Tom + Shelley, a couple met in Santiago and whom I saw randomly during breakfast. Small world.
The historical center is really nice with a lot of colonial buildings. The city is a lot cleaner and organised than Lima. We spent the afternoon on the bus and in an outside museum situated exactly on the equator line. There were a lot of funny experiences and it was impressive to see the difference between being ON the line and only 3 meters away: opposite Coriolis vortex, double sided solar clock... I must have changed of hemisphere a dozen times today. I even received a certificate for balancing an egg on a nail, not too hard when you are ON the line.


Comments
Ha pasado el condor?
Hola Tom!
ça fait une paye que je n'ai pas pris de tes nouvelles, tu connais la rengaine (le travail).
Merci pour ta carte de NZ, Aude et moi étions ravi de la recevoir...il faut dire qu'on reve du pays kiwi depuis longtemps. Vu tes photos, pas de doute il faut qu'on y aille!
Je serais curieux de connaitre ta préférence: cordillère andine ou alpes zélandaises?
Car là encore c'est un notre de nos reves: l'inca trail.
Vas tu voir les mythiques Cotopaxi et Chimborazo? Tu prévois toujours les Galapagos?
Prends soin de toi, on t'embrasse
Loic
Re: Ha pasado el condor?
Hola amigo,
Malheureusement, pas de condor cette fois-ci.
Sinon entre les Andes et NZ, je vous conseille vivement les deux. C´est tellement different.
La Nouvelle Zelande est de loin le plus beau pays que j´ai vu avec des paysages tellement sublimes que toutes les rando la-bas sont magnifiques. par contre, les aspects culturelles et depaysement sont limites. Il faut y aller pour le grand air et les frissons.
Niveau hautes montagnes, cultures, centres historiques et echanges avec les locaux, le Perou et vraiment top. Seul petit conseil: l´Inca Trail est un trek a eviter. Trop de monde, trop cher, difficultes reduites... c´est l´usine. Il vaut mieux faire un des nombreux treks autour de Cusco et ensuite aller voir Machu Picchu separement.
Ma rencontre colombienne m´a fait changer mes plans et je me limite donc a Santiago, Lima, Cusco et Quito avant d´aller en Colombie. Le reste de l´Amerique Latine sera pour une prochaine fois. En plus les Galapagos devenaient trop cheres pour mon budget apres mon trek et la degringolade de la Livre Sterling.
J´espere que tous vos projets avancent sur de bons rails.
Grosses bises a vous deux et bon courage pour le boulot.