Quito has, I suppose, two claims to fame as a capital city. At 2,800 metres it is the second highest city in the world (La Paz is the highest) and it can with some justification claim to be in the middle of the world being just a few kilometres from the Equator. It also has one of the most spectacular locations of any city, sitting in a valley surrounded by mountains that rise to nearly 6,000 metres.

These facts combine to give Quito a unique feel. The altitude makes itself immediately felt whenever I exert myself. Even just walking upstairs to our room makes me feel breathless. The sign in the nearby Basilica del Voto Nacional advising me to 'walk not run' as I climbed up the steps to the tower was definitely unnecessary. The breathlessness is not helped by the layout of the city, squeezed into the narrowest part of the valley where walking anywhere inevitably seems to require going up a steep hill, painfully slowly. Being surrounded by mountains the weather is very changeable. Local people talk about experiencing four seasons in one day - bright mornings, clouding over by lunchtime with thunderstorms in the evening and sub-zero temperatures at night.

But it is an attractive city. The centre of the old city has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its Spanish colonial architecture and has remained largely unspoilt - modern development being restricted to the more brash 'new' town a few miles up the valley. Like many Latin American cities it lacks the hectic, pell-mell rush of South Asian capitals. Unlike many other Latin American cities it is not too polluted and the traffic is relatively civilised and not overly dominating.

Today was Monday so we went to see the Changing of the Guard outside the Presidential Palace. Accompanied by a fine military brass band the Guard, resplendent in their Ruritanian blue and white uniforms, went through the ritual as they do every week and possibly have done since Ecuador gained its independence in 1822. When the national anthem was played it was rather humbling to see families of Ecuadorians standing to attention and singing along - I can't imagine that happening at the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace, not even with Christopher Robin and Alice. As a country that never had to struggle for its independence we sometimes forget what it means in many places around the world. Oh - sorry, how could I forget we are currently engaged in a struggle to regain our independence from being a vasal state of the European Union.

Less traditional, I'm supposing, was the line of paramilitary police in full riot gear lined up between the soldiers and the crowd. Our guide, Luis, told us they were there because the current President, the rather splendidly named Lenín Moreno, is deeply unpopular despite only having been in office for a year. It seems he does not live up to his namesake being heavily involved in personal corruption. However the police were redundant today as he did not appear, as is traditional, on the balcony to take the salute. Seemingly he has not done so for many weeks since he can no longer be guaranteed a warm welcome.

Lunch was a meal, so to speak, of two halves. First coffee in a café that would put the most hipsterish joint in Shoreditch to shame. (Was Kate happy to have her filter coffee made in a V60 filter with paper or would she prefer some other method?) Then eating in a traditional Ecuadorian restaurant where we were the only Western tourists. Lunch consisted of three course: soup, chicken fillet and cake plus fresh fruit juice - all for $5USD. (Everything in Ecuador is priced in dollars because the US dollar IS the national currency).

After lunch it was of to the 'El Mitad del Mundo' - the Middle of the World or The Equator. Ecuador likes to make much of its status as the most significant country on the equator because, as the highest in the world it is the nearest to the sun. The 'official' monument is a thirty metre high stone monolith a bit like something out of 2001 except that it is topped of with a large metal globe. Unfortunately the French expedition of 1736 which determined the exact line of the Equator and proved that the Earth is not a perfect sphere but bulged along the line of the Equator, got their measurements slightly wrong and placed it about 240 metres south of the true line as determined by the American military using their GPS system. But that hasn't stopped the line marked by the monument as continuing to be presented as the real deal and so, it is obligatory to stand with your feet planted either side of the line painted on the ground, so spanning both northern and southern hemispheres.

The French mistake, understandable given the equipment available at the time, has opened up a space for another museum that claims to sit on the real Equator. But the Museo Inti Nan presents itself as much more than simply an excuse to paint another line on the concrete. In an orgy of New Ageism it links explanations of the solstice and the equinox with tableaux about indigenous tribes that still live in the Amazon and factually incorrect demonstrations that purport to show that water flows down a plughole in different directions either side of the Equator and that we can lose a significant amount of weight merely by standing on a red line painted onto the concrete. But it is amusing enough and a useful counterpoint to the much more serious official park across the road.