Arriving in Quito we were struck by it´s location tucked into a long valley and the surrounding mountians. It´s a very beautiful setting. Unfortunately it was poring with rain and the mountains where hidden by cloud but we caught some wonderful glimpses in the three days we were in the city. It has two centers, the old town, which is full of colonial buildings, plazas, churches, and monasteries. Then the new town which is where most of the money is, with new buildings, theatres and general city conveniences. Our hostel was in a gorgeous square in the old town called San Blas Plaza. We spent a couple of days wandering around taking in the national museum and a couple of churches before deciding we needed to get out of the city, especially since the weather was so grim.

We arranged a day´s mountain biking down Cotopaxi, one of the worlds largest active volcanoes. Nothing much in the way of activity has happened in over 100 years so it´s deemed pretty safe for now. This had to be postponed for one day as Katie wasn´t feeling great, but in the mean time, we took a short bus ride north to "The Centre of the World", a purpose built tourist village with a monument right on the equator. We had an obligatory photo straddling the conveniently marked equator like, ate an over-priced lunch, then headed back to the city. The sun did shine at midday on the equator though, and yes, it was straight up and very hot...