As we arrived at the airport in Quito, Ecuador, a sign above us read “Bienvenidos a Quito, Ecuador: Latitude 00° 00′ 00” “. We were on the equator. So cool. Cooler than cool actually, it was freezing. Apparently at 10,000 feet it doesn’t matter what your latitude, its all about altitude. For the first time on our trip, out came the warm weather gear. Quito, as any good South American city does, has an “Old town” which was our first visit. We spent our first day wandering it’s streets, but honestly, after the spectacular old towns of Panama City and Cartagena, Quito’s was a big disappointment for us. In fact the city as a whole left a lot to be desired. There was very little colonial beauty, every old church tried to charge us significant sums of money just to look inside, the people were not very friendly, etc. As a disclaimer I must say that this was just our personal opinion but we knew in four hours it wasn’t the place for us.  We left after one night instead of the three we had planned having heard about some hot springs up in the mountains in the town of Papallacta that sounded amazing.   Continue reading →