After some spending some time back in the states with family and friends, it was time to head to Ecuador for the 2019 international convention!!!
Since our residency in Mexico was in the process of being renewed, it would have been quite a hassle ( lot’s of paperwork! ) to return to Mexico in between our visit to the States and Ecuador. So we decided to spend the two weeks we had before the convention exploring some more of Ecuador.
We weren’t particularly interested in visiting Quito but since most international flights into go through there, we figured we would stop and spend some time there before continuing on to another part of the country. We found a really nice apartment in the La Floresta neighborhood at a reasonable price, so we jumped on that and decided to stay for about a week.
The apartment was on the 15th floor at the top of the building, and it had an excellent view of this end of the city and the mountains/volcanos.
Around 2am the morning after we arrived, there was an earthquake in Peru that was big enough to be felt way up in Quito. And since we were at the top of the building, we woke up to our bed slamming into the wall and the doors opening and closing while the building moved back and forth. It was by no means a big earthquake this far away from the epicenter, but it was definitely new to us and waking up to it was pretty confusing! After a little under a minute it stopped and after a while we calmed ourselves down enough to eventually get back to bed. Welcome to Ecuador!
The next morning we woke up to a nice view of the city. Each window had a different view of the city, and the way the clouds rolled over the mountains and volcanos was really fun to watch from the apartment.
We worked a normal work week while in Quito so the first few days were pretty boring just working in the apartment and grabbing some local food. After that we did have a couple days before our flight that we could relax and explore some more of the city.
We spent one day just walking around Centro. The historical center of Quito is a World Heritage Site and it’s filled with a lot of beautiful architecture, old buildings, and cobblestone streets.
One of the recommended things to do in Quito was to visit the Mitad del Mundo. At first we weren’t sure if we wanted to go but then we figured we’d probably never be this close again… It actually turned out to be really cool. In addition being able to stand on the equator ( which was really fun! ) there was a museum all about the history and culture of Ecuador and also some fun science experiments about the northern & southern hemispheres and the equator.
We also got the opportunity to take a cable car up to the top of Volcano Pichincha which was 14,000 ft above sea level. It was absolutely amazing, we really felt like we were on top of the world!
We had a lot of fun exploring the city and the surrounding areas. Quito really surprised us! Now off to Cuenca…