Quito has a lot of things to offer other than its beautiful old centre. On our second day in Quito we took the bus to la Mitad del mundo, the middle of the world!

That day it was our first time in a local bus in Quito and it was a good experience but also a little strange. Vendors came in and out of the busses selling all kind of products. The ones selling food would tell us the nutritional value which I thought was very interesting. The more I traveled in Ecuador the more I saw vendors from selling plantain chips, to colon cleansers, and even fake watches! One can get pretty much anything in one of these busses!

Singer in the bus!

After an hour ride we finally got to the middle of the world, the official (but inaccurate) Equator line!




We paid the $5  entrance and were allowed to visit the site and a handful of museums. It was a fun outing and a good way to spend 1/2 a day in Quito.



The scenery from the middle of the world was probably my favourite! Mountains all around and lots of cloud! It all looked so pretty!

The southern and Northern hemisphere, separated by a yellow line!

Ok, maybe the scenery wasn't my favourite, what I enjoyed the most at the "mitad del mundo" was balancing an egg on top of a nail. They say that because of its location and gravity it is easier to balance an egg on a nail that anywhere else in the world. Well, let me tell you... It wasn't all that easy! But I don't give up easily so I tried and I tried, and I tried...

until....

I was proud of my accomplishment!

We thought we finished the museum and we were disappointed there wasn't any chocolate to taste but as we were leaving the building we ended up at the interactive part of the museum where we got to learn about the chocolate making process and finally tasted a bit of chocolate!

Cocoa!

Can you believe chocolate comes from that?!?!

When we first arrived in Quito the weather was not very good, lots of very foggy days, dark cloud, and lots and lots and lots of rain so we couldn't visit the Teleferiqo.  Anna and I decided to go back to Quito at the end of our trip and by then thankfully the weather was a lot better!

When we left the hostel the weather looked very promising, few clouds, sun wanting to come out, we thought it was going to be the perfect day. The higher we went the cloudier it got! When we finally made it to the top thick fog had covered all the view!

Well, we thought the more time we spent up there the better the chance the clouds would disappear. We started walking along the path and looking at the many flowers. 

We finally reached the first view point... and the view was a lot more clear!

The more we walked the better it got.

But then we got to the sign that said 3:45hours of uphill... 

We decided we needed a break and came to a mutual agreement of turning around!

And down we went, back to Quito:

The virgin is the biggest metal structure in the world (I did not confirm that fact and to be honest it doesn't quite sound right), it is made out of 7,000 pieces, and the head alone measures five meters!

While going up to the top for the view I stopped to check out the beautiful coloured windows displaying different virgins.

The view was really nice, one can see almost the whole Quito!

On my last day I decided to just walk around Quito without direction. In general the higher you walk the better the view so with that in mind I just kept going up, up, and up!

It is amazing the places one stumbles upon when one just wanders without a set plan. As I walked I saw a set of stairs and I went up and got to a pretty nice view of all of Quito.

While I was there a local approached me and recommended to go to Itchimbia park...

Another great spot for looking at all of Quito!