I have visited a number of big cities in South America including Bogotá and Cartagena in (Colombia), Lima and Cuzco (Peru) and Quito (Ecuador). While Cartagena, located on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, was utterly charming and romantic, I would choose Quito as being the most beautiful city overall. Located at about 9,200 feet above sea level, Quito’s physical setting is absolutely magnificent - Ecuador’s capital city straddles a long narrow valley which is situated between two mountain ranges.

Old town Quito, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, reminded me a lot of me a lot of hometown of San Francisco, with its steep cobblestoned streets and old world charm. Walking through the old quarter, there are many streetside cafés and small shopping enclaves that feature a variety of very tasteful boutiques and art galleries. On the last night that I was in Quito, I hired a taxi to take me up to El Panecillo, the large hill topped by a statue of La Virgen de Quito. Located a couple miles outside the old city, the view from this vantage point after sunset is absolutely heavenly.

If you’d like to get a taste of Quito, I have put together a short slideshow video of about 3 minutes in duration. Quito es magnifico!

Tags: Quito Ecuador

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 am and is filed under Ecuador, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.