We first went north of Rio to a very small village called Buzios which is famous for its beautiful beaches. Here we spent a couple of days relaxing at the beach and getting a better look of the typical Brazilian dishes. Then we headed to Rio de Janeiro as a last stop in South America after a journey of around 4 month on this continent.

Rio de Janeiro is a city of extremes. Staying in the good neighborhoods of Ipanema, or its more famous twin the Copacabana, will cost you a lot more than staying in a good hotel in one of the top destinations in Europe. For me Rio looked to be a typical tourist rip-off place because the prices are definitely higher than in Germany when you think about what you’re paying for accommodation, food or tourist-tours. And it’s not even getting close to the World Cup or the Olympiads when the hotel prices will probably reach unimaginable figures.

But once here, there are a lot of things this city has to offer. The view from the statue of Christ, The Redeemer and the one from the Sugar Loaf are definitely one of the best city-views that we have ever seen. Diana rated the view of Rio from the Sugar Loaf as being the best nightly view of a city, she has ever seen.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

Before I give you details about the tour to a favela in Rio I want to say that this is not the typical image of how Brazilians live. It’s rather the exception of the rule and many Brazilian say it’s not even part of their culture, but it’s a fact that some people of the lower class live in favelas and it’s definitely a MUST to visit such a place if you go to Rio.

We went to Rocinha, the biggest favela in Rio and the second largest in South America, where it’s estimated that around 300.000 people are living. Because most favelas are ruled by drug lords and the criminality is one of the highest around here it’s not the place where you want to go alone if you don’t know what you’re doing. So we took a tour with a guide who lives in this favela and knows the place very well. He told us a lot of new information about the society structure in a favela and about the day to day problems that people encounter here. For example, because favelas are not recognized by the city, people don’t actually have an address so there was a woman who was responsible with receiving the mail for a neighborhood and for this everybody had to pay her a small monthly fee. Another funny thing is that every store of a building belongs to a family and if you own the upper store you can sell your roof to somebody else and he will build his house over yours. I could write on and on about the amazing things we saw in Rocinha but it’s better if you take a look at the pictures which in this case will tell more than a thousand words.

Next stop

Sydney, Australia

The Iguazu Falls are definitely one of the “Must See” destinations. We saw the Niagara Falls in June and that was amazing but the Iguazu Falls are on a different level. To give you an impression about the difference I can say that when the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the Iguazu Falls she exclaimed “Poor Niagara…”.

The Iguazu Falls were voted one of the 7 wonders of nature. We visited the National Park on the Argentinian side because from this side you can get a closer look to the falls especially to the biggest of them “The Devil’s Throat”. Everything is very well organized and there are a lot of trails to see the falls from different viewpoints. The view of the falls is just amazing. It cannot be described in words and probably even the pictures don’t show its real beauty.

Next stop

Rio de Janeiro

Next stop

Iguazu Falls

The portenos (that’s how the people from Buenos Aires are called) do most of the things that are important for them with a lot of passion. And we tried to experience these passions

• Football – it’s not a secret that Argentinians are crazy about football with their crazy kid Diego Maradona who was voted the best football player of the past century. In order to get a little bit of this passion we went to the stadium and museum of the Boca Junior, the team for which Maradona played in Argentina. The stadium of Boca is the famous La Bombonera (The Chocolate Box). Here you can see the whole history of Boca Juniors and of course a statue of Maradona.
• Dulce de leche – this is literally the sweetest of all passions for the Argentinians. It’s caramelized milk and almost every cake has at least one part or filling with dulce de leche.
• Beef – the way the Argentinians treat the beef meat is almost an art. We tried all types of beef steaks with the favorite ones being Bife de Chorizo (Sirloin Steak) and Bife de Lomo (Tenderloin) and they all were knock outs.
• Tango – we were so lucky because on the weekend was the biggest Open Air Tango Dancing event in Buenos Aires and portenos are crazy about tango so the streets were full.
• Empanadas – An empanada is a stuffed pastery. In Argentina the most common ones are filled with cheese, ham, pork or chicken meat.
• Malbec wine – this is the favorite type of wine for Argentinians. It’s not very common in Europe to have wine with mainly this type of grape and it can be found only mixed with Merlot but I will definitely look for Malbec wine in the future as we loved it.

We also took a free guided tour of the city and got some funny info about how portenos are. The people of Buenos Aires are in the top of the list on beauty-surgeries. This is because health-care insurance companies try to get as many clients as possible by offering them one free beauty surgery every 2 years. This is really crazy. Our guide referred to these persons as “Lions” and every tour through the city is just like a safari tour.

We also found out some things about the history of Argentina and why Evita Peron is still considered an icon even 60 years after her death. And then there are the Falkland Islands which Argentinians consider to belong to them. Unfortunately for them the rest of the world has a different opinion about this but all the maps that are sold here show it as an Argentinian province.

Next stop

Montevideo, Uruguay

We were told that the weather in Patagonia can change very quickly and you can experience all 4 seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter in one day and it is not uncommon that winds reach speeds of up to 100km/h. Everything you read or you are told is not comparable with experiencing it on your own. We managed to love, hate and then love again Patagonia and its nature. On the first day after we arrived in the national park the weather was somehow ok but in the evening it changed dramatically with very strong winds which we were told reached 60km/h. Spending the night in a tent with less than 0 degrees temperature and the strong winds which made me believe that the tent can take off any second is for sure an experience that we will not forget very soon. When I’m thinking back I can still not believe that our tent resisted the winds as it basically had the shape of a “C”.

The second day we did a really nice hike and were rewarded with spectacular postcard views on the Pehoe and Nordenskjold lakes which have turquoise colors. In the evening the weather again changed but this time we were lucky to reach a camping site which was protected by a forest so our tent didn’t have to fight against the winds again.

The third day was the toughest one and I could say it was our hardest hike ever. We experienced very high winds which knocked me down like a flower a couple of times though I also carried a backpack of 15kg so I was not really the lightest thing around… Diana was holding on to trees in critical situations in order not to be blown away. We somehow reached one hostel just to be told that everything was booked so we had to continue our journey through the wind for another 15 km. I still don’t know how we did it but we somehow reached the camping site after 5 hours of nightmare.

On the last day we woke up early and were amazed by the very beautiful weather. There was no sign of the nightmare from the previous days. We hiked up to the Torres del Paine which gives the name of the park and which stands for Blue Towers in the native language and we were rewarded with one of the most amazing views we have ever seen. After more than 60km and experiences which could easily fill up a chapter in a book we’re now more than happy that we went to this amazing wonder of nature.

Next stop

A hot shower, a nice bed and a 12 hrs sleep

Next stop

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

The reason why we went to El Calafate is that this is the main point from where the tours to the Glacier Perito Moreno start. Perito Moreno is one of many glaciers in the Los Glaciares National Park which is the 3^rd largest accumulation of glaciers in the world, after Antarctica and Groenland. Perito Moreno is 35km long, 5 km wide and 60m high and it’s one of the most spectacular glaciers worldwide. It’s also one of the most stable ones because 70% of it is the part where it accumulates new ice and only 30% of it is the part where the ice is melting or breaking. It’s probably the most visited glaciers in the world because on a peninsula nearby there are a lot of platforms with viewpoints where people stand and wait for a big ice part to break. We were also very lucky to see this spectacular experience and when the ice breaks the sound produced is incredible loud.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The amazing thing we did here was to hike on the glacier. We received special crampons and after a short training we were able to walk on the ice. The small rivers on and under glacier are amazing and you can hear the noise from the water under your feet. There are also a lot of beautiful ice shapes with amazing blue color. Hiking on this glacier was definitely one of the most amazing experiences so far.

Next stop

Punta Arenas, Chile

Then I went rafting on a river with class IV and V rapids which was awesome. The rafting tour was definitely comparable if not better than the one on the Ottawa River in Canada. On another day we went hiking in the National Park Huerquehue. Here we had some spectacular views on snowcapped volcanos, waterfalls and turquoise lakes. (take a look at the pictures)

We also met Jochen and Christina again with whom we did the hike in the Colca Canyon in Peru. So they joined our trip through the Lake District and we rented a cabin on the shore of the Lake Llanquihue at the base of the Osorno Vulcano. We went swimming in the lake and had a perfect view of the volcano.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The whole Lake District is incredible beautiful so basically every day was amazing. But one adventure was by far the best. Near the town of Villarrica lies one of the most active volcanos in the world, Volcano Villarrica and we went to climb it. Because in this region the spring season has just started, the volcano is still covered with snow which made the trip amazing. After we were handed the proper equipment like crampons, boots for walking on snowy mountains and the ice-axe, we started the climb and after almost 4 hours we reached the crater of the volcano and had on one side the view over the whole Lake District and on the other we could look inside the crater and see the smoke from the volcano. And then we sledded all the way back to the base for more than 1 hour and had a lot of fun. This was such a perfect day 

Next stop

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

We felt really well in Chile starting in Santiago which is said to be the most modern city in South America. Its metro system is a lot nicer than ones that I’ve seen in some countries in Europe and Chileans have a big passion for big shopping malls .

After Santiago we went to Valparaiso which is one of the most colorful cities we’ve seen. I would compare it with Burano in Italy because just like there the houses have all the possible colors. Though nowadays it is the poorest city in Chile it was once the biggest port and wealthiest city in South America. But after the Panama Channel was build, there was little usage for this port and the economic decline began. But nowadays Valparaiso is trying to reinvent itself by putting the biggest value on tourism and on holidays and weekends you can find half of Santiago here.

In both Santiago and Valparaiso we found out about guided tours which are free and the guides work only for tips. We thought it’s a really great idea and went for the tour and the stories and the parts of the city that we discovered were really amazing. The tours show you some hidden secrets of the city as well as the well-known places. We also learned some things about the history of Chile with its past under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet which contrary to many of the dictators in that time decided to give up the power and organized democratically elections in 1990.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

Around Santiago we definitely wanted to visit some vineyards and we decided to go to the Concha y Toro vineyards which are world famous for the wine with the brand Casillero del Diablo.  It was a great experience and we also did some wine tasting after which I can warmly recommend the Carmenere wine. Carmenere is a grape type that was thought to be extinct because of a big plague in Europe in the 19^th century. But it was rediscovered in Chile in 1994. Chilean growers believed it was a clone of Merlot but now it is recognized as a different type of grape.

Santiago de Chile

Valparaiso

In every tourist guide it is written that the driver and the group with which you are together decide if it’s going to be a great trip or one that you want to forget as soon as possible. Our guide, Beimar, first looked not to care about us at all, but after we started some conversations about the places, he told us more and more information about the nature and the history of Bolivia. In the end it was one of the greatest tours we have been to but we heard that others were not so lucky and at one of the stops in the salt flats we even saw a driver changing the brake pads of the car in the middle of the tour. I guess that in Bolivia there’s nothing like “preventive maintenance” in their vocabulary.

But like I said, our tour was a great one. First we went to a train cemetery outside of the town of Uyuni where we took some funny pictures. Then we went to Salar de Uyuni which is the world’s largest salt flat with over 10.000 square kilometers. To give you an impression on how much that is, think it’s around one quarter of the surface of Switzerland. Here we also saw the process of preparing the salt for selling. Because the desert is a very flat area you can take a lot of funny pictures which look like they were photoshopped. On the first night we slept in a hotel which is built mainly out of salt and which was an experience to remember. On the second day we went to a lot of lagoons with thousands of flamingos and spectacular views and on the third day we went to 5300m to see some other nice lagoons before heading for the border to Chile. Here, we had to pay another illegal tax (call it bribe or black money) for exiting Bolivia. It looks like there is a good reason why Bolivia is on the 118th place on the list of corruption perceptions index in the world because every customs or police officer will invent his own tax for which, of course, you will not get any receipt.

Next stop

Santiago de Chile

Copacabana is famous in Bolivia because this is the place where lots of Bolivians bring their cars to be blessed by a priest. People do it because that’s cheaper than a car insurance and in the days to come we were about to find out a lot more than we wanted about how Bolivians behave in the traffic.

What can I say about La Paz…. Well, it’s the highest capital in the world at around 3650-4100m. Other than that I cannot say much because it’s not something to write home about. People haven’t been too friendly and that’s very polite said. We just wanted to get a small look at it and then move further to the south where the nicer places are. So, after reading lots of horror stories about road accidents and after witnessing it with our own eyes on the way from Copacabana to La Paz we decided to take the plane. On this road the driver of the bus drove more on the left side of the road and he was just speeding and horning in the curves with cliffs on one side and the never ending canyon on the other as if horning would help in a country where the vehicles are so old that if you sit in a truck you can hear nothing but the engine. So, we decided to take the plane, probably an option with statistically just a slightly more chance to reach your destination in one piece in Bolivia. We first wanted to fly directly to Uyuni and already bought the tickets, just to be told a day after that the plane is not flying due to maintenance problems…. At this point Diana already was scared about this “safer” option but I somehow convinced here that it’s better to fly to Sucre than taking the bus. So we bought the tickets and ended up flying with TAM, which stands for Transporte Aereo Militar, you guessed, it’s a military company. I don’t know if the planes were used by the military before or not but they looked quite nice and after some bumpy shakes we landed safely in Sucre which is the constitutional capital of Bolivia. Sucre left us a far better impression than La Paz with quite a few good restaurants. When we wanted to leave Sucre for Uyuni we were again introduced to one of the Bolivians’ favorite activities…the strikes. If you’re now thinking about the typical strikes in France or Germany you’re making a big mistake. This is a different level. When Bolivians strike, which is very often (every two weeks or so), they block all the main roads and because in Bolivia you have just one road between big cities, you are stuck. It’s also very dangerous to try to avoid these blockades and the taxi drivers also don’t do it because they say the strikers have dynamite and they will definitely try to hurt you if they catch that you do not obey their rules… Fortunately for us, this strike lasted only one day so we were able to continue our journey the day after.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

In Peru on the Salkantay Trek we met a couple from Switzerland, Marco and Denise, and we talked about a lot of things with one being the food back home and of course cheese fondue, the Swiss specialty. We already arranged for a meeting next summer and never in the world was I hoping to eat cheese fondue before that. But… surprise, surprise… in Sucre we found a restaurant which offered cheese fondue and we tried it out. It was unexpectedly delicious. I know what some of you are thinking now, “This guy goes to Bolivia and all he wants to eat is cheese fondue, what an idiot….” but the Bolivian cuisine is nothing to write home about and after eating so many crap food in the last weeks and also having stomach problems after it we decided to go for a safe choice.

Next stop

Salar de Uyuni

La Paz

Sucre

Copacabana

One amazing thing – Getting the visa for Bolivia

Because there is a consulate of Bolivia in Puno, we thought it’s better to try to get the visa here other than going directly to the border where it is also possible to get it because the Bolivian customs officer  all like the 50 US dollar bill. So we went to the consulate and here we had the unpleasant experience of meeting probably the most unfriendly person of this trip, the secretary of the consul. First when we went there at 10 AM nobody was there though the consulate should have opened at 8 AM. So we went back after an hour and found the secretary looking totally unfriendly and asking us what we want. We said that we would like the visa for Bolivia and handed him the documents. He took a short look and said we also had to complete a form and asked why we did not do it. We said we don’t have the form and politely asked if he could give it to us. For an unparticular reason this made him go crazy and he gave us the internet address of the Bolivian consulate and with a very aggressive voice told us that we can download and print it ourselves. So we went to the city information center because we knew that they have a printer and an internet connection and asked them to help us with the forms. Because the internet site of the Bolivian consulate was not working they called the consulate and when the secretary heard the city information center called he just told them to send us back to the consulate and he will “help” us. We had a bad feeling about this and were right because the call of the lady from the information center just made the things worse because the secretary was now really angry (more than before) because we went to the information center instead of doing everything on our own. He gave us one copy of the forms and after I dared to ask if he could give us another copy because we had to make two different requests, he yelled at us saying we have to go and make copies, he’s not going to print a second form for us. So we went and made a copy, came back and gave him the passports, the completed forms, a copy of our flight tickets because you have to prove somehow that you are not going to remain in Bolivia (the poorest country in South America) forever otherwise they will not give you the visa, and a copy of the booking of one hotel which was more or less the printout of the main page of a hotel. We were told to come back in 3 hours which we did, just to be told that again, we have to go and make a copy of our passports with the visa stamp in it because he did not want to make that copy. So, finally after making the last copies and going for the 5^th time in one day to the consulate we had the visa. But the story was not over yet as we heard that it is also possible that at the border the customs officer will search you for “fake US dollars” which of course they will keep for the security of the nation. We were lucky as we were not searched but right when we entered the office in a corner was an officer which looked through the dollars of another tourist so we knew that the story we heard was not a science fiction one.

Next stop

La Paz, Bolivia

If you want to go to Machu Picchu there are a couple of treks or options. The most famous one is the Inka Trail which lasts 4 days/3 nights but this one must be booked at least 3-4 month in advance because there is only a limited amount of tickets to the trail per day. We chose another trek where you cannot see so many ruins as on the Inka trail but which offers spectacular sceneries of snowcapped mountains. We chose the Salkantay Trail which lasts 5 days. Its name comes from the Salkantay mountain (6271m) which we passed on the second day. Salkantay means “Wild Mountain” in Quechua which is the language of the indigenous. The trekking was amazing. On the first day we started our trip at 2800m and hiked around 7-8 hours till we got to 3800m where we also spent the night in tents. The second day was by far the hardest. We woke up at 5 AM and started hiking to reach the maximum height of our journey, 4629m. This is definitely not a walk in the park as the high altitude and the rare air make the hiking very challenging. On this day we walked around 10 hours before reaching our next camping point at around 3600m. The third day was an easy one as we walked only 5-6 hours through the jungle  and reached the small village of Santa Tereza where we went to the hot springs and relaxed. On the 4^th day we reached the town of Aguas Calientes which is also very touristic as it is the last stop before Machu Picchu. Because of the high number of tourists it’s also called Gringolandia. And then finally, on the last day we went to Machu Picchu one of the most visited places in South America. We woke up at 4 AM and we climbed around 2000 stairs and were at the main gate at 6 AM because we wanted to see the lost city before all the masses of tourists invaded it. In the evening we then took the train back to Cusco which to our positive surprise was very nice and had windows also on the top so you could have a nice view of the jungle and the mountains. But to our disappointment the train’s engine broke after a couple of hours and the train had a delay of 3 hours. Because the last station was 30km from Cusco and because of the delay the driver that had to pick us up there just left so we ended up in a small little town in the middle of nowhere at 11 PM. Fortunately we found another “safe” taxi which took us to our hostel.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

Machu Picchu is really amazing as it was for sure not easy to build the city with giant bolders, with a highly advanced watering system and all this on top of a mountain in the middle of the jungle.

Next stop

Lake Titicaca

Arequipa is a very nice city at the base of two volcanos and has a nice little old town and lots of ancient small streets. Arequipa has a couple of nice specific dishes which we couldn’t miss. The main ones are Fried Cuy (Guinea Pig) and Rocoto Relleno which is now part of my list of favorite dishes. The fried guinea pig was very good and tasted a little bit like a sweet chicken meat. We were so delighted about the Arequipan cuisine that we also went to a cooking course on one day. And here we also had the opportunity to cook Rocoto Relleno. It’s a very spicy sort of pepper which should be cooked 3 times in order for it to be eatable, otherwise it’s too spicy. This pepper is then stuffed with a mix of pork and beef meat, onion, garlic, smashed peanuts and biscuits and a lot of different spices. The taste is insane.

On one evening we were invited by Max, the Swiss owner of the Spanish school to his house to play cards and taste the Peruvian Pisco Sour. It’s funny that we learnt Jassen which is one of the Swiss national sports, exactly in the opposite corner of the world.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

I find that the Arequipan cuisine is the most amazing thing for this stop.

Next stop

Cuzco and Machu Picchu

Nest stop

Still the city of Arequipa, Peru

Huacachina is one of the best places to visit in Peru. Though it technically is part of the city of Ica, it’s basically an oasis in the desert. It’s so famous that it even made it on the 50 soles bill. Travelers come here to relax and forget about everything. Though it’s a very small place you have some entertainment options and some good restaurants.

On the last day we went to a wine and pisco tasting tour to 2 wineries. One, where the drinks are produced in an industrial way and another one where they use the same technique like hundreds of years ago. Pisco is a typical Peruvian drink where the wine is distilled and leads to a sort of brandy.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

In Huacachina we took a tour with a sand buggy which is more or less a cage on four wheels. Let me tell you something.The ride was one of the craziest things we’ve done so far. You get a higher adrenaline kick than in a roller coaster plus you can add the uncertainty of safety. At some points I thought the driver is insane and all the people in the car where screaming like hell all the time. We stopped a couple of times in the desert and went sand boarding which was pretty fun, though walking the sand dunes back up was nothing to write home about. And the sunset in the desert was worth every moment of madness in the sand buggy.

Next stop

Arequipa, Peru

We were not expecting much from Lima as most or all of the travelers that we met told us they did not like Lima but let me tell you one thing, WE LOVED IT. People are extremely friendly, everybody that we met tried to help us, no scams, nobody that wants to rip you off like in Quito (ok, maybe except the taxi drivers), everybody smiled, it was a huge difference to the people that we met in Quito. And the food… oh my God… the food is excellent. We tried some typical Peruvian dishes, the best being the Ceviche which is raw fish and seafood marinated in lime juice with onions and some spices, extremely delicious. And the juice or shake of a fruit called Lucuma that’s typical for this region is a knock out.

Of course Lima also has some areas where you should not go if you don’t know what you’re doing. Like Juan from the hostel said, “In Lima if some place does not look safe, it almost always isn’t”. But the district of Miraflores is the one where most of the tourists stay and it’s completely safe. The same is valid by day for the center of Lima where most of the tourist attractions are, like the Governor’s palace or the San Francisco Church with its catacombs. We also went to the Parque Reserva where there are lots of fountains and in the evening you can watch some amazing shows of music and light projected on the water.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

Many cities have a park where a sort of animal is the king. In London in the Kensington Park or in New York in the Central Park the squirrels rule the area, in the Galapagos Islands the sea lions where everywhere even lying on benches and so on. In Lima, in the Park Kennedy, the cats are the kings. There are tens of them because the municipality takes care of them and people are encouraged to adopt them. Because we’re both cat lovers and are missing our tomcat back home, it’s understandable that we had to write this at “One amazing thing..”

Next stop

Huacachina, Peru

The Galapagos Islands are a naturalist’s paradise and this is the place that inspired Charles Darwin to write about the evolution-theory. The main reason is that the animals on the Galapagos Islands are the fearless on the planet and are not at all scared when you approach them and 23% of the species that live here cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. This is the case of the Marine Iguana, which looks like an animal from a different planet. The Blue Footed Boobie is also one of the species that can be found only here. We were so fortunate to see Blue Footed Boobies during a mating dance or with little babies. Then there are hundreds of sea lions and what’s really amazing is that they can be seen on the streets of the towns or even lying on benches (look at the pictures).

Basically on every day of the cruise we had a nice planned program with lots of activities like hiking, snorkeling or wildlife watching. On one day we went to a beach with tens or hundreds of sting rays. We saw sting rays before but seeing them in such a big number on a beach was incredible. During snorkeling we saw lots of fishes and even a couple of whitetip reef sharks. I really hoped to see hammer-head sharks on the Galapagos and before our cruise I even went to a diving tour to a diving spot famous for the hammer –head sharks but I was not lucky. On the last day we went to the highlands on the Santa Cruz Island to a place where we saw the giant turtles which are the emblem of Galapagos. We expected them to be big but they are huge. They can live up to 200 years and weigh up to 300 kilos.

Another nice thing is that on the cruise, we met Cornelia, Gerlinde, Roland and Peter from Germany and Roland, even grew up in the village neighboring to the one where we live. In German there’s a nice saying that translates like “The whole world is only a small little village”.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The whole trip and especially the cruise in the Galapagos Islands were amazing but there’s one thing that beats all the others and that’s definitely snorkeling and swimming with the sea lions. It’s something that no matter how much you do it, you cannot get bored of seeing how elegant they are when swimming or how childish they can play around you. It’s one of the pictures that we’ll for sure remember the rest of our life.

Next stop

Lima, Peru

But this is not why we are here. We’re here for the beautiful Old Town that Quito has or for the fact that there had to be a reason why along with Krakow it was the first city declared a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978. The Old Town was almost completely renovated a couple of years ago and is one of the most beautiful old towns we’ve ever seen. If you leave your Rolex at home and stick to the basic rules it’s completely safe during the day as there are hundreds of policemen walking around. Only in the Plaza Grande, which is the main square of Quito where the President’s Palace and the City Hall are, there are more than 30 police men. And every big store or bank has at the entrance an armed guard with a Kevlar vest. The Plaza Grande is the place where probably all the 2 million citizens of Quito meet every Sunday as it is completely closed for the cars on this day. This is definitely the best time to go there as you can also watch a lot of groups performing in the Ecuadorian national costume. We also went to El Panecillo which is a hill in the southern part of Quito where a statue of the virgin stands and from here you have a very nice view over the whole city.

Today we went to Mitad del Mundo. Here is a monument which commemorates a French expedition to discover where the middle of the earth is, long before the existence of GPS. The funny thing is that thanks to GPS we now know that the actual equator line is 300m away from the one of the monument .

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The old town of Quito is definitely one of the nicest ones we’ve seen so far and is the #1 place to visit in Quito.

Next stop

The Galapagos Islands