In the amazing Latin American region, there’s a magical Amazonian country where you can take a journey to the middle of the world. That country is Ecuador and this is the first part of an overland adventure through the country.
Beginning the Journey to the Middle of the World
After a wonderful week in Colombia, it was time to hop on a bus for a journey to the middle of the world in Ecuador.
A morning departure from Cali meant an afternoon arrival into Tulcan on the Ecuadorian side of the Rumichaca border crossing. The border was crowded and the line snaked outside the immigration area for several metres.
It looked like it would take an hour just to get to the building entrance.
Suitcases, Cats and Waiting on a Journey to the Middle of the World
Most people crossing here seemed to have suitcases. Many suitcases. There was a family of 4 that had 10 suitcases between them!
Despite the obvious delay, everyone was cool, calm and collected. Even the cat just hanging out in a bag.
Once inside the immigration building, things were moving a lot faster and it was pretty hassle-free. No arrival card needed!
The officer seemed kind of amused and sort of flattered that I’d tried to speak to him with my absolutely horrid Spanish.
Upon exiting the building, I was treated to a lovely view of a river in the valley below.
On to Quito
I’d booked the bus all the way through to Quito, so I was able to get back on the coach after passing immigration. I was a bit worried that I had taken too long, but it turns out that there were still people from my bus that hadn’t made it through yet.
I took the opportunity to change my remaining Pesos into US dollars; the currency used in Ecuador. There were many people wandering around offering currency exchange services. As long as you know what the rates should be, you won’t get taken advantage of.
From the border, it was still another 250 kilometres or four to five hours to Quito. Thankfully, there was some lovely scenery to look at along the way.
I arrived in Quito after dark. As I’d been travelling for the whole day to get there, I made a beeline for my accommodation in the old town.
I walked around the old town for a bit after checked in. What I saw was beautiful, quiet and peaceful.
The Old Town looked lovely.
If you’re looking for a more natural setting for your accommodation near Quito, you should definitely look into the locally run Kapawi Ecolodge!
The Journey to the Middle of the World Starts in Quito
Quito has 2 claims to fame, it is the closest capital city to the equator and it is the second highest capital city in the world. Besides that, it is a city with an amazing amount of character. The old town is awesomely well preserved, owing in part to the fact that it was one of the first World Cultural Heritage Sites to be declared by UNESCO in the 70s. It truly feels like you’ve stepped into another time!
It is a fairly low rise, sprawled out mountain city with a hill in the centre. El Panecillo, as the hill is known locally, is home to a 7000 piece aluminium statue called Virgen de el Panecillo. This monument looks like an angel watching over the city and can be seen from almost anywhere in the old town. It is even lit up at night!
Quiet Quito
While Quito may be a decent size city, it feels more like a big country town. Everyone there is so laid back, friendly and helpful. The grid-like construction of the city makes it very easy to find your way around. As much as you may want to, it’s almost impossible to get lost there. Another element of Quito’s charm is its copious amount of green spaces. Among the several parks in the city is Parque La Carolina. A huge inner-city park between two roads that forms a partial border between the new town and the old town.
Aside from being where all the cool kids get their exercise on during the weekends, it’s also somewhat of a cultural area, with regular art exhibitions and performances happening. It was a great place to sit and reflect, but probably my favourite thing about this city is that there is chicken everywhere! It’s also quite cheap!
Walking around the city, in both the new and old town, you will find that hole-in-the-wall stores like this one, as well as open grills under canvas shelters, are quite common. They also seem to trade until quite late, so you could never go hungry in Quito.
Middle of the World
As I mentioned earlier, Quito is the closest capital city to the equator. ‘Ecuador’ is actually the Spanish word for ‘equator’. As you could imagine, calling the spot where the equator runs through the country ‘Ecuador’ could get confusing. The locals prefer to call it Mitad del Mundo, or middle of the world.
The Journey to the middle of the world from Quito is easy. Quito has an extensive network of buses that can get you there within an hour. The first part of the journey involves catching a bus from one of the raised bus platforms along one of the city’s main roads. That bus terminates at the Ofelia depot, where you can catch another bus to the road in front of Mitad del Mundo. Your bus driver can indicate where to alight if you ask nicely, but if you’re keeping an eye out, it’s pretty obvious where the site is.
Tourism on the Journey to the Middle of the World
Knowing that it’s a bit of a tourist attraction, the city’s government has of course capitalised on that. They’ve built a kind of middle of the world theme park around where Latitude 0º0’0″ was originally calculated. Unfortunately, that means that you need to pay to enter. The fee is US$2 if you just want to get inside, or $5 if you want to see the museum dedicated to indigenous history and culture located inside the monument.
Would you believe I made the journey to the middle of the world to find out that it is not the actual equator? The method used to locate the spot predated GPS. The advent of GPS has shown the actual equator to be around 200m away. So, of course, there’s a ‘real’ Mitad del Mundo a few minutes away down a dirt road. It costs $4, but isn’t nearly as pretty. Rumour has it that one is not the true equator either. Near enough was good enough for me. Plus, considering that my GPS often shows me hundreds of metres from my current location, can it really be trusted?
Mitad del Mundo
The Mitad del Mundo area that you pay to enter is manicured and aesthetically beautiful. There were almost no other people around when I was there, so I was able to have a look around with no annoyances. There are some souvenir and craft shops in the area, as well as some Llamas, just hanging out.
Back in Quito, people had set up their own roadside markets where they sold some curious
looking paper mache figurines. Some were downright freaky, while others were stylised as superheroes.
Do you know what they’re for?
Find out in my next post, where I continue my journey through Ecuador to Banos- A Crazy Little Town in Ecuador.
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Go back to where it all started and follow the whole overland adventure from Nicaragua to Colombia and Colombia to Peru –
Love and Volcanoes in Nicaragua
Mountain Adventures in Costa Rica
Party in Panama City
Contemporary Colombia and its Colourful Cities
Contemporary Colombia Street Art
A Journey to the Middle of the World
Baños – A Crazy Little Town in Ecuador
Northern Peruvian Frontier Town of Tumbes
Adventures in Southern Peru
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22 Replies to “A Journey to the Middle of the World”
Thank you for sharing this interesting place!
Glad you liked it :o)
waw, this was an amazing journey. enjoyed reading it a lot.
and the pics were so professional. I can’t wait to be in Latino America, and I will take your blog as my essential guide.
thanks a looot Kez!
Glad you enjoyed the post! :)
Latin America is amazing! You’ll love it.
Wow! I felt like I was right there with you! Great post!
Thanks :o)
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for sharing I enjoyed reading it!
Thanks for reading :o)
I’m glad it was enjoyable for you.
It’s great to read this blog’s posts every day along with a cup of coffee.
Well, thanks CJ!
Really good information here. it will help when I visit Ecuador soon.
That’s great Ecuador is awesome!
Great pictures
I’m glad you liked them.
It’s really a great and helpful piece of info.
I am happy that you simply shared this helpful info with us.
Thanks for reading.
What’s up, just wanted to mention, I enjoyed this article. I am going to Ecuador soon, so it was helpful. Keep on posting!
That’s great! Ecuador is awesome!
Heh it is kind of funny that they built such a huge monument, only to find it is 200m away from the real middle of the world! I guess the ‘middle’ is a human construct, so it doesn’t really matter…but I wonder if they considered moving the monument!? :D
They probably figure that most visitors wouldn’t delve deep enough to find out. Even if they did, I guess most people wouldn’t be too fussed. After travelling hundreds, or thousands, of miles, 200m is nothing, hehe.
How cool that you can say you visited the middle of the world! Thanks for sharing.
I guess it is! I wonder if I can get to the top and the bottom of the world? Nah.. too cold for me! Hehe.