Escaping the cold weather of Boston to Ecuador for New Years turned to quite the adventure. Having visited Lima, Peru just three weeks earlier, it was exciting to go back to South America as the people there are so welcoming and cities filled with culture. Quito sits right near the equator so the weather is fairly mild and consistent all year around. It’s also the second highest official capital in the world (after La Paz, Bolivia) sitting at just under 10k ft above sea level at the foothills of the Andean Mountain range.

A major attraction in Ecuador is La Mitad del Mundo, where the equatorial line is. It was relaxing to enjoy a locally brewed coffee beer while overlooking the middle of the world, knowing I can step foot in the northern and southern hemisphere at the same time!

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The city of Quito is massive in size and stretches over 30km in length in between two mountain ranges. The elevation in Quito provides some spectacular scenery of the city itself, neighboring mountains and active volcanoes.

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Given it was New Years; the streets were very lively with locals out and about with family preparing for the local festivities and New Year traditions. Many folks dressed up and donned masks similar to a hybrid of halloween and carnival atmosphere. Some of the Ecuadorian traditions for new years I’ve learned were quite interesting. Activities such as burning Paper Mache effigies with bad memories to whisk away the “año viejo”, the Viudas; men cross dressed as women blocking traffic asking for money and eating 12 grapes at midnight.

Various local street food eats