Because I spent to much time in Colombia, which was not planned, I had to rush a bit from Quito in Ecuador down to Buneos Aires in Argentina:

8000km without taking a plane in about 5 weeks.

Although it was quite a rush, I had an amazing time.

Ecuador

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, was the Start.

I´ve met a friend there, who was an exchange student from one of my friends in Germany a couple of years ago.

That´s why we went to the real center of the world and the Intinan museum.

The entrance of the museum costs 3$ and you get a very interesting tour for free. You learn a lot about the different Ecuadorian tribes, flora and fauna and they will show you some stunning experiments you only can do on the equator line.

The next day we drove to Cotopaxi together. With 5897m it is the second highest mountain of Ecuador and  the third highest active vulcano in the world. The mountain was honored as a “Sacred Mountain” by the Inkas. It was worshiped as “rain sender”, that served as the guarantor of the land’s fertility, and at the same time its summit was revered as a place where gods lived.

Unfortunately it was very cloudy and when we startet to hike up to the summit it even started to snow and we had to stop (we forgot to bring some water as well).

Anyway, it was a great trip and the landscape was just breathtaking.

On the third day , I´ve met a couchsurfer from Cuenca with whom I wanted to hitchhike to his hometown in the south of the country the next day.We visited the old town of Quito and visited the Basilica del Voto Nacional, which is the third highest building of the country. When we went up one of the towers of the church, I found a way to climb up to the very top.

The next day, Fernando and me started hitchhiking to Salcedo, which is famous for its ice cream.

After we enjoyed a stick of delicious ice cream we jumped into a pick up which took us to our next culinary stop : The pig market in Rio Bamba.

Everyone there sells only pork dishes and it´s quite funny how the market woman try to convince you to order your food at their store 😉

From Rio Bamba we took a bus to Cuenca and finally arrived at Fernandos family house in the late evening.

We went to an electronic music festival the next day and had a great and long night before I had to continue my way to Peru the next day already…..