Qualla: Quito https://qualla.com/quito en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/b/n/quito-wp/basilica-del-voto-nacional-qui.jpg Qualla: Quito https://qualla.com/quito Quito: Introduction https://qualla.com/quito/ Photo credit Jorge Auz Salazar, CC BY-SA 4.0. Quito straddles the equator at 2,850 meters in the Andes, the highest official capital city in the world, surrounded by volcanoes whose snow-capped peaks are visible on clear days. The Spanish founded the city in 1534 on the ruins of an Inca city itself built over earlier settlements; the colonial center they created became, in 1978, one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Quito holds 2.8 million people in the metropolitan area, Ecuador's political capital while Guayaquil claims commercial dominance. The old town that UNESCO recognized is the largest and best-preserved in the Americas, its churches and monasteries and plazas intact in ways that other colonial cities cannot match.

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Image: Jorge Auz Salazar | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/b/n/quito-wk/6rbn-quito-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Quito: The Colonial Center https://qualla.com/quito/ Photo credit Kevin Gabbert - User: (WT-shared) Kevin James at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Quito's colonial center covers 320 hectares, the largest in the Americas, its churches and convents and civic buildings representing three centuries of Spanish construction. The Compania de Jesus church, whose interior is covered in gold leaf, represents Baroque excess at its mos...

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Image: Kevin Gabbert - User: (WT-shared) Kevin James at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/b/n/quito-wk/6rbn-quito-the-colonial-center.mp3 0:06 2 full Quito: The Volcanoes https://qualla.com/quito/ Photo credit Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0. Quito sits in a valley between two volcanic cordilleras, the peaks that surround the city including Pichincha to the west, Cotopaxi to the south, Cayambe to the north. Pichincha erupted as recently as 1999, dusting the city with ash; Cotopaxi's 2015 activity prompted evacuation p...

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Image: Ymblanter | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/b/n/quito-wk/6rbn-quito-the-volcanoes.mp3 0:06 3 full Quito: The Middle of the World https://qualla.com/quito/ Photo credit Bbb, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Mitad del Mundo monument marks what 18th-century French scientists calculated as the equator's location, the site now a tourist complex complete with museum and gift shop. The actual equator, GPS measurements have revealed, runs several hundred meters north - the monument mar...

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Image: Bbb | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/b/n/quito-wk/6rbn-quito-the-middle-of-the-world.mp3 0:06 4 full Quito: The Mariscal https://qualla.com/quito/ Photo credit araujoskrfoto, CC BY-SA 4.0. La Mariscal is Quito's tourist and nightlife district, the neighborhood where hostels and bars concentrate, where international visitors gather in proximity that the colonial center's dispersed attractions do not provide. The plaza Foch anchors the district, its restaurants and c...

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Image: araujoskrfoto | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/b/n/quito-wk/6rbn-quito-the-mariscal.mp3 0:06 5 full Quito: The Elevation https://qualla.com/quito/ Photo credit Leinardo, CC BY-SA 3.0. Quito's elevation - 2,850 meters - makes it cooler than tropical location suggests and harder on visitors than altitude-adjusted residents notice. The temperature rarely exceeds 20°C or falls below 10°C, the spring-like consistency that drew Spanish colonizers from hotter lowland...

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Image: Leinardo | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/b/n/quito-wk/6rbn-quito-the-elevation.mp3 0:06 6 full