Today the boys will be crossing the Border between Columbia and Equator and aim to reach Quito .
The first stretch was again through quiet a mountain range until Lipstick reached PiedraSentadaaafter about 75 km from the road levelled out a bit reaching about 1100 m above sea level.
At some stages the boys could now enjoy a few km of real 2 lane highways which form part of the Panamerican Highway.
The border to Equador was reached in the early afternoon and customs proceedings kept the boys busy for the next hour
On both sides passport Control was relatively easy but the custom procedure on the Equatorian side for Lipsticks Temporary Import Permit took about half an hour and to Willy’s surprise he was told that there is no need for a special car insurance in Equator.
Great double lane highways then took the boys into this new country which was in great contras to the Columbian side of the border and the boys were highly surprised to find beautiful cultivated land on both sides of the road going high up in the mountains as well as wide roads on the road towards Quito which is the Capital of Equador.
Quito (formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city of Ecuador, and at an elevation of 2,850 metres (above sea level, it is the highest official capital city in the world after La Paz, and the one which is closest to the equator.It is located in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha,an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains. With a population of 2,671,191 according to the last census (2014), Quito is the second most populous city in Ecuador, after Guayaquil. It is also the capital of the Pichincha province and the seat of the Metropolitan District of Quito. The canton recorded a population of 2,239,191 residents in the 2010 national census. In 2008, the city was designated as the headquarters of the Union of South American Nations.[4]
The historic center of Quito has one of the largest, least-altered and best-preserved historic centers in the Americas.Quito and Kraków, Poland, were the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO, in 1978.The central square of Quito is located about 25 kilometres south of the equator; the city itself extends to within about 1 kilometre of zero latitude. A monument and museum marking the general location of the equator is known locally as la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world), to avoid confusion, as the word ecuador is Spanish for equator.
