So Lesotho is the Mountain Kingdom, but Quito is a truly mountainous city.  We are now in our new home nestled amongst the mountains and volcanos of the Andes just a hop, skip and jump from the Equator.  Quito is a city of two million people packed into a valley 9000 feet above sea level and in the shadow of the semi-active volcano Pichincha.

To say the views are amazing is a serious understatement.  When it is clear you can see towering peaks both very close and more than 50 kilometres away.  When the clouds roll in, you catch glimpses of mountainsides affected by ever changing light conditions.  And then sometimes it is just solid cloud and you can feel as if there aren’t any mountains at all.

Cotopaxi Volcano is about 50km to the south but has a prominant place on the horizon on a clear day.  This is the same volcano that threatened to erupt last year, and experts say it is still overdue. 

We have been lucky in that our house was ready for us and most of our belongings from Lesotho arrived a week after we did, so we are already mostly settled into our home.  All we need are a few things coming from DC and the chance to hang pictures and other art on our expansive white walls.  And once our car arrives we will truly be free to explore this captivating landscape.  We have acclimated to the elevation so now it is time to start hiking up ancient volcanos, exploring little market towns and making plans to visit the Galapagos Islands and further afield.

Two years will be gone in a flash and there is much to explore.  Stay tuned for more photos and stories of our adventures in Ecuador!