Panama City’s old town, Casco Viejo, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was built after the sack of the original site of Panama City by legendary pirate Henry Morgan in 1671. It features many important historic sites, a few museums, and some churches.
Guatavita is a small town near Bogotá, Colombia, that was built in the 1960s. It replaced an older town with the same name that was flooded during the construction of a reservoir. The town is the gateway to Lake Guatavita, where the Legend of El Dorado was born.
While most of the attractions in Quito are located in the historic city, the modern city provides visitors with plenty of things to see and do as well. There are numerous museums and parks as well as shopping and restaurants. We didn’t have time to visit all of the attractions but this entry will explain what we did manage to see.
There are a few points of interest in the UNESCO World Heritage listed historic city center of Quito, Ecuador, that aren’t museums or churches. This entry talks about a small handful them.
The Equator monument at La Mitad del Mundo isn’t the only thing to see in San Antonio de Pichincha. There are some very interesting Inca ruins, the crater of an inhabited volcano, and another Equator museum which claims to be the true location of the Equator. You can do some of them on a guided tour booked at La Mitad del Mundo or it’s possible to do all of them alone.
To really appreciate the craft markets of Otavalo, it’s worth checking out a few nearby villages that are famous in the area for their artisan crafts. There are also some other interesting attractions near Otavalo that are good to visit.
Otavalo is a very touristy town with a proud indigenous culture. The main attractions in the town are the markets, which sell anything from traditional handicrafts to knock-off imports and fresh fruits and vegetables to live animals.
When traveling between Colombia and Ecuador by bus, you’ll probably have to stop in the border town of Tulcán. It may not seem very exciting at first glance, but it’s worth stopping for an hour to check out a very interesting cemetery.
Riosucio is a town known for its biennial carnival, the Carnival of the Devil (Carnaval del Diablo). It’s one of the most popular and important carnivals in all of Colombia and takes place every January of odd-numbered years. Some rural areas of Riosucio are included in the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.