Chinchiná is a large town located about halfway between the cities of Manizales and Pereira. Some rural areas are part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
Just outside of Bogotá in the town of Chía, there’s a great place to go have an enjoyable dinner – the famous Colombian steakhouse Andrés Carne de Res. With odd decorations on every inch of the walls and ceilings, an enthusiastic and fun staff, and loud music and dancing, this place is a spectacle in itself.
There’s a great variety of restaurants in Quito, from traditional Ecuadorean food to excellent international cuisine. We had a few opportunities to try some of the restaurants in town.
I’ll be honest with you. Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World), a touristic “city” within San Antonio de Pichincha, is a cheesy tourist trap. Its large 30m tall monument is said to be exactly on the equator but is actually about 240m off the mark – but nobody looking at the pictures of you straddling the yellow line has to know.
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.
Otavalo is one of the most important market towns in the Andes Mountains. It’s surely worth a stop for a day, and even an extra day or two to check out the surrounding villages and natural beauty.
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.