Together we leave the buzzing city of Quito on the famous Panamerican Highway wich is connecting the two America's.

After crossing the deep end dry valley of Guayllabamba River we may stop at a nice viewpoint. From there we can see all the northern part of Pichincha Province which capital is Quito too. A lot of mountains with the typical cone shape of volcanoes, green houses for the famous Ecuadorian flower production and the deep valley of Río Pisque dominate the impressive landscape.

Only some minutes away from the viewpoint we arrive at the Equator Line.

For sure you will take some pictures at this special line that separates the Southern and the Northern Hemisphere.

We can do so on both sides of the Panamerican Highway, because there are two monuments. One shows the globe of the earth with its continents, the other was donated by South Corea and shows two greeting men.

I would suggest to buy and taste Bizcochos and Queso de Hoja here (small special salty cake and a unique kind of cheese, both made only in this area of Ecuador). A culinary speciality!

The adventure starts now as we leave the beaten path!

After 30 minutes we cross the beautiful main square of Cangahua. As it is typical in Ecuador, you can find the church and the mayor building that surround the charming parklike square. Our road winds higher and higher and we may have a close by view to the mighty snow capped Cayambe. Did you know that this volcano marks the highest point of the entire earth on the Equator Line?

Small villages and farm land dominate the landscape.

Later the road turns unpaved and we are surrounded by Páramo. This vegetation is unique for the northern part of the Andes as you can't find it in other parts of the world. It's a wet open grass land growing above the tree line. It is home to the Mountain Tapir, Speckled Bear, White Tailed Deer, Andean Fox and millions of Rabbits. With a lot of luck we may see such an animal, because now we are inside of the National Park Cayambe Coca. More likely we will encounter a kite, an eagle or the Condor. But even very small birds like flowerpiercer and hummingbirds are living here!

Did you know that the hummingbirds at high altitude reduce their heart beats, respiration and all other life functions to save up energy at the cold of the night?

If you want you/we can walk alongside the road or even cross country.

At almost 4000m we pass the watershed of South America and now it goes steeply down. We see some lakes and waterfalls from the distance.

When we arrive in Oyacachi it will be lunch time. If you want we can enter one of the small cozy restaurant to enjoy a local dish.

Oyacachi is a village in more than 3100m of altitude, nestled beautifully between green mountains and situated on the river with the same name. Inhabitants are living from milk or trout production and tourism.

Now it's time to enjoy the thermal springs!

Several very nice pools, each of them with different water temperature invite us to relax and to enjoy the picturesque landscape of this hidden paradise not so far from Quito.

The Andes are a young mountain range and there's still a lot of energy inside of the earth. Hot springs are a result of maintaining activity from inside of our earth.

Now it's time to return.

Even if we will use the same route to go back, the impression of the beautiful landscape may be very different because the weather usually was changing during the day. So we may have a different glimpse of the Andes.