Roaming South America

Santo Domingo, Ecuador

November 25, 2022

Santa Dominica, Ecuador, founded in 1861. About 150 kilometers directly west and across the mountains from Quito, and a much, much better climate. The full name of the city is Santo Domingo de los Colorados. It is the fourth largest city in Ecuador with close to half-million population. The word "colorado" mean "dyed," which is what the indigenous men of this area did with their hair—they dyed it with an extract from the achiote plant. You may know it as "annatto," which gives a red-orange color to the hair. it is also used for food coloring.

Santo Domingo sits at about 625 meters (2050 feet) elevation in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Santo Domingo is a stopping-over place for people traveling from Quito to the Pacific coast. I like the climate here much more than that of Quito, which sits at the very high elevation of around 9300+ feet. The daytime high temps for the yearly average 80°F (27°C), and the average night low temp is 65.6°F (18.5°C). For me, this is the perfect temperature range, but the city is a bit bigger than I like.

The trip from Quito to Santa Domingo was in a big "tour" type bus. The route taken was not what I expected. Instead it was the "milk route"—the route stopped in several small towns for a good 15 minutes or more in each, and in a couple picked up many school kids. The time was five or 5 1/2 hours, I didn't pay that much attention to it. But, it was longer than I expected.

I'm staying in the Diana Real Hotel in the city center. The room is probably the biggest hotel room I've ever stayed in. There are pics in the photo album.

Santo Domingo—not much for history here. One old church (photos in the photo album), and a dilapidated, very old house (see in the photo album), and a few parks. There are several natural areas—large tracts of jungle forest but they are not for public use, they are natural areas. The city is not photogenic in any way, as you can see in the photos. I walked a little more than 27 kilometers (16.7 miles) of the city and took pics of the few things I found interesting.

Next stop - El Carmen, only about 35 kilometers to the west.