Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, Ecuador - Polarsteps

Santo Domingo was founded in May 1861 and has a population of around 460,000. There's just about nothing photogenic in SD. Santo Domingo sits at about 625 meters (2050 feet) elevation in the foothills on the western side of the Andes Mountains. Santo Domingo is a stopping-over place for people traveling from Quito to the Pacific coast. And that was the only reason I stopped here - to cut the bus ride in half. I like the climate here much more than that of Quito. 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. And it's dirty and smelly and not pretty in any way. This is not a city to put on your list of places to visit in Ecuador. The trip from Quito to Santa Domingo 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 stayed in the Diana Real Hotel in the city center. The room is probably the biggest hotel room I've ever stayed in. Santo Domingo—not much for history here. One old church, a dilapidated, very old house, 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. I walked a little more than 27 kilometers (16.7 miles) of the city and took pics of the few things I found interesting.