Quito is #1

For the first time since I was born (or maybe since the nineteenth century? the colonial era? the beginning of history?), Quito is Ecuador’s most populous city. At the end of last year, it had more than 2.7 million inhabitants.

Guayaquil, previously the largest city, also cleared the 2.7 million-person threshold, but with some 18,000 fewer inhabitants than Quito.

Read about it here.

I was born in Quito in 1981. Back then, its population was about one million, give or take a couple hundred thousand. During my short life – and I haven’t even been in Ecuador since 2010 – Quito has come to seem much huger than it used to, and more modern and sophisticated.

It always seemed polluted and blindingly bright, but now it has days when there are public warnings about the ultraviolet radiation.

It is also beautiful.