This adventure begins in my childhood, in La Concordia area, near the Independence city; at that time only a small town. My grandfather had a property in which he spent the holidays and where there were mounds of the Jama Coaque Culture. I never found information that explained to me the reason for the existence of these archaeological sites or what they were for. However, at some point, I noticed that there were four sets of mounds or tolas, which were aligned with the December and June solstices.

Unfortunately there is no definite architecture, in situ, that provides us with more elements to verify its possible astronomical use in the past. This lack of resources led me to explore other sites, finding many similar settlements.

It was precisely in June 1996 in La Concordia where I positioned Latitude Zero for the first time, with the use of a Garmin GPS, which became my most important tool in the following years.

On October 17, 1996, in a visit that I planned alone to Manabí, in order to explore the beach on the south coast of the coaque inlet known as Punta Gallinazo, I was able to position the Zero Latitude on the Coast. This site, caught my attention, I even acquired aerial photographs of the area to explore it.
Thus I achieved the first positioning of the Zero Latitude in the Ecuadorian Coast, correcting not only the previous attempt sought by Chales Marie La Condamine, member of the French Geodetic Missions of 1735, but also another attempt that pursued it in 1985, a commission of enthusiasts Ecuadorians I met; among them Dr. Jorge Salvador Lara and Ricardo Descalzi. They located a stone tablet which now is located in the central square of the city of Pedernales. This tombstone, which was intended to celebrate the 250 years of the visit of the French Geodesic Missions, was extracted from Las Palmas beach, south of Coaque, by the owner of the land around 1993, for fear of being expropriated.

In all these solo explorations, I never left any sign, or element that altered the landscape in any way, I always tried to be respectful of these places. However, I always recorded with photographs or videos, these experiences, as documents of the work developed.

As the days passed, it was the Equatorial Andes that caught my attention, not only because I have climbed almost all the most prominent mountains in the region since I was a child, but because of the landscape and its horizon, which is the best place of the world for horizontal observations. And so, on June 26, 1997, exploring the equatorial line, I realized that Monte Catequillla was located on the Equatorial Line, and when I climbed the mountain, I found that the archaeological site displaced at its top, was exactly on the Zero Latitude It was just at that moment that I had the strongest question of all: Is the location of this site due to an ancient astronomical consciousness, or is it an incredible coincidence?

For the next 15 years, I concentrated all my efforts: economical, physical, and material, on thoroughly investigating the entire region and the available information; I even hired an archaeologist, for the dating of the Catequilla site. It was verified, with an analysis of ceramic and volcanic tephra that the deposit of it corresponded to an event of the pre-Inca period.

Although I explored other sites that caught my attention, such as the plain of Jerusalem, north of Guayllabamba, and the area of Guachalá in Cayambe, there was no place with the same qualities and advantages of Monte Catequilla and its archaeological site.

After long years dedicated to this purpose, I studied 18 lithic discs located throughout the Lulumbamba Valley or San Antonio de Pichincha, and one of them in Catequilla. By observing the sunrises and sunsets during the solstices and equinoxes, I was able to determine that these sites were used as astronomical observatories with different possible applications in pre-Inca times such as calendars, rites, ceremonies, social organization, etc.

Unfortunately, what we have not found so far is some evidence that they were aware of the Zero Latitude. However, getting to know and verify the astronomical consciousness of the Quitu-Caranqui culture, we could say that this awareness is possibly the base that sustains the equatorial identity of the individuals that were born, are born and will be born in the region; a Solar Culture par excellence.

In February 1998, I participated in the First Astronomical Mission of Ecuador to Galápagos. A project proposed and executed by the Director of the Alameda Observatory of the City of Quito. My participation consisted in documenting with video the solar eclipse of February 26 and positioning the Zero Latitude for Ecuador.
To locate the Zero Latitude we disembarked at Banks Bay, north of Isabela Island, with some of the Alameda Observatory’s expedition members, a student from the University Politécnica, and a journalist from the national press. We walked to the site previously selected by the expedition and the Latitude Zero was located in the lowest part, between the Wolf Volcano in the East of Isabela Island, in the northernmost part and the Ecuador Volcano, located in the Western part of the Island.

Unfortunately, the lack of experience of the rest of the expedition members did not allow them to reach the place, and once again I had the honor of positioning Latitude Zero, alone. I recorded the experience on video and now it represents one of the documents that most fills us with pride.

The Cayambe volcano is undoubtedly an icon when talking about the Zero Latitude not only for being called the lord of the Andes that reigns in the equatorial region, but also because it is the only place in the World where the Equatorial Line crosses a glacier. At the same time it is the highest site in the world of Latitude Zero.

These characteristics always caught my attention; and it became a challenge to reach the point where these singularities presented themselves. So, with one of my best friends, Pablo Boada, we took for the first time an expedition on the south side of the volcano, which took us a long time. However, we achieved a scouting of the land and in September 2007 is when we reached the base of the edge of the target site.

In 2009, with the company of five expedition members, we finally managed to position Latitude Zero. In this trip participated: Pablo Boada, Marcelo Carrillo mountain climber from Cayambe, Jesus Montesa from Spain, and Miguel Lopez from Mexico. I named the site The Edge of the Eagle and the Condor since it was the middle point, where we find cultures from the North and the South with only one common goal. Twinning for the sake of culture and nature.

In this site we built a small Apachita (a pile of stones that from ancient times were elaborated to indicate the peak of a road or the meeting of other roads.), which represented an evidence of this new achievement, in honor of Latitude Zero.

In the present and in the future of the Quitsato Project, it is planned to explore regions that are difficult to prospect due to the complexity of their lands and the exuberance of the high, low, and humid tropical montane forest. Difficulties not only of terrestrial mobilization, but also a visual limitation for the possible identification of settlements of anthropic origin, which could have a relationship with the topics of our interest. Thus, the technology has arrived at a time when drones, as well as Lidar sensors allow us to prospect from the air, and have the ability to penetrate the vegetation. In such way that possible anomalies that may arise, they can have traits of artificial origin and thus, discover new enclaves archaeological that could possibly have a use related to ancient astronomy.

These explorations were made with the application of study matrices of the Quitsato Project, as well as through the application of predictive models and with the support of satellite technology, as well as spatial programs and Geographic Information Systems. Up until this moment the application of this technology has allowed us to confirm 6 positive cases in the identification of new sites. In addition, we have a long list of coordinates of potential sites, which are awaiting prospecting. Above all focused on the region of the upper Amazon of the Ecuadorian East, in the Lumbaquí region.