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Quito June 5 - 8
We left Guayaquil on a local bus (one of about 90 different bus companies that serve the city), and set off for an eight and a half hour journey. Being a local bus they stopped regularly to pick up passengers on the road side which added time to the journey. It seemed like we were travelling forever even though we had already done bus journeys much longer than this one. The last couple of hours were pretty horrendous as we had to drive up the windy mountainous roads in the dark. Obviously we arrived safe and sound though!
Quito is the capital of Ecuador, although only has approximately a third of the population of Guayaquil. It is 2800m above sea level and only 25km from the equator meaning that is has a pretty consistent year round climate with warm days and cool nights.
We had booked a hostel in the New Town for the first night but weren't impressed upon arrival. There were no lockers in the dorms, the room was tiny with boys crap everywhere and only one shower room for the whole hostel. They had raving reviews online but we think these were left by guys who spend the evenings getting drunk and stoned with the owner! Feeling pretty tired we put our heads down for the night, before getting woken up in the early hours by four boys taking three hours to shower and pack up their bags! Can you tell that I'm starting to get annoyed with hostels now?! To top it all off, when I wanted to shower, two German girls decided to spend an hour in the only bathroom and then get annoyed when I ask them how much longer they were going to be. Grrr! In addition, I then had a freezing cold, dribbling shower! We promptly checked out and found a nicer place on the other side of the road for the same price that was much cosier and friendlier!
We spent the first day exploring the old town (you stay in the New Town as it has more facilities at night time for backpackers). We were feeling pretty tired anyway and I once again had a dodgy stomach, but asides from a really nice park where we had a little play on the monkey bars, we weren't particularly impressed with the old town which has UNESCO World Heritage Status! We wandered around the plazas and once again found ourselves seeing more protests and then wandered back to the Cathedral. It was a strange place as the main congregation hall was all concreted off yet they were still letting visitors pay to go in. You could go up to a balcony and see over into the congregation hall, but I'm unsure as to whether it is currently being used as the rest of the building seems to be under major restoration. We climbed up a few floors and then decided we would brave it and go to the tower. This involved walking over a wooden temporary looking boardwalk and then up some very dodgy looking stairs. Zara is scared of heights so it was quite an achievement for her to get that far. At this point we were half way up the tower and had some good views of what is quite a dull city! There was then another two sets up very steep and unsafe stairs which had no protection around them for the outside, meaning you could literally fall to your death! We both decided it wasn't worth going up there and would rather have our bodies intact! We climbed back down and found ourselves walking past the tombs of many bodies, all a bit eerie really!
That evening we headed out for dinner and had a beer in celebration of Sean's 27th Birthday (Happy Birthday Sean!) and in celebration of Zara's Dad's life as it was four years to the day since she lost him. We had one beer and my stomach pains that I'd been getting all day decided to worsen so we headed back and climbed into the small double bed we were sharing!
We had a nice lay in the following day and I was feeling slightly better so we headed off to the equator by local bus. Taxi was $12 which is cheap if you are on holiday but not as a backpacker, so we took the option that cost us 50c! You arrive at Mitad del Mundo and are immediately hit by how touristy the place is. There are numerous cafes and artisan shops, along with numerous museums related to the equator and a monument with a large globe on top. Coming from the museum is the line of the equator but this in fact not the real one! It is there for the tourists! Crazy! You can climb up the monument for some good views and on the way back down you go through the museum of ethnography which shows you the local tribes in Ecuador, the way they live, their beliefs etc. It was an interesting place to visit, many of the tribes were similar to each other and had a catholic/tribal religion but the dress and the way they lived varied slight. It was great to see the variation just inside one country.
After taking in all the touristy things we headed 300m down the road for the 'real equator' at Museo Intinan. On arrival we were introduced to an English speaking guide who would show us around. The tour started by visiting the mock village they had randomly remade onsite, showing how the local tribes lived many years ago. They had straw and wooden huts with one of two rooms (a main room and a kitchen) which was usually for around four families. Each family had a corner of the main room to sleep in. When one of the members of the tribe dies they perform a ritual using the deceased's head in order for the spirit to live on. This basically involves a process which leaves you with a shrunken head which is then treasured by the family forever.
Next we got to see several experiments performed on the actual equator which proved that the line really does exist. The first experiment which many people have already heard of and always seem to ask when you visit another hemisphere is about the direction that waters goes down a plug hole. The guide placed the sink on the equator and let the water drain, whilst on the line it just drains completely vertically. Move the sink to the Northern hemisphere and the water drains anti-clockwise, move to the Southern Hemisphere and it drains clockwise (I swear on my life). I had also tested this as soon as arriving in Australia by flushing the toilet! Pretty cool to see it at the actual equator though as each time it was moved it was only about a metre from the equator.
Another test was for us to stand on the equator, one foot infront of the other, arms stretched out sideways, chin up, close your eyes and walk straight. It was almost impossible as you can actually feel the forces trying to pull you one way or the other. One of the other tests which I had never heard of previously, was with an egg. Apparently right on the equator you should be able to balance an egg on the top of a nail as there are no forces pulling it sideways. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to achieve this (had I been given an hour I would have been persistent) but the guide did prove that it can be done!
Of course we took the typical photos standing on the equator before heading back to the city for some tasty ribs and a few cocktails in an Irish Bar (we tried to go to a local bar but there was no atmosphere so the Irish Bar won us over once again). I was pleased to see that they served Amaretto Sours, something I haven't had since my time in America but will definitely be making once I get back home!
Our final day in Quito was another one of those days where you just hang around or find little odd jobs that need doing before catching your bus, or in this case it was a flight. I was on tenterhooks all day as Amanda had gone into labour, but the little boy was taking his time coming out and I was eagerly awaiting news from England! After numerous skype calls and texts (some of which annoyingly got lost somewhere over the Atlantic) I eventually heard the exciting news that my nephew Sebastian James had been born (congratulations Karl and Amanda) and I briefly got to speak to the family amongst all the craziness of people visiting etc. I now have to wait a few weeks until I can meet him in person, so in the meantime I have to make do with skype!
That evening we headed to the airport for our flight back to Santiago so that we could make our way to our penultimate country of our trip - Argentina.
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mum No alcohol,in our house now Janine you've had too much.