After a longer and more refreshing nights sleep than the previous night I woke to more sunshine and a more comfortable feeling in my bones. A quick breakfast and Diego was here to collect me for a day's touring.

At 9am the traffic was terrible so while we drove to our starting point at the edge of the Old Town, Diego filled me in on some of the history of the Ecuadorian people. I won't go into the details but it is accepted that the Valdiva people who came from Brazil and the Chorrera were the most widespread and important group and over time various changes took place among the various groups in the different regions of Ecuador through to the 1300's - 1400's.

However, early in the 15th century the Inca empire expanded north from Peru various battles and the swapping of power between the invading Incas and the most important Ecuadorian group, the Canari took place. However once one of the Incas fathered a son with a Canari princess it was pretty much a done deal.

It is important to recognise that of course the Incas praise the sun god and they were very motivated to take over Ecuador because the recognised that here they were closer to the sun than anywhere else, and here they felt the power of the sun the most. So the Inca Empire was established but divided when Huaya Capac died in 1526 and left the empire to his 2 sons.

This coincided with the arrival of the Spanish which is of course another story of conquest, bringing in Christianity, and the blending of the Incan people with the Spanish to produce the lighter coloured Ecuadorians who are here today. The colonial period too produced the classical Spanish architecture that is classic here in Quito's Old Town - blended with quite a lot of classic French architecture too - and the churches (some I mentioned yesterday).

By now we had arrived at the Bascilica de Voto Nacional, one which I mentioned yesterday - the one with the animals instead of gargoyles. Diego told me that in fact that the church is not finished - there is a superstition that if the building is finished then the city will suffer an earthquake. However this is one pretty tough church as the foundations and lower parts are made of volcanic rock mined from the mountain with the cable car. The use of animals instead of the gargoyles which is part if the Quito people's goal to establish their own identity rather than the more traditional gothic nasty figures.

If you look at this pic of the building you can see the redder stones at the bottom of the building compared to the lighter ones at the top. And if you look closely at the figures, past the tortoises you might make out a cat - as the figures further along are from the jungle.

From there we went to the city square / plaza, where I heard the story of the liberation of Ecuador from Spanish rule - started in 1809 and taking about 20 years. This happened at the same time as in other countries on the east of South America. This (sideways pic, sorry) monument in the centre of the square shows the vanquished Spanish symbols at the bottom, below the symbols of Ecuador including the Condor and the statue at the top of Juan Pio Montufar who kick started the fight for independence.

As I had seen the key churches yesterday we wandered around looking at some of the streets and taking in the local culture. As we approached the main square and the presidential palace I heard a motorcade with heaps of police sirens coming up behind us - we had heard several yesterday which were non-events so I didn't take much notice till I noticed that instead of the usual pretty basic larger Police motor bikes there was a crew on serious large, white BMW motor bikes. By then we were right at the entrance to the palace and as one car pulled up, a bunch of what looked like suited police / secret service bods got our and hustled someone out of the car in front. Diego insisted that it was the president and had a chuckle about that the president claims that 70% of the people keep love him, but that he is still heavily guarded wherever he goes.

I guess however that there are still 30 % unhappy campers out there somewhere!

The next pic of me is the closest you are found to see me to a monastery - which forms one side of the Plaza San Francisco, a huge (empty except for a statue of the monastery's founder the Franciscan missionary Joedco Ricke) cobblestone plaza. The church inside is rather beautiful because it is not as ornate as some I have seen, but rather painted in a lot of lovely pastel colours, which are being restored quite actively.

We then headed out of Quito for a 45 minute drive - not far really, it was busy all the way - to the equator. Another long story here, the original inhabitants of the area and the Incas located what the deemed to be the equator and market it with a very large marker on the top of a prominent hill.

However, in1736 Charles-Marie de la Condamine made measurements and a large monument was erected to note this. However, more recently GPS positioning has confirmed that the Ecuadorians (Incas and others) were correct.

There is now a lovely tourist info centre that tells tourists (including me of course) all about the equator and the original peoples. Our guide certainly caught my attention when we went into a rustic hut for her to tell us about one of the Amazon tribes (might be the Mawe tribe?), the most interesting thing is that the men are naked and tie their penis up with string to keep them (ie penis) close to their body and out of harms way. After she showed us this on the life-sized model, I didn't hear too much more about the spears and how 20 of them lived in one hut and their way of life. Sorry the pic is blurry - wasn't thinking clearly. He he.

Then on to more about the equator. Our guide did experiments to show the water going straight down a drain on the equator, then the impact of the coreolis effect in water either side of the equator (I took pics but nothing to see), how you can sit an egg on the head of a nail on the equator because of the lessened impact on the fluids in it (I failed this) and trying to walk with eyes closed along the equator line is very difficult. Pic of me on equator. Thumbs up draws the Suns energy into the body.

A quick look at a nearby volcano (see pic), the outside rim is 40km in circumference, and there is another, smaller one inside.

Then back to Quito. Tour over.

Sat down to write this.

Met my room mate Diane - she Is from the Sunshine but seems very normal so far. She will change.

Briefing at 6pm.

We leave at 4.30 in the morning. So I am rushing to bed. Diane has her light out :(

While there will be no blog for many days - and no email - I will definitely be writing and thinking of you, missing you and looking forward to sharing my adventure news.