My final week in Quito was my last chance to brush up on the Spanish skills before I was let lose on my own with the language..!

But if I thought the week was going to be uneventful I was far from right. I arrived back from the coast early Saturday morning, safe in the knowledge that I had a hostel booked and waiting for me...or so I thought...because when I arrived the rather smiley, but very unhelpful man informed me that he was very sorry but there were no rooms available. Apparently reservations dont count for much around here and the best advice he could offer me was that the hostel next door was full too - thanks then...

...so with my world on my back I set off in search of a bed for the week. And with Quito not being the safest city in the world I was very dubious of wandering the streets so early in the morning. But eventually after a couple of tries I found a hostel with a room. However, while I was trying to check in the phone rang so the woman went off to answer it and I was joined in reception by a group of men. Seemingly impatient, one of them pushed in front of me and proceeded to try and distract the woman from my booking and secure himself a couple of rooms for him and his friends. At first I didnt think this too unusual as my experience of Ecuador so far had taught me that as a tourist you are effectively invisible (unless of course someone is trying to rip you off!) and for people to just march in front of you or interrupt you is not unknown. But on this occasion the diversion was not so innocent, as suddenly one of the men standing behind me taps me on the shoulder and points out that I have something on the back on my jumper...At this stage I realised what was happening, and fortunately so did the woman in the hotel...squirting mustard all over my clothes was an attempt to distract me so they could steal my bags and anything valuable within them. But fortunately for me, my big backpack is so heavy anyone would have trouble running anywhere with it, plus it has a cover on it so there was no way they could get anything out of it. And everything valuable was in my other rucksack on the front of me. So by turning away and ignoring the man, eventually he and his friends tired of the idea and left empty handed...I was pretty lucky as I think they had followed me from one of the other hotels, but it certainly wasnt the best start to my final week and from that point on I barely walked anywhere alone.

The only other interesting part of my week was a trip to the equatorial line at Mitad del Mundo. After successfully deciphering the buses with a few other students from the school we arrived eager to see what the equator looks like. Well really it is just a line painted on the ground where someone has supposedly calculated that this is where the equator is...but there is some form of debate about the true location, as the monument which marks the line is reportedly 250m away from the true equator! There is in fact a museum on the "real" site where they perform all sorts of experiments to prove it. They do a test with running water down a plug hole, which when placed on the equatorial line, just goes straight down - there is no gurgling and no swirling of the water...yet when moved just a few metres either side of the line the water goes down either clockwise or anticlockwise - very bizarre. You also have much less resistance on the equator. They did a couple of tests to show how when someone tries to pull your arms down from above your head normally you can resist, but stand on the line iteself and your ability to resist completely disappears! And finally, the egg test...where you can apparently balance an egg on a nail when standing on the equatorial line...and if you do you get a certificate. Now many tried and failed the said task, but not I...after a few moments of very slight movement with the egg it balanced perfectly and I was rewarded with my certificate - a very proud moment!

And that was Quito...and almost the end of my time in Ecuador. After my classes finished on Friday I said my goodbyes to the school and packed my bags ready for another night bus down south, as I started to make my way to Peru...