North Meets South !! We decided to go to the Equator today, well when in Equador ! On the way we took a deotur to an extinct Volcanoe. The bus was supposed to drop us at the top of the crater, but we were kicked out at the bottom. It was a beautifully sunny day so we started walking, however half way up some really nice guys tooks us the rest of the way in their car. At the top you could appreciate the scale of the volcanoe. The crater was huge, miles across with a smaller cone in the middle. It hasnt erupted for 2500 years so we were safe. Due to the fertile soil on the crater floor and the favourable micro-climate it is now farmed. Interestingly though the children of the original farmers very rarely take over the farms as western influence & ideals mean a lot of them move to the big cities in Equador. It has meant that Europeans have started buying up the land, so apparantly theres a Swiss farm, Italian and even Japanese ! We started walking back down the mountain and came across a sun temple. It looked a bit like a martello tower, three stories tall and circular. We wernt sure what to expect but it was amazing ! It had artefacts and paintings but the most amazing part was the central chamber. The building was hollow in the centre from the floor to the doomed roof. In the centre of the roof was a circular hole, this meant that a beam of sunlight pierced the dark chamber, it was incredible. In the middle of the floor was a pit, which on the 21st of March we think (the guide didnt speak English) the sun is directly above and the Sun streams in in a verticle beam, it must be amazing. They also have a big ceremony to celebrate this. We just hope the phots give you the idea. From there we carried on walking back down the mountain to the Equator exhibition. They have built a sort of theme park in honour of Equador, the sun, the moon and stars and the Equator. There is a huge tower which sits directly on the equator with the 'zero'line drawn on the floor. It reminded us of Michael Palin adventures when crossing the Equator is always a really significant point of his trip.