One foot in the north and one in the south....

Trip Start Mar 02, 2005
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Trip End May 07, 2005


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Flag of Ecuador  ,
Friday, March 4, 2005

I straddled the equator today. Yes, it was cheesy. But how could I come all the way to Ecuador and not take a photo of me standing on the equator? (In Spanish, Ecuador actually means "equator") The photo is on my digital camera which I forgot to bring to the internet cafe, but I promise to start uploading photos soon.

20 Kilometers north of Quito is La Mitad del Mundo (The middle of the world). It is an obnoxiously tacky place full of souveneir shops, restaurants, a planetarium, an ethnographic museum, a museum with replica models of the city of Quito, a big tower, and, of course, thereīs the line.

Getting there was very frustrating because it was pouring rain when I left my hostel this morning (I did have a raincoat and waterproof boots on...). Then I stood at the bus stop on Avenida Amazonas for half an hour watching many buses go past but not finding a single one that said "Mitad del Mundo" on the front. Both my Letīs Go and Lonely Planet guidebooks told me to stand on this street and there would be a bus with a pink stripe and a sign "Mitad del Mundo" in front. I asked others waiting for buses but everyone gave a different answer about where the real bus stop was. Finally, I asked a bus driver who told me to take a bus to the airport and from there take a Mitad del Mundo bus. So I got to the airport and lo and behold there were tons of buses to Mitad del Mundo. They were all GREEN and did not have PINK STRIPES. I cursed Letīs Go and Lonely Planet for making me stand out in the rain an extra 45minutes on the wrong street. Then when I got back to my hostel I looked back in the guides and realized the guides actually had said the correct street (ave. America) which I had stupidly read as Amazonas. Stupid gringo.

So after taking the obligatory equator photo I did not want to partake in the other tacky tourist offerings. Luckily, there was a tour agency offering a 45min tour to a nearby volcano crater called Pululahua. We drove about 5km and stopped at an overlook where you could see down into the crater. There were houses and farms in the crater!! Apparently the soil is very fertile. However, this volcano was thought dormant but has recently been making some noises, so thereīs a chance these farmers in their peaceful valley could have a rude awakening sometime soon.

Tomorrow morning Iīm off to the tiny village of Chugchilan to stay at this organic farm called The Black Sheep Inn.

Jamie
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