Standing on both sides of the world simultaneously

Trip Start Oct 17, 2006
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Trip End Mar 04, 2007


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Flag of Ecuador  ,
Sunday, October 29, 2006

After arriving back in Quito from the Galapagos I bumped into Jemma, who was also doing the budget tour, at the taxi window and we headed into the old town to the Secret Garden Hostel.  The hostel was lovely with a gorgeous roof terrace that gave a great view over the city.  There were also ponchos to borrow for when it got a bit chilly.  On the first night there was a traditional Andean band playing who were pretty good.

The next day Jem and I headed out into the old town for some sightseeing.  We'd seen a church from the rooftop and decided to try to find it, which we did pretty quickly.  Once inside the basilica we had a bit of a look before being offered a tour, which we accepted.  It was quite interesting as the guy was very knowledgeable and he also showed us that you could see the Virgin Mary statue through a heart shaped window which was really impressive.  We wandered around Quito checking out some of the plazas and churches but were both a bit knackered due to the altitude (this was to become a long standing excuse for any problem over the next 4 months!).  We took a taxi up El Pancellio to see the Virgin Mary and views over Quito 01 Inside Quito Basilica
01 Inside Quito Basilica
 .  Rather bizarrely George Michael's Careless Whisper was being blasted out once we got to the top.

The following day we took a bus up to Mitad del Mundo, where the equator passes through a little bit north of Quito, and I have now stood in both hemispheres simultaneously. Unfortunately the official monument, which is very nice, isn't actually at the equator, it's about 70 metres off but there is a museum at the real equator where I did a couple of experiments including the water test - water goes straight down a plug hole at the equator rather than twisting round. The rest of the museum was about how the indigenous people lived and was fairly interesting.  There was also a rather disturbing exhibit - a shrunken head in a jar.  Apparently this was the fate of the important people captured during war.  Not my first choice of a mantelpiece decoration though!

Sadly the next day saw us leave the Secret Garden and old town.  We met up with some other people doing budget tours and went to check out Museo del Banco Central which had lots of interesting artefacts including a mummy - my first (but definitely not last) of the tour and also a lovely exhibition of Inca gold.  We had a wander through the markets before getting back to the hotel and meeting up with all of our group.  There's 22 of us going all the way to Rio together and they seem like a good group.
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