Day 10 in Ecuador

Wednesday in Quito!

Slept in til the alarm went off and dragged around my room for a few minutes. Then rejuvenated myself with a delicious banana (no GMO here, folks – bananas taste like their supposed to, still) and went to breakfast on the Terrace with my laptop (one egg scrambled, coffee or tea, on large croissant, and a small bowl of fresh cut fruit - $1.00). A lovely couple from Calgary shared my table as there were no other tables available, and we discovered that we were all going to the same place today – Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world)! We decided to go together, so after breakfast we rendezvoused down at the reception area of our hostel, and off we trekked to the appropriate bus stop – the Blue Line.

Caught the bus ($.25) which took us waaaay to the northern end of Quito to a major Bus Terminal, then transferred to another bus heading to Mitad del Mundo ($.10). We wondered whether we had boarded the correct bus as it made stops almost every 15’ picking up anybody and everybody alongside the road who was waiting for a bus! But finally, 1.5 hours after we left the Chicago Hostel, it dropped us at our destination and we entered the area said to be the equator’s dividing line between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

Of course, I had to have my photo taken with one foot in each of the world's hemispheres!

Mitad del Mundo is quite the tourist center ($2.00 adults, $1.00 seniors and children), with a large 8 story monument to the equator’s line, and within that building is quite an excellent Cultural Museum on each floor of the various indigenous cultures of Ecuador – I had no idea there were so many! The amazing thing is that many of them are still living the old way, though they have almost all been introduced to Christianity and much of current living trends. Some of them still live naked with the males tying their penises up with a string so they don’t get in the way of daily living – quite amazing to see the current photos! The basket work and weaving are highly talented, with one of the groups doing the weavings from the reverse side! Astonishing! I’ve never seen weaving done that way before.

After 8 floors of reading about the various cultures in Ecuador and seeing examples of the products and large color photos of them (we weren’t allowed to take pictures in that museum) I wandered out and looked for my friends, Rhonda and Mike, from Calgary. While looking for them I found the scales that you can put a quarter in and it will give you your weight at the equator, which is supposed to be a kilo less (about 2 pounds) than in either the Northern or Southern hemisphere. To me it seemed that my weight was the same as normal, and probably that is because it isn’t the true equator, as discussed below. Found my friends and visited for a few minutes, then we decided to both go our own ways, and rendezvous again once we're back at the Chicago Hostel.

I was famished and went to a little restaurant in the tourist area and ordered a ¼ chicken, rice, potatoes (the potatoes and rice are excellent down here), salad and water – the whole lunch was huge and cost $4.00! I had about 1/3 of it left over so brought it home with me. There are many, many shops in the tourist village area with all types of souvenirs for the purchase, and several high end gorgeous restaurants.

Walked over to the western side of the exhibits and saw the Museum del Sol, then the Insect Exhibit which was nothing short of incredible with the most gorgeous and imaginative insects of every kind I’ve ever seen (again we weren’t allowed to take pictures), then the French Museum, then the Geological Museum, and then out the gate and north to the Museo de Sitio Inti-Nan - the REAL center of the world.

Now THAT was truly interesting. This place says IT is the true equatorial center, and it is 200 meters to the north of the first one. It’s equatorial line was determined using GPS when that technology was newly discovered, so it was learned after the Mitad del Mundo was built that the TRUE equator is actually a bit north of where the large monument and tourist villa now stand.

The tour at Inti-Nan cost $3.00, and a group of three others from Vancouver Island and myself had an English speaking guide. It was fascinating! We learned and saw some of the ways of the indigenous peoples used to live, their house styles, cooking ways, saddles, burial traditions, guinea pig raising (they eat guinea pigs here just like we eat chicken in the states), and even how they shrunk heads in certain areas in the past. We also got to see some skins and some very large stuffed Anacondas. You wouldn’t want one of these snakes to spy you when they’re hungry!

Finally we got to the fun stuff! We got to see how equatorial time is told with something similar to a sundial, but different since the sun is 6 months on one side of the stone dial, and 6 months on the other – the direction of the shadow changes depending whether it’s winter or summer. Then we got to see water drain from a portable sink – clockwise in the southern hemisphere, straight down directly on the equator, and counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere – and it was only 6 feet off either side of the equator, yet it made such a difference! Incredible! Then we tried to balance an egg on a nail – our guide could do it, but none of us could. Then we tried an exercise where kinesiology is at play – trying to pull a person’s thumb and forefinger apart while they tried to hold the connection of those fingers together. Supposedly it is difficult to pull them apart in either hemisphere, but easy to do on the equator, as there are opposing centrifugal forces which weaken a person’s strength. This exercise didn’t play terribly well, but it was fun. Then we tried to walk the equatorial line with arms outstretched, thumbs up, and eyes closed. This was supposed to be again difficult because of opposing centrifugal forces, which may be the case, but I challenge that it is difficult to walk a straight line anywhere when the eyes are closed and your arms up outstreched to either side and you're having to heel-to-toe touch all the way. Try it - the difficulty has little to do with being on the equator.

Finally our guide showed us some more indigenous dwelling replicas, and some captive guinea pigs (poor sweet things - they were scared and squeeling when we looked at them - they are eaten like we eat chicken). He led us back to a woven wool shop for purchases of rugs, etc., and stamped our passports with the 0’0’0’’ mark which shows we’ve been to the center of the world – pretty cool!

The nice folks I took the tour with offered me a ride back to Quito in their taxi, and within minutes we were back in the city – so much different than the bus! I checked out about 4 more hostels in the vicinity of their hotel (nice area!) then headed over to the Tierra de Fuego Tourist Agency and got updated about my trip departing to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow, and started walking back home.

Along my return to Chicago Hostel there was an excellent coffee shop called “Ethnic Café” where I stopped and had my first Latte since I’ve been down here (it was superbly made) and a half beef and vegetable sandwich which arrived in a whole wheat pita pocket with side salad and miniature baked potatoes. Total bill, $5.48. And it was absolutely delicious and the place is the best I’ve been in since I’ve arrived in Ecuador – could’ve been in a swank part of San Diego!

Continued walking home and passed a couple musicians playing on the street – Andean music of wood flutes playing over pre-scored background music, speakers and all powered by a very quiet generator humming along right beside them – what a hoot! And they were good, so of course I had to buy one of their CDs - $5.00.

Finished walking home and now getting ready for the Galapagos Islands! The tour agency will pick me up tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. to take me to the airport and my flight departs at 9:45. I expect to arrive in the Galapagos around 1 p.m. I will not be able to access internet in the Galapagos, to my understanding. That'll be different!

Say

Day 9 in Ecuador

Tuesday in Quito!

Woke before the alarm to drizzle and gray outside my window…looks like Seattle weather. Putzed around until about 8:30 a.m. and went downstairs to wait for my 8:40 pick-up (they call it Transfer) to the tour bus for the day trip to Papallacta Hot Springs at an elevation of 3307 meters! I waited and waited…cab after cab went by and though all the empty cabs wanted to give me a ride, none of them appeared to be my pick up person, and I waved them on.

Finally I determined they must have forgotten me – the tour was leaving at 9 a.m and it was already that time by my estimate, so I walked across the street to the little shop where there is a Cabina (Pay telephone) and was just dialing the tour office number when the tour company pick-up van came by! I couldn’t believe it! They were a full 20 minutes late, but I was so happy to see them! I really didn’t want to miss Papallacta.

I was the only passenger in the van, besides the driver and the guide, and everything was different than I had expected. There was no other bus we were going to, this was it - a very new and modern van that seats 9 behind the driver and front passenger seats. And we were on our way to pick up the other 3 tourists who had arranged this trip.

We introduced ourselves: Vince (or Vinnie) is the driver, and Felix is our Naturalist Tour Guide (with excellent English). Winding through all the traffic jammed streets we arrived about 20 minutes later at another hostel, and picked up the three tourists: Sallie (a nurse) from Australia, Jay (worker at an RV park in British Columbia) and his father who owns the RV park and whose name I can’t remember.

Leaving Quito took a very long time on a road that was once an ancient trail descending steeply down into a valley. The trail has now been turned into a narrow two lane road, well cobbled and cared for, but originally it was a foot path and then later a horse trail. We almost got into an accident around one sharp corner, and it really rattled our Tour Guide for a minute. Thankfully, both vehicles stopped in time and avoide contact.

Finally we were in the country away from the city and the landscape became the gorgeous Ecuadorian mountains and valleys I’ve come to enjoy so much for their spectacular beauty.

The road started climbing and eventually we were at the top of a 4000+ meter pass and Vince, our driver, pulled over to let us out. Though it was drizzling with high billowy clouds, you could see across the valley a huge snow covered volcano mountain – it was immense. clamored back into the van and descended downFrom there we descende down into a verdant pristine valley with a large clean-looking lake. After passing the lake we turned left and onto a dirt road, then descended some more, then up again and finally!! Voila! We arrived at Papallacta!

What a spectacular place! Nestled just below a saddle pass between two mountain ranges, there are large organic gardens with extremely healthy, gargantuan vegetables growing (giant kale, swiss chard, lettuce, dill, everything). The buildings are very well maintained and look classy enough to be from Santa Fe or Santa Barbara. There is a hotel, restaurant, and other offices, but all so un-signed that it just looks like a highly attractive small villa.

Felix, our Nature Guide, led us on a 45 minute trail hike through the rainforest along the river that feeds some of the cold water to cool the hot springs. The hike brought us by many tropical plants – bromeliads, bamboo, flowers of many kinds and colors, fungi, and always the heavenly sound of the rushing river over giant rocks. Walked back on a dirt road, fairly wet and getting a little cold, and majorly starving. I ate the apple I had brought with me, but the others had nothing.

We paid our $7.00 admittance fee and walked through the gate into the hot spring pool area. Wow Wow and more Wow! Extremely well done stone work, flower gardens, artistically designed pools – the whole place was thoroughly enchanting! There were at least 10 pools of various sizes and temperatures, some painted with pale blue bottoms, others left natural with rock. There were lockers to store our things, dressing rooms, bathrooms, a steam room (but we couldn’t figure out how to turn it on) and cold plunge pools. I felt like a kid in a candy store…which pool first, which pool first! They all looked so deliciously inviting! And while there were a number of other bathers, there really weren’t all that many – it wasn’t overcrowded by any means.

We four touristas started out in one pool and then decided after a few minutes it wasn’t hot enough, and migrated to another blue pool that had steam rolling off. We stayed in that one for the rest of the time, with little jaunts just to toe-test the others, then back to the perfect temp pool. Every 5 or 10 minutes we did the cold plunge pool – that was really refreshing and brought the tingles to your skin when you were back in the hot water.

Finally it was time for us to rendezvous with Felix again (he and Vince didn’t join us in the pools but were out in the van, reading and napping). We departed the lovely hot springs and drove down the hill to a restaurant they dearly wanted to take us to, not too far away. It was large and clean and nicely decorated with wood and warm paint, with varnished wooden tables and bench seats. We had a window next to our table where we could look out across the entire valley to the mountain range on the other side – breathtaking! We all ordered exactly the same thing – trout with rice and salad and potatoes, and a cervesa! It was delicious! Everything was very tasty and prepared excellently. Total price of the meal - $6.00 (that includes the beer).

On the drive back we stopped at the lake and took pictures of it with the mountains as backdrop – ahhh gorgeous Nature! Then we all slept quite a bit on the drive home, and arrived back in Quito about 5:30 p.m. (only 2.5 hours later than originally scheduled). I was the first one they dropped off. It was strange to be back – I felt like I had been in MagicLand and now I was back in – a small boring hostel room all by myself.

Walked downtown to go to an ATM machine – took me three tries before I found one that worked, and it was way on the other side of the large park not too far from my hostel. On the way back I saw the Hilton and went in to ask for room prices for the night of the 28th – I thought it might be nice to have my final night in Quito be at an upper class hotel - $200! The hostel will be fine. But I did go to their restaurant and ordered Seafood Soup. It was excellent! Huffed and puffed my way back to the hostel in the dark (still not used to these high altitudes, and with a full stomach it’s even harder!) with a wad of bills in my pocket totaling $500.00 – I kept a sharp eye out and no one looked twice at me.

Now I’m hopeful to get to Mitad del Mundo tomorrow – “The Middle of the World”. It’s the equatorial line which is still somewhat disputed in that several different places claim to be sitting on top of it. I have heard from people who have been there that they have a moveable toilet that you can take to one side or the other of the line, and even put it on the line itself, and the water goes down differently each time depending which side or the middle that you’re on. Also, an egg is supposed to balance on a pin there, and we are supposed to way about a pound less! I can’t wait to see this!

Say