For some reason it seems that all flights that arrive into major third-world (for lack of a better term) cities arrive late at night. And even though I have traveled a lot before, it's still nice to have a friend who is living there meet you at the airport. It's much easier to have a "local" guide, at least until you get your feet wet. My friend Tim was living there (he has since moved on to Argentina) with his Peruvian girlfriend Kathy. Tim and I know each other from Trek America where he was also a leader for many years. We crossed paths in the US, Mexico and now Ecuador.
Mostly what I did while in Quito, I have to admit was play video games. Tim had an X-box in his apartment and we spent a lot of time drinking scotch and playing Tiger Woods golf and Madden Football. Tim wasn't earning much money, and I hadn't worked for a month and a half with no job in sight. So we both were all about staying in and not spending, much to the dismay of the transvestite hookers who set up camp across from Tim and Kathy's apartment. I think they would have liked some business from some "rich" white boys.
I did get out and do some site-seeing. One day we went to old town (they lived in the new town) and walked around the old colonial streets. I have heard that Quito is dangerous, but you here that about a lot of places. I've heard it a lot about LA (more or less my backyard) and haven't ever had any problems there. As long as you don't be stupid about it, Quito is fine. I thought it was a nice city with an amazing backdrop.
Another day I was gone all day at the equator. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to the country, which of course gets its namesake from the imaginary line. I thought it would be neat to have been recently so close to the pole and then hit the equator. Depending on where you look for information the equator passes through 12-14 countries. The discrepancy I believe is about land crossings or just territorial waters. Anyway, of the list of 14, I have only now been to one so looks like I have my work cut out for me. On the list, the most I would like to go to at this point is the Maldives.
I went to the main monument to the equator (called the Mitad Del Mundo) that has led to a large tourist complex reminiscent of Disneyland. Complete with a little fake train (no actual tracks) that takes tourists around the complex, lots of shops and over priced (by Ecuadorian standards) restaurants. You can climb the 30 m high monument which has a nice museum inside. From the top, if you know where you are looking, you can see where the equator actually is, because apparently the monument is NOT on it. My grandparents who stood there in 1965 thought they were on it. Now that we have sophisticated devices like GPS, they have discovered that the monument is not actually on the equator. So an enterprising man who owns some land ON the equator has built the Inti Nan Solar Museum about 500 m from the main complex. It is well worth a visit, as they show you all the amazing properties of being on the equator, such as;
1. Water flushes one way north, the other way south and straight down directly on. Remember the Simpsons episode where they go to Australia?
2. It is easier to balance things (like an egg on the head of a nail in this case) ON the equator.
3. It is much more difficult to balance your self ON the equator. I know this is contradictory to the last one, but I saw it.
4. You weigh less on the equator
There were a few more oddities like these and I witnessed them all first hand. Always the skeptic, I can tell you I tested them all myself. The amazing thing to me was that a foot or so to one side made all the difference. I would have thought the equator was much more of a broad concept, but it is an actual specific line. Don't believe, me hop a flight to one of the 12-14 countries and find out.
Also while I was there I took a short side trip to Pululahua National Park, which consists of a village inside the crater of a volcano. Sound like not smart planning as to where to put a village? Well, its inactive, MAYBE. It depends on who you ask actually as some classify it as active, but the last eruption was 2500 years ago. That's recent if you are a planet, a long time ago if you are a human, and the soil is ohh so fertile, so the community is a farming one. I did not go down into it, just went to a view point to look down at it from above and from there is was beautiful. With all the stuff I did that day I got back to Tim and Kathy's late, but not too late for Kathy's excellent dish called Papa Rellena.
The only other thing I/we did in Quito of note was go up the Gondola on Pinchincha Mountain (about 13,000 feet) for a view overlooking the city. We waited a long time to go up because they had two classes of tickets. The cheap and you must wait tickets or the expensive but you can cut in line tickets. We are a cheap and we waited. We arrived just in time though as the clouds moved in 10 or so minutes after we arrived, taking the view away. To that point it was the highest (excluding Amsterdam, which oddly is one of lowest countries in the world yet has the highest tourists) I had ever been, but just wait, I will get higher on this trip, but that will come later.
Mostly what I did while in Quito, I have to admit was play video games. Tim had an X-box in his apartment and we spent a lot of time drinking scotch and playing Tiger Woods golf and Madden Football. Tim wasn't earning much money, and I hadn't worked for a month and a half with no job in sight. So we both were all about staying in and not spending, much to the dismay of the transvestite hookers who set up camp across from Tim and Kathy's apartment. I think they would have liked some business from some "rich" white boys.
I did get out and do some site-seeing. One day we went to old town (they lived in the new town) and walked around the old colonial streets. I have heard that Quito is dangerous, but you here that about a lot of places. I've heard it a lot about LA (more or less my backyard) and haven't ever had any problems there. As long as you don't be stupid about it, Quito is fine. I thought it was a nice city with an amazing backdrop.
Another day I was gone all day at the equator. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to the country, which of course gets its namesake from the imaginary line. I thought it would be neat to have been recently so close to the pole and then hit the equator. Depending on where you look for information the equator passes through 12-14 countries. The discrepancy I believe is about land crossings or just territorial waters. Anyway, of the list of 14, I have only now been to one so looks like I have my work cut out for me. On the list, the most I would like to go to at this point is the Maldives.
I went to the main monument to the equator (called the Mitad Del Mundo) that has led to a large tourist complex reminiscent of Disneyland. Complete with a little fake train (no actual tracks) that takes tourists around the complex, lots of shops and over priced (by Ecuadorian standards) restaurants. You can climb the 30 m high monument which has a nice museum inside. From the top, if you know where you are looking, you can see where the equator actually is, because apparently the monument is NOT on it. My grandparents who stood there in 1965 thought they were on it. Now that we have sophisticated devices like GPS, they have discovered that the monument is not actually on the equator. So an enterprising man who owns some land ON the equator has built the Inti Nan Solar Museum about 500 m from the main complex. It is well worth a visit, as they show you all the amazing properties of being on the equator, such as;
1. Water flushes one way north, the other way south and straight down directly on. Remember the Simpsons episode where they go to Australia?
2. It is easier to balance things (like an egg on the head of a nail in this case) ON the equator.
3. It is much more difficult to balance your self ON the equator. I know this is contradictory to the last one, but I saw it.
4. You weigh less on the equator
There were a few more oddities like these and I witnessed them all first hand. Always the skeptic, I can tell you I tested them all myself. The amazing thing to me was that a foot or so to one side made all the difference. I would have thought the equator was much more of a broad concept, but it is an actual specific line. Don't believe, me hop a flight to one of the 12-14 countries and find out.
Also while I was there I took a short side trip to Pululahua National Park, which consists of a village inside the crater of a volcano. Sound like not smart planning as to where to put a village? Well, its inactive, MAYBE. It depends on who you ask actually as some classify it as active, but the last eruption was 2500 years ago. That's recent if you are a planet, a long time ago if you are a human, and the soil is ohh so fertile, so the community is a farming one. I did not go down into it, just went to a view point to look down at it from above and from there is was beautiful. With all the stuff I did that day I got back to Tim and Kathy's late, but not too late for Kathy's excellent dish called Papa Rellena.
The only other thing I/we did in Quito of note was go up the Gondola on Pinchincha Mountain (about 13,000 feet) for a view overlooking the city. We waited a long time to go up because they had two classes of tickets. The cheap and you must wait tickets or the expensive but you can cut in line tickets. We are a cheap and we waited. We arrived just in time though as the clouds moved in 10 or so minutes after we arrived, taking the view away. To that point it was the highest (excluding Amsterdam, which oddly is one of lowest countries in the world yet has the highest tourists) I had ever been, but just wait, I will get higher on this trip, but that will come later.
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