Quito and Montanita
Friday, October 17th, 2008
Chloe Writes: Ecuador was most definitely a short but sweet visit. Desperate for some sun and a beach, after over 24 hours on various buses, we started off in the touristy surfer town of Montanita. Big waves, lots of bars and restaurants, the most amazing chicken, rice and beans…… but no sun! We met some friends there so stayed a few days but decided to keep moving and head north to Quito.
Quito, a modern city with an interesting old town as well as electric buses, shopping malls and lots and lots of torrential rain. We did enjoy the best football match.. Ecuador vs Chile in the world cup qualifiers, although we got soaked waiting for the match to start (we were advised to get there 3 hours early to get a good seat), it was definitely the best fun I have had at a game and will probably remember Quito for this reason.
The Mitad Del Mundo (middle of the world) was also only a couple of short bus journeys away, so we couldn’t´t resist the opportunity to stand on both the Northern and Southern hemisphere at the same time. Unfortunately the line was plotted with help from the stars a couple of hundred years ago and is therefore off target by a few hundred meters south, not a bad guess though to be fair. But go north to the Museo Solar Iti Nan and you can stand on the real equator line, plotted with the modern technology of the US military GPS. There we had an interesting tour and was shown a few tricks and demonstrations to do with gravity… such as balance (as its supposed to be easier on the Equator) and water being poured down a sink swirling the way the earth spins, so anti-clockwise for the southern Hemisphere, clockwise for the northern and straight down for the equator line.
Had it not been for the weather we could have stayed longer as there was so much to see, beautiful landscapes and some fantastic food… but the sun beckons in the last month of our trip so heading up to the Caribbean is at the top of the agenda.
Pete Writes: Ecuador was lots of fun, it was just a shame that the weather did not stay on our sides. Whilst we were on the coast I managed to grab a few waves and felt like it had been a long time since I had been in the sea.. So I am really looking forward to the Caribbean (although there are not as many waves!) but I am sure it will be a lot warmer than the Ecuadorian coast. Although there was a big fiesta on the weekend coming up we decided that we would rather catch the International game in Quito so we hopped on another 12 hour night bus (which I believe was driven by Nigel Mansels twin brother) thus dropping us both in the Capital at 5am with approximately 2 hours sleep (who said traveling isn´t hard work).
We arranged to hook up with Pete (one of the guys from our trek) before the game and then proceeded in waiting for over 3 hours for the kick off. Being hawked to buy plastic ponchos on the way to the ground in the bright sunshine seamed like another waste of money, however we were proved wrong an hour later when we were forking out 3 times the original price to keep ourselves slightly dry!! So the game ended up with 3 red cards and 1 goal to the home team so everyone was happy, and it was the best atmosphere so far!
When we were at the equator Chloe managed to show me her blow pipe skills by hitting a target smack in the middle with a dart. I am definitely feeling at ease that we could survive in the jungle, what with the fishing and poison darts!! so now we are off to Colombia for hopefully some heat and sunshine :o).
Sorry about the lack of photos but due to the grey weather we werent overly inspired… maybe next time!
Page Gallery
Still before the game… Soaked!!
Just before the game
Standing astride the equator line!
Now for the real one…
A real head, shrunken using steam to preserve the soul of the deceased