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Published: July 21st 2008
hopefully there will be some photos to go with this! went to mitad del mundo! the center of the world, was cool very interactive. there were lots of experiments to do such as watching water go straight down the plug hole! balancing an egg on a nail( much easier on the equator apparently)! watching men lose all their strenght when standing on the equator line as opposed to a meter either side of it. that was wierd you lose muscle resistance and weigh about 3 kilos less on the equator than anywhere else!
there was lots of native stuff there too because obviously they realised the significance of the place a long time ago. we saw the last remaining genuine shrunken head left in ecuador and how to make one!!
then i went up a volcano, wow it was chilly! succumbed to a spontaneous purchase of a rather attractive alpaca coat half way up the mountain! was glad i did, and i quite like it now!! we drove up to about 4000 m then climbed another 800m on foot, which might not sound like much but it took 2 hours cos we kept stopping cos of the altitude, really satisfying and
i want to do another one but not sure if i have time now! the volcano was really foggy on the way there and we couldnt really see much then on the way back down the sky cleared and the view was stunning. i think that has been my best day so far. we had a lunch picnic in a wood cabin with fire place and coco tea and a really interesting bunch of people for company!
this weekend i went to spend the fri night in a little indigenous village north of quito and then got up with the sun to take the bus with the locals to otavalo for the indigenous market. this was fascinating, the people in their traditional dress and these strange hats like high fronted trilbys. there was so much colour it was quite amazing. the animal market was the best bit. it was complete chaos! pigs of every shape and size squealing and getting tangled up, chickens being passed around to be traded, guinea pigs, kittens, puppies, rabbits and cows all just being led aroud on pieces of string. was very funny watching this old lady try to get a wriggling squealing piglet in
to her cloth to tie on her back! it was so busy here i didnt get the camera out much so there arent many photos!
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Christine Chandler
non-member comment
Fantastic pictures
Very impressed that you remembered your physics! Did you really not take a coat up that volcano? Trust you to be lucky enough to find a shop on the way up! I wonder how many frozen bodies you tripped over on the way........ Love the story of the piglet - can just imagine you killing yourself laughing at that. Trip sounds wonderful - I'm glad you're also meeting some interesting people - sometimes that's the best bit! Take care love XXX mum