Day 98 - Latitude 0 0 0: Mitad del Mundo

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Today we left early to account for a repeat of our problematic attempt to reach the equator a couple of weeks ago. This time we caught the right bus (their public transport is more confusing for a foreigner than the London Underground would be) and rode an hour and a half to La Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world), a bizarre complex consisting of more restaurants and souvenir shops that anything else, but with a photo worthy monument and a few mind-boggling experiments. I weighed myself on the equator, where it is claimed you weigh 2% less (although the Lonely Planet says it is only 0.3% less than at the poles). Given I haven't weighed myself at home for a year or two (except for peeking apprehensively when the nurse weighs me!) I could neither confirm nor refute this claim. But I wrote it down nonetheless. We also wanted to try our hand at balancing an egg on the head of a nail. A Japanese girl had succeeded just before us, so we took a photo to prove it could be done before I set about attempting it. Just as I was about to remove the egg, a hoard of Japanese shouted, "NO! WAIT!" and ran over with their huge cameras snapping away. Since we had already stood in line for a while we were not prepared to wait any longer and we let the crowd descend as we disappeared for lunch.

As we left we were surprised by the number of locals in jumpers and jackets - we were on the bloody equator for goodness sake! Sure the altitude of 2483 metres meant we were comfortable (if not a little warm) in trousers and T-shirt, but these locals were crazy. One little girl took a photo of us - the first time we've been the subject of anyone's attention for being white.

Back in Quito we attempted one final push to catch up on the blog, and settled for Chinese for dinner (for the 5th but final time) as it was dark.

Chris's Corner

The main novelty of the day was visiting the Northern Hemisphere for the first time since leaving the UK 98 days ago. Of course we also stood talking across hemispheres and holding hands, all part of the fun.

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