Equador!

---

Have been in Equador a couple of weeks now and been on a bit of a whistlestop tour! First stop was Vilcabamba a beautiful mountain village where we did a day of horse riding up the hills. The ride was great but a little scary for me as despite having not ridden for about 6 years I apparently had the most experience in our group and so ended up riding an enourmous horse called Inca who was a bit of a handful to say the least! Two weeks later my blisters are just about disappearing!

From Vilcabamba we went to the fishing village of Puerto Lopez and went out whale spotting. Its high season for whale watching there because its mating season for humpbacks.. cue lots of jokes about humping! We managed to see 4 whales before the boat had to turn back as more than half the passengers (and they were nearly all locals) were throwing up!

The next stop was Riobamba to ´Ride the Devils Nose´a section of train track running through a difficult section of the Andes. We got to ride on the roof of the train which was fun although not especially comfortable! The views were pretty great but not amazing.. think we have seen so many incredible things now that we are getting difficult to impress!

Anyway from Riobamba we went to Quito, the second highest capital city in the world (so we have now done the top 2!) and spent a few days there. Quito is really nice, strangely quite European in places. One day we took the bus out to the Equator where there are 2 museums, one huge theme park like one with an enormous monument etc, then 200m down the road anouther teeny one, on the actual equator. Apparently the calculations were wrong and they didnt realise until they had built he big theme park! How very South American... although one of the guides was keen to point out that it was a French man who did the initial calculations!

At the smaller museum you could do all sorts of experiments that can only be achieved at the equator. We watched the water down the plug hole thing go in opposite directions on either side and then go straight down in the middle. Then we ballanced an egg on a nail (and got certificates!) and did some other experiments involving holding your hands above your head while someone pushed down on them, first off then on the line. Because there is less gravity at the equator its almost impossible to keep your hands up at the line. Very weird!

From Quito we went to a brilliant hostel called ´The Magic Roundabout´in the Cloud Forrest. We went on a walk there, well more of a scramble really, luckily the hostel owner Ali provied wellies as much of the walk involved strolling up the middle of the river! The walk went around 3 different waterfalls and I went under the third one.. which was er.. invigorating. Alright it was absolutely freezing but its something I had always wanted to do!

Yesterday night we arrived in Otavalo where there is an enormous Saturday market so the plan for this afternoon is to wander round that and then we will be off to Colombia either tomorrow or the day after.

---