Arrival in Ecuador

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Well, we spent most of Saturday travelling from La Paz to Quito, because of a long delay which saw us campng out in Lima airport. We could see the coast for the first time in weeks, but as Lima was covered in fog, it wasn't too exciting. Seems Lima is mostly in fog. Anyway, we arrived ok in Quito to find our 20 minute trip from the airport cost $5. They use dollars here, and it seem everyone has a new american style car, so petrol/cars must be cheap. Very different again from Bolivia and Peru. Nobody is dressed in indigeneuos costume, it's very westernised really. the people are much more of a mixture of spanish and local,and the spanish influence is strong, although probably being taken over by american.

We spent the day yesterday taking in all the sights. This included a visit to an extinct volcano, now used for farming. There are loads of volcanoes round here! The highlight was our vist the equator, so we were in the northern hemisphere for a while! Apparently you weigh less on the equator, and they did all sorts of tricks with running water. Apparently the water runs anti clockwise in the northern hemisphere, clockwise in the southern. We saw this with our own eyes, but is it true- i have my doubts. Check it out and see!

We visited the old town - spanish colonial style, very beautiful in places. as usual there is a monument to a leader who was assasinated a 100 or so years ago , a common occurence in South America at that time as far as i can tell. Hope it's not too common now! Although we did see groups gathering giving out about politicians and corruption / nice to be reminded of home now and again...

Heard the rugby team are not exactly doing us proud. We are off the the Galapagos tomorrow for a few days so we'll problably miss the big one.

Will try to upload photos later

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Photos

equator line
in different hemispheres of the world - s in the north and a in the south

local colour
some of the locals putting on a show, very colourful costumes

local menu
this was what was on offer in the local restaurant

view of quito
Quito, Ecuador - the most sprawling city in the world, it goes on for ever, even at at 4000m could not see its borders

cafe with balcony
in the centre of the old town in Quito was this coffee shop (that did not sell coffee) just the place for a hot chocolate or lemonade. we sat on the balcony on the left

church ceiling
in the centre of Quito, did a tour of the churches. this one - Church of St Augustine - very decorative.