Quito

Quito

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June 26th 2008

Published: July 11th 2008

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Rob2008

Standing on zero latitude

the intersection of the Earth's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass.

Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is high up in the Andes mountain range at 2800m. The altitude took my breath away when I arrived on 19th June feeling a bit dizzy for a few seconds when leaving the plane and for around three days the symptoms were shortness of breath when walking around or up stairs, feeling tired and a slight headache. The medical experts say to literally do nothing for a day which was not difficult and to avoid alcohol and take asprin if required. A taxi from the airport is USD 5 from the little taxi kiosk outside the terminal on the right and it takes about 20 minutes. Central Quito is divided into two distinct parts, the compact Old Town with lots of Squares, cobbled streets, Churches and Police, Security guards and Soldiers!! The new town is more modern with lots of great HRB´s and even more police!. I picked the new town to stay in. Some info on Ecuador for you - its between Columbia and Peru, is the smallest of the Andean nations about the size of UK and Belgium combined, has a population of 14 million and is packed with startling contrasts of

The equator line

You loose 1kg when you stand on the line so can eat lots of Danish pastries!!

scenary from the Amazon rain forest, ice capped volcanoes, palm fringed beaches and the Galapagos Islands. The great thing about Quito is they are all within easy reach and you can use the City as a base and store luggage.

I stayed at the Cayman hotel for the first week while going to Spanish school and generally chilling out and watching USD 1.50 new films on DVD. The European football cup was on in the afternoons so after school we used to pop down to Mulligans and the Futbol Bar and watch the games. I was pleased the Spanish won as they had underperformed for years ( a bit like England!!) One great day trip I did was to the Mindo del Mundo ( Middle of the World) on the equator. There is a good museum there and on the equator they show you lots of tricks including being lighter, unable to walk in a straight line, balancing an egg and water going down a basin with no whirling ( does that make sense?). Also for 2 days I went to the Bellavista cloud forest ( see seperate blog).

Liga de Quito is the City´s football team and

Gravity

Due to gravity one can balance an egg on a nail-amazing eh?

they won the South American cup ( equivalent of the European Champions league) for the first time. I was so lucky to be in the City when they won and the place went mad with dancing and streets, cars being overturned (apparantly) and the partying went on until 5am!!! After watching it in a Mexican restaurant with all the locals singing and getting to bed at 1.00am I could see it all from my 9th floor hotel room it was amazing!!! I heard that they are playing Manchester United soon in Japan? so that should be a great game. During the Galapagos trip I stayed at the Rio Amazonas which is great and after that Crossroads hostel which is basic but good value for USD 15 a night.

Sights in the old town worth seeing are: Plaza de la Independencia, Plaza Santo Domingo, Plaza Sanfransico and Museo de la Cuidad. All the churches are also worth a visit. In the new town the Museo Nacional del Banco Central del Ecuador is very impressive and its worth joining the South American Explorers club if your spending time in Ecuador, Peru and Argentina.

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