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Published: August 24th 2008
(Catherine)
After coming out of the jungle we spent a few lazy days in Banos having hot showers (such a luxury!), eating pizza (I really missed cheese!), getting our laundry done (we had to apologise because everything was covered in mud!) and watching American sit-coms (the joys of cable TV!). Next, we travelled back to Quito to squeeze in a few extra sights before heading off on our next excursion.
The original meaning of Quito is said to be ´centre of the earth´ because the equator line runs 22km north of the city. There are two museums on the equator, the original is Mitad Del Mundo then just over the road is the newer Museo Solar Inti Nan, opened once GPS technology confirmed that Mitad Del Mundo wasn´t actually on the equator afterall! We headed out on a day trip with Brenda and Niall, an Irish couple we´d met in our hostel.
Mitad Del Mundo had an impressive momument and a good red line for photo opportunities, but Museo Solar was much more fun! Here they do experiments to prove that you are actually on the equator like filling a sink with water and pulling the plug out
Nunnery Shopping
The nun who served me was behind the rotating door - a very strange experience!to watch the water flow different ways on the equator line, then either side of it. It was very convincing but not enough to make cynical Matt believe! We noticed that each time the guides did the sink trick they put the sink in exactly the same place. Matt asked if he could have a go himself but when he tried to put the sink in a slightly different place, they weren´t having any of it and told us we had to move on! Very suspicious and proof enough for Matt that it´s all a con! We also balanced eggs on nails which you supposedly can´t do anywhere else (something to do with the gravity pulling the yolk down so it´s easier to balance) and some silly strength tests which didn´t work at all. Apparently you also weigh less at the equator which is one fact I choose to believe!
We also visited an interesting shop in a nunnery Quito´s Old Town. The nuns make all sorts of creams, lotions and potions to help with anything from baldness to forgetfulness. Because the nuns live a solitary life in the nunnery, you´re not actually allowed to see them so all
sales take place with the nun standing on one side of a revolving door and the customer on the other. You tell the nun what you want then spin your money round to her, she takes the money and spins back what you´ve bought. It was quite difficult for us to place our order with our limited Spanish when we couldn´t even see the person we were talking to, but we got there in the end!
On our last day in Quito we went on a cable car ride to the top of Cruz Loma mountain, a staggering 4100m - I´ve never been so high on a cable car before. The views were amazing but it was pretty cold up there. We decided to go even higher and attempt to reach the summit of another mountain which is about 4700m. The altitude made walking hard work and when the trail ran out and the walk turned into a scramble I decided to head back down. Matt carried on and made it to the top, even running all the way back down to catch up with me - now that´s just showing off!
We really liked what we saw
of Quito. The Old Town and the new town were both very different but each had its own charm (apart from the dodgy bits where you´re not supposed to go after dark!). Now we´re looking forward to exploring the rest of South America and I´m hoping to get used to walking at altitude before we tackle the Inca Trail next month!
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