Ecuador: Centre of the World

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This is a repeat of my last email but people had trouble recieving it so im trying this way instead. Sorry if you have already read it once!

Colombia- Ecuador:
Exit stamp out of Colombia, check. Forget the Ecuador entry one. Oh dear. At the military roadside check we are informed of our faux par by soldiers in full, intimidating military get up. Back to the border we go, but they are not playing ball as it i now past midnight (technically the next day) which means no stamp. Oh how I love being stuck in no-mans land, a skanky bridge between 2 countries, neither of which letting us in without todays stamp from the other- great. 2 hours later its a little more scary and 4 hours after that, the embassy are involved and we are losing hope close to tears, dusk falls.

But finally we make it through with a grunt from the defeated immigration head honcho! And off to Quito where we meet a British guy that did the same thing but they put him in prison for 2 days!! Shit.

Stamp in hand we are off to Mitad del Mundo (the Equator) where we have lunch with Lip´s girlfriend from Shameless. Ridiculous feeling of fear before hoping over the orange line seperating the hemispheres, pushing George to go 1st n vice-versa, only to jump over & feel nothing at all ..........no nothing. We then realise that we crossed it 3 times already in our immigration fiasco which kinda took the shine off it. Even less impressed when it turns out the actual Equator is 250mtrs off the line anyway!

Cloud Forests and Otavalo Market followed to provide our 1st tastes of hassle. 1st at Mindo forest we ask for a lift to the park entrance 4km up the hill. We follow the man. 5 mins later: "wheres your van?" 10 mins later: Oh right, you were going to walk us 4km up the road for $8, of course, thats what I expect when I ask for a taxi.

Otavalo market was much simpler- little old indigenous ladies simply grabbing onto me, no money, no release- thats that. Much to the amusement of George and our Dutch friend Casper who also found much hilarity from the line we heard once or maybe twice, "Alpaca- many colours," knitwear forced upon you continually from every direction.

I got the old ladies but George got the lesbians. Namely the girl who chased her around our regularly frequented nightclub shoving me, the protective barrier, out the way before removing her top and bra, grabbing Georges hand, placing it aptly on her breast and not letting go!! Middle of the dance floor- for me hilarious, George was horrified!!

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