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Published: October 19th 2007
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There is never a bad time to learn a foreign language. At least that is what we thought. With this in mind, most of our time in Ecuador was spent taking spanish classes, which turned out to be pretty tough and intense. We did, however, manage to escape a few times to see what Ecuador had to offer.
We were based in Quito for two weeks, where we lived in a homestay with a really lovely and patient old lady called Ana Maria. It was like visiting your gran. Quito is meant to be dangerous but we liked it and never had any real problems.
The old town was beautiful, with lots of colonial architecture and imposing squares. A great thing to do is to climb up to the tower of the Basilica, via a narrow wooden walkway over the ceiling of the church and some dodgy ladders, for fantastic views over the city. Gregor was up at the top taking photos when he got caught in a lightning storm, rather enjoying it although struggling to time the photos with the lightening strikes. Then the windows and the tower itself started to shake and he realised that he may
not be in the safest place. The view was amazing though.
We were in the old town for the Independence Day celebrations, when the place was crammed with people of all ages. There was a great atmosphere with live classical, rock and dance music, plays, street stalls and people having fun. We loved that fact that everyone was happy and relaxed together, despite the age of people ranging from young children to grandparents.
The new town, including Mariscal (otherwise known as Gringolandia) is somewhat different. It is where most of the hostels, internet cafes and irish bars amongst others are found! It is fun though and the locals seem to like it too. We were recommended a great salsa club called ´La Bodeguita de Cuba´ which was fabulous. Despite our salsa class we were a poor match for the locals, who demonstrated a lot more rhythm than us. Even the chef couldn´t stop himself and shimmied away to himself in the kitchen.
In comparison to Peru then Ecuador´s tourism is almost underground. An example of this is La Mitad del Mundo. This major complex celebrates the equator line, from which Ecuador derives it´s name. Considering it is
one of the most important attractions around Quito it proved to be bit of a challenge to get there independently. It took a few different buses to eventually make it there, although were a bit surprised when the bus dropped people off in the middle of a roundabout who then had to dodge traffic as we got off.
The complex is huge but pretty disappointing. It was good to take photos on the equator line but, with the exception of the French building, the exhibitions were not impressive and had little purpose. The adjacent Museo Solar Inti Ñan is far better. They claim to be on the real equator line, located about 200m away from Mitad del Mundo. This is a fun place, where you get to see the effects of the equator, such as balancing an egg on a nail, doing a strengh test, a talking test and watching water drain down a sink - it drains straight down on the line itself and clockwise or counterclockwise depending on whether you are north or south of it. True or false who knows but interactive learning is fun - just like being at school again. The place also showcases
Ecuadorian culture and history, with some strange exhibits such as a shrunken head amongst other things.
A somewhat different thing to do was when Gregor visited the woman´s prison, being shown around by an foreign inmate. Apparantly we were her first visitor in over a month. This is a real like working prison and not a tourist venue (hence no photos). It was very crowded and basic but whilst no five star hotel was not as bad as expected. Strangely they had stalls inside selling food and beer - like a street market. More surprisingly was the abundance of kids. Children are permitted to live with their mothers until they are 12 years old. There are almost as many children as in-mates, adding to the overcrowding . The children share their mother´s cell, along with whatever in-mates were there in the first place and the number of children grows, as ´partners´get to visit. It was a really interesting place.
We got time off from class during the weekend and took the opportunity to get out of Quito. On the first weekend we headed to Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world (5,897m), to go mountain biking. Unfortunately,
it was shrouded in mist and we got caught in a snowstorm. Fortunately the weather was better at our next stop at Quilotoa - another volcano but one with a huge laguna in the middle of the crater, which we were able to walk down to.
The other free weekend we went to Baños, at the edge of the jungle. Again the peaks of the volcanos were shrouded in cloud. We hired bikes there too and cycles along the waterfall route. It was gorgeous. The Devil´s Cauldron in particular was magnificent. We got completely soaked as we walked down to the bottom and were almost knocked backwards by the power of the spray. You certainly wouldn´t go swimming under this waterfall.
Baños was also a great place to visit to go to the thermal baths and to see traditional toffee like sweets being made by hand (it tastes great but is likely to remove your tooth enamel in the process). More unusually, we also went paintballing whilst we were there, for the exhurbitant price of US$5 a go. It may have been pretty basic but was really good fun, with bruises to remember it by.
The main
reason for going to Equador though was to learn spanish, in preparation for the Galapagos Islands. Unfortunately neither of us are particularly great at languages but we had a fun time! Next stop The Galapagos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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