Quito: Centre of the Earth

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After a week in paradise, it was back to reality with an almighty, ground shaking, seismic bang; we had arrived in Quito. With a painstaking 90 minute, traffic ridden taxi journey to get from the airport to the city centre, we were fortunate to be able to share a taxi with a couple we met on our boat in Galapagos. Tired and with serious Galapagos blues, we dumped our bags down in our six man dorm and ventured out to buy some food for dinner. Staying in the 'Old Town', we had been assured it was safe enough to walk around at night. However, walking the five minutes to the shops and back still felt a little more than sketchy. Feeling as skint as a couple of locals tramps, we opted for a multi pack of super noodles that were on offer and cooked them up for dinner (oh how the tables had turned!). With just one full day to explore the city, we did a quick bit of planning before retiring to bed for another early night.

Awakening to the sounds of car horns and sirens instead of crashing waves and birds, we were up early to see if Quito could win us over. With the equator line being located just north of the centre of Quito we thought it would be fun to take a visit to the middle of the earth. After being told it was a 40 minute bus ride, we packed our day bag, grabbed a pastry from the bakery and headed to the bus stop. After 40 minutes we arrived at a bus terminal where it became apparent we had to take a second bus to reach Matid del Mundo where the equator line sits. Another 40 minute bus ride with a few dodgy looking characters around us and we had finally arrived. We paid a small fee to enter and even went all out and bought a combo ticket which included entrance into the planetarium. From the entrance we could already see the huge monument in the distance which represents 'the middle of the earth'. Unfortunately, as the the original monument was constructed in 1936, long before the days of GPS, they didn't get it quite right and in actual fact the real equator line is a couple of hundred meters up the road! The monument was surrounded by empty restaurants blaring out Spanish pop music...it was all a little weird.

After posing for a few of the typical equator line photos we grabbed a coke whilst waiting for the 'show' to start in the planetarium. Despite having to wait around for ages for 11am and the start of the show, we still managed to be late! We were quickly ushered into the main room by a staff member, she mumbled something to us in Spanish before shutting the door behind us. Barley able to see a thing in the near total darkness, we felt around for some spare seats and laid back and prepared ourselves for the show. As the show began we quickly realised that this wasn't going to be exactly the modern high tech display we were anticipating, but more of a tacky throwback to an American theme park attraction of the 70's. Furthermore, it was all in Spanish (not sure why we were so surprised at that); this was going to be a be a long 45 minutes and a serious struggle to keep our eyes open! 45 minutes of a low tech cosmic displays and naff recreation of the 'big bang' and we were back out in the sun ready to go off in search of the real equator line.

Pointed in the right direction and with Rich's GPS on his phone, we walked five minutes or so up the road until we stumbled upon the far less commercialised marking off the Lat. 000. However Rich's GPS was still showing a few degrees out. Determined to get a photo on the exact equator line we walked around the area for a while searching before finding it on the side of a busy road! Feeling satisfied, Rich took a screenshot on his phone and we began our journey back to town.

Another hour and 40 minutes of jam packed public buses, we were back around the old town. As the weather in the centre was pretty cloudy we decided to give the city viewpoint a miss, therefore had an afternoon to kill. After getting off at the wrong stop miles from where we realised we wanted to get off, we decided to have a wander around to explore more of the area. Strolling through the streets we found a little bakery where we bought some fresh rolls for lunch and headed up to the the huge cathedral which stands imposingly overlooking the old town. With an impressive gothic look from the outside we decided to pay a small fee and explore the inside too. Just as a small band set up in the centre of the alter, assuming they weren't going to be an arctic monkey tribute band, we felt ready for a sit down and chill out, so made our way back to the hostel. As we had an early start in the morning to catch a flight, we ate, reminisced and looked through our Galapagos photos one more time before heading off to bed.

Despite being a huge capital city, Quito didn't seem to have much going and felt more like a Latin American city from the 80's. We were therefore pretty happy to be moving on after just a couple of nights. Also, from some of the stories we have heard, we are just glad to have made it out in one piece!

With our sights once again set on heading north across into Colombia, we were very much excited to see what Colombia had to offer and the reasons for all the many great things we have heard from other travellers.

From dodgy equator line to the cocaine capital. Next stop...Bogota.

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Photos

Mitad del Mundo
Different sides of the world!

The wrong 'centre of the earth' GPS
Tut, tut, tut

Proof!
We found the exact location eventually