Day 59 07.09.15
I woke up relatively early, eager to go settle down a bit and then to go and discover Quito.
I wrote a bit on my blog and then got ready for breakfast.
This was situated in the “cellar” of the hotel, and was just alright. They had some bread and jam, and some great strawberry juice. After breakfast I headed out to find a free walking tour.
However, I got so lost, that the meet up time had passed and I decided to change my plans and to head out to the equatorial line instead.
I hopped on the public bus and headed to Ophelia, the bus station that the nice guy at the reception had pointed out to me. I then changed busses here to “La mitad del mundo” – “the centre of the Earth”. Unfortunately I got a little confused by what the bus driver was saying, instead of “á la mitad del mundo” I just heard “mitad del mundo”, and thinking I had to get off I did and saw the bus drive away. I should have stayed on. Oh well, things like that happen. I thought it mustn’t be that far and that I could probably walk it. I had my audio book in my ears and started walking. I eventually called a taxi when I could no longer walk on the sidewalk and thank God I did, as it was quite a distance left to the equatorial line still. I got there and saw a large roundabout, a building dealing with the getting all South American countries aligned together to follow the same interest, I also saw the ticket counters for the mitad del mundo and headed there.
I bought my ticket and headed to the entrance. Here I was stopped by a camera team to “pretend” I was a guest coming in to Mitad del Mundo, being greeted by someone in full traditional costume. I repeated the welcoming part about 5 times, and then was released and was actually able to go and visit the site. Apparently this will be used on their home page, so if you should ever see me there let me know…
On the way to the actual equatorial monument, the walkway was framed by statues of the heads of those men involved in the mission to calculate the exact position of the equator and its angle. They were all different men from France and Spain, involved in Sciences such as Physics and Biology, someone in charge of the calibration and construction of the measuring equipment used, some one in charge of drawing the maps to illustrate their measurements and others in charge of getting in contact with the locals in order to help their expedition.
I headed on towards the monument, which was quite large, showing the four poles and also indicating the equatorial line in yellow. Actually the equatorial line is about 5 km wide, but I chose to be happy with the yellow 20 cm wide line on the floor.
I entered the monument and took the elevator up to the 5th floor. From here I had a panoramic view over the site, could see the mountains and the life around the touristic site.
Inside the monument was a 5 stories museum, which was really great! It had a floor where you could try yourself at different scientific experiments to do with magnetic fields, your weight at the equator, the way magnets can influence compasses, how an electric field can turn on a bulb without being connected to it and so on.
Also the general myth as to whether the water on the other side of the Earth turns in a different direction. Furthermore there was a floor describing how the monument itself was built and how the mission in general took place. There were other floors showing the different regions of Ecuador and the different tribes in these regions, their traditional dress and language and what they lived off. At the very bottom of the museum were four different screens, each representing a different region of Ecuador. The four regions were the coast, the mountains (Sierra), the jungle and the islands (Galapagos). Each screen had the option of learning more about the tourism, the gastronomy and the culture of that region. It was a really interesting way of getting to know about Ecuador. Apparently Ecuador tries to sell itself to tourism by saying that it is a country with 4 different regions or countries in it. After the museum I decided it was time for lunch and I headed out of the museum to find a restaurant.
I ate where all the local staff ate, which I think is always a good indicator. Here I had a local dish with fried pork, tomato salad with cucumbers, rice, avocado, potato tortilla with fried egg and sausages.
It was really really good, and after lunch I headed back to the main road of the site to visit the “French museum” in order to kill some time before the next Planetarium session would start. Here I learned a lot more about the French side of the expedition and it was really interesting. I then headed off to an art gallery of an Ecuadorian artist, that had made it his lifes goal to reunite all the paintings that he had drawn and to bring them back to Ecuador, as they had been spread out everywhere in the world and not much was left in Ecuador.
It then was time for the session at the planetarium.
I don’t know why, but I always forget how bad I am with planetariums. The idea I think is always exciting for me, but as soon as I am laying back, my head on the comfy chair, the room is dark, I instantly fall asleep. Oh well, I woke up about 5 minutes to go and didn’t really get much of the “performance”. I might also not have been the best time to go there straight after lunch. Oh well.
I decided it was time to head back to the hotel, as I wanted to get ready to meet my new group. I shared a taxi back with a couple and the ride back cost me only 5 dollars (we drove nearly 1,5 h as the traffic was that bad...) I got ready for the meeting only to find out that I was going to be the only one in my group. Or better said, I was my own group. I still had my meeting with the local representative, where he explained how the whole procedure of taking a bus, and being picked up etc. was going to work. I was glad that I could leave some of my luggage at the hotel, and that I didn’t have to carry my entire backpack with me.
I checked the internet and tripadvisor for a restaurant and instantly found #5, a restaurant called Los Milagros. Unfortunately the internet crashed (again!) and knowing the street it was on headed out to find it. On my way I found a little shop that could fix my handbag that had been just worn too much and was falling to pieces. I emptied the contents of the bag into my rain jacket and received a little plastic bag for my paper notebook. I continued and was happy to know that I was going to recollect it when I came back from the jungle.
After asking around where I could find the restaurant, I found it and was told that it was closed on Mondays. Unfortunately, today was Monday. Oh well, maybe I was going to try again when I came back.
I headed on in a small street when a couple came to me, the guy, probably only 17 years old with a huge kitchen knife. He waved it around and said “plata, plata, plata”. I looked around in confusion to see probably his girl friend or sister come up and say “money, money, money”. Somehow I didn’t feel frightened. For that the guy just looked too insecure in what he was doing. I asked him what exactly they wanted and they repeated, “money, money, money”. I was thanking myself for having dropped off my handbag at the shop, as now I knew all my belongings were in my rain jacket, which was hanging over my arm. They realised I didn’t have a bag and after I told them I didn’t have any money on me, the girl tried for the last time, saying that I might have money in my pocket. I smiled, as I knew it was only my hotel room key. I showed them and the boy asked me whether I lived here. I said yes and they left me be. I moved on and suddenly as my adrenaline left my body I tried to get away as quickly as possible. There was still the issue of hunger, but I was no longer going to just go to a street side restaurant, and so I wondered in the direction of my hotel. On the corner of a big plaza, really close to my hotel, I saw a bar or restaurant on the top of a hotel. I headed there, asking whether I could eat there as a non-guest, and they let me up.
All shaken up I had some chicken soup. I thought I'd mention, that they also served me some interesting almonds and some corn in its shell. (Pretty much the soft version of the popcorn bits that have not popped and are left over in the microwaveable bag – only a little softer.)
I finished my meal quickly and got back to the hotel and went straight to bed.
