We didn't order breakfast it was just brought to us. It was homemade juice (we usually got orange) an omelet with bits of herbs, spices and ham, toasted bread (it was delicious) an assortment of fruit (which changed every day) and jellies, butter, cheese, coffee and tea.
We enjoyed our meal under the hills of the Quito landscape. This felt so much like vacation and I definitely needed one at this point of the year. This was my first major vacation since Tennessee last summer even though this is also a volunteer trip as well. We talked to our hosts about having someone take us to the equator and they said why not Julio? He was the same guy who picked us up from the airport. They made the call.
We hired Julio to drive us around Quito for $25 each. I figured that was a bargain compared to some of the transportation costs around the area. We got ready after breakfast and gathered all the necessary stuff we would need throughout the day. We didn't get going until after 10:30 a.m. We met Julio downstairs.
We all piled into the truck and he drove us north to the equator. The equator was about 16 miles north of Quito but because of the traffic and hills it took a little longer to get there. I noticed the big monument (Mitad De Mundo) as we drove past. Julio said we would go back to that place when we were done with the other places he wanted us to see first.
Our first stop was at Intinan Solar Museum. We got out and it was already pretty warm outside. Julio said the tour was pretty good and only a few bucks. We took some pictures. Mom and I stood near the equator sign. It was pretty cool because this was something I've always wanted to do. My left foot was in the northern hemisphere (just going into spring) while my right foot was in the southern hemisphere (just going into autumn). So I was in two hemispheres and two seasons at the same time.
We went into the souvenir shop while we waited for the next tour. I got a few postcards, keychains, magnets and some stickers. I was going to use some for scrapbooking and give the others away to friends and family.
The Intinan Solar Museum proudly advertises itself as the home of the "true" equator. It is located a short way from the "official" equatorial monument, the museum is bisected by a line of red paint which marks what proprietors claim is the unofficial-official site of the middle of the world. I read that it was closer to the actual equator than the other place we passed a few moments ago.
We hung out in the shade and waited for our tour to start. Our museum guide, who spoke English and Spanish asked us to come over to the side of the building around the circle so we could start the tour. A few more people joined us including a lady from Miami, Florida, some locals and some college kids from the east coast on spring break. A gentleman dressed up in traditional outfit came out and danced for us. He even got a few people including Josh and Amy to go out and dance with him. It only lasted a few minutes.
Our museum guide, who took us on a little bit more than a half our tour around the premises, stopped at the life-sized dioramas which depicted Ecuadorian daily life. She explained everything and answered questions if we had any. The tour offered a prefixed sampling of native culture and occasionally an interactive demonstration.
We learned about the practice of head hunting, the clothes they wore, the shelters they lived in, hunting and gathering, the dangers they faced like anacondas and poisonous insects and we finished our native tour learning about how they raise Cuy (Guinea Pigs) as food. They were so adorable and we learned why they call them Cuys. It is because of the sound they make.
The central focus of the museum is a totem pole surrounded by several stations, each designed to test the unique physical forces at work in the equatorial region. Some are clearly parlor tricks, but others are, at the very least, appreciable demonstrations of physics. I tried balancing the egg on the nail and Josh and I did the partner equator demonstrations.
It was fun to learn about the physics that surround the equator. You weigh less and are taller at the equator. People who live at the equator only receive 12 hours or day and 12 hours of night every day of the year and the weather at the equator changes very little...it also depends on the elevation.
We circled around and ended our tour back at the souvenir shop. There, our tour guide gave us certified certificates saying we visited as close as we could to the equator. She even stamped your passport (if you wanted) stating that you visited the equator. Of course I did! Mom didn't have her passport on her so she missed out and she was pretty bummed out that she didn't get one. We thanked Julio for taking us here. We hopped into the truck and we went further up the road.
He took us to a place called the Pululahua Crater. The Pululahua Crater is one of the only two inhibited calderas in the world. People live inside this volcanic crater. About 40 families, who are mainly farmers, grow corn, quinoa and raise cattle. The volcano was last active over 2000 years ago. Land near the Pululahua Crater was declared a botanical reserve by the Ecuadorian government back in the 1970's in part to protect the wide variety of species that live on the mountain slopes in the cloud forest. Squirrels (rare in South America) rabbits, foxes and birds make this their home.
Most people (like us due to time) visit the reserve via the visitor's center just shy of the crater rim. There, it is possible to take photos down below but cross your fingers for a clear day. Today. was not a clear day we could barely see the crater from the visitor's center. The crater is often filled with clouds that provide the moisture that create the cloud forest that survive on the steep mountain slopes. There is a poorly maintained hiking trail down to the crater floor. We walked maybe less than a quarter mile down before we realized nope and walked back up. The clouds were literally blowing up the sides of the crater while we were there. It was quite a sight. Sadly, I didn't get a video of it. I was able to complete the earthcache, Pululahua (GC4ZP4P) there even though I couldn't find a piece of one of the answers so I just made an educated guess.
We walked back to the truck and Julio drove us to Mitad De Mundo, Middle of the World, where everyone calls it the "fake equator" because the exact location is actually almost a little more than a tenth of a mile away. We paid our $9 entry fee and headed in. In a 1736 expedition called the French Geodesic Mission, is when the placement of the equatorial line was defined. They later found out that the earth is not completely round near the equator so the actual equator is about 850 feet from this monument. We spent the rest of our day here exploring.
We took a lot of pictures while we were here. Mom and I got some pictures of us straddling the middle of the world in both hemispheres. I had some time to do the virtual cache, The Fake Equator (GC934A). I had to get a picture of me at the monument and then find out where the actual equator was according to my GPS/phone. I was 721 feet off of the "fake" equator line. It was just so cool standing at the equator.
We gathered up everyone and met at Calima Cafe, which was a restaurant inside the monument campus. Our waitress spoke pretty good English and we all tried to order our food in Spanish. It didn't go so well but our waitress was pretty patient with us. We ordered bottled water and Coke's. When she came back we all knew what we wanted. I had a chicken burger and fries. I didn't trust their hamburgers after the last time I came to Ecuador. It didn't end well. This time the food was pretty good and it went well.
The place was about to close so we went over to the monument and went up inside. The views from here were spectacular. Every floor of the building had something to learn about Ecuador and the equator, whether it be a display or an interactive demonstration. We didn't have time to look at all of them because we barely had time to walk up and see the view before being ushered out so they could close for the day.
We met up with Julio outside near the truck. He took us back to the hotel where we got cleaned up and relaxed a bit. As a group we met outside our rooms to discuss what we wanted to do the next day. We decided to go to Mindo, which is northwest of Quito and about a two hour drive. We let Julio know what we wanted to do and we set up a time for him to come get us in the morning. We went back to our rooms and I tried getting on the internet to post some pictures on Facebook but the internet was so slow. I ended up working on my March Madness bracket instead. I had forgotten to print off a blank bracket before we left so I had to make one by hand. Then I had to make one for mom because her office was doing one.
I was up until about 9:30-10:00 and then I went to bed. I wasn't as tired as I was the night before so I had a hard time getting to sleep. Plus mom snored a couple times and woke me up. I found my ear plugs and slept more soundly after that.
Next Adventure: Mindo: Butterfly Garden, Ziplining and Waterfall Hike
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