Quito - centre of the world

Day 25 Quito

Woke up after a pretty ok night sleep. I was still deciding what to do with this day. Last night I was pretty tired and had switched off my holiday mood. However I had some new energy this morning and wanted to do something with the day.

I decided to get up, get ready and see what the others were up to. Couldn't find anyone so I decided to go by my self, and after talking to some taxi drivers I decided to go to the Equator. 

Found one of the group as I was about to go, but he didn't want to come, so off I went with my new "friend" Raul, the taxi driver. 

We couldn't communicate but he understood where I wanted to go and we negotiated a price. 

I got a bit concerned when he pointed out the monument with a big smile, but passed it. First I thought it might be you have to drive in a different way, but he went quite far.

We stopped at a place with some sort of gate, and parkings. It was a crater. Don't know it so I have to read up on it later. We had a look. He loved to take pictures with my camera of me and the view. 

Then we drove back the way we came from, towards the monument, but he said something about a museum and turned in between some houses. 

He took me to a guy that wanted $4 and then I was told to wait there. I asked and the tour was to take 30min. My time was a bit short since I had to get back to the hotel and then to the airport. But I thought I could make it.

The museum was outdoor and looked like it was showing different cultures. Could be interesting. 

We started in a small house build similar to the ones one tribe lives in in the jungle. Next stop was a tomb.

However after that I realised that I was for sure where I should be. This is where the real equator is. There was a line and along the line clocks, calendars etc to show how the equator works and differs the south and north hemispheres. We got to see some experiments too.

I was great.

I balanced on the equator. There are only about three places in the world where you can do that. And what place is better than in Quito (that means Centre of Land) where the studies of the equator was done and where the real measures has been done.

After the visit to the museum that also showed some more old houses, one build on the place 1847 and some shrunken heads. A very strange tradition from before.

Next visit was the actual monument for the equator. But well, as I said the real equator is where the museum is. When they first found out about the equator passing just here they didn't have the right equipment or something, at least they measured it a little bit wrong. But hey. It is close enough. So now I've seen both equators! Stood on them both and stood with one foot on each side of them both.

My driver was happy to do this for me and even more happy when he understood I had to go to the airport. He insisted to take me there, and why should I say no after a morning like that?!

So, after a refreshing shower and final packing I was back in his taxi on the way to the airport. Time to leave and go back home. Mixed feelings about that. 

The flight home is going to be long. The flight from Quito to Amsterdam is going down in Guayaquil to pick up more passengers. Total flight time around 14 hours. Then a short transfer in Amsterdam and hopefully working trains from Copenhagen to home. 

See you back in Europe!