$2 each to bus to Quito in a bus that looked like a bordello! It had red seats and curtains and tassles everywhere. In Quito we wandered uphill from the terminal and asked at all the places right there and got a double room with baño for $8 at the Hotel Rocafuerte. The guy would not say there was hot water but in fact we had such lovely hot water that Carol was able to spend ages in the shower washing her hair which is getting to be a bit too long - Maxine!
The day had been nice in the morning but by the time we organised ourselves it was afternoon and cloudy. We walked into the Centro Historico (old town) which was right nearby and by the time we got to the tourist office it began to pour with thunder and lightning thrown in as well. Just lucky that the tourist policeman was very nice and they had a tv there and were watching the start of a soccer game played in Quito live - Argentina vs Ecuador. When the rain stopped we wished them luck with the game and headed on.
Quito is a long city spread over low hills so we walked up and down them looking about with the rain still spitting down. There is an amazing looking Basilica there but we didn't go in as they charge entry, what if we only wanted to pray!!!! haha
Back at the hotel a roar went up in the street and we figured that Ecuador had won the game. As Argentina is one of the top teams this is a great victory for Ecuador.
11/6 Jueves - We caught the bus out to Mitad del Mundo - the Middle of the World. It took about an hour and a half on the bus and only cost .40c. When we got there we found a touristy type place ($2 pp entry) with a large monument in the centre which had a globe on its side at the top. There was of course a line upon which one could stand and be either in the northern or southern hemisphere or have one leg in both. So we took the requisite piccies and wandered about the complex. We were overjoyed to find that when they placed the huge globe on its side New Zealand ended up being right at the top of the world!
There were some other buildings housing stuff to see and we went into them all but the only really interesting one was and insectararium (??) it had both mounted and live insects. In fact we weren't allowed to take photos (of course we did) as they put these huge beetles on the clothing of people and then took a picture which they sold for $2. It was cool.
From there we caught a bus up behind the M d M and walked about a kilometer up to see the rim of a crater but it was a bit of a letdown really. We did get to see thru an art gallery that a painter had built that looks like a castle (we thought of you Mike). He actually did a quick painting for us using his hands, it took about 10 minutes or less and was really good.
The next stop was a place called Inti Ñan, now this was a small easily overlooked place that has the FOR REAL equatorial line running thru it as proven by a GPS. It did say in the LP guide that the M d M line is actually about 240 mtrs off. Well the Inti Ñan was a really interesting place, we paid $3 entry and with a group of 6 other tourists got an english speaking tour of the place where they 'proved' to us that water goes down plugholes different ways on each hemisphere and got us to try and balance a raw egg on the head of a nail. We both achieved it amazingly as the guide said only 10% of the people who try do. We were awarded a certificate for our achievement. Kent also got a stamp in his passport. It was a fun place and a good end to a good day.
12/6 We headed off early up to the cable car that runs 2.5 km up from the city to a height of 4100mtrs. It was a really good ride not cheap $8 per non resident adult, luckily they have a discount for Kent like in Mexico - always a help. Anyhow it worked out to be well worth the cost as the view of the city was magnificent and neither of us have ever been that high before. From the building at the top we walked on up higher still and looked at the city and at the mountains behind which were covered in snow and cloud. On the ride back down the gondola seemed to go much faster and it was fun. At the bottom we wandered thru an amusement park but it was really for kids so we didn't go on anything.
Back to town by lunchtime, checkout time, and to get our stuff and catch the bus to Riobamba where we are going to go trekking on Saturday and horseriding on Sunday while couchsurfing with a guy called Wladimar who lived for 4 years in NZ when he was young. Catch ya lata...
