Quito

After a very fustration search for a guidebook recommended hostel (the city has changed it's street numbering system since our guidebook was printed!), there turned out to be nobody answering the door, and so we strolled to the Grand Hotel around the corner. This was a lovely spot, although not very Grand it was clean, central and cheap.

That night we had a great dinner in another nearby, much fancier hotel with rooftop views. The next day was Sunday, and so I decided to head straight up to the town of Otovalo, which is famous for it's Sunday market.

I'm not really into markets, but this one is famous for being one of the biggest in South America, and it really was impressive in scale. The whole town had a nice lively feel to it, and we got to try some lovely roast pork in the market (they roast the entire pig and serve it up from a huge platter, leaving the head facing out to entice customers).

The next couple of days we checked out Quito itself (wasting a good bit of time getting to the Colombian embassy to check out if Irish people need a visa - they don't, but again our guidebooks were out of date, referring to Irish visa requirements after the IRA guys training FARC separatists), strolling around the Old Town and it's museums, and also checking out the bars and restaurants of the New Town.

Our fourth day we did one of the 'must do's' of Quito, a visit to the site of the Equator. After a bit more local-bus-confusion we finally got to the site which is a fair bit outside the city. It was a weekday and so very quite really. The whole place is Government run, and looks to be more setup for a day out for the kiddies, although I thought their Insectarium was very impressive (it has nothing to do with the Equator of course, but it's good for us kiddies). The official site is actually a couple of hundred metres away from the real Equator - apparently the original French scientists got it wrong.

So as we strolled to check out the 'real' Equator site up the road we came across a different museum. We popped in to check it out and it turned out to be a very interesting new project run by a group of guys trying to promote archeological preservation of some recently discovered sights - the main one being an ancient 1500 year-old wall on a very nearby hill that is sited exactly on the real Equator. The spooky bit being, of course, how the ancients knew exactly where the Equator was, and the French scientists less than a hundred years ago getting it wrong.

The guy there was really passionate about the whole subject (they have no Government support, as the official site makes plenty of money right where it is thank you very much!). But it was great to hear him explain their theories and their mission, but then passionate people are always great to listen and talk to, regardless of what they are passionate about. I remember a short video presentation in the Wellington museum in New Zealand that really struck me (I dragged Podge along to watch it too). It was only later that I realised what it was about the video that had struck me so strongly - basically it was just a collage of short video interviews with New Zealanders that did different but interesting things, like sheep farming in a really remote location, or recording sea erosion, or whatever. The common thread was that they were all immensely passionate about what they did, and it was that passion that I found so appealing. It's my favorite question of the moment now - so just what are YOU passionate about???

So anyway, after that presentation we strolled a bit further up the road to the 'real' Equator site, but after the talk we'd just had about exploitation of the Equator, and the ignorance of the genuine ancient history relating to it, and all the silly tricks they do (like balancing an egg on a nail, and watching water 'not' spin round going down a plug hole), we just strolled about the site until someone approached us looking for our entry tickets that we had no intention of buying, and so we just left (but we did get to see a small tour group of people get all excited when they managed to balance an egg on a nail, and of course they had to get photos of each other standing beside their 'achievement' - deary me...).

So back to Quito and a fantastic dinner at one of the cities best restaurants, Theatrum. It was a great setting and a great meal, and a great way to finish off Quito. It was a nice city I have to say, but the next day it was time to get up early and head towards the Colombian border.