Day 2 – After a good night’s sleep I finally woke up at 7 Ecuadorian time, I decided to be lazy and stay in my bedroom until 10. Once I was ready I met up with Sarah and we decided to go visit the “Mitad del Mundo” or the middle of the earth in English, it is there that is erected a monument exactly in the middle of the equator, and you can stand on both hemispheres at the same time.
Ince, we got there we walked around to the monument and took pictures that every tourist take with one foot on each hemisphere. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the real line (it was measure precisely after the monument was erected) is actually 100 meters further. but since we didn’t know about this until late we didn’t actually visit the real equator.
after taking a bunch of pictures we went up the monument to get a better view and to take more pictures. When we got down from the monument, we decided to take fun pictures and so I did a handstand in the middle of the equator (after 3 or 4 tries). We also wanted to take a picture of Sarah and I, so I put my camera in auto-timer on the ground to take the picture, and had to run back and forth in order to get the picture right, whilst also making sure my new camera was not stolen.
After visiting the Mitad del Mundo we took a take going at 80km/h without seatbelts, pretty scary. On the streets, we could see lots of street vendors which would approach the care to try and sell you some mandarines or apples. The taxi took us to Panecillo which is a hill in the middle of the city with a statue a bit like that of Rio, just a bit more gloomy (it represents the virgin of the apocalypse holding a snake with a snake) looks like it belongs in a harry potter movie. It is said in Quito that if the chain was ever to break, doom would be unleashed on the city.
We walked around for a while taking pictures of the city, at one point we tried to go on a patch of grass to get a better picture of the city but were chased away by a dog barking at us and almost biting me. After walking around for a while and not seeing any taxi,
We decided that we could walk down from the touristy place that is Panecillo down the hill to the main colonial city, crossing through small typical villages which seemed poorer that the rest of the city (we weren’t able to take pictures in case so as not to get our cameras stolen). As we got down from the hill a guy in a car asked us if we had just gone down Panecillo and felicitated us because it is quite a shabby place for tourists and were the only ones crazy enough to do it. Our guide later told us that no one ever walks up or down it for safety reasons.
We walked around the city for a while. we seemed to be the only tourists there (and we looked super touristy) we then took a taxi back to our hotel. We ate in a restaurant next door which was cheap but had amazingly good food. we then went back to our respective rooms where I took a 2-hour nap. instead of updating the website.
At 6 we finally we all met with the other g adventure group members and our CEO (chief experience officer) basically our tour guide, to be told what we will be doing on the journey! , The CEO, Jessica, or Jegga seemed really nice, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic, so it promises to be a great trip. the meeting lasted an hour and a half where she told us what we would be doing in the first leg of 4 of our journey.
After our meeting, we all went to a supermarket to buy candy for the amazon (for us) but also to buy stuff for the children who will be visiting in their school in the jungle!
After all that touristic shopping we finally went to a restaurant (it was 10 pm) and everyone just wanted to go to bed, but we found this cool Vietnamese place where we all sat on the floor, the problem was there wasn’t actually enough place to put our feet so we had to squish together to find enough place! We then went back home at almost midnight
Tomorrow I’ll have to wake up at 5:30 to get ready for my breakfast at 6:30 to leave at 7 … kill me now!