Pork and Apple: Quito, Ecuador's Capital

We ended up spending a decent amount of time in Quito either side of the Amazon. It was a strange city, nestled in a valley in the Andes about 2820 m above sea level but there was lots to do. This was also our first taste of altitude sickness - Alex was really feeling it, he had to fight to stay awake in the super market.

Quito has one of the coolest parks I've seen; it had a weird abandoned play area, complete with graffiti-ed plane, fun statues, little moat with paddle boats, botanical garden, heaps of different sports fields and a BMX track.

Walking around the historical center also reveals many treasures.

This is a popular food chain.....

Typical Street in Old Town

This is apparently the site of one of the great Incan Ruler's Palace (because they moved up from Peru into Ecuador and killed a bunch of people)

In the historical center of Quito the Basilica dominates all other churches. It's worth the entrance fee to get up into the towers for great views of Quito.

Stained Glass inside the Basilica

View of Quito from the Towers

Armadillos on the side of the church

These were the "stairs" that you had to climb to get up to one of the other towers. People were climbing up them with a baby in one arm! I was scared going up and down them while still able to use all my limbs.

The view from the other tower. When you go up those towers you can get right in behind the clocks to see how they work. They were the wrong time on all sides.

Obviously if you're in Ecuador you can't miss Mitad del Mundo (The middle of the world). It's a pretty easy day trip from Quito once you figure out the buses. There are two equators in Ecuador: There's Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World City) - the famous landmark that sits on the equator as calculated by the French in 1736. At the monument there is a plaque that says the equator is actually about 5 km wide and during the solstice or equinox the equator is actually pretty much on the yellow line based on GPS. And then there's the actual equator that has been calculated by GPS to be about 240 m north of the yellow line. There's a museum here that tries to prove they are the real equator with a few since experiments (which we were pretty sure were bogus, I think you can balance an egg on a nail anywhere).

The Famous Yellow Line

Dancers at Ciudad Mitad del Mundo. There were also llamas for good measure.

Our first taste of shrunken heads at the equator. Apparently the human head is a young boy's who died before his time and his dad wanted a keep sake to remember him by. It's illegal for tribes in the amazon to continue this practice on human heads so they use animals now so they don't lose the skills.

The Real Equator

I think the other must do in Quito is a trip up the teleferiqo, a cable car that takes you up the Andes to 4100 m in altitude. From here you can hike further up Pichincha Volcano. Everyone really plays this "walk" down, but I am here to tell you that it is no walk in the park, it's a kind of intense hike. Firstly, you're at 4100 m so altitude is a factor - it's hard work walking around the car park. Then once you get closer to the peak you realise it's got a pit of snow on it and you're only in shorts and thermals. The closer the the peak you get the more the weather changes, it's starts to hail and another hiker tells you you've got another hour and a half to go. About maybe an hour from the top we decide to head back, we're not prepared for this. As we do head back the hail gets worse (it actually kind of hurts) and a big thunder storm comes rolling in, it's about the closest to lightning we've been. We turn and see a few hikers running down from the peak. We made it back to Quito safe and sound but with blood pumping.