The Equator and some other stuff

Went to Quito old town on Friday night con mi familia espanol- very very beautiful with all the old streets and buildings. Lots of the houses have been converted into sort of open air restaurants and are very pretty with balconies and fountains. Apparently up until very recently (>5yrs) the old town was really dangerous, even in the day but the city had a big push to renovate it and make it safe, and it looks like its worked. Its been renovated really well-all the old buildings are the same but there{s lots of discreet lighting underfoot or above the narrow alleys. It reminded me a little of a cross between Barcelona and Havana. Lots of churches (pretty much on every corner - I think theres 25 in a very very small space). Also saw some of a street music concert-traditional folky with men in ponchos with panpipes. Heehee. Also went up to the top of the city hill where the city monument and could see everything...

Went to the equator an Sat - there is a huge monument outside Quito marking the equator within a sort of national park. Its very impressive. However about 10 years ago scientists started playing with GPS in the area and realised that their monument was out of the Equator line by about 200m. Which is a shame.

However, that gave them the opportunity to build a new musuem on the real equator line as well. It was a great musuem - yes we got to do the water going down a plug in both hemispheres (its true that it goes clockwise/anticlockwise depending), and on the Equator itself it goes straight down. So that was reassuring.

We also had to walk along the Equator line with eyes closed, as apparently you are supposed to feel wobbly as youre in the middle of the world. I did feel wobbly, but then walking along with eyes closed always does that for me. We also had to balance an egg on a nail (apparently easier) and hold out your arms to have someone push them down - apparently you have less "resistance" on the equator. I am not completely sure about these (maybe the egg one was real)- possibly we were being suggestible? Does anyone know if the equator really makes you wobbly and weak?

After that went up to Pululahua- a live volcano with settlements within the crater, which was really beautiful. We were at the top and it was an 8km hike to the bottom which would have been fantastic, but unfortunately had taken a taxi from below and only managed to persuade him to wait for 15min.

On Sun went to a traditional market, and then a genuine Ecuadorian bbq (or I suppose as genuine as they get) at a friend of my friends from Spanish school. Yummy.


(oh yes, forgot to mention. At the Equator musuem there was also lots about the indigenous jungle cultures. Got to see a shrunken head (yes, a real one), made only 150 years ago. And it was made by one of the tribes who I am staying with - apparently they were the ones who were good at shrinking heads. Also saw some nice comfy genuine jungle huts, and lots of exhibits of happy friendly jungle animals and insects. Including a rather nasty little snake thing that likes to swim up orifices when you are busy relieving yourself in a lake/river. And yes Charl they do have serpents. Think I will stay in nice safe Quito, where I nearly know my way around and everything. :-( )

Quito etc...

Hola!

See, practically fluent.

Have been exploring Quito a bit more now in the afternoons after my lessons (have done 3 mornings now and it is making a difference).The city itself is interesting - I´m staying in the north, and then as you go sounth you get towards the business-y district, then new city (the touristy area with lots of hostels, bars, shops, and my school), and then the old city. Hopefully I´ll be heading up to the old town tonight with my spanish family to see it all- apparently its beautiful at night. The city as a whole is a mixture of pituresque and not so, but being able to see the surrounding mountains is very cool. Its quite polluted though- a mixture of the large numbers of cars and the humidity, I think.

Tomorrow I am going to go to the equator (oooh southern hemisphere) with a friend from the school (was considering hiking but I´m tired) - there´s a big monument and a museum where you can do equator-type things (not sure what, maybe flushing toilets?) and hopefully also visiting a big nearby volcano where lots of people live within the crater. Not sure what they do if it erupts, apparently its live.

Am feeling a bit more settled in now which is nice and I´m really enjoying at the school - I hadn´t realised how small it is, but it only seems to have 40 or so teachers and students at most at one time, and almost everyone is having one-to-one lessons. Today five students who had been there for about six weeks left and we had a bit of a party in the morning break :-) Also found out that there will be quite a few volunteers in the jungle when I go, which is good!

Arrived! (stage 1)

Woooo made it! And the journey wasn´t too bad, though I could have done without a 2hr delay in Miami... Met lots of interesting people on the way, from the two Americans sharing a copy of Harry Potter 1, to the little girl emigrating to Florida with her family (and not happy about it), the two Israelis just beginning on their year-long south america trip and the mother and child travelling to Columbia for the first time in 11 years to meet up with lots of long-lost family. Maybe I just look a bit lost and in need of companionship?

The family I´m staying with are really lovely - luckily the dad (Patricio) speaks pretty good English, though he´s trying not too, and they are looking after me (I have the mobile numbers with strick instructions to ring if needs be). Quite proud since I just worked out how to get the bus, though Patricio gave me a lift into town this morning.

Had a three hour spanish lesson this morning (oh dear its difficult) and the school is really friendly - I only had a chance to chat with a few people briefly but there seems to be lots of people travelling alone and should be easy to meet people. Decided not to do another three hours this afernoon though, I think it might have killed my brain.

So...

Right. An introduction to what this is all about...

I'm heading off to Ecuador in about 11 hours.

The plan is to spend some time in the capital city of Quito before heading out to a small community called Santa Ana on the edge of the Amazon to work as a volunteer for six weeks, mainly on their potable (drinkable) water system. Since they don't speak very much English out that way, I'm using the time in Quito to have 2 weeks or so's worth of Spanish classes, and also to do some travelling around the area.

I'll post more about the water project itself later (but I do have a very shiny portable water lab kit which is exciting, as long as it gets through customs, what with the bleepy stopwatch and the interesting-looking pots of white powder - microbiological broth, actually).

Hopefully it'll be better weather out there than it is here. Hooray.
(I'll start packing now)

Testing testing...

Ooooh the blog works. Goody. Now I just have to make the colour scheme less violent and go and do useful things, like making sure I have some money.