And You Thought That You Lived in Middle Earth....

Ok so on Sunday we did, by far the most toursitastic thing yet. We journeyed, with Erica, a housemate of Tessa´s, to the centre of the earth. i.e the cenotaph marking the line of the equator. We took a bus which passed through the outskirts of Quito which seemed like some sort of inhabited wasteland of scrub and concrete. The official monument marking the line of the equator is actually a different place altogether. Surrounding the monument is a small noddy-like town of overpriced arts and crafts, overpriced cafés and restaurants, and overpriced museums. We took the obligatory photo on the line and had a wee look around.

For lunch we fronted up to a one of the cheaper looking cafés. Erica was keen to try an ecuadorian specialty called cuy, which is more commonly known as barbequed guinea pig. Unfortunately the restaurant was all out of the popular dish and we settled for dried goat instead (we really need to learn the spanish names for food!). After lunch we checked out some local dancers in the central square.

Our guidebook recommended a museum which is located down the road from the main facility on the actual equator (proved recently by GPS). The museum included remarkably unscientific experiments to prove the strange forces of the equator. Apparently its easier to balance an egg on the head of a nail there as the gravity falls straight down (I think this means that in antarctica everything falls sideways). Also it seems water really does go down the sink the other way either side of the equator!

On Tuesday we braved the rain and a steep hill to check out the Guayasamin museum. Guayasamin was a local artist who championed the plight of indigenous people through very dark and powerful paintings. The museum included some of his amazing and moving works as well as his collection of pre colombian artefacts and colonial art (i.e more crucified Jesus's than you can shake a crown of thorns at)

Spanish continues to be a struggle but we seem to making some sort of progress. Who would´ve thought learning a language would be so difficult??