Quito - Ecuadors Capitol

Michael and I travelled from Banos to Quito on the Bus. It only cost 3 dollars so we were impressed. Much like the Peruvians the Ecuadorians also like to eat Guinea Pig. As usual they had chickens and guinea pigs bundled up under the bus with the luggage. When we arrived to Quito the bus driver opened the compartment below to get our bags and we saw this guinea pig literally fly out and start to run. It reminded me of that animation film chicken run where the chickens plan an escape from the farm before they get killed. This poor guinea was so close but the bus driver went after it and picked it up by the scruff of it neck and laughed as he placed it back in the cage. Its poor legs where still dangling as he plopped it in. I bet the bus driver thought himself lucky, he almost lost his dinner there.

So first thoughts was that Quito was another big dirty city. It is divided by the old town and new town. The old town is considered a UNESCO world heritage site so most of the buildings are listed. The new town on the otherhand is all new and modern and this is where the hostels are situated. It is next to a lively square with lots of restaurants and bars.

It was important that Michael went back to Cusco so me and the other Jo spent our days together. We went to the Ecuator line which is situated just outside Quito. We took the local bus there and went to the first site. Now I call it the first site as when the French came to Ecuador (They are the ones that gave Ecuador its name) the french scientist had got the ecuator line wrong. They didnt know this at the time so they built a big centre with the yellow line on the ground but its not actually the real equator line. However, this site is still open and millions of tourist visit this place on the pretense that it is the real line as they dont advise you other wise. We only happened to know as Jo had been told by a friend that the real line is 300m away and to make sure she goes there. We asked where the real line was and the staff looked at us as if we were slightly bonkers and told us that we were here, where it is. We explained that we knew that this wasnt really it and there was another place to visit but we where still met with the same `Are you stupid` gaze.. Finally we went to a bug centre in the first site and the staff their told us we needed to exit here and turn left, walk 10 minutes and we will find it and we did. Hurray!

Here are pics of the first site ......

After holding a few bugs we headed to the 2nd site. We soon found it and for a cheaper price we even got a guide in English which was brilliant. We were told about the indigenous people of Ecuador, cultures and rituals. She told us that the tribes men use to chop the heads of their enemys and shrink it using potions from the Jungle (it us unknown to this day what they are as they keep it secret). They would then put the head on top on their canes, they would also do this for their loved one as a token. They would have the shrunken head of their loved one around their necks as part of a necklace. To this day the tribes men still practice this but only on sloths as it was made illegal to do on humans after the early 90s.

Here are pictures with information we learnt.

Typical creatures that live in the Ecuadorian Jungle

You are told not to wee in the Amazon rivers as this bad boy will shoot up your private parts
and it can only be removed by operation- OUCH!

On the left is a sloth still made to this day to enable the tribe to pass on the tradition.
Right: The shrunken head of a 13 year old who died and his family did this as a token (Thats his actual head!!!!)

This is the tribes mans gear. He wears his penis up like that so when he swims that insect will
not enter his penis! What a life!

Arrgggghhh!

So after all this information we then went to the REAL ecuator line that was later confirmed by GPS and did some experiments. We balanced an egg on a nail, it has to be a raw egg as its the ecuators force pulling the yoke down enabling for it to balance. We then got told to walk the line with our eyes closed and walk straight and for the life of us neither of us could to it, we wobbled all over the place. The lady said this was the effect of the ecuator. We then did an arm wrestle (because in the ecuator you can seem stronger than you are) and I won over Jo which proves the theory true as me and Jo have wrestled before and I am definately the weaker challenger normally. But here I won, shes still trying to live that one down. We also did the water flushing test and found that water went down without swirling around when done on the Equator line. It was really interesting and learnt a lot of new facts. Overall very impressed with the REAL line. Here are a few pics, unfortunately my camera died of battery so couldnt take pics of the experiments, gutted.

This is a clock that the indigenous people created back in the days. They were really clever and predicted the correct time. The time we use to today is actually a few minutes behind from the real time, hence we have a leap year.

The actual ecuator line

Here are pictures I took out and about in Quito.