DAY 130 FRIDAY 19th JANUARY 2008

Quito, Ecuador (Miles to Date: 14250)

Karen woke the morning of her 50th birthday in Quito, Ecuador. Although we had been exhausted when we arrived, sleep had been difficult to achieve. Being European we are used to hotels not having air conditioning and relying on the good old fashion method of heat regulation – opening windows. The night air was cool enough to provide relief but unfortunately the Nu House hotel borders onto a square full of bars and restaurants that are frequented by the young (and noisy residents) of town. The raucous behaviour went on until 3.30am – and whilst Jack and Emily managed to sleep through – their parents had a fitful and broken night's sleep.

Unfortunately we had a busy day ahead and our tour guides were picking us up at 8:00am. So after a somewhat frenetic breakfast we waited to be collected at the hotel reception. The plan for the day was to spend sometime exploring the colonial downtown area of Quite, a trip to the high point overlooking the city and then a trip to the Equator – after which we would have free time.

Our first port of call was the La Basílica del Voto Nacional. This is a magnificent church, but is relatively new. It was started in 1892 and was finally blessed by Pope John Paul II on January 30, 1985. The most stunning element of the Basilica was the sun shining through the large stained glass windows throwing a beautiful multi-coloured pattern on the walls, pillar and marble floors of the Basilica. From the Basilica we took a short drive down the Plaza de La Independencia located in the heart of the historic quarter of the city. in 1535. Facing the square are the Palacio de Gobierno, the Cathedral, the Municipalidad, the Palacio Arzobispal and the Casa del Alcalde. This square is the governmental and ecumenical hub of the city and ,to a large degree ,the country. A short walk from the Plaza is Iglesia de la Merced. This church has a definite Moorish design style. The building is filled with wonderfully ornate altars covered in gold leaf and around the church are a wonderful collection of oil paintings and carvings of religious figures. Our final destination in Quito’s colonial old town is another church - Iglesia de San Francisco. This is in another plaza – Plaza San Francisco, just around the corner from Plaza de La Independencia. San Francisco was the first church built in Quito. The church and the Plaza are built upon an Incan temple – which was the traditional way the invading Spaniards quelled the Incan culture.

Our next port of call is El Panecillo – a hillwhich is a short distance from the colonial centre that hosts a huge statue of the winged virgin, the 45m-high (148-ft.) La Virgen de Quito. The Panecillo stands at about 3,000m (9,840 ft.), so it is an ideal vantage point to see the city. On the way to this El Pancecillo we pass through some very disadvantaged areas, where you can see the high level of poverty. Emily is most struck by the number of street dogs loose on the streets of Quito. We climb to the top of the virgin monument where peaks of the lush green Andes mountain range arevisible.Quito is a city spreading some 60km and is home to 1.2 million people.

This concluded our trip to colonial Quito – our next port of call is the Mital del Mundo – the Equator. Our journey takes us 45 minutes North of the statue, through the bustling streets of this lofty city. There are little controls of vehicle emissions here and the worst offenders are the city buses – additionally the laws on numbers of passengers in a car also seem to be either non-existent or at best flaunted. We see one car with about 8 children in it – 2 of whom are sitting on the lap of the lady driving. By and by we reach the Inti Ñan Solar Museum – dedicated to the culture of Ecuador and the equator. The original monument to the equator is still there but unfortunately modern technology in the form of GPS has shown that it was indeed in the wrong place. The true line of the equator runs through the museum grounds.

The tour takes us through some recreations of the traditional homes of the Ecuadorian people. Finally we reach the point of our quest -the line marking the Equator. Jack takes great pleasure in leaping from the Northern to the Southern hemispheres. Here our guide takes us through a few experiments to demonstrate we actually are on the equator. She takes a metal sink and pours in a bucket of water – here the water goes straight down through the hole in the bottom of the sink. Next we move about a metre into the Northern hemisphere where we repeat the experiment and this time the water spins clockwise down the hole – due to the Coriolis effect. We then go into in the Southern hemisphere and do the experiment again and the water goes down the hole this time spinning anti-clockwise. Amazing stuff. We do several more experiments that can only be achieved on the equator - such as balancing eggs on a nail. The end of our tour once again traces the Ecuadorian culture and we get shown some rather gruesome artefacts including real shrunken heads taken from the Amazonian people – there is a gruesome poster which shows the steps from decapitation through to the process of shrinking the head. We are also given the opportunity to use a blow pipe and shoot some darts at a cactus.

We have a wonderful time – and all too soon it is time to return to Quito. Our tour guides recommend a restaurant a few blocks from our hotel – where we decide to celebrate Karen’s birthday. The restaurant is wonderfully decorated and there is a lovely atmosphere, which is made all the more lively by the wedding in the adjoining room. We choose some traditional Ecuadorian foods and we have the most wonderful meal. To accompany our eating there is an elderly gentleman playing music on an electric organ – and as special request he pipes out “happy birthday” and this is synchronised with the waiting staff bringing out a delicious chocolate cake and providing Karen with a special hat to wear (something like the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter) during the rendition of the special song.

After this we returned to hotel and then with an afternoon of leisure we decided to visit a local artisan market where we picked up a few more souvenirs of our trip to Quito.