Day 36 Tuesday 30th October: Have we finally crossed the line?

Chris writes

For John and I our day started as an extension of the prior day as we welcomed Doug’s arrival at the hotel at midnight with a single pint of beer being the only alcohol available at the hotel. So in true team fashion we shared that between the three of us.

Breakfast was served at 7.30 sharp for the five of us and consisted of a 5 a day fresh fruit serving, followed by scrambled eggs, bacon and – Chips!

It must be because we are British that the staff thought that would be our expectation.

Contrary to the published weather forecast the sun was shining but with Quito at over 9,000 feet, even though we are only 25 miles from the equator, it was a little cold at 7 degrees.

However  by 09.00 am it had warmed up and we decided to go on a walking tour of the old city, hoping it would be better than our stroll round the area near our hotel last night which is more backpacker bars etc. Our 10 minute $2 taxis dropped us off  in ‘Plaza Grande’ an amazing square with some really beautiful buildings including the Presidential Palace.

Not dissimilar to recent events in the UK there was a rather loud protest taking place and Mike’s initial interpretation of the placards was that it was against zero hours contracts – now where have we heard that before?

John took the lead and guided us around three identified tourist walks of the old city. We realised that we had to stroll around slowly, not exerting ourselves at altitude, as we prepare for even greater heights in the weeks to come. Even though, they took us all of 1.5 hours when the guide map indicated at least 1/2 day each!

What impressed us was the outstanding architecture, the overall condition of the buildings the hundreds of entrepreneur shops which focussed on selling specific items such as string and rope or drills or several variations of dolls clothes and uniforms which apparently is part of the Catholic religious belief for the greater glory of God and the salvation of their souls when time comes! – That at least was Doug’s explanation to me, he is going to prove to be a very useful team member for the next 28 days.

It was in the old town that we encountered our now frequent contact with the law but on this occasion it was through them or in fact the lady of the two that stopped us demanding a photo with us all, quite a turn a round from the normal Police response we have had in other Latino countries visited when they are faced with a camera.

Recognising the need to keep hydrated at altitude the five of us stopped at a side street for coffee and water prior to returning to the hotel.

The weather was even warmer by 11.15 so we changed into shorts, negotiated some express laundry services at the hotel, packed Paul’s cases into our Toyota Fortuna and headed off in search of the ‘Middle of the World’. After the Galapagos Islands, Quito and the ‘Mitad Del Mundo’ or ‘Middle of the Earth’ monument are the most popular tourist  destination in Ecuador.

This was duly found with Kate’s help and we joined other tourists on a walk round and took numerous photos with both Paul [now demob happy] and jet lagged Doug insisting on making dance videos as they jumped across and the equator and back. The equator being defined a by a single yellow line not dissimilar to parking indications in the UK.

Unlike Charles-Marie de la Comdamine who discovered and mapped the equator in 1736, we are fortunate in 2018 to have iPhones ranging from 7 to x which are capable of pin point location accuracy For where we are. The singe yellow line is actually 0 degree 0 minutes and 8 seconds with the true equator positioning being some 6 nautical miles from the point that we were at.

The lack of any customer service desk prevented us taking this complaint further.

Lunch beckoned and we had a very pleasant Pizza close to the monument location in an area which is very barren compared to our past weeks travels in Colombia.

It was time to drop Paul of at the airport for his flight to Bogotá and then onward to London.

His memoirs of the trip were formulated in last night’s blog but we won’t comment on his week with us. Suffice to say it was great to have him with us and he thoroughly enjoyed his all inclusive holiday but, all good things come to an end and we said our farewells and headed back to the hotel.

 

Whilst I am writing, Mike is editing his 1000 photos from today, Doug is on-line searching for a restaurant that doesn’t serve Guinea Pig for tonight’s meal and John is looking at the route tomorrow which takes us through the infamous Volcano Alley  to Riobamba from where we will write up day 37.