(and some pics from today)
PS went out for mexican for dinner (at red hot chilli peppers) - very yum! But most importantly bargain almond mangnum for desert - $1! :) And how brilliant is this hotel - pay TV or whatever it is and then the house-keeping lady comes knocking on your door offering chocolates - I wasnt going to be greedy and just took 1 but she told me to take more! Night night!
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Dont you love upgrades?
Got to quito and they didnt have my room ready so got to use the net for a bit... and while i was waiting met an english couple staying at the hostel who invited me out to dinner with them later that night which was good... Anyway ended up getting a little midget room with my own bathroom (was meant to be dorm, share bathroom) and it had a little TV too!
Everything was closed in Quito - so bizarre - capital city and hardly anything open cos it was sunday. The guy at the hostel said the only thing to do was wander down to the park at the end of the street where there were some markets... Oh well off to the markets again! :) Pretty much same stuff but they also had an artists painting section - there were some amazing paintings - some really different stuff as well... If i felt like i had a home (and was nearly at the end of my trip) i would have bought one...
On the way back i stopped off for chocolate caliente con queso y empanadas... they actually put cheese in the hot choc. and it was surprisingly ok... and then sugar on the cheese empanadas - again ok... :)
After getting a bit scared - was told my rough guide and other numerous guidebooks that we had to carry our passports (original, copy not accepted) with us at all times... and to catch taxi anywhere after 8pm, a group of us walked round the corner to an english pub for some dinner and drinks... was all good.
Then went to the equator - centre of the world :) with the english couple this morning.. caught the local bus - was pretty good. Where they have built the fancy monument etc is not actually the equatorial line - it is a bit north of that down the road - and of course they have another museum there... but the museum was really good... have different local houses (one made of pumicestone and animal poo - was nice and cool inside but did smell a bit)... saw a shrunken head (they boil it with 16 secret plant extracts - sounds a bit like KFC!)... then we did some equatorial tricks which were pretty cool... i balanced an egg on a nail (have certificate to prove it!), saw the clockwise and anticlockwise direction of water going down a sink (on the equator goes straight down), walked along the equatorial line with eyes closed - cos of the forces v. hard to do... and what i was most impressed with was we did a few resistance tricks: like i had my arms half way above my head and someone tried to pull them down - they couldnt do it in the N/S hemisphere but on the equator easy as! same with making an OK single with your hand - someone couldnt pull your fingers apart either side of the equator but when you stood on the equator you couldnt stop them...
Posted some stuff off home this arvo - amazing how many people i met in the PO! Was kind of fun!
Anyway about to meet the group (in half hour) to get the low-down on galapagos - I leave tomorrow - YAY!
