Ecuador’s claim to fame is, well, is that it is on the equator! And north of Quito, there’s a monument that celebrates this amazing feat of nature, and mankind’s attempt to understand the world we live in. The site is pretty far from Quito town, and you can either take a bus to the north station and transfer for a whopping $1.10 per person, or take a taxi. We decided on the bus route, as it would be more interesting and we had quite a bit of time to spare.
The Quito metro bus runs on its own lanes and is separated from other traffic. It’s pretty fast, clean and safe, all the things that most Central American public transport is not. Riding far past the limits of our tourist map, we arrived at Ophelia station and changed buses. This new bus was even more awesome, with comfy seats and a pretty sweet stereo system playing some Spanish oldies. We determined the best word to describe Quito: Cute.
Peering outside as we drive from suburb to suburb, you get a sense of how big Quito really is but the places are clean, the roads are nice, and despite having graffiti everywhere, even the graffiti was cute…. we even saw a graffiti of Doraemon!!!
The actual tourist site was pretty interesting, with a lot of cheesy touristy things you can do. It also has several single room exhibitions about various things like insectorium, a building dedicated to the ‘discovery’ of the equator by the French Academy of Science back in the 1800s. Next to the monument was an even bigger tourist trap, or a so-called museum. There they had some questionable ‘experiments’ showing you what happens when you’re at and around the equatorial line. Cheesy, but fun!
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- MITAD DEL MUNDO
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- i’m there
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- one cheek in one continent
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- secrets travel cross continents
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- mitad del mundo – exhibitions
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- mitad del mundo – planetarium
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- cool flowers
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- failed attempts at balancing eggs on the equator
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- our guide ‘experimenting’
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- THE EQUATOR!
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- tastes like 马拉糕
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- Ecuadorean cuisine
