Quito

The monument on the equator.
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I arrived in Quito several days before mom was due to arrive to try to find a Galapagos trip. Not a good idea, not only was it really hard to find a boat, but they do not take credit cards. So it took the whole day to arrange a trip and figure out how to pay for it, which involved several trips to the cash machine and frequent calls home to have mom arrange to bring travellers checks.

The hostal I was staying in (El Centro del Mundo) was a lot of fun- they had free rum and coke (which here is called Cuba Libres). Many scandalous events occured during those nights, of course not involving ME personally. During the next couple days after hangoversI went on several day trips to areas around Quito with new friends. Since there was too much activity and bed bugs in that hostal, I deemed it inappropriate for the mother and so found another slightly tamer one nearby.

On the real equator.
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Found mom at the airport and brought her to the new hostal. The next day we went to El Mitad Del Mundo monument which is on the equator line. Then we went to Museo Solar Inti Nan which was much more interesting and was actually on the REAL equator as measured by high GPS and the Incas. The water in the drain actually does spin the other way on the other side of the equator line, but maybe was just a good staged trick to entertain tourists. We went up to the Panicillo, which is a statue of the virgin mary with a crown of stars standing on a serpent (the devil) which was way up on a hill overlooking Quito. Then to the Church of la Basilica where we climbed rickety steep (non OSHA compliant) steep steps into the towers, the views and the climb itself was amazing.

The giant virgin
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The next day we went to the famous markets in Otavalo where we shopped a bit too much, although guinea pig was highly recommended, we could not find a place serving it anywhere in town. Oh well, later. We went to a waterfall, and a crater lake and then back to Quito.  For a really good log of what we did, check out my mom's blog at http://realtravel.com/ecuador-trips-i656557.html