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“which had the insides scraped out and was boiled until it shrunk to a perfect replica” |
Getting off the plane, the altitude hit us right away, making us feel really dizzy and weird. We trudged through the airport and desperately scanned the horizon of the arrivals area for Fernandaz and Johan (my friend and her boyfriend who we are staying with) and saw them waving madly at us. That was a relief! Suddenly being in Ecuadior, speaking no Spanish, seemed very daunting. We went with Fer back to her mother´s house where she lives - what a house! It is spotless and just beautiful. Fer kindly vacated her room for Emily and I, so we felt at home almost at once. They are amazingly hospitable.
From this point on, we became ´chicas inglesas´, Johan eing the ´chico´ and the maid being ´chica´. It helps to know when to reply to madre as we hear ínglesas!´and so come running. Madre speaks no English so the conversation was at a minimum - we presented her with some shortbreads from England and said thank you many times.
Breakfast the next day was amazing. They make their own juices out of guavas, orranges, tree tomatoes, blackberrys etc, and theur own yoghurt, putting a little yoghurt and some milk in the fridge overnight after heatng it, to ferment naturaly, then blending it with fruit in the morning. Amazing.
Today we took the all important trip to 'El centro del Mundo'. The first equator we saw, a red line painted on the ground, was actually 150m out, due to old technology, but is recognised as the equator for historical reasons. We then progressed on the the real McCoy, where they had many scientific experiments to prove it. As scientists, we were incredibly excited! The best being water going different ways down a plug hole in a basin, depending which side of the equator it was on, and straight dwn on the sacred red line itself. Since then we have read that this could be a con trick, but I will never take that. It was realy and very cool! Due to the meeting of the Coriolis forces, and them cancelling out, apparently it is easier to balance an egg on a nail on the equatr - seizing the challenge I did this and earned myself a certificate!
Also at this place they had a museum of old things, including a shrunken head, which had the insides scraped out and was boiled until it shrunk to a perfect replica of the head. Apparently this is seen as a good thing, as you can preserve the head of your loved one.
We also went to see an old volcanic crater, where the clouds were swirling about causing it to look a little magical. Quito certianly isn´t boring - the view from our window is amazing enough. Houses sprawling everywhere round the mountains, it is like they flow and ooze into every habitable gap.
The earliest part of Quito is called the old town, and we went there in the evening. The buildings are very nice, more like Cambridge than the other Spanish architecture around, and all lit up at night. In the town square, there is four important buildings surrounding four sides of a square. The town hall to represent the power of the people, the president´s house for the power of the state, the magnificent cathedral for the power of God, and the bishop´s place for the power of the church. We saw thw whole of this from the top of one of the mountains by night, and the rest of Quito - very magical.
We went the next day back to the old town by day and trekked round a lot of museums which was interesting, as we discovered a lot about Ecuador. Em was itching to go up a volcano though, rather than read about it. I think we are do-ers!
We made another viewpoint today, it is the one of the virgin where you have a spectacular view of the city, although it was very cold!
Altogether, Quito seems a special place. The architecture and physical structure is amazing. The airport is actually in the centre of the town, plonked between all the buildings. That is mad! We see planes nosing it down to it from our window. The people are very curious about us, as there are very few white people here, most people being mixed from the race of Indians and colonial Spaniards. Quito has its own kind of atmosphere, and time scale! I think we will have to get used to the South American way of being. Let´s hope we like it though, I am still waiting to decide on that one.
previous travel blog entry
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