Day II- January 3rd, 2oo7
I woke up in a panic at about 3.00AM- sweats, shakes, chills- I'm assuming it was the altitude sickness- being the first night here and at 1o,oooFt- but it could have also been that guinea pig coming back to haunt me!
Anyway, the alarm went off at 7.15AM- even though I had not slept since 3.ooAM. I got up, showered and fell asleep for about an hour before we had to meet the group. Everything hurt, I had the shakes- I didn't know how I was going to survive the day. I made myself some sugar water, toast and asked the front desk for a plastic bag before we hopped on the bus.
I was slowly improving- except that damn guinea pig was still out to get me and the taste in my mouth almost made me sick!
The tour took us to the old part of Quito (colonial) which is an official historical site. We saw beautiful cathedrals, politcal offices, la Plaza de Independencia, and we learned about a lot of historical things.

Historical section of Quito

Calle de Siete Cruzes

Plaza de la Independencia- 9th of August 1810- the people who declared independence from Spain were all gathered in this plaza and killed. Biggest plaza in Quito where the Presidential Palace, a monastery and town hall were all centrally located.

Monument built by the Italians- dedication to the city heroes-
they messed up the size of the Condor (the city bird). The one featured on the monument was a baby.

Royal Guards- we stuck around long enough, they gave us a pretty intense show.

The weather was absolutely beautiful- not a cloud in the sky. (Amazing, considereing all the weather reports I saw saying 60 and rainy all week!)
After our historic tour we took a little trip through the mountains to el Mitad del Mundo- the center of the world. Well, first we went to the tourist trap where there is a huge monument which they charge you to go to the top of, little shops and overpriced restraunts - and I even got a stamp for my passport! I stood with one foot in each hemisphere, took some fun pictures and headed back to the bus.

Straddling the equator

El Mitad del Mundo

Two turns, we arrived at the other side of a fence where the REAL center of the world is! Unfortunately, someone had mis-calculated and made a huge tourst attraction- at the wrong place! The REAL middle of the world was a tiny little pueblo with grass huts and beautiful flowers- and some alpacas!

The real center of the world monument


At the REAL center of the world



An egg balancing on a screw



Just a pretty flower



Alpaca!

We learned about the Solstices, Equinoxes, and got to do some fun experiments (water doesn't spin when draining on the exact equator, eggs balance more easily on screws, we weigh less, we are weaker...)
After we were done experimenting, we hopped back on the bus. The dry dust that rose behind us soon changed into luch greens as we drove up into the mountains. It is amazing to see how quickly the climate and terrain changed as we drove on. About 1o minutes of driving straight up hill, we arrived at another place, "El Crater Restraunt."

Transition from the arid area at the middle of the world, heading up the mountain to "El Crater." The clouds get stuck up in the mountains.



A little higher up



El Crater

Me being silly after lunch

As soon as I saw the sign I said, great, another tourist attraction But when we got to the very top of the hill, my mind changed completely. "El Crater" is a massive valley at the foot of a volcano (which errupys approximately every 6oo years). The valley was formed from the implosion of the eruption and left a beautiful, lush green valley. The restraunt over-looked this entire valley. More interesting than that, the sky would change from crystal blue to gushing rushes of clouds, whiting out the entire sky, back to crystal blue again in a matter of minutes. This happened repeatedly the 2 hours we were there for lunch.
After our delicious Ecuadorian lunch, (which I barely ate because I was so exhausted from my 3 hours of sleep the night before), we headed outside, explored the crater a little more and got back on the bus. I napped for nearly the entire way back to the hotel, got back to the room and napped again for another 2 hours. Matt came to wake me up and we, along with my roommate and his, went exploring.
We wandered around Av. Rio Amazones, the major avenue of Quito (or at least our area of Quito). We found the arch which represented the beginning of the excursion in which the Amazon River was "discovered." I could be mixing my stories, but from what I understood, 3oo Spaniards took 4,ooo natives captive on the quest for El Dorado, a city of gold. Because of the harsh conditions of the Amazon, only 15o survived. They never found el Dorado, but they did discover the Amazon River. This expedition all started from Quito from the Av. Rio Amazones. Beyond the arch was a park with a market selling all sorts of fun stuff.
We decided the park after dark was a bad idea, and we turned back around and went to some actual stores. About an hour or so of shopping (in which amazingly I bought nothing) we all decided we were hungry and went on our own quest- for food. (Not quite as exotic as el Dorado).
We found "The Taco Factory"-real cultural, I know- and I had the largest burrito of my life. After we were done, we ran into another large part of our group on the other side of the restraunt. They had plans of kareoke.
We explored a bit more, but the only things open were bars and restraunts- and after the burrito, I certainly wasn't eating any more, and I was so exhusted I really wasn't in the mood for a drink. Matt and I headed back to the hotel- with a 7.ooAm wake-up call the next morning, it was bed time for me!