Day 3:
I have been waking up several times in the night and have been getting up around 8am without alarm clocks because apparently I suck at setting them. They either go off at night instead of the morning or not at all. This morning I had to send off a few e-mails and take a shower so I went into Alex’s room (Host families daughter) and hooked up to the modem. Afterwards, I took my shower. The hot water heater here is a bit awkward. It makes a buzzing sound and the harder you turn the knob the colder it gets. I kept playing with the knob, but it was either scorching hot, or mucho frio (very cold).
After my shower I gathered all my photography equipment and started packing my bag with the bare essentials to cut weight, as I would have to carry it all day. I packed my telephoto lens and my wide angle as well as my filters, one extra battery, my gorrilapod tripod, and an extra memory card. Since the weather in Ecuador is completely random (and it’s the rainy season) I packed my jacket. My Spanish teacher, Christina, arrived on time and ready to go. I got the keys to the house and we headed out. As we were walking to the bus station Christina talked about robbers and how to protect myself from them. She told me how to carry my backpack on the front and to never put my backpack on the floor or in the overhead on the buses. She told me if you put it on the floor, usually, on long bus rides they cut your bag under your feet and take your stuff. She advised me to never carry my passport on me but rather leave it at the hostel or at the house or wherever I am staying and only carry a copy of it with me at all times.
We arrived at the bus station and she asked a few questions about getting to Midad Del Mundo because she was unaware of how to get there from the location we were at. We hopped on the bus and practiced Spanish. I decided I wanted to practice vocabulary so I went through the list of verbs and made a sentence with each one.
After 15 minutes we had to get off of the bus and waited for another one. We hopped on the second bus and started to practice my Spanish again. After 25 minutes of practicing verbs we finally arrived at Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world with the GPS coordinates of 0. 0’ 0”. We decided to go check out the monument and take photographs… and we took a lot! It was problematic because there were so many people and I didn’t want them in the background, sometimes we waited and waited for them to move and finally resorted to asking.
It's the middle of the world! Mitad Del Mundo, Ecuador
I decided to head up inside the monument and take some photos from the top of it looking down. It was an amazing view and I could see the clouds overhanging the city of Quito! It is the rainy season so it rains almost everyday with dark clouds hanging over the city. However, today at Mitad del Mundo it was very beautiful with blue skies and fluffy white clouds.
After we took enough photographs we took a small walk and ended up at a table where we sat and went over my homework. She corrected it and we practiced more sentences. I was getting very hungry so we picked a restaurant that had Ecuadorian food. Since we were in a tourist area the food prices were much higher. We picked a place that had meals for $4.50. We sat down and went over the menu item by item and she explained in Spanish (as always) what they were. I made a bold choice by ordering some kind of beef potato dish and Christina ordered the Tilapia. We had several choices of drinks including about 8 different kinds of juice. I choose pineapple and she choose ‘tree tomato.’ When the server brought our drinks she asked if I wanted to try it, since it was orange I decided to give it a whirl (I don’t like tomatoes). It was absolutely disgusting and Christina laughed as I made the most god-awful face. I picked up my pineapple juice and drank almost half of it just to get rid of the taste.
We sat for a long time chatting in Spanish about our lives and at times I would revert to English when I didn’t know how to say something and she would help me translate it into Spanish. We finally decided to get up and head to the Mitad del Mundo museum tour. I went over to the cash register and then ran back to Christina and asked if it was customary to tip in Ecuador. She replied no, so I paid the $11 for lunch in American Dollars and went on my way.
In 2000, in an effort to stabilize their currency, Ecuador switched to the American Dollar for their currency. They still use Ecuadorian coins, but use only American bills. My coin purse is now a mixture of Ecuadorian and American coins that are used quite frequently and necessary to carry around. You almost always have to have exact change and if your dollar looks dirty or old the vendors will tell you it is not good and they will not accept it which has happened to me a few times already.
It was at this time I realized that my skin was getting hot and by that time I was already sun burnt. I immediately put on sunscreen, but it was too little too late.
We walked around the monument and down the street to the museum. At first we were confused about it’s location and once we arrived we found that it was $3 per person to go on a guided tour, they asked if you wanted Spanish or English and of course we had to have Spanish. Our guide came along and she led us to several little huts that showed you the different way of life that their indigenous people led. There was a lot I didn’t understand, but I was able to get the general idea of what was being talked about during the tour. Some little tidbits… There is one water fish that if you pee in the water it goes up your pee hole and loges itself in there… and I was thinking it must be small, but when she showed us a dead one it was about the size of a dime in diameter and 5 inches long. Scary!
They also had a real human head that was decapitated because that is what the tribes do. I didn’t believe it was real and kept asking questions because it was only about 4 inches tall, but they shrink with age (how? I have no idea!) and the head there was 12 years old. Gross!
When the husband of a family dies first the wife can make a choice to be cremated alive with her husband. They give her some juice from the cactus that knocks her out and she gets burned with him. The walls that look like a sort of cement in some of the huts are made with animal poop.
Christina and I are holding the world. Mitad Del Mundo, Ecuador
She then led us to the equator part of the tour, which talked about the constellations, the sun, and how it is different on the equator. There was this globe with a paper burning from the sun rays, a sign on the GPS coordinates of 0,0,0, several totem poles and sculptures. We came upon this sink. She showed us how the water went down when it was placed on the equator… then she showed us on the North side of the equator, and lastly, on the south side of the equator… it showed how the water would swirl different directions depending on where it was. I thought so it is true! I had always heard about the toilets flushing different directions in Australia than in the United States! Our guide then had me close my eyes and hold my arms out as I walked along the equator line. It was insane how strong I was being pulled from side to side as I walked on the equator. They also did a strength test and it showed how much weaker you are on the equator than 10 feet away from the equator. Interesting. Lastly, they had this nail on a table directly on the equator and they showed that you could balance the egg on the nail. Our guide took about 30 seconds to get the egg balanced and then asked me to give it a try. I did it in about 10 seconds. I was so surprised and proud that I did it so quickly. I had observed many people before us that were having much difficulty and could not balance the egg. Christina gave it a try and it took her 3-4 minutes to finally balance the egg. If you balance the egg you get a ‘certificate.’ We’re special!
I'm crossing the equator line and feel like I'm drunk!
Christina looked at her watched and realized she that it was 4 pm and she was to meet another student at 4. We rushed to the bus and hurried back. She did not want to leave me alone when I told her I could make it home okay. She demanded to walk me to the door and watch me enter. We practiced Spanish on the bus ride home, and I was having trouble with the vocabulary because it was being spoken and not written and I am a visual learner and not an auditory one. If I couldn’t picture the word I had a very difficult time remembering it and pronouncing it.
We made it home and I paid Christina and she ran on her way to see her next student…. Almost 2 hours late!
I went inside and went straight to work. I had some loose ends to tie up and I spent the rest of the night finishing my work and eating dinner with the family. Everyone commented on how red I was. I then spent some time finishing up blog duties and finally went to bed around midnight.
