Balancing an egg

We went looking for a travel agency or tourist bureau to purchase a tour to Mindo tomorrow.  I had no idea it would be so hard.  They sent us to the other end of town where there are supposedly several travel agencies.  We went in a couple - all of them will find you a driver for the day for a fixed amount, but that's all they do.  No tours.  Given there is only two of us now, this it's an expensive option.  In the end, we went into an internet cafe and found a tour online.  I'm just shocked they don't have traditional tours for sale.

After a much later start than we planned, we headed the Terifico.  Rufus is a cable car which takes you to the to of Pichincha volcano,  2700 feet above Quito, to about 13000 feet total elevation.  We walked a couple of the paths (but not the 5 hour one).  You could definitely tell we were in the clouds.  Once again the clouds cleared for us to get a great view of the city.  it's amazing how big this city is - 2 million people, crammed into the space between two mountain ranges.  Also at the top we saw Llamingos.  They are in the llama family.

Next we took a metro bus north of the city (their city buses are crowd!) to the mitad del mundo, aka  middle of the world.  When the early men came in 1736 to confirm the shape of the earth, they used triangulation, and ecuador had the higher peaks of the 11 countries that have the equator ruining through it, thus the claim, middle of the world.

This calculation for the equator was used until 15 years ago when GPS determined it was slightly off (almost 800 feet).  (We learned later that the line the Incas recognized is the same as the GPS.)  Unfortunately, the Mitad del Mundo was built before GPS found the mistake. So we have a huge tourist complex with equator line and sign and lots of hoopla, all built in the wrong place - which no one talks about.

Next we slipped back to a hard to find museum, which was the highlight of the day - Intinan Museum.  This is an outdoor museum built on the "real" equator.  Our guide gave us some history about a couple of indigenous tribes, including replicas of historical homes. She also showed us how they kept track of seasons and time (the clock was just a few minutes off because the earth doesn't really rotate every 24 hours (she said 23 hours 50 minutes), which is why we have leap year.  She also mentioned that there is little rain on the equator and no tornados, etc because the magnetic pull of the poles balance each other out. (I didn't realize hurricane, etc in northern hemisphere turn counter-clockwise and southern clockwise.)

She ran through various experiments on the equator versus either side.  For example, walking the drunk walk on the equator is very difficult - I couldn't keep my balance at all. We also watched water draining from a sink - one way in the south, another in the north, straight down on the equator.  The guide also balanced an egg on a nail on the equator line.  She said if any in our tour group could do it we'd get a certificate.  I was the only one able to do it.  Later, Iga went back and was able to do it too.

 On the way home,  we asked a bus worker to let us know when we got to our stop.  Our pan was to take another bus home from there.   Several people got involved in helping us.   One lady was hilarious.   She was very emotive.  In a combination of Spanish and English,  she informs me that walking home from where were getting out is not good.  When I said were taking a bus,  again, not good.She says,  you go with me,  I'll get you home.  We'll take Taxi. When I commented would cost $4, she said no, only $2. Just don't talk taxi so they think we are local.  in the taxi she proceeded to tell us all kinds of opinions in a combination of languages.  We had a hard time not laughing until we got out.

Tomorrow is Tulipe, near Mindo.