To the middle of the world! [travelblog]
Aug. 4th, 2006 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beelikejSchool in the morning: next week I'm supposed to get other teachers, but I request to get more grammar-classes from Omayra. That way I'm sure to get enough practice in conversation :-)
I have to start the big keepercup-while-traveling-test today, a week earlier than anticipated, but that's not too bad this time, since now I still have my own toilet and don't need to mess around while backpacking)
I remembered to write down the meals today: for lunch we had potatosoup and spaghetti.
After that I travel to 'El Mitad del Mundo': First I take the Azul-trolleybus ($0.25) and then change in Ofelia on a regular bus ($0.40). I arrive around two at 'the middle of the world'. You have to pay to get to the monument and again to climb to the top and visit the museum inside. It's cheap, but a bit inconvenient. Around the monument they have build a small village in colonial style, but it mostly consists of restaurants and souvenir-shops. It's not very interesting. Luckily Joff told me about the 'real' middle of the world, where they do experiments with gravity. In a shop at the edge of the village I discover a small photo-exhibition and I ask the artist where I can find all those equator-experiments. He tells me there is a museum next to the monument, outside of the official 'Mitad del Mundo'. He also gives me a cool stamp in my passport when I buy one of his pictures. Wahey!
It's a good thing I asked for directions, because I never would've been able to find the museum. It's not clearly mentioned in the Lonely Planet and there are no signs. You have to follow a suspicious looking dirtroad to get there, but it's the most interesting place of the whole middle of the world. A guide takes you on a tour and talks about the history of the people of Ecuador and how they measured time by the sun and the moon. But the experiments are the best part: a sink with water is emptied straight down on the equator, while in de North and the South the water swirls respectively to the left and the right. Cool.
Because the German group of tourists is very slow in following the guide, I ask her if I can finish visiting the rest of the (open air) museum by myself, so I'm able to catch a bus back to Quito before it gets dark. It's allowed and once again I know why I hate tourgroups. *g*
I'm back at Rosa's in time for diner: rice with chicken and baked banana. Yum.
Tomorrow I'm going to Otavalo!
Pictures week 1
I have to start the big keepercup-while-traveling-test today, a week earlier than anticipated, but that's not too bad this time, since now I still have my own toilet and don't need to mess around while backpacking)
I remembered to write down the meals today: for lunch we had potatosoup and spaghetti.
After that I travel to 'El Mitad del Mundo': First I take the Azul-trolleybus ($0.25) and then change in Ofelia on a regular bus ($0.40). I arrive around two at 'the middle of the world'. You have to pay to get to the monument and again to climb to the top and visit the museum inside. It's cheap, but a bit inconvenient. Around the monument they have build a small village in colonial style, but it mostly consists of restaurants and souvenir-shops. It's not very interesting. Luckily Joff told me about the 'real' middle of the world, where they do experiments with gravity. In a shop at the edge of the village I discover a small photo-exhibition and I ask the artist where I can find all those equator-experiments. He tells me there is a museum next to the monument, outside of the official 'Mitad del Mundo'. He also gives me a cool stamp in my passport when I buy one of his pictures. Wahey!
It's a good thing I asked for directions, because I never would've been able to find the museum. It's not clearly mentioned in the Lonely Planet and there are no signs. You have to follow a suspicious looking dirtroad to get there, but it's the most interesting place of the whole middle of the world. A guide takes you on a tour and talks about the history of the people of Ecuador and how they measured time by the sun and the moon. But the experiments are the best part: a sink with water is emptied straight down on the equator, while in de North and the South the water swirls respectively to the left and the right. Cool.
Because the German group of tourists is very slow in following the guide, I ask her if I can finish visiting the rest of the (open air) museum by myself, so I'm able to catch a bus back to Quito before it gets dark. It's allowed and once again I know why I hate tourgroups. *g*
I'm back at Rosa's in time for diner: rice with chicken and baked banana. Yum.
Tomorrow I'm going to Otavalo!
Pictures week 1