WEATHER: Glorious 22C and sunny at 2800m
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Standing in 2 hemispheres at the same time
BUYS OF THE DAY:
WORD OF THE DAY: “I read that…..”
Another bed, another city – sharing a holiday with a familiar friend. Priceless.
Good morning from Quito. We have a half day city tour booked this morning with a free afternoon. We head to the Galapagos tomorrow, so Amy and I are getting excited about that fact. Breakfast is included at the ‘fancy’ hotel and it was a pretty fancy breakfast room let me tell you, with massive high backed Victorian chairs, massive glass wear and silk napkins. I felt like the Queen of Sheba dining in there.
Our pickup was at 8.45am. As we have no documents and just a message left at reception, you could imagine our surprise when they actually turned up on time! At least some-one knows what we are doing even if we don’t. Amy and I were saying it’s like a mystery holiday. We have booked a warm destination and we are only told information at the last minute to keep us on our toes. As long as it all keeps running smoothly we can’t complain but it is a little frustrating not knowing what is coming next.
Let me introduce you to my new country. It is very much different from any of the other countries I have visited to date, especially in the wildlife, flora and fauna categories, so I will bore you with a few of the most interesting country facts.
Ecuador officially the Republic of Ecuador which literally translates to the Republic of the Equator. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border with Brazil. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers west of the mainland, and where we are going tomorrow for the next 7 nights. Ecuador straddles the equator, from which it takes its name. The capital city Quito was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America.
Ecuador is also home—despite its size—to a great variety of species, many of them endemic like those of the Galápagos Islands. This species diversity makes Ecuador one of the 17 mega-diverse countries in the world. Because of its location at the equator, Ecuador experiences little variation in daylight hours during the course of a year. Both sunrise and sunset occur each day at the two six o'clock hours.
Ecuador is a presidential republic and became independent in 1830, after having been part of the Spanish colonial empire. Ecuador is one of 17 mega-diverse countries in the world according to Conservation International, and it has the most biodiversity per square kilometer of any nation.
Ecuador has 1,600 bird species (15% of the world's known bird species) in the continental area, and 38 more endemic in the Galápagos. In addition to over 16,000 species of plants, the country has 106 endemic reptiles, 138 endemic amphibians, and 6,000 species of butterfly. The Galápagos Islands are well known as a region of distinct fauna, famous as the place of birth of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ecuador has the first constitution to recognize the rights of nature. The protection of the nation's biodiversity is an explicit national priority as stated in the National Plan. The Plan amongst other things states that 32% of the land must be protected in order to truly preserve the nation's biodiversity. Current protected areas include 11 national parks, 10 wildlife refuges, 9 ecological reserves and other areas.
Phew – see what I mean, it is an amazing country and I have watered down a lot of the information. Truly there are so many facts and figures, climate and environmental information I could just keep banging on about but it would take forever and I think you may get a general gist of what Ecuador has to offer. If you are a Twitcher or into flora and fauna – book your next holiday to this country, I can guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Our first stop was the Old City in Quito. The Old Town of Quito had an amazing buzz to it when we got there. We felt safe enough and the people all seem really friendly. Apparently 10 years ago this wasn’t the case. There was bug problems with alcohol, prostitutes, pickpockets, thieves – you name it Quito had it or did it. But they slowly started to pick up their act and it has now all changed.
Quito has one of the largest, least-altered and best-preserved historic centers in the Americas. This center was, together with the historic center of Krakow in Poland, the first to be declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO on 18 September 1978. The Historic Centre of Quito is located in the center south of the capital on an area of 320 hectares, and is considered one of the most important historic areas in Latin America. There are about 130 monumental buildings (which hosts a variety of pictorial art and sculpture, mostly of religious inspired in a multi-faceted range of schools and styles) and 5,000 properties registered in the municipal inventory of heritage properties. Unfortunately, for several years, some of this has been somewhat neglected, which contributed to the deterioration of many of the buildings and surrounding streets. This not only diminished beauty but also contributed to safety concerns. Walking through the historic center of Quito today, now that it has been almost completely restored, was really a pleasant experience.
Included in our 1.5 hour walk was the Main Square where there were people sitting on park benches talking, people selling lottery tickets, people walking around men and women holding hands, kids playing. It really was a hive of activity. There was a small demonstration out the front of one of the government buildings and part of the Presidential Palace was closed and about 100 young men in uniform getting ready for something.
Not far from the square we stopped and entered The Church of La Compañía. I have seen a lot of churches in my travels, but was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. It began construction in 1605; and took 160 years to be built. By 1765 the work was completed with the construction of the facade. This was done by Native Americans who carefully shaped the Baroque style in one of the most complete examples of this art in the Americas. By 1767 the church was closed because of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Ecuador. Forty years later, in 1807, it was reopened.
One block ahead of the church of La Compañía de Jesús was our next stop the Church of San Francisco. San Francisco is the largest of the existing architectural ensembles in the historic centers of cities in Latin America. The construction of the church began in 1550, on land adjacent to the plaza where the Native Americans engaged in the barter of products.
It was a great morning and it felt good to be out and about. It really was a beautiful day. We then all hopped back into the van for the 30 minute drive to San Antonio and the La Mitad del Mundo aka The Middle of the World. Now this isn’t the first time I have straddled 2 hemispheres. We passed over the equator several times on out Kenya / Rwanda trip stopping for photos twice with a concrete circle marking the spot. Well the Ecuadorians have created a small village. The village features a large monument, built on the site where the equator was thought to have crossed in the early 1980s. There is also a museum that contains a model of Quito, a planetarium, various exhibits, several restaurants, an open arena that is occasionally used for folkloric-dance performances, and a small chapel where couples can marry with one spouse standing in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern. It has since been determined, with the use of Global Positioning System technology, that the actual equator is some 240 meters north of the monument area.
The story of the equator in Ecuador starts in the 1700s when the first geodesic expedition took place, the French Geodesic Mission, whose goal was to find and mark the equator. The equator passes through 14 countries. So they asked the King of Spain if it was cool for them to go equator hunting and he said sure, provided you take a long these two Spanish scientists to share in the glory. So they all set off in 1735. They got to Quito, met up with an Ecuadorian scientist, and started measuring the curvature of the Earth around Quito. They stood on tall hills (there are many around Quito), they walked around a lot, they measured. Through some math that I cannot admit I fully understand, they came up with the location of the equator. And that spot is called Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World in Spanish).
The path culminates with a view of a stone building topped by a representation of the Earth (on its side for optimal equator viewing). Inside the stone building is an Ethnographic Museum, which houses some very worthwhile exhibits on the various cultures and peoples of Ecuador, both indigenous and not.
There’s a big yellow line painted on the ground to represent the equator complete with compass markings. I know it seems like a really touristy thing to do, but how often can you hop over a line and across a hemisphere and when has touristy ever stopped me? So I can now say I have travelled to the End of the World, Ushuaia claim to fame, the Middle of the World, Ecuador’s claim to fame and I did go to Nordcapp in 2007 which is in the Arctic Circle so would that classify as the Top of the World?
So that concluded out city tour and we were dropped back to the hotel just after 1.30pm. Amy and I were starving, so we walked to the local shopping center, found the eatery and I hate to say it I had KFC and Amy had Taco Bell and it really hit the spot! After walking around the center we could see that it was a pretty upscale with the likes of Cartier, Tiffany, Dior and the likes being the types of shops here. I wanted to get a sim card for my phone and we found a Claro stall (one of the major cell phone companies). So I bought a sim card for 7USD and after paying and installing it all just before leaving I asked what the costs were to text Australia, she looked it up and said they don’t have a partner there, so I cant. Oh, okay well what about Africa? How much does it cost to text there. She looked that up and said they don’t have a partner there either. So the card was bloody useless. Great. As we walked around the center to leave we saw an actual Claro mega store, so I wanted to check what the Claro lady at the stall had told me about the texting. So when I got served he said yes you can text Australia and Africa and he played around with the phone and said it will be good to go in 2 hours. Yee ha!
So Amy and I walked back to the hotel and I was going to use my free time to get to a post office and send some gear home. At this point I received a text message from the Claro chicky saying I hadn’t paid my money for the sim card, which I had and that my card wouldn’t activate until I came back to fix it up. Luckily the post office was past the shopping center and as it closed first at 6pm, I went there first to send my package home. The post office was pretty well set up. Once you enter in, you take a number and then a seat and wait to be called. They weren’t the fastest taking 25 minutes to serve 6 people, but my time came and my chicky didn’t speak a word of English. But we muddled through, got the forms filled in and then she needed a copy of my passport. I had it on me, but no copy. So I had 45 minutes before they closed to get a copy from a set of shops next door and back again. I asked like a gazillion people where I could get a photocopy, with my passport in my hand and impersonating a photo copy machine, finally led me to one 10 minutes from the post office. So I high tailed it back with 2 copies in hand and had 15 minutes to spare. So it was a mission that took just over an hour, but 70USD later, my box and 10 postcards later, I got the job done and dusted.
Now I had to sort out this sim card business. So I went back to the Claro kiosk and the chicky had gone home for the day, so the guy, who spoke little English, read her message and said no it’s all fine did you want to recharge the card. So I said yes I will put 20USD on it. After 3 attempts the system went down and he told me to come back in 15 minutes. By this point I had been gone for just over 2 hours and it was getting dark outside and I was thinking that Amy night be starting to worry where I was. I couldn’t be bothered waiting and new I could top the card up at a pharmacy around the corner from the hotel so I headed home. I needed to get some more USD, so while I was out I would go to the said pharmacy and get cash and credit for the phone. So after hand gesturing my phone and making pretend calls I go the message across I wanted to buy credit and left the shop with 20USD added to the sim card and USD now cashed up in my purse! IT is now dark and as I walked back into the hotel lobby, Amy was at reception asking if they had seen me…… sorry Aimes I should have called……
Well you can imagine my frustration when I went to send some test messages to Oz and Africa that they didn’t go through and some Spanish message came up that even I could make out that ‘par favor verifique el numero destino y vuelva a intentar’. Great so all that running around and the 20USD is totally useless and the first chicky was right all along. Damn damn and double damn.
So it was pretty busy day, and Amy and I were dog tired. I had to get all my gear back in for airline travel (again) and my bag is now at bursting point. It just has to get me through 3 more flights and them I am on a truck for 5 months and won’t need to lift it in and out all the time. Hang in there gal…….. So after ordering nachos from room service again and me still trying to upload my Antarctic photos, we were wrapped up in bed by 10pm for an early start in the morning for out flight to the Galapagos and to join out ship the La Pinta.
No comments:
Post a Comment