HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: The shortest travel day for sure and finality at 2.5 hours
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Our last day on Rosita – EVER and good-byes
WORD OF THE DAY: I HATE good-byes
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 88km
TODAY IS OUR LAST DAY IN ROSITA. The journey ends today, officially tomorrow after breakfast, but really today, especially for Sharon and I who are not staying at the Tucan hotel tonight. I booked 2 nights at the same hotel that I had stayed in back in November with Amy as part of our Galapagos package. Not just to have a small splurge, but I knew where things were in my area and to avoid the check-in and checkout dramas of moving from one hotel to another. Sharon still had to book an extra night in Quito so I made the offer to stay with me if she wanted.
The drive was only going to take a few hours this morning with one stop at the Equator line on the way so we had a 9am start time. I gave my Globetrotters book to Gray and Mark to write in for me. Only ‘special’ people get to write in this amazing book of mine. For those of you who don’t know what my Globetrotters Log is. The Globetrotter’s LogBook #1 - Countries of the World is a beautifully produced and highly unusual pocket-sized souvenir book for people who like traveling. Every one of the world’s current 193 countries (and their 58 overseas dependencies) are listed in alphabetical order, complete with flags, capital cities, information, details about their time zones, currencies, land area, population, interesting travel-websites, etc. - the list goes on. Also -and this is what makes the book so unusual- each country has room for a small personal souvenir: the rubberstamp from the hotel where you stayed, some fun words of farewell from your ski instructor, your own personal copy of that beautiful postage stamp you loved so much, a dried petal from your favorite flower, and so on - whatever you want to keep to remind you of your trip. But there’s even more. The Globetrotter's LogBook® #1 also features a very handy Vaccination Log in which you can keep a structured and up-to-date record of the jabs you have had as you embark on your adventurous life. Many travelers will also enjoy the detailed Flight Register with -believe it or not- room for the flight captain’s signature and your seat number! It is an amazing little book and it is just about as important as my passport, well nearly.
After only 40 minutes we stopped at the Equator line of Caranqui. The Equator refers to the Earth's equator which is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole, dividing the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. Other planets and spherical astronomical bodies have equators similarly defined. The latitude of the Equator is 0° (zero degrees). The Equator is one of the five notable circles of latitude on Earth, with the others being the two Polar Circles and the two Tropical Circles: the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The Equator traverses the land and/or territorial waters of 14 countries. Ecuador is also the name of a country, representing a nation, an ancient history and cultural identity of a society. Also known as "The Middle of the World" to the region of the Equatorial Andes, where evidence has been found proving that in the past of the region there was a deep awareness astronomical and the possibility that Indians Quitu-Caranqui, before the conquest of the Incas were able to reach the exact positioning of the equator in the archaeological site.
Several monuments have been built in honor of the Equator, and the same is found in many countries crossed by the equator, there are in Brazil, Sao Tome Principe, Gabon, Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia , however, that attracted the most attention and are both the best known, are in the Republic of Ecuador, or better known as the Equator. There is much confusion around this controversy. To explain the truth about the origin and real meaning of these sites, we will explain one by one, and begin with the most recommended.
Our stop was at the ‘real’ Sundial Ecuador which is exactly at latitude 0 ° 0'0'', with the precision of a millimeter, the Sun Dial Ecuador is the first monument of the Equator in the history of the Republic of Ecuador, comprising a circular platform of 54 meters in diameter, which forms a mosaic of river stones, of light and dark tones that draw the eight-pointed star also known as the compass rose. In the center of this platform is a cylindrical post ten meters high which serves as the gnomon or marker shadows, which indicate the corresponding hours and months according to the apparent transit of the Sun. There was a guide there that explained about the equator and the most interesting fact that I took away from his spiel was that when in New Zealand (Southern Hemisphere) you see a certain set of constellations and stars and when you are in Switzerland (Northern Hemisphere) you see another set of constellations and stars. When you are on the Equator you can see all the starts and constellations of both hemispheres-pretty cool huh. I have seen the Equator in several other countries and it is always a great claim to fame. This monument is not to be confused with the Monument in honor of the eighteenth century French Missions which is closer to Quito than this monument and really is advertised also as the Equator. The misconception had to be clarified with respect to the monument of the Middle of the World, which was built in 1982 to replace another that was in the same place, and now in the town of Cala Cali, is that it was never built as a monument to the Middle of the World, but to commemorate the two hundred years after the visit of the French Geodesic Mission, which is also written in the plaques on the sides of these two monuments. This monument is not on the equator, according to geodetic datums applicable to the region as WGS84. So the monument does not represent the limit of both North and South hemispheres, nor was generated by the studies performed with measurements Geodetic Astronomy of the Academy of Sciences of France in 1736. The French Geodesic Mission was never in this site, they stayed in the village of Cala Cali and the Treasury Tanlahua, to perform the respective triangulations. According coordinate positions, taken with GPS surveying, the monument in honor of the French Geodesic Mission, is located 7.7 seconds south of zero, about 240 meters, which indicates that, with the latest technology that exists , said monument supposedly is not on the Equator. The Monument of the "Middle of the World" is important to our history, as long as you recognize it as the monument in memory of the French Geodesic Mission, not as the Equator, it never was, it is not and never will be. This is the one that Amy and I visited in November, so I am glad that I got to see the ‘real’ equator line of Ecuador. So after a few photo ops, the purchase of some paraphernalia to help the local guides and organization we were back on the road again for the last 1.5 hours of my whole Ultimate South American tour.
We arrived into Quito just after 12 noon. This is where it started to set in that this journey was coming to an end. It didn’t take long for everyone to get all their crap off the truck. Rosita looked so nude with everything taken off. It was good though as it gave Sharon and I time to go through the whole truck to make sure that we hadn’t left anything and also to check that no-one else had as well. We had stacked our bags in the courtyard as everyone else checked into their rooms and looking at all our bags it still looked like we had a wad of stuff. Oh well a trip to the post office tomorrow will help us rid us of that bag and I also had my snack bag, plus my backpack, my small backpack, a miscellaneous bag and my handbag. Yeah I guess it sounds a lot and then Sharon had the same plus a camping bag, so yeah I guess we had a lot of crap. We got Mark to call us a taxi and a transfer service turned up instead which was just as well as he had a 4WD to fit in all our bags. There is no way it all would have fit into a normal taxi and the best thing was it was only 5USD for the 10 minute journey. No good-byes were exchanged here as there was going to be a farewell dinner tonight at a place called The Magic Bean. We decided we would just get back to the hotel at 7pm and walk with the group to the restaurant.
When we arrived at our 5 star lap of luxury, the Dann Carlton Hotel, we told the bellboy we would need the trolley and his eyes nearly popped when he saw how much stuff we had. Once we had checked in we found out that we were on a ‘Smart’ level of the hotel in a new wing. We had our own lounge access that served free horse a douvers at 6pm each night and drinks and coffee all day and when we got to our room we had our very own computer and free internet and Wi-Fi access. The junior suite itself had a sitting room with a massive flat screen TV, the bedroom with 2 queen size beds, a walk in robe, another flat screen TV and a spa in the bathroom and separate mirror and sink section. Welcome to our 2 nights in the lap of luxury. We deserve it.
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, unpacking all out ‘stuff’ and just getting used to the idea that we no longer inhabited a big yellow truck and no longer travelling with 20 other people. This will take a little adjusting and I am just glad that I am not flying home firstly, that would really suck, glad I am not flying tomorrow, that would really suck too, and super glad that I am still travelling to lessen the pain of saying goodbye to people I have spent so much time with.
We caught a taxi at 6.40pm back to the Tucan Hotel called the Majestic. It was a little dark, in regards to lighting as well as the dark wood furniture. Sharon had stayed here at the start if the trip, but I got to have a peak into Marina and Steph’s room and it was okay. Nothing compared to the ‘lap of luxury’!!! The walk to the Magic Bean was only 10 minutes away where Mark had booked a table and the last supper was served for the last time. The staff at the magic Bean had on shirts with the following quite which I thought was pretty cool:
If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
a hoper, a prayer, a magic bean buyer...
if you are a pretender, come sit by my fire
for we have some flax, golden tales to spin.
come in... come in!
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
a hoper, a prayer, a magic bean buyer...
if you are a pretender, come sit by my fire
for we have some flax, golden tales to spin.
come in... come in!
SHEL SILVERSTEIN
As it was a Sunday no alcohol is served BUT after dinner Mark knew of a place that served alcohol in coffee cups, so sneaky to get around that, so after dinner we walked 5 minutes to a funky bar called La Boco del Lobo. Featuring a brightly lit, colorfully painted glass-encased patio with funky chandeliers, hanging birdcages, and faux renaissance portraits it was a great place to have a few farewell drinks before the final farewell. They had an awesome long list of fruity cocktails all made with different flavors of Absolut Vodka, delicious!!!!!!! Some people had early flights in the morning and Shaz and I had to catch a taxi back to our hotel so we were the first to leave after 2 drinks and a photo shoot for some last snaps. I think I was glad that we were the first, as we left on a high, before anyone got too drunk and it was just a great way to say goodbye. So after massive hugs for each and every-one there, with promises to keep in touch and safe travels all round we walked out the door and the official end of the tour for Shaz and I.
What a trip of a lifetime.
9 Countries
153 days on tour less 25 Ethiopian days
178 days on the continent less 25 Ethiopian days
43 people on tour
32,918.1km circumnavigating the continent less 5,500km while in Ethiopia
Goodbye to Tucan, to my fellow Tucan travelers but I still have another week on the South American continent ( well 2 nights in Quito and 4 nights on Easter Island (territory of Chile) so it is not quite farewell just yet for South America. By the time I leave Easter Island I would have been in South America for 6.5 months. That’s just over a third of my 16 month trip-it’s incredible to just think about it all and I am still thankful for each and every day that ticks by.
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