Flew back to the mainland and checked back in at the Backpackers Inn in Quito.
The next day we caught the cable car to the top of Teleferico which is one of the mountains overlooking Quito. From there we then hiked to the top of nearby Volcan Pichincha. It took us about 2 hours to reach the top which has an altitute of 4700m. There was a massive temperature drop and you could really notice the altitude and the thin air. At the peak, we were actually above the clouds and the views were spectacular. We couldn´t really hang around too long at the top as we were worried that the clouds might close in and limit our visibility.
We also visited the La Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) which is a monument located on the equator. It´s quite funny as the monument is actually located about 100m from the actual equator because when the French calculated the position they got it slightly wrong due to primitive technology and instruments. The Americans came in later on with GPS and marked the real equator line. We went on a guided tour of the museum that is located on the real equator line a short walk down the road from the monment. They do some experiments to demonstrate the “Power” at the equator. One of the experiments that is obviously a trick and that I can´t work out how they do it is that they put a sink on the equator and pour a bucket of water down it and the water drains directly down without any whirlpool, they then move the sink a meter North of the equator and pour water down and sure enough there is a clockwise whilpool as the water drains, he then moves the sink a metre South of the equator and the whirlpool spins the other way as the sink drains. Damn good trick! Let me know if you know how they do it! They also claim that it is easier to balance an egg on a nail at the equator as the forces on either side of the egg are equal! I don´t buy it!
Clarkey and I were meant to climb a 5800m Volcano called Coto Paxi but my sinus infection that I got whilst on the Galapagos was still hanging around and I didn’t feel fit enough to cope with that sort of altitude. As a result, Clarkey stayed in Quito to climb the mountain and I headed South to Banos.
