November 28: Quito

(1) Early in the morning, I met a nice British girl named Helen. As we were both solo travelers looking to explore some of the sites, we decided to team up and have at it. Our first stop was El Penecillo. Perched on the hill stands the Virgin of Quito - it's a statue. We were told that muggings are pretty common for tourists hiking up the hill's winding roads, so we hired a cab to take us to the top. I had hoped to configure enough Spanish to command, "Driver! Take me to the Virgin!" However, the best I was able to muster was, "El Penecillo, por favor."

(2) From El Penecillo, you can catch a green bus to the center of the world. However, don't be fooled. Mitad del Mundo, Ecuador's standing monument to the equator, is a sham. It seems as though they were off by about 200 meters. In as such, the real equator can be found just up the road at Museo Inti Nan. Luckily, Helen and I were privy to this information and soon found ourselves on the tour. At one point, the guide showed how, because of where we were standing, one might balance an egg on a nail. She then performed this task with ease and offered up a chance to the tourists. Somehow, Helen managed to balance the egg, but it slipped off the nail seconds before the shutter closed on my camera. So, we are left with this...

(3) It's sort of like being at the four corners in the United States (for my foreign friends, that would be where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet, allowing a person to sprawl over four states at one time - find a map). You just have to swallow your pride and take a stupid picture of yourself straddling the equator.

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