Quito

उजवाडाक आयलां: 09.03.2023

Arrived in Quito, we used the first day to settle into our apartment and plan the next few days.

On the second day, we had planned to join a Free Walking Tour, but it was cancelled and rescheduled for the next day. Instead, we decided to go to Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world. In 1736, the position of the Equator was determined here (actually, the Equator is 240m further north) and a monument was built. Since then, a whole theme park has been created around the monument. The monument itself contains a multi-level museum that delves into the history of Ecuador. There is also a planetarium, a chocolate museum, a coffee museum, a beer museum, and many restaurants and souvenir shops. You could easily spend an entire day there. However, we wanted to go a few meters further to the actual Equator.

There is also a museum there, which can be visited as part of a guided tour. First, they talk about Ecuadorian history. Then it gets interesting. We could see on our phones that we were really on the longitude 0. The museum features various cool experiments that lead to surprising results on both sides of the Equator. Among other things, water was poured into a drain, once on the Equator and once on the northern and southern hemispheres. Interestingly, the water flows in different directions on the northern and southern hemispheres, clockwise and counterclockwise. On the Equator itself, the flowing water strangely has no rotation. The second experiment was to balance a raw egg on top of a nail on our heads, which Kathrin managed to do. Because gravity is highest at the Equator, the egg yolk is pulled downwards and the egg can be balanced more easily. We initially had concerns about visiting the museum because the entrance fee of $5 per person was not so cheap. But in the end, it was super fun and we had a great time. Definitely a recommendation if you are in Quito.

On Monday, the Free Walking Tour took place. We started at the Basilica del Voto Nacional, a private church whose construction began in the late 19th century and has not been completed yet. (After returning from the Galapagos Islands, we also visited the church from the inside. There are several souvenir shops, restaurants, and cafes inside. It's more of a commercial church. You can also go up to the towers, which offer a great view of the city from all sides.) The tour continued along the Seven Crosses street. Each cross represents a church. Unfortunately, I can't remember the differences between the churches anymore. The stops in between were more interesting. The first one was at the Archbishop's Palace, which has now turned into a food court with many cafes and restaurants. There, we first tried Ecuadorian sweets, which turned out to be filled with liquor that burst in our mouths. I found it quite disgusting. Then we tried typical Ecuadorian ice cream flavors and afterwards had a type of small donuts with fig sauce and empandas de viento. The empanadas filled with cheese tasted a bit like the good old party calzones😉.

At Plaza Grande, there was another specialty, beer foam with sugar and strawberry syrup, which was also quite disgusting. The beer foam has a solid consistency and smells like stale beer. Our guide really celebrated this specialty and said that she loved eating it as a child.

Our last stop was at Yumbos Chocolate. There, we could taste various types of Ecuadorian chocolate: pure chocolate, chocolate with chili, with lemongrass, with ginger, etc. It was a great way to end the tour. Thanks to Tefa, our guide. She did an amazing job.

The tour ended at the foot of Panecillos, a hill where a large aluminum monument of the Virgin Mary stands, offering a beautiful view of the old town. To end the day, we enjoyed a Menu del Día, consisting of soup, main course, and a drink, at Plaza Grande for $2.50 per portion.

For the third day, we didn't have anything specific planned. We walked around Carolina Park for a while, then had some food at the Mercado, and afterwards wandered through the tourist districts of La Mariscal and La Floresta. We ended the day with a somewhat delicious craft beer at a pub right next to our apartment.

The next day, we embarked on another real adventure. Originally, we only wanted to take the cable car towards Rucu Pichincha, the house volcano of Quito, and hike a bit at an altitude of 4100m. But it turned into a real adventure. As we kept going further and further, we got more ambitious and wanted to reach the summit. The problem was that it got colder, foggier, and steeper. Fortunately, we had packed our gloves and were dressed warmly. The last meters to the peak consisted only of rocks, which we had to climb on all fours to reach the summit at nearly 4700 meters. Since we had never done anything like this before, it was quite challenging. When the other hikers started putting on their helmets, I started getting a little nervous. Fortunately, everything went well. Kathrin decided to stay a few meters below the summit and wait for me. Unfortunately, it was so foggy on the top that we couldn't see anything from above. But that's okay. In this case, the journey was the destination.

To make matters worse, it started pouring rain on the way back, so we got completely wet. It was so cold in our apartment that we couldn't dry anything. So, the next day, we had to pack all the wet clothes into our backpack and head to the Galapagos Islands.