Finding 'Middle of the Earth', Quito

Oh it's so nice to return to a spanish speaking country. Although Brazil was fun, we rarely spoke to any locals at all. Portuguese is somewhat similar to Spanish so if you speak very very slowly they sort of understand what you want, but it has been very hard to understand them back. Now that we are in Quito, I can once again practice my broken Spanish. Also, people here speak much more clearly and their accents are closer to Spanish spoken in Spain, so my comprehension is much better than it was in Argentina or Uruguay; and my speaking ability dramatically improves with the number of local pilsener I've been enjoying.

Quito itself is a pleasant surprise, probably the cutest of capital cities we've been to so far. The old town is incredibly well preserved and the colonial architecture is stunning. You can't walk more than a few meters before you come across another set of scaffolding (all very precariously balanced with a couple of bricks under each leg) with men painting and repairing the beautiful facades of the buildings. We walked for hours and hours on small cobbled streets before we enjoyed our first authentic Ecuadorian lunch. For $2 you get a lovely soup made with either chicken or beef stock (large chunks of bones or chicken feet left in for free), followed by a rice dish with chicken with a fried egg on top and a strange fruit juice (sort of white with a wallpaper paste like texture and slightly better taste). With our bellies full of local grub we headed out to the basilica. You can climb to the top to get amazing views over Quito. Although the first 300 stairs were fine, when we reached near the top, they started to be more like ladders and combined with the amazingly dizzying heights they started to give us a slight bit of vertigo, so we never reached the top.

The new town 'Marsical Sucre' (nicknamed 'Gringolandia') is about 30-40 minutes on foot. This is where most of the businesses are located and is also home to many of Quito's hostels and hotels. It has a horrible touristy feel to it, with burger joints, all day breakfasts and signs in English advertising cheap beer. We did not stop here for long and returned to our hostel which was luckily in a quiet part of the old town.

The local transport in Quito is done mostly through electric buses which have their own lanes so that they can follow their overhead wires. We didn't have the pleasure of riding these as they looked fairly jam-packed and we had had enough of this in Rio. The taxis are great, but you have to be careful and agree a price before you get in.

Although we had been warned of petty crime and dangerous streets (especially at night) we had no problems in Quito. Actually Mark had left his iphone on the seat of our first taxi from the airport to our hostel. The driver called the hostel ask if it was ours and returned it later that night. People here are honest and genuinely interested, such a difference especially compared to Uruguay.

In our hostel we met two of the loveliest girls from Scotland. Iona and Marja were also travelling down through Ecuador towards Peru, and it turned out they were going to be doing the Inca Trail a couple of days before us. We went out to find dinner together in the cobbled streets of La Ronda, hoping to find traditional Ecuadorian cuisine. Unfortunately our restaurant choice was poor but the company more than made up for it. We had a lovely night with girls, exchanging our experiences of Latin America. The girls found Colombia to be a wonderful place, contrary to popular European opinion and we were slightly miffed that we were missing out on this experience. After dinner we went in search of a local establishment that sold the local warm, fruit based alcoholic drinks we had heard about. These turned out to be delicious and sort of quenched our desire for festive mulled wine.

The next day we all set off for 'Mitad del Mundo', where the equator line is located. I guess we must have looked a little lost trying to decipher which bus to take because a local lady approached us to ask where we were going. We asked for the bus stop to Mitad del Mundo and she indicated for us to follow her. We all expected to be shown a bus but ended up in front of her people carrier. She explained she had a house near there and was heading that way.  Slightly confused we all bundled in.  Mark was highly sceptical but she was totally genuine and what would have been a boring bus ride changed into something much more interesting.

I sat in the front and used my best Spanish to establish that our impromptu guide's name was Victoria, she had 5 children and six grandchildren - hence the people carrier.  Leaving Quito, Victoria pointed out all the interesting landmarks.  We made a quick stop at her house in the countryside, which was under construction - the builders looked as bemused as we were - to drop off her new plants and a quick photo opportunity.  On arriving at Mitad del Mundo we were again surprised when she drove straight past!  First off she wanted to show us some other sites nearby.  Mark had his head in the Lonely Planet giving the English version of where we were heading.  We visited a huge volcano caldera, unfortunately it was covered in cloud but I perused the local crafts on sale and negotiated a good price on a Christmas jumper made out of Llama wool.

At another stop in a small colonial village, Victoria bought us all some strange doughnut type snacks (thin rings, fried, no sugar but sweet dip) then we headed off for our original destination. To our surprise Victoria asked if we wanted a lift back and we arranged a pick us up at 4.30pm and she went off to her new house to plant her flowers in and we wandered around the site, hopping between the northern and southern hemispheres. On our way back Victoria took a different route to show us more sites and invited us all come her house and meet her family. We've exchanged contact details but said we had to go back for the curry that was cooking for us at our hostel. It was certainly refreshing to find such a genuine and lovely company and gave us an unforgettable experience of Ecuadorian hospitality. Unfortunately we also had to say goodbye to the girls, as they were heading off south to Baños the next morning; and we had to meeting up with our GAP Adventures group and start our tour of the Galapagos. Hopefully we will get to see them again on our travels and maybe meet up for a nice Christmas dinner in Cuzco.