un poquito de quito y lo demas: pt. 1

things really picked up on day 2 and haven't stopped since. we walked downstairs and a few steps from the hostel we randomly met cleve, a real chill taxi driver who would eventually become our taxi driver for the day.

our first stop was the teleferico. it was about a 10-minute ride up the mountain on the cable car. 
once on top, the view of the quito city/valley left our jaws on the floor.


the altitude definitely played a role in the amount of exploring we did, which at this point was not going to be much. we hiked for about half an hour. the more we hiked the more beautiful the views became. the sun, the clouds, the rays, the peaks, the valleys; quito at this point seems more like a dream.

when we finally made it down the mountain, cleve was there waiting for us. 
our next stop was el medio del mundo but not before cleve deciding to take us up to another set of mountains and valleys where we came to the ancient town of pululahua, which is situated on an active volcanic crater. 

the crater is massive and indigenous people still live and work the mineral rich soil to grow crops.

shortly after we drove down those mountains and arrived at el medio del mundo, which is kind of a rundown town with dirt roads and dilapidated homes and shops. we went into the museum of the equator where we did cheesy equator experiments and learned a bit of the indigenous culture. 

according to the museum, if you looked at the gps, the exact point of the equator cuts through their lot. of course, bryson brought up the point that according to the military gps, the equator was about 20 meters away. whatever, its close enough was my thinking.once we were done trying to balance eggs on nails and walking on the "literal" equator line, cleve took us to grab some chow, which in this case came in the form of a rodent: the cuy 

it wasn't bad actually, kind of in between rabbit and duck? it was a pain in the ass to get meat out of it though, which is mostly concentrated on the shoulder blades, neck, spine, and legs. would i eat it again? yeah, sure if i were in a ecuadorian quinciañera and it was free. 

ok, after annihilating this american house pet, we went to another equator monument that was built to honor and remember the french scientists who pinpointed the spot of the equator in the 1900's.

unfortunately that monument is also off, by a few hundred meters actually, but it was still cool to go.

i dont remember the cab ride back. i was so exhausted and the 
cuy definitely put me over the edge. when we finally made it back to the hostel, we thanked cleve and i went straight to bed. an hour later, bryson and i woke up and took a cab to the night-life center of quito, el fosch, where we grabbed a pizza and a few beers.