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We slept well in the comfortable bed. Unbeknownst to us, the room alarm clock was set for 6 a.m., and it woke us up then with the radio blaring. It really startled us. We went back to sleep and got up at around 8. We went downstairs and told the front desk that we would like to hire an English speaking driver, probably for around 10 o'clock. They told us that they would arrange it, and we headed into the dining room for breakfast. They had a very nice buffet with fresh mora (blackberry) juice, watermelon, banana, pineapple, strawberry yogurt, fresh tasty granola, ham, cheese, bread, and very good coffee (not the ubiquitous Latin American Nescafe). We loaded up our plates and sat down to enjoy. Much to our surprise, a waiter came over and asked us in Spanish if we would like eggs and bacon. We couldn't say no to that, and soon he brought us each a plate piled high with scrambled eggs and bacon. They were presented very artfully on the plate with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and white asparagus. They were delicious and we ate every bit until we were stuffed.
We admired a vintage victrola in the sunny sitting room next to the dining room and made a stop back at our room. Shortly after 10 o'clock Gerardo (who is originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, but has lived in Ecuador for 2 years) arrived to pick us up. He had a cup of coffee at the hotel and told us that they have some of the best coffee in town. He was very personable and as we drove through Quito he put on a CD of '50's and '60's rock and roll and sang along. We looked at the track list and laughed that it listed one of the tracks was "Don't Be Ruel" by Elvis Presley and "The Twist" by Chibi Checker. There was some traffic and we drove for about an hour before reaching a more industrial section of town. Then we arrived at Pululahua Volcano. Gerardo put his coat on when we got out of the car and offered us his sweater. The locals were all bundled up for winter, and we were just wearing short sleeves. We were a little chilly but it wasn't bad. There were some little stands selling souvenirs, and we walked to the rim of the volcano to look at the crater. Inside was very green farmland from the rich organic volcanic soil. There were some cute dogs hanging around, and a local guide told us some facts about the volcano. There are over 70 volcanoes in Ecuador, and at 6km in diameter, this particular one is the 5th largest crater in the world. It erupted 2400 years ago, and the eruption was similar to that of Mount St. Helens. Inca stonework has been found in the crater, (the Incas were only in Ecuador for around 80 years). Then the Spaniards took the stones and used them to build San Francisco and La Compañia churches in Quito's Old Town (we had visited both of these churches on our previous trip.) Next we went to the Museo Inti Ñan, site of the actual GPS-verified equator. It was a nice open-air museum with attractive landscaping. There were cultural exhibits, including a burial diorama which included spondylus shells and ritual pottery. Buried shells would come up to the surface of the ground during rainfall, so they were associated with rain and used in offerings when praying for rain. We saw some examples of honest-to-God shrunken heads (called tzantza). These heads were war trophies prepared by tribes of the northwestern Amazon region. Graphic illustrations outlined the process of severing and shrinking a head. There was a fake sshrunken head which was obviously made out of a coconut and some animal fur. But there was also a real shrunken head, which was very creepy. Its eyes had been sewn shut and its lips were kept sealed with three wooden pins. Its nostrils remained open. It was about the size of a baby's head. During the shrinking process, the skull is removed and replaced with a small wooden ball, which is how they manage to get it so small. There were some exhibits depicting the Huaorani tribe, whom we would be visiting towards the end of our trip. The Huaorani live in the Amazon basin, and they had some examples of their headdresses, spears, and blow guns. A young lady was our guide, and a German mother and teen son were in our small group. She showed examples (with leaves in a tub of water) of the coriolus effect: how water goes straight down a drain at the equator, counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. This phenomenon is caused by the earth's rotation. We know that they probably employed some sleight of hand here - that the coriolis effect is not noticeable over such a small scale, only feet from the equator in either direction. We have a feeling the Myhthbusters would have had a field day with this. But we got caught up in the spirit of the place and suspended our disbelief, oohing and aahing with others in the crowd. Then we were all asked to try to stand an egg on its end on top of a nailhead. Supposedly this is something that can only be done at the equator (not sure of the pseudo-scientific laws of nature that are said to make this possible). Craig was able to balance the egg right away on his first try, which meant that he was issued with a certificate. I was thwarted on all of my egg-balancing attempts. They also demonstrated some nifty tricks with us such as how on the equator if you hold your thumb and index finger forming a ring, another person can pull them apart. Then they had us step off the equator and try the same thing, to find we were not able to do it. Then we did a similar thing with pushing down the other person's clasped hands. These experiments hardly employ the scientific method, but maybe you just want to believe that something special will happen on the equator. We got our passports stamped with an equator stamp (which was nice since the Quito airport prints them in a computer rather than stamping them). We saw some live guinea pigs, ("cuy" in Spanish) which we knew from our trip to Peru are still eaten as a delicacy by certain indigenous groups. As we exited we passed a hummingbird feeder and saw several hummingbirds ("colibri" in Spanish). A poster depicted different species found within the area. After that, we went to La Mitad del Mundo. This is where the French had calculated the equator to be back in the 1700's, and there is a large monolithic monument to mark the spot. The monument was constructed between 1979 and 1982. A statue of the earth sits on top on a stone-covered iron and concrete obelisk-like structure. The monument is 30 meters tall. It is only 215 meters away from the actual GPS-verified equator line at the Museo Inti Ņan, quite a feat for 18th century geography. There was a little tourist village here of shops, restaurants, museum, planetarium, a mechanical merry-go-round, etc. It looked like a great destination for school field trips. Everyone was so friendly - in the bathroom a woman told me that we should try to visit Guayaquil as that's where she is from and it is very beautiful. We decided to go to the post office to get some postcard stamps while we were here (we didn't know when we might have another opportunity) but the post office was closed for lunch from 1-2. We killed some time wandering around taking pictures, and when it re-opened we bought 15 international postcard stamps at $2 apiece. Not cheap! Although Patrick at the hotel had recommended the Teleferiqo gondola ride up Pichincha Volcano to 13,400 feet, the weather didn't cooperate and the volcano was fogged in, so Gerardo advised against it. We debated whether he should drop us off at the Old Town city center, which we had enjoyed on our last trip to Quito. We decided that this was probably a good plan. We drove back to Quito and Gerardo changed the CD to 80's soft rock romantic songs, which he also sang along to. He kept us entertained. By the time we got back to the city, Gerardo appeared to forget about Old Town and automatically brought us back to Casa Aliso. We decided to just go with it, since we had been a bit ambivalent about going to begin with. We thanked Gerardo and said goodbye. We freshened up in the room and then decided to go out and take a walk. We took note of restaurants within the neighborhood, including Clancy's, which was right next door to Casa Aliso. There was also a beef restaurant a few doors down that had a life-sized cut out of a bull overlooking it. Even though we hadn't been to Quito in two years, Craig soon had his bearings and we were very comfortable walking around. He soon led us to the Mariscal district, a tourist-friendly area with a park, shops, restaurants, bars, and hostels where we had stayed in 2008. It turned out that it wasn't actually very far from Casa Aliso. Our large breakfast had precluded the need for lunch, but we were finally starting to get hungry. We wondered what we would do for dinner. We passed by some restaurants we had eaten at last time - Mama Clorinda, La Boca del Lobo, and the Magic Bean. We decided to walk around a bit more while it was still light out, but that we would return to La Boca del Lobo to eat. Two years ago, we had seen some very surreal paintings for sale, depicting a train in the sky raining down apples (or balloons or balls or eggs or bells) on Quito. They were so unusual that we have been thinking of them ever since. We kicked ourselves for not having purchased one, so we had our eyes peeled for them as we window-shopped in Mariscal. Craig spotted one hanging outside a small gallery. We entered the shop and saw many variations on that same theme. I asked the shopkeeper what the significance of the motif was. He explained that it symbolized travel and abundance. This made sense - travel made for a lot of commercial opportunities for Ecuadorians. Tourists come to Ecuador, and Ecuadorians also travel abroad selling handicrafts and performing traditional music. We asked how much a small painting (which would fit easily into our luggage) would cost. He said $10. We probably should have bargained, but We didn't really feel like carrying it with us as we walked around, so we asked what time they closed, and told him we would be back. Further research would reveal that the originator of this motif was Gonzalo Endara Crow, with his painting "El Tren Volador" (The Flying Train). His style is described as naive art or magical realism. Though he passed away in 1996, his apprentices continue to produce art in his style. One of Endara Crow's children wrote on Reddit: Some of the symbolism in my dad's paintings can relate to his early years. My family were one of the many American families that came to Ecuador to build the railroads and taking part of the business. The train symbolizes a way to move in between dreams and time. Most of his paintings have highland landscapes because of the mystic and folklore of this particular part of Ecuador.As we walked down the sidewalk we were behind some women in very short skirts - something that is a bit rare to see in this culture unless you're at a disco. When we passed them we realized they were very trashily dressed transvestites. They were certainly turning heads, of locals and tourists alike. We walked past the familar Santa Terisita Church with its striking gothic architecture. Then we walked past a very modern skyscraper with an interesting abstract sculpture in the front.We walked to El Ejido park, where kids were enjoying some nice new playground equipment which included a small zip line. The kids were having a blast. There were also pedal cars to rent and kid-powered merry go rounds. Parents and kids were all bundled up against the cold, and we were once again comfortable in shirtsleeves. We walked through the various vendors' stalls full of handicrafts. We also passed some vendors carts cooking up some delicious smelling meat. Our mouths started to water, but we were determined to hold out for La Boca del Lobo. We walked back to the painting store, and wouldn't you know, it was a different guy manning the store. He tried to charge us $15 for the painting but we told him that the other guy had quoted $10. Now at home that painting would probably be $50. It seems a bit petty to argue over $5, but haggling is a way of life here, and this guy was looking to jack up the price and we refused to go along with it. In the end we got it for $10 and were quite happy. We passed a mariachi band which was serenading some tourists in an outdoor cafe. We headed right to La Boca del Lobo for dinner. It is a trendy, quirky restaurant with avant garde decor and delicious food. We had eaten here two years ago and it was my favorite restaurant on that trip - and one of my favorites ever. Glass walls had been added to create a porch overlooking the street, and the decor was extremely funky. Red and blue lights hung inside of bird cages suspended from the ceiling. Oversized portaits hung in huge gilded frames and it looked like something from Alice in Wonderland. Disco ball mirrors had been used to decorate the bar. We sat on the glass-enclosed porch and had a nice view of the street for people-watching. Craig had a local Club beer and I had a Vainilla Sunrise (Absolut Vainilla, grenadine, and orange juice...yum!). We decided to order two appetizers as meals which we would both share. One was the provocatively titled "F Word" which is supposed to be an aphrodesiac (hence the name). It was a puff pastry covering a small casserole dish filled with calamari in a wine and black pepper sauce that was unlike anything we had ever tasted before. It was so savory and delicious! We also had Kong Sweet Plantain Tortillas, which were like pancakes made of plantains, cheese, and sweet onions served with peanut sauce. It too was delicious. It was very much fusion Ecuadorian cuisine, and it was fantastic. Can't recommend that restaurant enough! Disappointingly, we had no room for dessert. But they did give us orange Tic-tacs as a palate cleanser.Our exceedingly nice waiter Alex offered to call us a cab but we decided to walk back. When we got back to Casa Aliso we used their free internet in the lobby and wrote a blog post. Patrick gave us a potato soup recipe, as it is a specialty of the area. How thoughtful! He had called to find out what time we would be picked up in the morning, which turned out to be 8:30. He was so helpful! This hotel sure knew the meaning of hospitality. We headed back to our room and got our luggage sorted (we would leave a bag behind at Casa Aliso and take just what we need for the highlands portion of the trip for the next six days) and were in bed by 10 o'clock, ready for our next adventure in the morning. View Larger Map |
           
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