There's Always a Bright Side

This past weekend we got out our plaid shorts, pulled our socks to our knees, slung the 35 mm Nikon camera around our necks and played tourist.

On Saturday we took the bus to the zoo. The zoo is located about 32 kilometers from Quito, in a village called Guayllabamba. Guayllabamba is set in a beautiful, green valley with some amazing looking flowering trees that we didn't take any pictures of. But here's a picture of Maya with the valley behind her.

The zoo is set in the hills overlooking the valley and is dedicated to fauna native to the Americas, and primarily, South America. So we got to see monkeys, condors, enormous wild pigs, some kind of jungle cat, the only type of bear native to South America, and a bunch of enormous turtles that are only found in two places in the world - the Galapagos Islands and the zoo in Guayllabamba.


The turtles were pretty cool because they were actually awake and moving around. I think it was the first time I've ever seen a turtle this big get off its duff and walk around for the crowd.


There was also a petting/feeding zoo that the kids liked. For a dime, you could buy a cup of carrots and feed the llamas, cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, or cuy. Or, as Maya chose to do, you could eat the carrots yourself.
Rebecca said the cow reminded her of an ex-boyfriend, but she wouldn't tell me what it was about the cow that reminded her.


Instead of taking the bus home from the zoo, we were lucky to be able to hitch a ride with a couple on their way back to Quito. The woman is American, and is teaching English in some jungle city in Columbia. She and Rebecca had a good conversation about the FARC while Jonah ate crackers and made crumbs all over the back seat of the guy's truck. The woman actually said she felt safer in her city in Columbia than she did in Quito. Rebecca gets the feeling from her work as well that foreigners (i.e., Americans) are relatively safe in Columbia - and that the violence is directed only towards the locals.

One of the fellas that I know from work is currently traveling in Columbia. You can check out his blog here.

As we hit the outskirts of Quito on the ride home from the zoo, I noticed a snow peaked mountain to the southeast. It was Vulcan Chimborazo. Even though there are several snow caps that we are supposed to be able to see from the city, this was the first time that we'd actually seen one, so we were very excited. It was like a postcard - this bright blue sky with a snow-cap stuck in the middle of it. We thought we might be able to see it from the roof of our apartment buidling, but our apartment sits on lower ground than the road we were traveling so we could not. Too bad.

Chimborazo is an inactive volcano thought to have last exploded about 10,000 years ago. We literally drove right past it when we drove to Cuenca with Paul, but it was so cloudy that day we couldn't even make out a shadow. At 6310 meters (about 21,000 feet) Chimborazo is the highest peak in Ecuador and was once thought to be the highest peak in the world. It still enjoys the distinction of being the furthest point from the center of the earth, and the closest to the sun, due to the bulge around the equator.

We couldn't get a picture of it because we were moving, and buildings and what not kept getting in the way, but here's a photo we got from a book. It's either Chimborazo or Cotopaxi. I'm not sure.



On Sunday we took the bus to the Mitad del Mundo - which translates to the middle of the world. In case you can't figure it out, the Mitad del Mundo complex straddles the equator, which, if you remember from geography class, separates the northern hemisphere from the southern hemisphere. And of course, just to tie up all the loose ends - Ecuador gets its name from "equator".

(Column Intermission I - When Ecuador declared independence from Gran Colombia (consisting of roughly the combined territories of Panama, Venezuela, Columbia, and Ecuador) in 1829, it considered three names for itself - Quito, Atahualpa (who was the Incan ruler who invited Pizarro and his men to Cajamarca, where Pizarro promptly murdered him), and Ecuador. I'd say the best name won.)

At the Mitad del Mundo, we couldn't resist the standard goofy tourist trick - Look, I'm in the northern hemisphere. Now I'm in the southern hemisphere. Now half of me is in the north and half of me is in the south. It was fun. Here, the girls are in the Northern Hemisphere and the boys are in the Southern Hemisphere.


On this particular Sunday, there was a lot going on at the middle of the world. There was some dancing,
some guys dressed up in costumes
and some ice cream eating.


At one point, a shaman came around asking for a volunteer. Rebecca, who is, of course, always up for something cultural, jumped right up. But, I think she's going to regret it this time.

On the bright side, we didn't have to buy her a seat on the bus ride home. We just hung her from the rear view mirror.