Quito and Otavalo - Ecuador. Popayan - Columbia

I left you last in Quito and it seems im falling behind in my writing as we have now crossed another border and are in Columbia...but more on that later. I want to give Ecuador the space it deserves, for it really was a beauiful country and we wish we could have stayed longer. Apparently you cant do everything, but i am still in denial of this.

Ecuador seems to be doing quite well economically in South American terms. The country is more developed and has better instrascture than Bolivia and Peru in particular. The roads are finished, and there is less litter and rubble on highways indicating a level of education and government expendition in such areas. Ecuadorians are proud of their ecological diversity and fertile landscapes which produce some of the juicest fruits and healty foods that we have eaten so far. In fact, we have given the title of ´Best Food´to Ecuador, with particular mention to their fantastic cheap breakfasts. We have also given the title of ´Fastest Drivers´ to the bus drivers as we have risked our lives around many speedy bends and turns in this country.

Of note in Ecuador, was the amount of Americans travelling here as a result of obvious political ties with the States. There was lots of students studying in the excellent Spanish schools, and retirees looking to buy property. Ecuador changed its national currency to the US dollar in about 2000, apparently with a lot of local resistence. Nonetheless, it went ahead and it is a likely reason for the American travellers. Another Americanism, was the streets and hostels and shop wordings in English. Not often, but certain words such as ´happy´and ´fast food´and general store...which we have not seen anywhere else.

So a quick rundown on our recent happenings....we spent 3 days in the capital Quito which is a nice city, entirely sprawling with buildings which we took in from the city´s cable car called TeleferiQo. Unfortunately, when we got to the top (4100m) , we were above the cloud line and it was a white out. So we got back inside the cable car and took in the urban junglle landscape on the way back down. We checked out a snake musuem which was filled with snakes mostly native to Ecuador, and we also walked around the entire Old Town section which narrow streets and a preseverd antiquated feel. Like most South American cities, the city sites and planning revolves around churches which are usually stunning exmaples of architecture blending Spanish and indigenous styles. The most striking church in Quito is called Voto Nacional and we climbed right ùp the top of this church to the bell towers (and rang the bells, not sure if you´re supposed to but who could resist!) and the basicilas towers which has grafitti and very little fencing and in other coutries would be major puclic liability. Very cool views and quite strange to have such free reign in a church.

The next day, we set off on public transport (they have a really efficient electric bus system called the Trole making it easy to get around Quito) to the Equator. At the hemispheric line (Mitad del Mundo) there is a huge monument marking the designated spot (which is actually incorrect by about 250km since the inception of the GPS system). We took photos and then skipped across to the Museo Solar Inti Nan which is now the actual equator line and a very intersting musuem. We jumped back and forth from the north to the south and were shown fasinating tricks on the line. For example, water has no centrigual force at the Equator and so it flushes straight down rather than in a circular motion. We balanced an egg on a nail head and got a certificate for it, and we also played around with out weight and balance as you apparently weigh 2.2% at the equator and have less resistence to gravity. On the actual line of 0¨00´00, its really difficulty to stop someone pulling your arms and hands apart. Also, walking in a straight line is incredibly difficult with no direct magnetic pull.

Next day we left Quito for the northern highlans and an area called Otavalo which is the largest markets in South America. Its starts to crank up early on Saturday morning and it was really quite overwhelming. The Otavalenos have steadfastly maintained their indigenous roots, and the traders and local folk wear their tradiotional dress all the time. It consists of long dark skirts for the ladies, with trimmings and delicate, frilly blouses, gold chains in the repitive neck fashion of African women, and often a floppy, folded hat. The men wear white baggy trousers with navy ponchos, and together they make a stylish and elegant impression. We had been waiting til now to buy things (well, sort of...we have definitely acquired things along the way!), so we shopped til we dropped and now have an extra bag of things to carry around. Well Jeb does anyway!

I mentioned we are changed our flights and are now spending nearly a month in Columbia, which is where we are now. Yesterday we spent all day on the bus, crossed borders (which again was really simple and we have had no problems at all so far), and ended up in the town of Popayan, Columbia last night. This town is beautiful. All the buildings are white and even inside the church is white. Due to many earthquakes, it has been mostly rebuilt and restored since 1983, making it very clean and tidy and breathable. There are no tight, polluted streets or high rise buildings, the climate is pleasant and the people are really modern. We have already started to see more black people which will continue as we go north and is a result of African slave labour in the caribbean area. We are moving on to the city of Cali this afternoon, so i better go eat some something....ciao