Time to leave Tena behind and make our way back up into the Andean Highlands towards Quito. What a day of views as we climbed 4000 meters, winding around the mountain roads, high into the clouds above the forests. In just under 200km the temperature dropped from 30°C to 4°C and back up to 24°C. There was the usual array of strange sites including a calf in a gas station.
We stopped outside Quito to visit the Equator park. There are 2, the first with the original monument where the Equator was believed to be and the second a few minutes walk away where it really is (discovered with the advent of GPS about 18 years ago). It’s worth a visit, especially for us as we bumped into our friends from the raft trip in Tena.
There are a few experiments to watch and try out to demonstrate that you are standing exactly between the 2 hemispheres, with a bit of smoke and mirrors thrown in. (check out Hanson from Zoolander in the foreground, yes he was for real!).
The final destination was Mindo, a pretty little. Mountain town with a reputation for great bird watching. We have rented a funny house just outside of the town, the inside is decked out a bit like a ship with lots of dark wood. The internet is broken so we have just spent a hilarious evening experimenting with an old style record player, we’ve listened (and danced) to bad covers of Queen and Abba, some original Bee Gees and a first edition of the Sound of Music. Cara is now playing her recorder upstairs and as the sound of the Pirates of the Carribean theme pipes its way down through the floorboards for the 10th time I’m thinking maybe Wi-Fi is not such a bad thing.
Pirate Travels 