Quito, Ecuador

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Quito was split over two visits but to spare you blog repetition it’s going in as one entry. We stayed in the Old town, which was the nicest part with streets lined with colonial buildings, museums, parks and the odd Gothic basilica, which we liked to climb and peer out the top of. But the New town had the food, so we spent our days Old and nights New. On the outskirts, there’s a cable car that takes you to 4100m to the top of one the mountains surrounding the city. On a clear day you can see for miles. Quito’s claim to fame is it is built slap bang on the equator line and has a monument to prove it. Ironically the monument was 12-years ago revealed by GPS to be in the wrong place. The real centre of the world is 200m to the right. When you visit you’re shown crazy experiments such as water running in one direction on the right side of the equator and the opposite way on the left, click here to see the video. Tom got a certificate for balancing an egg on a nail. [Clare]