mitad del mundo= NOT telemundo

yesterday we went to the equator! everyone this past week has been asking us if we have been to the "mitad del mundo" and i kept thinking they were asking us if we watched "telemundo" so i was really confused. then i saw the words "mitad del mundo" printed across the front of the bus and i realized this meant the "middle of the world" .. the equator! it all makes sense to me now. we took two buses there which took an hour, but it was fun because we got to see a lot of towns we had never seen before.

basically there is a huge orange line painted on the ground that you have to pay $2 to get to and then a really tall tower that you can pay $3 to climb to the top of. we did not climb the tower, and the line was totally boring. we took our "creative" pictures at the line, walked past a bunch of really touristy shops and restaurants, and then left. this "official equator" is not actually the real equator though, it's about 200 meters off. the real equator line is at a museum right next to this place called the museum of the sun.. or something like that. we walked over there and immediately knew that this place was way better! you pay a couple dollars for a tour where they tell you all about the indigenous people of south america (i don't actually know what they said about them or why it was relevant because our tour was in spanish so i couldn't understand it, i just nodded and smiled and acted really amazed the whole time). we also saw how on the north side of the equator water spins in one direction, and on the south side of the equator the water spins the other way! it's true we saw it. and we got to try to balance an egg on the head of a nail, and if you were successful you got a certificate. i was the first one in our group to be able to do it! there were other really interesting things about the equator, but we all know i don't remember anything so of course i've already forgotten.

then last night we went to La Mariscal, aka "gringo-landia", and i had an espresso martini. it was actually pretty good. but then i freaked out after i finished it because i realized it had some ice in it and i was probably going to get a parasite and die. or at least have a rough night. but i was fine. it was Ecuador's national gay pride day so there were tons of drag queens walking around and performing Cristina Aguilera songs on a big stage in the middle of the main square. it was really entertaining.

i don't have any pictures from yesterday so just use your imagination! :)