After the Peru Checkpoint, we got bundled back into the taxi there was now one more con artist with us. An tiny Ecuadorian. This whole event was a major scam to rob us of money we are both pretty confused and just going with the flow. As long as we get to Quito though I don't mind too much. They took us along the bridge into Ecuador and then we had to get out (after paying the Taxi driver another extortionate sum) and walk for about 15 minutes to the Pan Americana Bus Terminal. We then got given two bus tickets for 4:30 for a 12 hour ride to Quito. I got a bit worried now as all the day we have been told that the border is being closed at midday as the Ecuadorians are striking. We haven't yet got our entry stamps and are now being told that the 4:30 bus will be allowed through the control and we can get the stamp then. At the moment we are in No-mans-land. Our 2 new friends have now finished with us but not before they manage to extract us of our remaining Peruvian Soles, not helped by my lack of ability to stand my ground.

Right I decided to make the decision to find our own way to Ecuador's border control before it got to midday, Just in case there is trouble later and we end up with now stamp. Everything was calm at the control - no sign of imminent closure, and we got our stamps in a mater of minutes and returned to Huaquyillas town center (no-mans-land).

Grabbed some much needed lunch and bought the standard supplies for the next 12 hour bus trip (Bread, Tuna, Water) and waited around until 4:30.

The Bus actually left on time. It was pretty comfy but also pretty garish with loads of fairly lights and colourful pictures and stickers everywhere. Felt like a Pakistanis car! I did like the mural of the naked lady painted on the toilet door though. The journey started off very slowly, The border control seemed as calm as earlier (bloody con-artists) and every 30 minutes we either stopped for more passengers our for the police to search us and our bags. In fact we got stopped and searched about 7 times by the police. It wasn't until about 10 pm that we managed to get a good clear run towards Quito.

Still on the bus until 5am, Didn't get much sleep as it was very hot and stuffy on the bus plus the last two hours towards Quito where along windy mountain roads. Thankfully we where off the bus by 5 and jumped into a waiting Taxi. The next hour was pretty amusing as we tried to find a recommended Hostel. The Taxi driver was blind and couldn't read any street signs, house numbers our addresses written down on our notepad. He was totally useless and I reckon we would of been a lot better off finding our own way. We did try to direct him and tell him he was on the wrong roads but he refused to listen. I suppose it could of been a trick to get more money out of us, but as he didn't have his meter running we could argue any extortionate fee he tried to charge. We finally found the Hostel it was about 4 minutes walk from the Bus terminal! Luckily they had a spare double room and we where late enough in the day to get some free kip in.

Didn't get up until 1pm. Then woke to find myself in Harry Potters Bedroom! (our room was painted up purple and yellow with loads of moons and stars). Had a much needy shower. Then got into action. Took some clothes down the local Laundry and discovered that this area of New Quito is Gringo Heaven. Packed with Hostels and Cafés selling massive Western menus and great coffee. We went straight to a recommended one, The Magic Bean Coffee House. The food and Coffee where amazing, We did order far too much but still found enough space to eat it all. Ecuador now use the US dollar as there currency and seem to add on Tourist Taxes all over the place so Its not as cheap a place to live as you would expect. Never mind, we are both pretty tired and this is a nice comfy place to base ourselves for a while.

After Lunch/Breakfast and (probably) tea I went to the Internet (no Emails) and to the Bank (no Money) then went back to the Hostel for the rest of the day and caught up on our diary and had generally a relaxing day.

Re-visited the Magic Bean cafe for some breakfast. The temperature is pretty cold in Quito so I ended up going back to the Hostel to change and then we headed out for a walk around the town. Sarena didn't feel to good so we skipped out planned tour of Old Quito and instead caught a bus to the Cinema. Matrix III was playing in a few hours so we amused ourselves at an Internet Cafe. I even got Sarena playing games against me and then went to watch the film. Great action scenes but I was hoping for some more clever twists to the plot. After the film we succumbed to a McDonalds - eeeerggh! and then walked back to the Hostel in the rain. I though it was a lot closer than it was, but probably took us about an hour to get back.

Went to a recommend Mexican restaurant for dinner. I wasn't that hungry but nice cold Corona would of gone down well. They didn't have any bugger!. My fajitas where pretty good though, helped wash the local pilsner down anyway.

An early awaking, partly due to the fact that we went to bed early anyway and partly due to a the commotion of a guy returning from an eventful night out. The poor bloke got split up from his mates and then got mugged by 4 Ecuadorians. He lost all his cash point cards, travelers cheque's and passport and gained a sore jaw. He was very shaken up by the whole deal and his mates spent the morning consoling him. This is a common problem in Ecuador and most people in our Hostel have been robbed somehow or another. The daft thing is you will get arrested if you are found on the street without your passport (one South African guy has now been in jail for 9 months as he lost his passport) but if you take it out with you its quite likely that someone will try to steal it. Sarena spent the morning trying to get my to practice my Scary face so that we might intimidate any potential muggers. I don't have one.

After breakfast I went out for a walk around the Old Town. A pickpockets paradise. I didn't keep anything in my pockets though so I should be OK. Quito's old town has been put on the World Heritage list, so all the old colonial buildings are now protected. I spent a couple of hours walking around all the old buildings before the usual afternoon rains came. So caught the Trole (Tram bus type thing) back to the New Town and found Sarena in the TV room of the Hostel. She was chatting to the guy who had been mugged. He seemed a bit happier now, Turns out he and his mates are from Liverpool.

Had a late lunch a a local Chinese restaurant. It was pretty cheap and not too tasty but filled a hole. We then decided to go out for a few drinks in the evening. There are loads of bars right near the Hostel so we didn't have to venture too far. The beer in Ecuador all tastes pretty nasty. Even the imported beers taste stale and horrible. We persevered though and visited 3 bars including a Pool bar where I whipped Sarena at a few games. Doesn't sound very gentlemanly but she usually beats me. The final pub was called Kilkenny and was trying to advertise that it was an Irish pub. It was pretty packed but despite all he Guinness posters it didn't sell any Irish beer or stouts of any kind. Just big jugs of the local crap beer. We couldn't even finish the Jug as it tasted so bad, We where then charged an extortionate amount for the Jug. I didn't have enough money so we short changed them and walked back to the Hostel.

Relieved my guilt a little today. We have just been bumming around in Ecuador and have not really seen anything, but we woke up this morning to a bright blue sky and headed out to catch a bus to the center of the world. I had been annoying Sarena about visiting the Equator line for a few days now. I am actually quite looking forward to setting foot back in the Northern Hemisphere again, but am playing on the fact and winding Sarena up about it.

The bus took an hour to get to 'Mitad del Mundo' and dropped us right outside a huge complex built by the French to mark the equator line. Being the well informed travelers that we are we knew that this repulsive monument had actually been built in the wrong place. So we avoided the complex and took a 200m walk down a dusty track where we found a cool desert garden that had been turned into a homely museum and built right on the real Equator line. Unlike the fake equator there where only a few people here. So we where met by an Ecuadorian girl who gave the two of us a private tour around the museum and gardens. The site included some original Indian homes. They where inhabited up until 130 years ago but where still in excellent condition and full of all the native tools and clothes for day to day living. One hut was the families store room and contained a pen with loads of Guinea Pigs running around (mmmm lunch). They also had some displays form the Amazon jungle tribes of Ecuador. Loads of pickled Jungle animals and a massive Anaconda skin (about 8 meters). The most intriguing item was a genuine shrunken head which the tribes make as trophies of their enemies that they kill in battle. We even got to blast holes in a Cactus with an amazonia dart pipe. They only disappointing part of the museum tour was that we weren't allowed to try any juice form the San Pedro Cactus - It is very hallucinogenic and used by indian shamans in certain rituals.

After the tour of the museums we did some experiments to prove that we where on the Equator (why didn't the French man didn't do these?). The first one was the flushing water trick. In the equator lone the water went straight down the plug hole. Move it 1 meter into the southern hemisphere and the water went down in a clockwise direction, then 1 meter into the northern hemisphere and the water went down anti-clockwise. It was all very exciting. We then had a go at balancing a fresh egg on a nail head. I failed miserably much to Sarena's delight who got it to balance straight away.

After all that excitement I felt pretty hungry. We tried one restaurant outside of the museum but it was very expensive. so we paid our Dollar to get into the huge fake complex and found ourselves some cheap eats. The whole place was like a tourist village and was packed with people all taking there photo on the wrong line. In the center of the village though was a stage with some traditional dancing which included Ecuadorian girls with very short skirts. Disgusting!

I had planned to take a 5 km walk to Puluha Crater. but the weather was starting to close in so we decided to head back to Quito. Before we left though we visited a little miniature model of Quito. It was all built be this one very proud man who showed us his 40m2 model of old town colonial Quito. He had even fitted all the buildings with lights so that he could turn the city into night time at a flick of a switch. Obviously this man would like to be God, but it was pretty impressive.

Got back to the Hostel by 4. The whole town was pretty dead, everything shuts down on a Sunday. So spent the rest of the day reading, and feeling pretty bored.

Spent the whole morning updating the web site and downloading it at a nearby Internet Cafe. Every other place in Quito seems to be an Internet Cafe and some of them are pretty trendy too. Except I had to choose one that was really slooooow. Ended up working on updating the web site until about 4 and then headed back to the Hostel.

That evening the Hostel laid on free rum and coke so everyone was jammed into the common areas. We ended up talking to a really cool Ozzy, Simon. He has alos been travelling for 2 years (as well as living in London for 5) we ended up finding lots of things in common and even some friends in common as he used to work at La Casa Roja in Santiago. He also does a web site of his travels... cool. (www.simonconnell.com)

Time is up in South America. We have had some amazing experiences but there is so much more to see here. To be honest we are a bit tired so will have to come back another day.

At 4:30am we where up and jumping in a Taxi. We have an early flight to Miami where we have a small break in the US before we fly south again to Costa Rica for the start of our journey through Central America. Got to the airport and then realised I didn't have enough Cash for the Departure Tax. Bugger the ATM's neraby weren't working either so I spent half an hour chasing around town in another Taxi until we found an ATM that worked.

Plane left dead on time in 3 and a half hours we will be in Miami...

< PERU OCT/NOV 2003