Zero degrees of latitude

I left Ibarra knowing I only had a short day to get to Quito, maybe 120Km. If it wasn't for crossing the equator in enough daylight for pictures I'd have probably pressed on all the way to Quito on Friday. Damn my vanity ;)

The road from Ibarra to Quito was well paved and the twists and turns had me hanging off and enjoying the ride for the first time since probably riding in Costa Rica with Ricardo. I'd kind of got used to riding from A to B, rather than riding for the fun of it. Even the picturesque roads in Colombia had been hard work, but the long sweeping curves and slightly more sane driving in Ecuador meant the grin factor was back.

Following the line of the Andes the road was still at altitude so it was cool despite the sun. Around lunchtime the sun vanished behind dark clouds and I was faced with the prospect of crossing the equator in pouring rain! However it held off and when I arrived at the equator monument, about 50Km north of Quito, there were a couple of spots but I was able to get some pictures. The equator monument itself was a giant sundial, with zero degrees, zero minutes, zero seconds of latitude as the centre line. It was pretty easy to miss and I rode past before I spotted a sign referring to the middle of the world (in English), then turned back :) I parked the bike up and realised that I'd crossed into the southern hemisphere, after riding all the way from 250miles inside the Arctic Circle. Suddenly I seemed a long way from home... the bike's odometer was almost at 16,000 miles, which meant that I'd done almost 15,000 since arriving in Vancouver. I was a long way from home ;)

Riding the 50Km to Quito took less time than finding an hotel, I knew where I was going and had a city map of Quito, but still managed to get a little lost. The city is only about 3Km wide but it is 50Km long. Having arrived I then made the mistake of running a couple of miles in the gym, and felt wonky enough that I had to sit in the hotel reception area just in case I passed out. Quito is the second highest capital city in Latin America, and I think trying to run at 2800 odd metres was a little optimistic at best ;)

I got up on Sunday and decided to see something of Quito old city, which is a World Heritage Site. I guess the world heritage folks like dusty old colonial buildings, because there wasn't a lot else to see ;) There are maybe 80 odd churches and the Cathedral. In the end I found a small Ecuadorean folk band in San Francisco Plaza and that was more entertaining. Somewhere between folk guitar music and pan pipes, odd but catchy. The old city was full of native indians sitting on street corners in hats that looked like trilbys, and it made me realise how well-to-do the area I was staying in was. People watching over a cappuccino and waffle next door to the hotel it was interesting to see well-heeled people going about their weekend. Sort of a haunt for young professionals I guess.

Tomorrow I will be heading south down the Andes towards Cuenca and then Peru. More soon.

Frase.