Not quitting Quito

Friday was our last day of organized orientation stuff with USFQ and we went on a city tour of Quito.
I'm going to refer you to Savannah's post about this day because she took more pictures and has better explanation of some things. 

Upon meeting at the front of USFQ, we departed on bus to Quito with an ride-along tour guide. 

First stop: Mitad del Mundo. This is the place just outside of Quito marked off as the middle of the world, verified by military satellites. There was a monument constructed about 250 feet away from the current site that is technically inaccurate, but there is also talk of the Equator periodically shifting, so it’s possible that the original location marked by explorers in the 1700s could have been the correct place. Crazy! 

Ecuador was central (literally!) to the earliest discoveries of the geographical truths of the planet, since several French explorers set off to measure the distance between poles to prove the truth of gravity and came to Quito to verify. 

We went on a marvelous tour there and learned of perfunctory information about a few indigenous tribes and some basic physics about the center of the earth. 

Here is a video someone on the same tour at some point (with a different tour guide and so unfortunately in the rain) took of part of the Coriolis effect demonstration at the Equator. 

As you can see in this generic tourist group picture, it was nice and sunny when we went. 

Other things we saw:

• shrunken heads and a short explanation of the what and how behind them 

• an indigenous sun dancer
• alpacas and a goat

• egg mastery (it’s easier to balance an egg because the yolk is pulled down perfectly straight at the 0 degrees line), among other demonstrations 
• cuy, aka guinea pigs, aka I want to try some even despite their cuteness. 

After that we drove to town and very quickly took pictures in front of the Iglesia la Basilica cathedral, which is still an incomplete building. We didn’t get to go inside, but we did notice that instead of gargoyles on the outside of the buildings there are statues of turtles and iguanas. Pretty cool. 

Then we had lunch at a nice restaurant located inside the square where revolutionary protests were held, called El Buho, where we were served this as an appetizer soup: 

It is customary to put popcorn into soup here! 

Then we went on the walking portion of the tour to a few plazas and two churches, which have tons of gold on the inside. The guide told us that the churches used abnormally bloody and intimidating images of Christ because the first thing the Spaniards did upon establishment of the city of Quito was start a church to convert all of the native people to Catholicism and thus needed to scare them into submission. 

Then we went to Parque Ichimbia, where there’s a wonderful panoramic view of Quito and nice running trails. 

Entonces, I... 

• returned to Cumbayá, was driven to the local giant mall to get phones with Kari’s host brother
• came back to the house to straighten up a bit before dinner
• had dinner upon Claudia’s suggestion at Los Choris, an Argentinian chorizo sandwich shop, with Savannah and Laleña (graduate student in Biology and Education, not Hispanic despite the ñ in her name) 
• stopped by to say hi to folks who were hanging out at El Cavo 
• headed back to the house 
• started reading the textbook for my 5th class (Galapagos at the Crossroads) and it is very interesting and reads extremely well as a casual book. I will post up some facts and tidbits when I have consolidated them in my head.