Back to stories of the day. My first stop was to Mitad del Mundo, the Middle of the Earth. I decided to take all local buses instead of a taxi to go there. After all, it was a 20 miles distance. The first bus was no problema. Early in the morning, 8am, there were not too many people yet, the driver collected my 25 cents, he dropped and pointed me to where I needed to be, I found the second bus station quickly, I needed to go the terminal de la Ofelia. Just to be absolutely sure, as I paid, I was asking this security guard, "Octopus (autobús)... a... Oficina (office)?" He was like "Ofelia?" I was like "Si, Si, OFELIA!". You never know what come out from my mouth in this country and what they meant. All good, I got on my second bus onto the Ofelia terminal. The terminal was a mess. There were so many buses, and so many have Mitad del Mundo written on the windows, but all looked different and they have 6-8 different lines I could choose, I had no idea. Asked one of the station staff, he put me in one of the lines. So I trusted that it meant that was the one. Got on the bus, along as the shit load of people rushing in and we started moving at the same time. As the guy came collecting money, I asked "Mitad del Mundo?" He said "No, No". I was like "Oh." But then he said "Silka", I said "Silka" is "nearby", he said "Si, Si" and grabbed my 25 cents and moved on. I googled on the map, where the fuck is Silka, nowhere to be found, but I have the location indicator that we were heading to that same general direction, so with caution, I just kept monitoring my location on map and planned to jump off the bus any second if I had to. Turned out bus was going to the town nearby about half a mile away. At a stop where many people got off, one of the guys pointed at the monument far ahead, signaling that I should get off here, so I did. People are generally very nice here. And later on, I also found that the guy were actually saying "Cerca" (near in Spanish). Da!
Walked up the hill for that half a mile, it took my last breathe at this high altitude city, the sun and blue sky also came out. I got to Mitad del Mundo, it was pretty quite at that time. It was great! I took a lot of pictures. The yellow line was supposed to be on the equator at 0 degree latitude. However, when they built the monument, the scientist made a mistake, the line was actually off. Ok, that was a major whooops moment. That's why in about 400 yards from the Mitad del Mundo, there was this Museo Intiñan (a private museum) which had a second equator line, the real line based on GPS. And there were many experiences you could do there, the egg standing balanced on a nail, the water going down a hole without spiraling. That was actually very cool to see.
Taking my bus back to Ofelia was a bit crazy, it was close to noon, the bus were really crowded, I was standing the whole 45 plus mins ride. I kept my daypack in the front, but then I still needed to watch my pockets with two phones and a wallet. Even it was that crowded, one thing did not change: the seller, performer still came up on the bus to sell, perform, beg, do their business, it is not unlike the subway in NYC. They sold weird shit, aside from gum, candy, popsicle, juice, nuts and stuffs. In the earlier bus, I saw a woman selling milk in plastic bags that looks like Mozzarella balls. And then there were dad and a kid, they were playing music, the dad had a harmonica Bob Dylan style and sung, the son (could not be more 5 or 6) had a shaker. It was in one of these more crowdier bus, I happened to be able to find a seat midway. After the dad and son performed, the kid slowly getting closer and closer, and he was practically sitting on me since the bus was so very crowded. He was actually very cute, I did not mind. When nobody was watching, he was singing something to himself too. Another weird one was a man, I guess he was begging for money by telling his lifestory. The whole time, the only word I recognized was Amigo, Amigo, Amigo, Amigo...long story, after a while, the image I had was Karen from Will & Grace shaking her head "No Entiendo... Yeah, not a word." All kidding aside, I actually liked the whole bus experience today, I have taken 5 bus, 3 of them standing, long standing in a crowded bus. Tired but interesting, something different. I wished I was invisible and was able to take my camera out and take some more pictures on the bus. The real life of Quito!
Back to Ofelia, finding my next bus to old town was a bit of challenge. Google Map and Google Translate have proved to be the most helpful apps for this trip for me. I got to old town about 2pm, first thing I needed was some lunch. Found a restaurant where I had a combo set. The chicken soup had a chicken feet and neck in it. And then the main had a quarter chicken, with fries, salad and rice. Starch on starch, woo..ooh, right up my alley. I shared a table with an old Ecuadorian woman. I was very polite, I said Bueno Dias when I sat down, and when I left, with my little bow too. I think she appreciated. The old town was really crowded, especially the main square, so I could not wait to get away from there after a few pictures. La Compañía de Jesús was beautiful, I walked closer to the Virgin Mary statue up on a small hill, waiting for the blue sky to spread over to that direction, it looked like it would, so I was just sitting in the park facing the Mary statue, kids were shateboarding on the benches near me. I was kind of exhausted from all the bus trips, so it was all good to have a break. The kids did not bother me. Anyhow, the blue sky never got to Mary, I turned to the right, the thunderclouds (big ones) were coming. So, I decided to start heading back to the cafe I just walked pass earlier to have a coffee before heading back to the apartment. Before long, the rain started pouring, treacherously. I waited for at least 30 mins, finally I braved out with my raincoat and umbrella to find a taxi, my jeans were wet but not too bad. As the taxi drove me home, the rain stopped, you bitch!
Had a real dinner in a restaurant today, my driver tomorrow called me on the phone while I was in the restaurant, I hesitated to pick it up but he called 9 times on a row. So I did pick up, probably violated all the social rules in a restaurant here. He spoke Spanish the whole time. Ah, I said, No entiendo, No hablar español, Lo Siento. He passed the phone to his wife, and then she spoke Spanish to me as well, although I hear Mañana and Seis. That two words I know. I could only repeat I don't understand, I don't speak Spanish, I am sorry. They hanged up. Light bulb came up suddenly. I google translated "I am going to meet you at 6am at 6 de Diciembre and La Niña, ok?" into Spanish and texted him in a message. I also translated and texted him "If you type what you want to say, I can translate." So we did. We had our Spanish conversation via texting. First thing for everything is real and alive!
So, I am all set, going to bed soon, will meet Darwin at 6am, he will take me to the airport, I will take the 8:27am flight to fly to Cuenca. Another supposed beautiful city, and interestingly, a lot of American is retiring there, so I heard. We will find out.
See all Day 2 Photos here.
