The Most Balanced Place to Be

These past few days Ecuador has been oh so good to me. Katie and I were welcomed to Quito with an international futbol game, Ecuador vs. Venezuela. We spent the game at a bar with locals cheering on the team and drinking the domestic beer (mostly water, in my opinion...). Fortunately, Ecuador won so we did not have to battle any riots on our way back to our hostel.

 Touring Quito was full of old churches, interesting museums, and beautiful plazas. As we are two blonde gringas, Katie and I recieve much attention. We were not prepared, however, when a young mother ran up to us asking us to please take a picture with her baby. We barely had time to say yes before the mom shoved her baby into my arms and told us to smile. Man I wish I had a copy of that picture. I can only imagine what the child will be told years from now about her time with those gringas.

 Yesterday we went to the equator. That's right. Latitude zero degrees. And strangely enough, I felt extremely balanced. At "La Mitad Del Mundo" there are actually two equators, one marking where explorers calculated zero degrees to be centuries ago and one marking the actually equator (they are a mere 300 meters apart!). At the actual equator, there was a museum where we learned about the indigenous tribes of the region and did things that can only be done at the equator. For example, there is no vortex to water as you pour it down a drain on the equator. Or balancing on the equator with your arms out is suprising difficult. I could feel myself being pulled to one hemisphere then the other. We also balanced an egg on a nail. Well, I attempted but could never quite get it. Maybe that is supposed to tell me something about my inner balance. Katie and Adam (a friend we made at the hostel who is a football journalist in London who knows Landon Donovan! Talk about cool jobs.) did balance the egg and their reward was a certificate stating that they were "Egg Masters." I have never been more jealous.

 The people we have met have been wonderful. Last night we experienced Quito nightlife, and, granted my Saturday nights these past few years have been spent at the only bar in Oberlin, The Feve, I have never witnessed anything like the blocks of bars and clubs in Quito. We immediatly made friends with a Colombian girl who insisted we stay at her house when we pass through Colombia. Many others throughout the evening wanted us to know that if we needed anything, they were there for us. Anytime. I have started to collect the slips of paper with phone numbers. You know, just in case I need some extra salsa lessons.

 We have only been in Ecuador a few days and have already done so much. Katie and I were talking during our (hot!) shower that this may be the most productive few months of our lives. Yet there is always more to see. Tomorrow we leave for a journey of hiking/bus riding around a loop in the Andes. We have been warned that the transportation will most likely be nonexistent on some stretches, but that makes it all the more appealing. We will go from village to village on what someone just told me today as the most beautiful walk in Ecuador.