A Different Kind of Traveller

I went to the Mitad del Mundo (middle of the World) yesterday. I stood on the equator. I stood astride the equator but being alone I didn´t have anyone to take photos of this. I did take a photo of my feet on either side of the line but on closer examination, they don´t look their best so maybe it is best not to put the photo up here. I didn´t tell you, I think, that I tripped over a step in the hotel in Cartagena (no, I wasn´t drunk). Not only did I bruise my knees (only recently healed from falling over on NYE, yes I was drunk then) but I bruised all around my big toe nail. It was not good. And a few days later gunk started to ooze from under the nail. And continued to do so for about a week. Now that nail is white and nasty looking. Hum, hope it gets better soon!

Anyway, enough of that. I went to the equator. I caught a metro bus, similar to the Transmilenio in Bogota, then transferred onto a normal bus and got off at the large stone monument. Total price was 40 cents for over an hour on the bus. Not bad.

Mitad del Mundo must be absolutely jammed at times but midweek in March, it was nice and empty. Perfect. I went up the monument, the lift takes you up and then stairs to go back down through a museum of all the different ethnic groups in the country.

So far I have really only encountered one and that is the Otavaleños, whose market I so enjoyed last week. In fact my guide book tells me that due to the quality of their handicrafts they are the richest group in Ecuador if not the entire continent. They are great weavers and once this was discovered by the Spanish they were put to work in sweatshops to produce all the weaving that the Spanish wanted. Bad news, the good news is that they got a reputation for being the best and honed their skills to perfection. And now are able to use them for their own profit.

Anyway, I did the whole equator thing, turned down ten offers to eat guinea pig and did a bit of shopping. On my way in that morning the ticket office hadn´t had enough change for my note so trusted me to pay on the way out. And still looked surprised when I did.

By now it was pretty hot and I wasn´t really looking forward to the bus ride home. Then an obviously European guy came over to me and asked if I wanted to share a taxi back to the city. OK. It was a lot more money but still pretty cheap.

He was an Italian guy with good Spanish. He told me that he had been in Colombia and was shocked to find out that I was travelling alone. Which is weird because, in my experience, there are more lone female travellers than male travellers in Colombia. But when he told me the price that he had paid for hotels over there I realised that he was out of my league.

He asked me where I had been and I told him. Then he asked me how much my plane tickets had been. No, I explained, I went everywhere by bus. His eyes nearly popped out of his head... Bus???? Isn´t that dangerous??

No, most people go by bus and it is pretty safe. He had spent three weeks in Santa Marta so I asked him if he had been to Tayrona. No, he said, it wasn´t safe. Ahem, I beg to differ.

We moved onto to talking about Quito. I recommended the cable car. The taxi driver told him that the best way to get there and back was by buseta, a small bus, he needlessly translated for me. Ah yes, I said, that is what I did on the way back. But isn´t it dangerous, he asked.

It appeared that people in his hotel kept telling him how dangerous things were, here and in Colombia. I don´t know whether they were justified in doing so or just trying to get him to book tours and use their taxis. He had spent four months in Colombia last year and was still scared stiff of leaving the hotel alone. Obviously he was enjoying his trip immensely and it is not my place to say what he should and shouldn´t be doing.

I just felt bad that he was so scared all the time- and he could speak Spanish!

Then he was rude to the taxi driver and my sympathy evapourated....

(still no luck with the photos but I am trying)