Journey to the Center of the Earth: I went to the equator!

Yes, I got sunburnt. Yes, MOM, I put on sunscreen. Apparently I'm such a whitey that even 30 SPF does me no good in the direct rays of sun. Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me these genes.

A tourist hot-spot just north of Quito is called “La mitad del mundo”. In English: the middle of the world. Of course, I had to go. On Saturday, Dave, Kristin (the other two members of my program), and I decided to make the journey. And what a journey it was! We asked our Spanish teacher how to get there: a metro bus, a city bus, and a taxi. Yes, I was terrified. Especially because when I'm nervous, I can't understand OR speak in Spanish. Perfect.

After walking 10 blocks up to where I was meeting Dave and Kristin, I was already sweating. This walk is ENTIRELY uphill (for Madisonians, imagine walking up Bascom Hill for 10 blocks. This is what I did), and the sun was already pretty hot.

The metro bus ride was terrifying. It was PACKED (Madisonians: imagine taking the 80 on a rainy day. This was worse), and I COULD NOT MOVE. I squirmed my arm through the crowd so that thank GOD I had something to hold onto. Turns out this did not help much. My hands were really sweaty, so holding on to the bar did me no good. The buses drive SO FAST and turn SO sharply and stop SO suddenly, that I found myself being thrown around like a rag doll. Making it even more scary, I was right by the door. At one point, I would have gone OUT the door, but instead I collided with a man standing in front of me. I was being laughed at, and I myself was laughing really hard, because I felt like SUCH an idiot. One guy looked at me and said, “You've never been on the bus before?” Really? You couldn't tell? This bus ride was about 20 minutes. If I wouldn't have taken Dramamine, I would probably have passed out or something. It was horrible and HOT.

When we got to the next bus station we had no idea where to go. We must have looked really lost and out of place (go figure), because an old man told us what bus to get on. This bus ride was MUCH better because we got seats right away. After an hour ride, the bus driver stopped in what seemed to be the middle of no where and told us we had arrived.

We hopped off the bus, and stood in the middle of the streets like idiots for a couple minutes, and then I went and asked someone else what to do next. Another hot-spot near la mitad is this little town that was built in a volcanic crater called Pululahua. We wanted to see this crater, and a man told us that a truck would drive us there. Great! So we sat in the truck bed and went to see this little town. I was expecting to see an actual TOWN down there and Dave was expecting a lake. Turns out it has like 5 houses and a lot of crop fields. Kind of a let down, but it was really pretty none the less.

We finally made our way to la mitad, where we took tons of pictures and were very tourist-y putting each foot on either side of the Equator, taking pictures of the indigenous dancers, and staring at the menu for 15 minutes before finally putting our finger on something and telling the waiter we wanted it. Overall, a good trip.

I arrived home, and my host mom says “PERFECT TIMING!! We're going to my sister's house for a minute!” I went along, hoping that we would stay for an hour. An hour? What a joke.

Here's what the schedule looked like:
4:45PM – We arrive. Grandma is there. She greets me with “Sarita la altita!!” (Sara the tall girl. Thanks, Gram.).
5:00PM – I'm ready to leave.
7:00PM – My host mom's brother (Uncle Pato) and family arrive. Now I know we're in for the long haul. They start talking about the car accident that is the talk of the town (A pretty high-up politician's wife was driving, and she hit a girl and killed her. Big deal). Friday night, this accident was dissected at my host mom's son's house.
7:15PM – Grandma comments on my sunburned skin. They all tell me I need aloe, like it's my first sunburn. They believe that in Wisconsin, the sun doesn't exist and that it is -30 all year round.
7:25PM – We move to the dining room to drink tea and eat cheese and little pastries.
8:03PM – I think my watch battery died.
8:12PM – I realize it didn't.
8:28PM – Conversation goes back to the politician's wife who was in the car accident.
8:31PM – I notice a fruit fly flying around the table. Everyone else notices it too.
8:31PM-8:47PM – During this time everyone swatted at the fruit fly.... I was waiting patiently.
8:48PM – I CAUGHT the fruit fly with ONE hand on the FIRST try. They looked at me like I had just caught the stupid thing with chopsticks.
8:56PM – Everyone is STILL talking about how I caught the fruit fly.
9:05PM – It's only 9:00?? I feel like it's 1:00AM.
9:40PM – Uncle Pato says “It's almost 10:00?!?! Wow, how time flies!!! Let's go.” I see a shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
9:56PM – We're still sitting at the table. I'm about ready to scream.
10:05PM – Everyone gets up from the table.
10:13PM – We're still talking, but now in the foyer.
10:25PM – Someone opens the door. We all line up to leave. We have to go down a set of stairs to leave.
10:26PM – I make the grave mistake of letting Grandma cut in front of me in the line to leave.
10:37PM – I'm about ¾ way down the flight of stairs.
10:45PM – The talking has commenced OUTSIDE the car.
10:53PM – We finally, FINALLY, leave.

What a day.