South America Trip Day 2 - Mitad Del Mundo

We decided to go to the "Line of Equator" on Day 2 in Quito. The most commonly proposed option was to take a day trip with any of the local operators - the day trip would include a tour of the old town and a trip to Mitad del Mundo. We had already wandered around the old town the previous day so instead of taking the tour, we decided to go to Mitad del Mundo ourselves by bus. Mitad del Mundo is not too far away from Quito but the bus ride is about 2 hours. We researched about the different ways to get there and found out that there is a bus to Mitad del Mundo from Ofelia (Quito's north bus terminal).

At the Equator

There are three main bus lines in Quito - the metrobus, the trole and the ecovia. They cover slightly different areas of the city. Apart from these lines, there are also what are known as "feeder buses" that take their own routes around the city. The metrobus line ended at the Ofelia terminal and that was the one we needed to take.

We walked from the hostel to the nearest bus stop for the metrobus. On our way we crossed the national assembly in Quito and observed a protest of some sort in progress right outside it. We also bought 3 bananas for 25 cents - we thought the price was high, but we could not bargain effectively since we did not know much Spanish.

All bus rides on the metrobus cost 25 cents (irrespective of start/end points). We reached Ofelia terminal in about 30 minutes and we got on to another bus for Mitad del Mundo after a 10 minute wait. This bus cost us 25 cent per person as well. The bus went through the rural parts of Ecuador. It was interesting to see how dirty the area became as we went more rural. Quito on the other hand was very clean with dustbins located at most corners. Even small shops selling ice creams had dustbins outside their shops. It looked like people were conscious about not throwing garbage on the road.

We assumed that the bus' last stop would be Mitad Del Mundo. Unfortunately, the bus went past Mitad Del Mundo and we ended up in some random town. We asked the bus driver about Mitad Del Mundo and he told us we had crossed it about 15 minutes ago. He told us to take another bus back to Quito which would go through Mitad Del Mundo. So we hopped onto another bus, again not sure where to get down. Ashutosh had downloaded Quito maps on his phone which could be accessed offline, and it showed "Calle Museo Solar" and we thought that was where we wanted to go. We got off the bus at that road but there were no signs of where the museum was. We asked a couple of people and one helpful shop keeper drew us a nice map of where we were and where we needed to go. With the help of his map and the phone maps, we started walking towards the Museo Intinan.

The map that helped us get to Museo Intinan

There weren't any signs on the road for the museum so we kept following the Calle Museo Solar road and finally reached Museo Intinan. Interestingly there wasn't much built around this museum. Museo Intinan was made recently and they claimed that they have the most accurate location of the Equator. We paid $4 each for the entry to the museum. At the museum, they showed us couple of experiments about how things behave on both sides of the equator. Balancing a egg on a nail was interesting (and supposedly easier on the equator). We tried and failed but another guy actually balanced the egg on a nail. And some more experiments about how the water goes down the drain in different hemispheres. (We need to check this ourselves). Overall, it was an interesting tour and at the end we got a stamp on our passports that we visited the equator.

Museo Intinan

Could not balance that egg on a nail..

Passport stamped!

We left Museo Intinan and headed to the official monument built by the Ecuador government (5 minute walk from Museo Intinan). Some french scientist visited here in 1700's and used a triangulation technique to locate the Equator to this place. That is how Ecuador was named. Price of entry here was $2. and it started raining as soon as we entered. There are couple more exhibits at this place - mostly art and one for insects (which was very poorly maintained) and the lady did not let us take pictures of the insects. Anyways, we spent some time indoors until the rain subsided and then went back to the monument. Took some more pictures at the equator line. Had some queso empanadas and juices at one of the many restaurants and left Mitad del Mundo. We got a bus from right outside that took us back to Ofelia.

Mitad del Mundo monument

Mitad del Mundo monument

From Ofelia, we took the metrobus to the new town area. Again, we got off at the wrong stop - this time two stops early. So we took the trole bus to the new town area. And boy, that was an experience. We skipped two buses because they were way full. We decided to take the third bus even though it was full because it was getting late. The bus was soooo full that we were pushed inside the bus. We were again pushed out at the stop where we wanted to get off. I have never been in a bus that packed before.

We roamed around the new town area in the evening and it looked considerably different than the old town area. They call it the "gringo" area because of lot of touristy stuff and hip restaurants. We bought some Ecuadorian chocolates at the Chocolate Box, had dinner at El Cafecito. The food itself was not great (also on the costly side), but the service was good.

Church in the Mariscal Sucre area (in new town) of Quito

We took the ecovia from the new town area to Parque la Alameda and then walked to the hostel. We had read at several online forums that bus travel is not very safe in Quito, but we did not get that impression at all in our trip.