Hey there all you most wonderful people (i mean that to everyone except you of course...yes you, stop looking behind you. i am actually speaking to you.)
Now that we have all those pleasantries out of the way, i will begin to update you on our day. it was stranger than most, which i will get to eventually, but the biggest happenings and events of our day consisted of going to middle earth. yes. middle earth. where there are hobbits and elves and dwarves and giant evil eyes that form giant armies of orcs!
ok, not quite, but close. technically we went to middle earth, but by that i mean THE middle of the earth. But first to get there, we had to take a bus. And this is where our story begins.
WE woke up this morning only to see the faces of Ecuadorian men outside our two story window. THIS is not a joke. It scared the crap out of me, to roll over and look out the window, and to see two men straight outside. perhaps they were watching us sleep up on the second floor of the building with their special powers to fly, or float (perhaps they used the force to float???? you only have yourself to blame for me thinking that tegan, you are the one who told me thats what they used the force for hahahaha), or the more likely and truthful scenario was that they were painting the outside of the building, and we had just forgotten to shut our curtains before we went to bed (clearly we should except men outside our windows, duh!).
Anyway, after strategically sneaking out of my bed to shut the curtains when they weren´t looking so i could shower and change, we began to get ready for the day. We had a serious hankering for pancakes that we had to satisfy (thats traditional ecuadorian food right??) and we set off to the metro bus stop. After strolling along, we finally reached it and jumped on towards our destination. The bus got off at a depot a little further on, which threw us off, because now we had to find another bus to get to where we were going. after a few people pointing us in the right direction after seeing our confused faces (and then still going the wrong way) we finally got onto the second bus we needed.
We actually made a few friends on this bus, with one little girl spending her entire trip staring at us with wide eyes, not sure whether or not to trust us strange beings from another planet (or country, i dont think she had decided what we were), she finally waved a big goodbye to us and smiled as she got off the bus with her mother. I think she finally decided that we were cool. phewf, glad we got her approval!
Our next friend was a lady who we were sitting next to, who tried to have a conversation with us through the art of pointing and mime. she was very sweet, and i thought it was about time i bring out my exquisite interpretive dance skills to tell our long and harrowing story, but she got off the bus before i could. what a sad time. We also got to hear "i will survive" come over the bus speakers, and we were ready to break out in kareoke! (also i should add, there are ALOT of kareoke bars here)
EITHER way, we made it to our destination, the center of the world! There isn´t much there to do, apart from cheesey touristy things such as posing and standing on both sides of the equator line (yes, we were in two places at once, the northern hemisphere and the southern), but it was definately worth the whole $3.5 it cost us to get there, just to say we had.
BUT more importantly, we jumped up and down in joy, and squealed a little when we spotted our first ever south american llama! OH MY! yes, i do not kid you....a llama!!! i know, amazing right!!!....right??? ok, yes we are losers, but we got many photos of llamas, and sneaking up on llamas.
We sat there for a while, and watched the llamas, and every time we turned our heads for a split second and back, the llama was suddenly closer to us. so we sat, watching and waiting for them to move, but as the saying goes "a watched llama never moves".
We also discovered that every celebrity has a llama twin. so having discovered this wonderful info, we began naming our new llama friends. We are now proud to say that today, we met Shaggy the llama, Sean Paul the llama, AND....OBAMA-LLAMA!!!
After our bus trip home, we decided to sit in a cafe near our house, which involved some terrible songs, such as Fergie being played (we hadn´t been given our bill yet, so we couldn´t run away). We also changed the words to "California girls" to represent our Melbournian roots, (as well as earlier in the day creating a new version to the spice girls hit, "when two become one" which of course became about llamas).
Our sit down session in the cafe also consisted of some creepy older man staring at me every five seconds and dancing in his chair (Cue asking for the bill, and then running away). Also on our walk here to the computers, i got stamped, as in some guy branded me with a rubber stamp on my arm as i went passed. Now i am not sure whether that means i have now been initiated into some kind of mafia, but as i told Sally when i awoke this morning, i have indeed dedicated myself to a life of organized crime, so i am ready.
This is all we have for you so far, we are about to go meet the people from our tour, and we will head to the markets tomorrow for some shopping.
But before we go, there are a few fun facts that we have learnt about Quito that i would love to share with you.
* the green man at the crossings, tweets like a bird.
* KFC´s are like 7/11´s...on every street corner, and can sometimes be as big as a mansion...no joke.
* as mentioned previously, kareoke seems huge here.
* Cabs chase you down trying to get you to hop in so they can drive you somewhere, and you are forever shaking your head at them.
I must now love you and leave you. Sally sends her love also.
Love Ruby xoxoxox
monument of the equator. aka...middle earth.
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