We finally got to South America! For me, I was super excited because after the crazy from SE Asia, I was ready move on. After all of the fast travel across the Pacific (read my mom’s post here), we were more than happy to stay in one place for more than 4 days. The city of Quito is at 9,350 ft, so when we landed my ears never even popped!

We got to Quito, it was late at night, so we just stayed at a hotel close to the airport for one night before staying in our AirBnB. From the hotel, it was a 30 min ride to get to the airbnb. The place we had reserved was in the city, which was another 1,000 ft higher than the hotel.

None of us were used to the altitude, but it affected my dad and I the most, but my dad was worse than I was. We were all so tired, had headaches, had shortness of breath and even the simplist things were difficult. One day, after 3 days of reading and resting, my mom, Annabelle, and I went to El Centro, which is the center of town, and the older part. We were brave, and took the local bus, which was super cheap. After walking around the square, we had some AMAZING chicken empanadas and juice.

Then, because it looked like clouds were rolling in, we headed back. As soon as we got on the bus, it started to rain. First, it was sprinkles, and then it got harder and harder until we couldn’t hear anything, and we could barely see out of the windows. We got closer and closer to our stop, and we were hoping that the rain would let up. No such luck. We got off at our stop, and luckily the stop was covered. Of course we didn’t bring any raincoats because 1. It was bright and sunny when we left, and 2. We weren’t accosomed to Ecuador’s habit of rapidly changing weather. Of course, the only option was to run to our place, which just happened to be up a huge hill, about 4 blocks length wise, and 4 blocks up. Steep up. So, we started running, and as we were not used to the altitude, and since WALKING, got us pooped, we were huffing and puffing so hard, and I though I was going to set my throat and chest on fire it was burning so bad. So, we stopped under an awning, hoping that after a few minutes it would at least lighten up. Nope, we just had to run for it. Up these steep streets where water was rushing down ankle deep. Luckily my dad was waiting for us when we got back! It still took us an hour to get our breath back!

Another outing we made was to walk around the big park close to us. There were people working out, playing soccer, volleyball, basketball and more, playing on playgrounds, etc. We walked around, and then went to go get lunch at a really good Mexican place.

One of the last outings that we did when we were in Quito were the equator museums. Since Quito’s latitude is almost exactly 0, you don’t have to drive very far to get there. The first museum was small, but really fun. We had a guide and a group, and we learned about the indigenous people in Ecuador as well as the equator.

We did 3 experiments. Water down a drain, balancing an egg, and walking on the line. With the water experiment, we had water in a basin, and drained in the northern hemisphere, then in the southern hemisphere, and then right on the equator. When in the northern hemisphere, the water drained clockwise. When in the southern hemisphere, the water drained counterclockwise. When we were right on the equator the water drained straight down.

The next experiment was balancing an egg. Whoever could balance an egg on a nail, straight on the equator, got a certificate at the end. It doesn’t seem that hard, but its actually pretty difficult! The forces from both hemispheres are pulling equally at the egg, so its constanly falling off the nail. Annabelle managed to balance it, but no one else in our family was able to.😁🤔

The last experiment was trying to walk on the line with your eyes closed. Similar to the egg, your body was being pulled in both directions so it was almost impossible not to fall over.

There was a bigger museum next to it, but my dad and I were both really tired, so we just sat and rested while my mom and Annabelle went.

The LAST outing that we did, was literally a couple of hours before we were supposed to go to the airport. One of our friends in Seattle had a friend in Quito that he got us in touch with. Amber, (our friends friend), invited us to go to her daughters’ school fundraiser/ festival thing. She has 4 daughters, but we only met 2 of them. They both speak fluent English and Spanish, and go to a Spanish school. There was lots of food there, and we also got to hear some of the students sing, because a big part of the school was the arts. Unfortunatly, we didn’t get to stay there long because we had to leave for our flight, but it was super fun. Thank you for inviting us!

These are the main things that we did, and I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures in Quito. Thanks for reading!