We had sea mammals on the mind as our next stop was the mainland coast of Ecuador. Humpback whales make their way to equatorial waters during the summer to mate and give birth in warmer waters, offering a rare chance to see one of nature’s greatest mammals in her natural environment.
It is estimated that about 7,000 whales (ballenas) come from the Antarctic to the tropics each year. Over the years, expert whale watchers have identified about 2,000 different whales in Ecuadorian waters, based on their unique tail markings, which essentially amount to a fingerprint.
During the courting rituals whale watching is breathtaking. The males often put on macho displays of dominance, in which they inflate their chests and throats, physically confront possible competitors, and jump above the surface of the water.
Females have also been known to show their tail above the water as a sign that they wish not to mate at a particular time, giving researchers a chance to capture their fingerprint.
After a night in party-town Montanita, we took a boat out from Puerto Lopez – a charmingly local and sand-tossed town further up the coast. We raced across the water for ten minutes and then finally slowed to a lull. And waited.
But after just few seconds…wham! A shower of salt water a few metres off and the tail-slapping and breaching began, at times, just three metres from where we sat.
It was unreal to think that an animal so enormous and strong could be swimming around right beneath our small boat, using their watermelon-sized eyes to flick a look at us before plunging back into the depths of the salty sea.
It was also amazing to think that these magnificent creatures, that so dwarf us mere humans, could be endangered. This quote sums it up nicely:
“The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine” (Bill Vaughn)
Our next stop was Baños, for all things tacky and taffy - the sugary, sticky sweet treat the town makes on wooden posts in shop doorways.
I appreciated the comedic genius of getting a tummy bug (probably because I eat everything and anything in South America) in a town that literally translates to “toilets” – all I saw was the toilets for the first two days. We were also staying at Hostel Erupcion, I’ll say no more!
Illness aside, the town was charming in its tourist-driven tackiness, we were surrounded by waterfalls cascading down lush, green mountainsides and the air was fresh and invigorating.
We even managed a five hour hike through the hills on the last day (loo roll at the ready!): wandering through farmers’ back gardens, completely lost, to be cheerfully put back on the right track.
Due to my dodgy tummy, I didn’t try one of the local specialities, cuy (spit-roasted guinea pigs), but they were everywhere, sizzling on the streets.
From the verdant green of Baños to the colonial chaos of Quito. Quito is the only capital city in the world located directly beneath an active volcano, Pichincha, which erupted as recently as 2006, sprinkling ash over the city and causing major disruption.
Old town Quito, one of the largest, best-preserved historic districts in the world, was selected by UNESCO as one of the first two World Heritage Sites in 1978.
Sadly, Quito has a reputation as a dangerous, crime-ridden city amongst travellers. The safe haven of our hostel was buzzing with stories. I told how a friend of mine had her camera robbed at knifepoint.
Someone else (an ex-military guy, no less) was attacked and mugged down at the end of the street, 100 meters from the hostel. Another person three days before was stabbed in the arm when he refused to hand over his valuables.
And then we added our own, near-mugging to the mixing pot of nail-biting tales.
We were walking down a busy street in broad daylight when two guys and a girl blocked our path and started yelling at us. “Un dólar, un dólar!” the girl kept screaming while the others closed in on us. Our hearts thumping in our chests, we managed to jump into an open doorway that, by some miracle, had a security guard sat behind a desk.
The thieves moved on, while the security guard continued to avoid acknowledging our presence at all. We were lucky, but left quite unsettled.
Thankfully, our hostel and its people were great so we went round in a group from then on, making regular outings to the burrito house around the corner as a welcome change from almuerzos of chicken, rice and beans. Although, it was pointed out, a burrito just provides that combo in a different format!
Quito’s colourful canvas is also hinged by its positioning in the middle of the world, or the “La Mitad del Mundo”.
In 1736, French scientists set out to determine the exact point on the globe that was located midway between the north and south poles.
This was no easy feat, since so much of “middle earth” is ocean, swamps, and jungle. Their search for dry land led them to Ecuador, a short distance from present day Quito, where they established La Mitad del Mundo also known as the Equator.
Two hundred years later, in 1936, a monument was erected on the spot and a line painted on the ground to mark the Equator, a site which is today one of the top tourist destinations in the country.
Each year, thousands of tourists straddle this line, believing they have one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere.
Many have no idea that actual Equator runs through the middle of a pre-Inca ruin located approximately 300 metres to the north of the monument, a fact confirmed with the development of satellite Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
We went to the statue, but then walked the 300 metres out the back entrance, around the corner and along a dirt track to stand on the actual equator.
There, we were given a guided tour explaining how the ancient Andean people, including the Quito tribe, worshipped the sun here and had great knowledge of the celestial bodies.
The Quito tribe, completely naked to this day, built ceremonial and ritual sites right along the Equator, knowing they were in the middle of the earth (the word “Quito” actually means “middle earth”).
The tribe is also famous for it's shrunken heads. When a chief dies or an enemy killed, they are beheaded and the skull removed. The lips and eyes are sewn shut and the head is then boiled in an herbal solution that begins the shrinking process and fixes the hair so that it will not fall out.
Then, to keep the shape, it is filled with hot stones and then hung over a smoky fire until the skin turns black. Heads are then worn was necklaces and on top of spears. We saw a head that was more than 100 years old - lovely stuff.
Also fascinating, if not a little amusing, were the experiments we got to do with water and balancing eggs. Water really does go down the plughole anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the south; eggs can be balanced on a nail head due to less coriolis effect; and apparently our bodies have less gravity directly on the Equator, diminishing our weight and, therefore, strength.
Despite the tourist gimmicks, there is something very exciting about being at the exact centre of the world.
In Ecuador, we were also standing on one of the highest points on the Equator – the highest place from the centre of the earth to the Equator actually being on top of Volcan Cotapaxi just south of Quito.
 |
| No zoom required! Just metres away from humpbacks... |
During the courting rituals whale watching is breathtaking. The males often put on macho displays of dominance, in which they inflate their chests and throats, physically confront possible competitors, and jump above the surface of the water.
Females have also been known to show their tail above the water as a sign that they wish not to mate at a particular time, giving researchers a chance to capture their fingerprint.
After a night in party-town Montanita, we took a boat out from Puerto Lopez – a charmingly local and sand-tossed town further up the coast. We raced across the water for ten minutes and then finally slowed to a lull. And waited.
But after just few seconds…wham! A shower of salt water a few metres off and the tail-slapping and breaching began, at times, just three metres from where we sat.It was unreal to think that an animal so enormous and strong could be swimming around right beneath our small boat, using their watermelon-sized eyes to flick a look at us before plunging back into the depths of the salty sea.
It was also amazing to think that these magnificent creatures, that so dwarf us mere humans, could be endangered. This quote sums it up nicely:
“The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine” (Bill Vaughn)
 |
| We could feel the spray from her tail |
Our next stop was Baños, for all things tacky and taffy - the sugary, sticky sweet treat the town makes on wooden posts in shop doorways.
I appreciated the comedic genius of getting a tummy bug (probably because I eat everything and anything in South America) in a town that literally translates to “toilets” – all I saw was the toilets for the first two days. We were also staying at Hostel Erupcion, I’ll say no more!
Illness aside, the town was charming in its tourist-driven tackiness, we were surrounded by waterfalls cascading down lush, green mountainsides and the air was fresh and invigorating.
We even managed a five hour hike through the hills on the last day (loo roll at the ready!): wandering through farmers’ back gardens, completely lost, to be cheerfully put back on the right track.
 |
| Men making taffy all day, every day along the streets |
From the verdant green of Baños to the colonial chaos of Quito. Quito is the only capital city in the world located directly beneath an active volcano, Pichincha, which erupted as recently as 2006, sprinkling ash over the city and causing major disruption.
Old town Quito, one of the largest, best-preserved historic districts in the world, was selected by UNESCO as one of the first two World Heritage Sites in 1978.
 |
| One of the farms we found ourselves at in Baños |
Someone else (an ex-military guy, no less) was attacked and mugged down at the end of the street, 100 meters from the hostel. Another person three days before was stabbed in the arm when he refused to hand over his valuables.
And then we added our own, near-mugging to the mixing pot of nail-biting tales.
We were walking down a busy street in broad daylight when two guys and a girl blocked our path and started yelling at us. “Un dólar, un dólar!” the girl kept screaming while the others closed in on us. Our hearts thumping in our chests, we managed to jump into an open doorway that, by some miracle, had a security guard sat behind a desk.
The thieves moved on, while the security guard continued to avoid acknowledging our presence at all. We were lucky, but left quite unsettled.
 |
| Crispy cuy, NOT for guinea pig lovers! |
Quito’s colourful canvas is also hinged by its positioning in the middle of the world, or the “La Mitad del Mundo”.
In 1736, French scientists set out to determine the exact point on the globe that was located midway between the north and south poles.
This was no easy feat, since so much of “middle earth” is ocean, swamps, and jungle. Their search for dry land led them to Ecuador, a short distance from present day Quito, where they established La Mitad del Mundo also known as the Equator.
Two hundred years later, in 1936, a monument was erected on the spot and a line painted on the ground to mark the Equator, a site which is today one of the top tourist destinations in the country.
 |
| Beautiful El Centro, Quito |
Each year, thousands of tourists straddle this line, believing they have one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere.
Many have no idea that actual Equator runs through the middle of a pre-Inca ruin located approximately 300 metres to the north of the monument, a fact confirmed with the development of satellite Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
We went to the statue, but then walked the 300 metres out the back entrance, around the corner and along a dirt track to stand on the actual equator.
There, we were given a guided tour explaining how the ancient Andean people, including the Quito tribe, worshipped the sun here and had great knowledge of the celestial bodies.
 |
| Cheesy Equator jump was a must! |
The tribe is also famous for it's shrunken heads. When a chief dies or an enemy killed, they are beheaded and the skull removed. The lips and eyes are sewn shut and the head is then boiled in an herbal solution that begins the shrinking process and fixes the hair so that it will not fall out.
Then, to keep the shape, it is filled with hot stones and then hung over a smoky fire until the skin turns black. Heads are then worn was necklaces and on top of spears. We saw a head that was more than 100 years old - lovely stuff.
Also fascinating, if not a little amusing, were the experiments we got to do with water and balancing eggs. Water really does go down the plughole anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the south; eggs can be balanced on a nail head due to less coriolis effect; and apparently our bodies have less gravity directly on the Equator, diminishing our weight and, therefore, strength.
 |
| The much-disputed claim... |
In Ecuador, we were also standing on one of the highest points on the Equator – the highest place from the centre of the earth to the Equator actually being on top of Volcan Cotapaxi just south of Quito.
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