The center of the world

So i had this great plan to wait to right before i left quito to post and put up all my photos. but this computer is extremely slow (although its free, so i cant really complain) and the photos take forever to upload, so im going to wait until i get to a faster connection. but ill still post.

Im headed off to Atacames, on the northwest coast tonight. the last few days have been alright, albeit a bit slow because there isnt that much to do in quito. but today a couple aussies and i went to ¨la mitad del mundo,¨ or the equator, in english. it was a 40 cent 1 hour bus ride out there, and we paid 2 dollars to get in and took our cheesy tourist photos standing on the line and in front of the sign and monument and everything (which i find a bit ridiculous because modern GPS actually showed that they are off with everything by about 300 feet, even though the Incas were able to build a monument on the correct line thousands of years ago...). They also had really ridiculous other attractions, like a planitarium, an insectarium, and a small muesum of france and spain. Not really that exciting, but something i felt semi-obligated to do, since its not every day that i can hope back and forth between the northern and southern hemispheres--on one foot, if i wanted...

Yesterday was nice, checked out more churches in the ¨old town¨ (some of which i would have had to pay to see, but using large crowds that can often be avoided, although maybe thats stealing money from god...). had lunch again for $1.50 and then that night went out with an aussie girl, a limey guy, and a...*insert nickname or semi deroggatory term for an irishman here*. we got appetizers (at 11 pm) and then went bar hopping until we found a nice little dance club playing music from the 70´s and 80´s. everybody there (mostly locals) seemed to be loving it, but they were all pretty messy*, especially the girls. after only 5 hours of sleep i was awoken by 2 more aussies that had just arrived at the hostel (at 7:30 am) and were apparently staying in the same dorm room as me and another american, who was also awake.

all packed up and excited to hit the sun and surf, i just hope that former shows itself on the northern coast. its been mostly overcast here, so i would love to just sit in the sun for a few days, keeping my fingers crossed. more in the next few days, although if internet is expensive, maybe not.