We left our abandoned campground this morning around 8:00am and drove through beautiful mountain scenery. The roads in Ecuador are much wider than in Colombia – or anything we’ve seen since the USA. There is still a lot of construction ongoing to widen the Panamerican highway and every now and then we drive past big machines that are digging up mountains. There are toll roads here as well, but the toll is only $1 and – unlike Colombia – you actually get a nice road in return!

Our first stop of the day were the mysterious ‘Piramides de Cochasqui’. The pyramids were built about a thousand years ago – long before the Incas conquered these lands. On top of the pyramids there are large moon and sun dials, which demonstrate that the people who built them had a solid understanding of time, location, movement of the stars, … and understood the significance of this place near the middle of the world. The pyramids have not been fully excavated because they would erode too quickly in this landscape. We did a guided tour for $6, which is about 1/10th of the cost to tour a Maya site in Mexico. There are wild llamas that wander around as well…

The pyramids are 10 kilometers north of the equator, so it was about time to take Rodrigo to the southern hemisphere! You would think that somebody would put a sign up saying “the equator is right here” but unfortunately we crossed the imaginary line in a place where it is not marked. With the GPS in hand, Patrick went out on foot to look for the magic spot. It’s near the traffic sign next to the curve in the road in the picture below…

We had expected a bit more drama crossing this imaginary milestone – or at least a nice picture of the car next to a big sign. Slightly disappointed we drove on – and symbolically it also started raining. We reached altitudes of 3400m and the temperature dropped to 7° Celsius. Hopefully it will clear up tomorrow so that we can have a good view of the Chimborazo volcano!
As sure as night is dark and day is lightI keep you on my mind both day and nightAnd happiness I’ve known proves that it’s rightBecause you’re mine, I walk the line
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHF9itPLUo4