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After breakfast in the hostel, we headed off into Quito in search of our stolen belongings (they stole the toilet paper too!). Turns out a 'Centro Commercial Montufar' is the place to go for stolen/'super cheap' electronics. Nine floors later, we gave up searching, and went to the Plaza de Armas to find an information centre. No luck. So we sat down for a coffee and replanned our day. Looking at the map, La Mitad del Mundo looked promising. We jumped on a trolley bus expecting to be there in 20 minutes or less. Again, no such luck. It took us finding an info-lady giving directions, me being a potato on the bus and gaining the attention of an English-speaking Argentine man (who thought my attempts at translating Spanish were funny) who then helped us figure out the two hour journey to the Middle of the World.
Once there, we were astounded. The Ecuadorian Government realised the tourist possibilities and, instead of just placing the monument there and letting it be, they created an entire 'city' theme park complete with numerous museums, cafes, souvenir shops, playgrounds, llamas, bullpens and more. It aimed to tell the story of the discovery of the equator line - the combined French/Ecuadorian expedition, and the pre-Inca's already knew about it and celebrated it before maths and science came along.
It took us extra long to get back to Huasi Lodge - purely because the bus decided to turn back the way it came without telling us. Thankfully I realised before we ended back up at the Mitad del Mundo once again. Dinner was eaten, once again, at the Cafe San Blas, where we had two meals for less than $8.
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