Images of Quito

Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Qutio, Old Town


No Fumar (No Smoking)
Quito, Old Town


Quito, Old Town


Quito


Quito


Quito, Old Town

Quito


Quito, Old Town

Quito, Old Town

Over Quito

Exit

Telerifico Cable Car Station, Quito

Jesus, etc.

Quito

La Mitad del Mundo

Live! From the Middle of the Earth!

...Try this at home:

1. Go to your local equator. Make sure you are EXACTLY on the equator.
2. Balance an egg on the head of a nail. IT WORKS!
3. Now line up a water basin with a drain along the equatorial line.
4. Pour a bucket of water in the basin.
5. Pull out the drain plug and drop a leaf in the water as it drains out. The water goes STRAIGHT down the drain, as does the leaf!
6. Now repeat this process six feet NORTH of the equator. The water forms a COUNTER-CLOCKWISE whirlpool as it drains - the leaf circling around the basin in a counter-clockwise direction.
7. Move the water basin six feet SOUTH of the equatorial line. The water will form a CLOCKWISE whirlpool!

Now for any science teachers (Ahem...) who might be reading this, or purists of other stripes... Some say this is all myth and legend, not scientific fact. Any explanations or debunkifications?

Here´s one explanation for further reading.

Come to the equator and try it yourself!

El Cambio de la Guarda

The changing of the guard in front of the Presidential Palace and main square in Quito. Monday 11:30am.

Sketches of Quito

Airplane window shade. Continental shift. Dark evening. Pacific Ocean. Unltramarine. Night sky. Sailing beneath the Southern cross. Orange clusters of light between black mountain ranges. Fireflies in the cupped hands of the Andes. Single airstrip in a sea of valley lights. Old rickety bus coughing black fumes. Brilliant Andean sun. Virgin of Quito, wings outstretched over city below. Broken sidewalk. Verdent green mountains surround. White volcano peak in each direction. Shacks and cinder block houses stacked as high as the thin air allows. Vendors touting their wares from truck megaphone. Kids playing soccer on a gravel field. Buses climbing narrow cobble stone streets stitched up the steep mountainside. Popsicles for sale inside. Pastel colonial buildings, Banana cream, azul and papaya. Shuttered and terra cotta tile roof.