Quito, the Equator and Troy goes missing for a bit...

Our little border drama behind us, we rode into Ecuador, sad to leave Colombia, but looking forward to riding in a new country.

Ecuador is as beautiful as anything we have seen.  We've read that it is the most highly deforested country in South America, but the resulting small farms that dot the hills of the landscape make for their own beauty.

As we approached the Equator, the expectation would be that it would be warmer, but because of the high altitudes we are at in the Andes, it is actually quite cool.   

We rode to Quito, which is the second largest city in Ecuador.  It is built into the hills, and is a mix of the Old town, and a more modern New Town to the north.

Our first night here, we booked into a grand old hotel, which had seen better days, in the middle of Old town.  It was nice enough,but the beds were rock hard, and since it was on a busy street, it was very noisy.  We asked to change rooms about an hour after we got there, and the second one they gave us was a little better, but not much.  I slept till about 5:00 am when a car alarm woke me up, and that was it until we got up.

We grabbed our Lonely Planet guide book and took a walk and found a nice Hostel about 10 blocks away on a quieter street, which we moved to last night.

The Hostel we are in is about 5 stories tall, built into the hill.  We climbed up the balcony last night, and were treated to a spectacular view of the city.

The church in the background inspired Troy.  :)

The view from our Hostel

After supper, we hopped next door to another Hostel that everyone gathers at called The Secret Garden.  We met a ton of cool backpackers from South Carolina, a Vulcanologist (he studies Volcanoes) that has been living in the Hostel for a year while he works down here, a couple Canadians from Nelson, B.C. and various other characters.

At about 11:00 we all piled into a bus, and made our way to the Mariscal district, where the whole group (19 people) went dancing.   I hung out till about 1:30 am, watching Troy dance with all the girls.   I was kind of tired, so I hopped a cab back to the Hostel, and fell asleep.

At 9:00 am the next morning, I woke up, looked over, and Troy's wasn't in his bed.   I wasn't too alarmed, he's stayed out all night a couple times dancing, and I figured he was somewhere having breakfast, or had gone somewhere with the people from last night.

At noon he still wasn't back, so I asked around of the people from the night before, and most of them remember him on the dance floor until at least 3:00 am.

I still wasn't too concerned, so I hopped on my bike, and went to find the Equator.  

Side Note:

On the way south after entering Ecuador, we knew we were going to cross the Equator about 25 km outside Quito.  So as we got closer, we kept expecting to see something, anything on the road indicating that we were getting close.  We rode, and rode, all the while looking for signs that read:  "Equator Ahead!", or something like that in Spanish.  

Well, it must be hidden, or we are really dumb, because we missed it.    Hard to believe, since you HAVE to cross it, but by the time we were in Quito, we realized we had missed crossing the Equator.  

Arghhh!!!

I did some research, and found out that the big Monument to the equator is off the main highway, and there is a museum there as well.      It took about 25 minutes to ride there, but I found it this time.

I finally found the equator.  One foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one in the South. 

The middle of the world.  Needs some new paint I think.

This monument was built in 1979.  Since that time, with the advent of GPS's, they now use a different Mathematical model to calculate the Equator.  So the GPS says the actual Equator is 240 meters north.   I guess they aren't going to relocate the monument.

Back to the Story:

So, Troy is still missing, I'm kind of concerned, but not overly, so off I go to find the Equator.

Got back to the Hostel at about 5:00 pm, and I was sure that Troy would be back.  But as we pulled up, our host, who knew we were looking for him, indicated that he hadn't come back yet.

At this point, I was getting kind of worried.  All day, I was coming up with all kinds of scenarios, most of which were not pleasant.

I was still 80% sure he had found some new friends, or maybe a girl.  :)

4:00 pm... no Troy

5:00 pm… no Troy

6:00 pm… no Troy

7:00 pm… no Troy

At this point, I sat down at my computer and started putting together some pictures of him, so I could go over to the other hostel and start asking everyone when was the last time they saw him. 

I was also coming to the conclusion that in a couple more hours, I would likely have to involve the local Police, and file a missing persons report.

8:00 pm...

Just as I was putting the last pictures on my iPhone, Troy strolled through the door with a big smile on his face.  :)

II haven't been that relieved to see someone in quite some time.

Seems that he indeed had stayed out dancing all night, met a wonderful local girl, and he had spent the day sleeping it off.  He woke up at 4:00 pm.

The only problem was he couldn't remember the name of our Hostel.

So he spent the next 3 hours, sitting in a restaurant wracking his brain trying to remember any details he could.   

He thought the name of the Hostel was "Bucaramunga".   That was a city we stayed at in Colombia, 6 weeks ago.

The name of our Hostel is La Guayunga.  So he wasn't even close.

He knew it was located in the "Old Town", but he didn't know how to say "Old Town" in Spanish, so that didn't get him very far.

He finally got in a Taxi, and drive around Quito long enough until he got to Old Town, and then was able to find his way home.

So, it all turned out OK, he had a great time, and we'll always have a  great story to tell.

Out in front of the Hostel that Troy couldn't find.