You´ve got a little blood in your teeth

Well, without meaning to, I branched out and tried some very, um, interesting foods. While at La Mitad del Mundo yesterday, Ramsey and I grabbed some lunch at this cute little café. We were trying to save money, so we both just got some soup...Ramsey´s was bull leg and mine was called typical soup with tomato and avocado. When we first got our food, we knew something was up. There was a strange smell coming from my soup, and there were these weird mushroom-looking things floating in the broth. Also, on the side, I had a plate of tomato, avocado, and a strange black substance. Ramsey´s soup was broth with a bone filled with pure fat. The waitress explained that she was supposed to eat the fat, which, of course, delighted Ramsey (that´s sarcasm, people). I asked what the black substance on my plate was, but I didn´t catch what the waitress said. I tried to decide whether or not it was safe based on Ramsey´s reaction, and her reaction was fine (turns out she was just trying not to be rude to the waitress). As it turned out, the black substance was cooked blood and the mushroom-y things were.....intestines!! Yuck yuck yuck. The best part, though, was when Ramsey said that which is the title of this post..."You´ve got a little blood in your teeth." Basically, that wasn´t our favorite meal of the trip.

Anyway, yesterday Ramsey and I made our way to La Mitad del Mundo, which ended up being a lot of fun. This location was pronounced as being the middle of the world back before the help of GPS, but it isn´t the actual equator line. There are a lot of little shops, some llamas, and an insectarium (where Ramsey held a huge beetle!), but other than that, there wasn´t a lot to do. The main attraction, though, is the Museo Solar Inti Ñan, which claims to be real middle of the world according to GPS. According to my guidebook, that´s not true, so I don´t know what to think! It still was definitely the highlight of our visit to La Mitad del Mundo, though. There were neat water demonstrations, and we got to take turns balancing an egg on a nail on the equator line, for which we got certificates! I´m definitely putting that skill on my resumé! That afternoon we came home for our night in El Centro with Pily, but unfortunately it didn´t work out since Pily´s car broke down! I felt so bad for her, especially since her cell phone was pickpocketed earlier this week, too. Because of that, we ended up just going to bed kind of early.

After much back-and-forth, we made our way to a nearby town called Otavalo today with our new Russian friend Ivan. Ramsey and I were both so happy we went there because it ended up being a highlight of our time in Quito. Otavalo is the home of one of the oldest markets in South America, and the market itself was amazing. It was huge and just wove through the streets of Otavalo. There are other things to do and see in Otavalo, but unfortunately, our time was limited. For anyone ever visiting Ecuador, I would definitely recommend Otavalo. There are so many wonderful things (clothes, crafts, scarves, tapestries, etc) one can buy there, and buy I did!

We returned to Quito early in the evening, and now we´re packing and preparing for the Galapagos Islands tomorrow! I can´t believe tonight is already our last night in Quito, but I´m excited for this next step in our adventure. Once we get to the Galapagos tomorrow, we´re going to do our best to find a hostel to stay in. We actually had one booked a month in advance, but they just emailed this morning to say that there was flooding and the entire place was closed. To be honest, I don´t buy the story, and I think it was all a ploy to make us spend more money somewhere else (as in, one of the ones they recommended). We´re annoyed, but we´re hoping for the best tomorrow. The worst case scenario is that we´ll just have to spend much more money than we´d hoped. Actually, the worst case scenario is that we´ll have to sleep on the beach and end up attacked by adorable sea lions and penguins. I guess we´ll just have to hope for the best!