When we went to the Mitad del Mundo, there were two different museums:
The first one we went to, we had a tour group and our guide told us about different Indian tribes. We got to go into little huts like the ones they live in and talk about the tribes. All these tribes still live in Ecuador in the jungle. Later we saw a pen full of guinea pigs.
Then we went to the place where they measured by GPS to be the Equator. We got to stand on two different sides. One foot was in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot was in the Southern Hemisphere.
We did a bunch of cool science experiments. I balanced an egg on a nail. Our guide poured water in a sink on the equator and the leaves in the water didn’t turn in any direction, they just went straight down. We had to walk along the Equator with our eyes closed — it was hard to do because it felt like I was going to fall over. When Dad wasn’t standing on the line the guide had trouble pulling Dad’s arms down; when Dad was standing on the Equator, she could push his hands down really easily.
At the end anyone who brought their passport could get a special stamp, and Nadia and I got a certificate for balancing an egg on a nail.
The second museum was bigger. There was a monument that was a big ball on a pedestal and we got to climb up in the pedestal and look around. We saw a lot of old-fashioned cars. There were a lot of mountains all around us and some were covered with snow.
As we went back down, there were lots of exhibits on the levels. Some were about building the monument, some were about the Indian tribes and some were about science.
After the monument we went to the Plaza de Chocolate where there was a chocolate museum and we got to taste cacao beans right out of the pod and also samples of freshly-made chocolate.
Next we went to a planetarium show. The pictures were really cool, but you couldn’t understand much because all the words were in Spanish.
Before we left, we found a playground. Zoe, Nadia and I went on this big swing merry-go-round.

Editor’s note: Mitad del Mundo means “half or middle of the Earth.” It’s one way to refer to the Equator. In the late 1700s, a geological survey team determinted the location of the Equator in the hills around Quito. In the late ’70s the Ecuadoran Government decided to turn the site into a tourist attraction, which is now known at Mitad del Mundo City. About an hour drive from downtown Quito, it is pretty extensive, with restaurants, hotels, a bullfighting ring, and different pavilions dedicated to the history and science of the original geological expedition, as well as the monument/science museum, planetarium, Plaza de Chocolate, and playgrounds that Lanie described.
In the intervening years since they started developing Mitad del Mundo City, GPS technology has determined that the actual Equator is located a few hundred meters north of the monument erected by the government. Hence, the two museums. The new museum is privately owned and surprisingly more rustic than the old museum, which enjoys a lot of funding from the government (new features, like a train connecting it with Quito, are apparently on the way).

Since just about all of the equator lies at or near sea level, the Mitad del Mundo is as unique experience as many of the ones we had on the Galapagos.  We were able to see a white-topped volcano that is the only snow-covered area in the world that lies along the equator.  

Also, we seemed to have arrived at Mitad del Mundo City during a Volkswagen convention.  There was a circle of old Beetles, Camper Vans, and others surrounding the main monument and a lot of general hoopla.  This is why Lanie said we could see a lot of old cars from the top. 

Editor’s Note: our camera battery died in the middle of this tour, which was so frustrating since there were beautiful and fascinating things to see at every turn.  Thankfully, some kind fellow tourists, Chris and Christina, shared some of their photos with us.  With the state of wifi here, I’m sure emailing them was no small endeavor, and we really appreciate it.

When we went on the Tntorero Tour the water was really cold but the things we saw were very cool. It was a tour of the bay here in Puerto Villaril and they call it the Tintorero Tour because of all the sharks you see on it. (The word tintorero is a reference to color; the sharks in the bay have wite tips on their fins, or sometimes black tips  – Ed)

Snorkeling above the sharks

We saw sea lions, penguins, sting rays, eagle rays, and lots and lots of sharks. We swam through a narrow channel (a lava crack, according to the guide) and right below us in the channel were so many sharks. There were 50, probably, and most of them they were longer than my body. The channel was warm, but when we swam out I was very cold.

Tintoreras landscape

Then, on land we went on a hike to another channel full of sharks but we didn’t swim there. The island that we hiked on was totally made up of jagged lava rocks covered in white lichen. I thought it would be a good setting for a Star Wars movie. We saw baby sea lions playing and baby iguanas watching us from beside the path. Then we looped back to the boat and the boat took us past some rocks that had penguins on them. Then we saw some blue footed boobies and some more sea lions sitting on a platform in the middle of the bay.

Another shark tunnel, seen from above

I liked that we got to see lots of animals and that our tour guide was really nice. This tour was one of my favorites that we’ve done in Galapagos.

Before the tour we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the beach right outside our hotel. There are lots of waves. It was really fun because Zoe and I tried to jump and dive over and under them. We also buried ourselves in the sand. This beach was fun because of the waves and the really, really soft sand. We didn’t even want to leave when it was time for the tour.

We didn’t even want to leave for ice cream for lunch. Nadia and I got chocolate ice cream bars and Zoe got mango. Mom got coconut.

When we went to the tortoise reserve we saw a whole lot of tortoises. They were all really big. There were also a lot of guava trees and our guide told us that the tortoises eat the guava and they also eat grass.

The tortoises are free to leave or stay in the preserve. They will go in mud pools to cool off. They didn’t move much. They were really really big and they just pretty much sat there. We saw a few walking. We saw one of them trying to bite another one.

There was one really big tortoise and our guide told us he was 120 years old. We were supposed to stay seven feet away from the tortoises but they put their head in their shells if we got too close.

The giant tortoise species got to Galapagos by floating on rafts of driftwood and leaves. Sailors found them there. The sailors also brought goats and dropped them off on the islands. There was nothing on the islands to eat the goats (except the sailors), and after a while there were so many goats that they ate all the tortoises’ food. The sailors also brought rats, which eat the tortoises’s eggs.

Then people started a big program to kill the goats by shooting them. They also have programs to help protect the eggs. They keep the baby tortoises in special breeding places so the rats won’t eat them, and when they’re older they let them go.

The biggest tortoise we saw was so big it would be hard to jump over one. I enjoyed seeing the tortoises and how they acted and moved. I like to watch them eat. They were funny. They chewed very slowly.

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Editor’s note:  The trip to the tortoise preserve was part of our tour of the highlands of Isla Santa Cruz.  We also got to walk through a lava tunnel and visited “Los Gemeni,” which are two giant holes in the ground where lava tubes collapsed many years ago.

We also dined in the Kiosk section of town.  After 6 pm, they block off traffic and put tables in the street.  There were lots of people out tonight dining and watching the Copa America final.