Ecuador Day 14: Mitad del Mundo (again), and the Second Day of Classes

Today, we got to spend the morning going to Mitad del Mundo. The reason for going is that Cindy had some shopping she wanted to do, and there's a paila shop there I wanted to visit again. It was a win-win situation in my book. I was really only tagging along for the paila, but I figured that it would be fun to look around in some of the stores I hadn't gone to on my last visit. One store had a really great winter hat that's ridiculously long. I thought it was pretty fantastic, and the shop owner came down to $4.00 so I figured it was worth it. We looked around in several other shops and the only thing that really caught my eye was a three foot tall llama made out of real llama. It was really soft and awesome. I figured that it might fit in my suitcase and I could name it Rowdy. Then I realized that it had to be at least $200, or probably more. That nixed that idea.

We then stopped at a restaurant there to get really fantastic empanadas as a snack. The bonus is that there's a music store next door to it so I popped in there while we were waiting on our food. I realize that I have very little willpower in a music store, but I did want to see what they had. I was thrilled to see that there was nothing there that I really wanted. The reason is that I already own most of the instruments they were selling. It also made me realize just how many I've purchased on previous trips.

After empanadas, Karen and Cindy went to try to find blankets in the size Cindy really wanted. Jon and I went over to the monument to get my picture in front of it "holding" the ball that's on top. We kept hoping that Elvira and her husband would open up their shop before we left. As luck would have it, they were just opening their shop when we headed over to the paila shop. We went in and thankfully they had blankets in the size Cindy had wanted. As it turns out, they are the only shop there who still carries the smaller ones. I realized at this point how little willpower I really have. They offered the blankets at such a good price that I got one. Then Jon pointed out the really cool ponchos that they are now selling. They’re made out of llama fur and are really soft. I ended up having to get one too. Then Karen found another awesome hat that they offered to sell me for a mere $2.50. You can't say no to a deal like that. At least I can't… Thankfully I got out of there without too much damage to my wallet.

Me at the Mitad del Mundo monument

We grabbed some paila and then headed to the house to chill for a little bit before seminary later in the day. There was even enough time for me to take a short nap before heading off to teach.

I planned to spend the next two days talking about Islam. This is not something I had planned to teach on, but Jon said that Islam is starting to be talked about some in Ecuador and it would be helpful for the students to be aware of the basic beliefs and practices of Islam. I had planned to spend the lecture talking about the history of Islam saving the major beliefs and the 5 Pillars for tomorrow. I once again underestimated how quickly we could go through several pages of notes.

After talking about the history of Islam, we still had 20 minutes left. Yikes! I was still finishing up my material for tomorrow, but I had already had my notes for the 5 pillars of Islam. We spent the rest of the time talking about those. As we were talking about the daily prayers and the Hajj, it occurred to me that most of the students have never seen any pictures or videos of either of these. I asked them if they'd like me to try to find a video for tomorrow of Muslims praying. They said the would, so I hunted down a video clip later in the evening. Hopefully it will go over well.

Instead of sitting in on Cindy's class, I spent the rest of the evening in the library working on my material for the rest of the week. While I had a good idea of what I was going to talk about for the basic beliefs in Islam, I hadn't finished putting it together yet. Before I'm called a slacker, which I know I am at times, I didn't know I would be teaching on it until I'd been here several days. So really, I'd only been procrastinating for a few days. I prefer to call it ruminating…

After classes were done for the day, we headed back to the house to eat supper, prepare for the next day, and most importantly go to bed. Seminary week is much more tiring than I had expected. On the plus side, we'll get to sleep in tomorrow because we can't go anywhere until at least 9:30 because of Pico y Placa. This is something that has been started by the government in the past few months. One day a week, you cannot drive into the city 7:30-9:30AM and 4:30-7:30PM. This is based upon the last digit of your license, and serves to reduce the number of personal vehicles driving in Quito during rush hour by 20%. While annoying at times, it really does make traffic lighter during rush hour. The worse thing about it is that the paila shop near the house closes at 7:30, which means no paila on Wednesdays. As it would so happen, the day I most want paila on seems to be Wednesdays. At least I got some at Mitad today!

Ecuador Day 4: Rumicucho and Mitad del Mundo

Today was supposed to be the monthly meeting with all of the pastors, or so we thought. It turns out that July as 31 days in it, and the meeting isn't until next week. This meant that we had more free time than expected. The Lamberts had the idea of taking me to Rumicucho, which are some Inca ruins. Because it's so dry and dusty, only Jon and I went, but I was still pretty excited. I had been here about 8 years before, but a lot of excavations and reconstruction has taken place since then. You can now see quite a few foundations and get an idea for the layout of the place.

On the way there, we drove past a Catholic church that looked like no church I had seen before. Jon explained that this is a good model of the syncretism that tends to happen here, especially in the Catholic church. As you can see in the picture, the front of the church pays honor to Jesus (observe the cross on each steeple), the sun god, mother earth, and then there's a rainbow which is from the local indigenous religion. Unfortunately, they were setting tents up outside for some big shindig so I was not able to get a picture that didn't have some glare from all of the white fabric. I found this fascinating because this is a subject I've studied a fair amount in school. It would be really interesting to observe a service there.


Our next stop was Rumicucho. This place looks very different from the first time I was there. There's now an entrance fee (very minimal), a gate house (that was not manned), a little store, sings, and marked pathways. I'm thankful I went to Israel first, because it enabled me to have a better appreciation for this site. For one thing, there were pottery shards everywhere, and I spotted many of them without any effort.


Another reason is that it was easier to spot gates, outer walls, and storage rooms. That's right, there were rooms that most people believe were for storage right beside most of the gates. The main reason, though, is that I was able to appreciate just how important it's location, the surrounding geography, and the topography are.


This site is located on a hill that allows the primary entrance to Quito to be observed from all of the approaches. Not only that, but the pass that leads to the coast can also be observed from here. It is thought that it was a garrison with 300-500 soldiers living there to protect that area. More importantly, Incas were not the first people to use that area. There is evidence that people groups before them lived there as well.



After spending a while at Rumicucho, we made our way to Mitad del Mundo. The primary reason for going there is that I could knock out most of my shopping without having to go to Otavalo. Jon took me to a shop that is owned by a Christian couple he knows. I actually went there with him on my last trip to Ecuador, but that was four years before. He introduced me to them and chatted with them for a little while. They were very friendly, and even gave us bottles of water. Besides giving my business to a Christian family that the Lamberts know, I also enjoy that shop because bargaining isn't necessary. They give us the bottom price from the get go which means that the whole process is faster. The shopping experience was a pleasure, and they had everything I had come there looking for. The only down side is that I wanted to buy more than I did. Especially the striped pants they make here. I already have at least eight pairs of them though, so I was strong. It was hard to do though, I'm not gonna lie.

When we finished up there, Jon suggested we get ice cream. We went to a shop that has ice cream and paila. Paila is kind of the Ecuadorian answer to sorbet, but it is much better. It is made primarily from fruit juice. They had little cups, so Jon asked if we could get our two scoops in those. They said sure, and we put in our order. I got one scoop of mora, and one scoop of something whose name I don't recall at the moment. They asked us to sit at a table and they'd bring it to us when it was ready. Several minutes went by, and we were wondering if they would ever bring it to us. When the paila came out, it was covered in mora and chocolate sauces, whipped cream, and topped with a strawberry and a cookie. All of this for only $2 each! It was amazing. I was ready to get another one.

Paila=awesomeness!

As we were eating ice cream, Jon asked if I'd like to see rhinoceros beetles. I'm always up to see bugs, so we mosied over to the insectarium. It turns out that it's been there for several years now, but we didn't know it was there. They had tons of mounted insects and arachnids as well as some live tarantulas, hercules beetles, and rhinoceros beetles. For a mere $2, a man will place several of the large beetles on you, snap a picture, and print it out for you. That sounded like a deal to me, so I decided to do it. These things were huge and awesome! We asked if I could hold the largest one, and he got that out too. I need to scan the picture so I can post it. It was an excellent experience. I'm ready to get one for a pet! Once that was out of the way, we wondered around the edge of the room looking at all of the fantastic mounted critters. They had plenty of mounted butterflies, but they had something more exciting than that. In the Amazon, there is a large, green bug that legend holds will kill you in 24 hours once it bites you. The only remedy is to have sex within the 24 hours. One of its nicknames is the "sex bug." I've heard stories of it here, but I'd never seen it before. They had three different ones mounted. The thing is big, but I was disappointed because it was brown, not green. It turns out that it looses its color once it dies. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it, but they didn't allow us to take pictures inside.

Our last stop was also in Mitad del Mundo. They have a model of the Old City of Quito that is only open at certain times during the day. We walked over to see if it would be opening any time soon, and the door swung open just as we walked in. It was interesting to see the city from that perspective. They also slowly lowered the lights as if sunset was happening, and all of the little buildings lit up. After a couple of minutes, the lights slowly came up starting in the East and we were back to daylight. It was a cool little exhibit.

Overall, it was a very eventful day. I'm really looking forward to church at Ofelia tomorrow. It should be a fun service!