Last Friday we were with the whole group at Mitad del Mundo – The Center of the World, which is located a little bit north in the outskirts of Quito. There is a monument built by the Spaniards and attended by virtually all tourists. Unfortunately the inscription, that there is the latitude 0 ° 00’00.000, is not true. The good Spaniards had measured a little wrong and did not agree with the Inca, who had put their own monument of the equator much more accurately. The Monument could have been rearranged, but that has not been done for some reason. Perhaps the fact, that according to my GPS on my phone the Equator lies in the middle of a street, and no one wanted to build a new one just because of some monument. The park surrounding the monument is quite nice and very good for pictures, of which we have done plenty.

I have experienced and learned a lot, in my first week of my language course. Get up every morning at just after 6 – I felt like being back in school. But I had to get to the other side of Quito during rush hour. So I had to plan in about 90 minutes for the journey to the language course. The Spanish lessons are fun and I can use what I learn. I can also understand a lot more than last week and am able, at least from time to time, to participate in a conversation with more or less complex subjects. Speaking is still more difficult, but the long list of adjectives and verbs helps immensely.