Mitad del Mundo

The lows at night was only 71F so it felt warm compared to the last week. We had to turn on the fan. We had to do laundry and the one in town was not open yet so we headed off back to Quito because we had a flight from the airport tomorrow. We stopped at the Mitad del Mundo, the equator monument we didn't stop to see two days ago because it crazy busy. It turns out there was a hot air balloon festival during the weekend. There was ample parking today although I parked in the wrong place and had to repark.

The monument is the biggest tourist attraction in Ecuador. It costs $18 including parking for the four of us. There were some cute dogs we all played with first. We took obligatory photos and walked up the inside of the monument which has displays of the different indigenous cultures in Ecuador. 

After this the kids played on a playground and then we drove to a coin-op laundry. It turns out the Laundromat was run by Edgar, an Ecuadorian who had driven to Ushuaia with his brother in 1998. He was nice and gave advice about the poor roads in Peru and Bolivia.

While we waited for the laundry we had lunch. It was $21 for a chicken plate, pork chop plate, soup, and a couple drinks. 

It only took an hour for the laundry and then we headed back to CoDa Vista. Only one u turn got us there. The Dutch in the Scania truck was there and another unimog with a German family heading north. They were heading fast like us, only 4 months. 

The kids played together. We packed for Florida. Felipe came over and showed us more shadow art and he spoke to us about adult ADHD and restarting concerta and suddenly cleaning his bedroom and getting organized. He also talked about trip setting for people on mushrooms for their mental illness. 

We had leftovers for dinner and said our goodbyes and merry Xmas. Tomorrow travel day to Florida.