On our second day in Ecuador we met Henry and Angel at 8am and headed north towards Otavalo Market. As we came out of Quito along a very windy cobbled street we came round the corner and were met by the most stunning scenery I have seen in a long time, there were mountains and extinct volcanoes looming above us. Everywhere you looked it was just wow.
The valley we were driving through was created by lava flows relatively recently and therefore as we got further towards the north it was quite sparse of vegetation, it was very dry and arid with huge cacti at the sides of roads and flowers really close to the ground to avoid the winds
The main trees to live in these arid conditions were Eucalyptus trees they were everywhere, they were bought into Ecuador centuries ago for it’s wood and it has over taken the local trees because of it’s adaptation to the dry conditions being native to Australia.
We had a fantastic view of the snow capped volcano Cayambe which is quite unusual it is usually obscured by cloud or mist. This volcanoes summit is 5790 metres above sea level and is the highest point on the equator, it is also the only volcano in the world which is on the equator and has a glacier.
We then headed to the Cayambe equatorial monument, there are 2 equatorial monuments near Quito one very touristy one and the scientific research one, we visited the scientific one. There were only half a dozen people there and a local guide who told us all about the research and study.
In the centre of the monument is a large wide orange pillar which on the summer and winter solstices casts shadows in certain positions this is shown in the clock which is on the floor of the monument this is called the Quitato calendar solar clock.
