Twilight at the Equator

It has been a week of comings and goings. Our month long experiment into Chris's facial hair finally came to an end with no substantive growth recorded between days 10 and 28. We blunted a razorblade trying to de-Yeti him, and at one point almost came to blows after I stabbed him in the face with the nail scissors while pruning him in the chin area, but I am pleased to report that he now looks normal and smells bewitchingly of lavender shaving soap (Thank you Martin!). My bedbug and fly bites have all but disappeared now. In the interests of science I made Chris switch beds with me and oddly and annoyingly, he hasn't been bitten at all. The new bed presents its own challenges as it unmakes itself over night, and I wake up each morning with my feet knotted in the blankets and wearing the sheet as a turban. However, I shall perservere.
For Valentine's Day we took an excursion up to the (very big) statue of the Winged Virgin which overlooks Quito. I had assumed it to be ancient but it dates from 1975. Despite this, it is an excellent view and the statue itself is most becoming although I have been unable to discover why the wings are there. After this we went to the main square where some form of military ceremony appeared to be taking place and the President of Ecuador was waving to the people from his balcony. Naturally we took this opportunity to get a picture of Colin the Caterpillar next to Sr. Correa. I was dead chuffed with this sighting but it turns out that he does this every Monday morning. Considering he was shot at and rioted around a few months back I felt this was quite brave.

To celebrate love and the president we then blew a days budget on a couple of steaks. I take nothing away from the Ecuadorean Rice Diet when I say it was so good that I have actually since woken myself up dreaming about my pepper steak. The Rice Regime, incidentally, has now expanded to incorporate puddings. Yesterday we ate chicken- and- rice, with rice pudding for dessert...

We also took the super-touristy plunge and visited Mitad del Mundo, the place the Equator runs through. Actually the guide books tell you that the 18th century world measuring chaps were off by about 300m but this site has an orange line on it for use in taking pictures and a yellow sign for similar and a planetarium so why quibble about a couple of hundred metres was our reasoning. Despite the overwhelmingly touristy nature it was good fun and there was live music and dancing so we had a jolly time and a beer, of course. Sadly I am unable to confirm whether the toilet water goes round the other way as I stupidly forgot to check. Nor did I balance an egg on its point as is also apparently feasible. But everyone weighs less at the Equator due to some trick of gravity, which is nice. Our next trip takes us slightly further afield to Cotopaxi, the world's highest active volcano- although I believe/hope it is not actively active right now.

Finally, to explain the title of this posting: One might suspect this has something to do with the fact that from the Equator you can see both hemispheres of the night sky and can therefore see the southern cross AND the big dipper (the planetarium confirms this and it is rather cool) but I am afraid that the actual reason is less erudite. Due to the ongoing book drought I have borrowed the Twilight Saga from one of the other volunteers. I had been warned by my good friend Ashers (happy birthday!!) of the addictive nature of these books but even so I was totally unprepared. It is not seemly to stay up until 4am reading teenage trash literature in your thirties but I am afraid this is what I did and I am as powerless to resist as Bella in the arms of Edward. One small snag- we've only got the first three books. So if someone could fax me the first hundred pages until I can get back to the bookshop I'd be really grateful...