Our rafting experience a few days ago was excellent. We were feeling really wild and were cheering for big waves and currents. There was this Scottish girl with us and I think she was more scared of us then of the rafting. She said we were completely bonkers (the accent made it even funnier). Every time we would go over some major rapids we would be hoping the boat would tip or we would try to nudge Kevin out of the boat. We ended up in the water a couple times but unfortunately the raft never completely tipped. I am definitely hooked on white water rafting and if I ever come across a cheap ride I am definitely going to take it. I think we all agree that we won't go again unless it is class 4 or 5 rapids though (level 1 is a swimming pool and level 6 is a waterfall by the way).
After visiting the capital of Quito, we decided to visit the equator. There is a huge monument, a huge line drawn, and a whole lot of unnecessary touristy stuff. The first thing that I did was GPS the line. Finding the coordinates were quite wrong, we ventured to find the real equator outside the commercial”equator” complex. We found the real line and it happened to go through some guy’s property so he set up a little park to show that his property was on the equator and not the official monument. He proved it with GPS, the water test (flows clockwise on one side, counter clockwise on the other), and balancing an egg on a nail. After this we were convinced that we had made it to the real equator. Supposedly 200 years ago the commercial complex was designed around a line measured with primitive devices. Kevin got a sweet equator line cheek bisection picture (may have to think through that one for a sec).
We made it to Quito a bit ahead of schedule and although wanting to see more of Ecuador, we thought we better make a quick Colombia trip. Many people talk of the dangers but most say that if you are careful it should be ok. Many travellers are still going to Colombia. Anyway, here we are! On this side of the border, everything looks pretty good so far!
-steve