I am remembering how to spell Otavalo by noting it is a near palindrome. It differs by only one letter. There's some name for these but I forget what it is.
The Saturday market in Otavalo is quite a bit larger than the Wednesday one. It must be about 20 or more blocks that are barricaded off. We get there about 8:00 am. Karen shops with a little help from Angela until 10:45 when we all take a taxi back to Casa Mojanda and shower and pack up.
![Equator Monument [9,6] 35mm 1/60 f16](3-3/Equator.jpg)
The taxi ride back to Quito seems even longer than the one to Otavalo. We go to Mitad del Mundo and see the yellow line that represents the equator. It's touristy, but the museum inside the monument that describes the people and tribes of the various regions in Ecuador. About three of them have English descriptions. It would be better if all of them did.
At the nearby Solar Cultural Center, I learn that the twelve-year-old monument is actually about 300m off the actual equator as determined by satellite measurements. Apparently, a pre-Incan civilization made solar measurements here and in nearly sites that determined the location of the equator more accurately than the current monument. This is among the best sites for measurements on the equator become the horizon is well defined - unlike in the rain forest. At least that's the solar culture center's argument.
The check-in process to fly home is a monument of inefficiency. First, we stand in a line for someone to ask us the usual "did you pack your own luggage" questions. This station attaches a red tag to each piece of checked luggage and a matching red piece of tape on the back of our passports. The next line is the usual check luggage and get boarding passes. Next is the line to pay the $25 exit tax. Cash only - they won't even take traveler's checks. Thankfully we (I) still have $100 in cash left. Why they don't just roll this into the ticket tax is the real mystery. Now to the emigration station where Ecuadorian officials methodically type our passport numbers into their computer and stamp the passports with the exit stamp. Then the usual security station and the final check in at the gate where they have us go though the metal detector again.