If you are traveling between the Mindo area and Quito, the road goes right past Mitad del Mundo, the monument of the equator so why not jump out and have a look?  Sure it’s uber-touristy but we all need our touristy moments, even in Ecuador!

We were still having bad weather when we arrived.

Tickets are $3 just to enter the park or around $8 to go into the planetarium and to the top of the monument.  We just went for the entry as we had our backpacks on and just wanted to see the line.

The park is laid out well with several posters giving information.

As we walked through the park, we saw lots of really nice hummingbird statues.

So here is one variation of the silly tourist photo.  One person usually stands straddling the line or two people can be on opposite hemispheres as we did here.

We had a quick look at the shops but didn’t buy anything.

Across the street was a small shopping centre with a bank that didn’t like my ATM card and a Subway sandwich shop that took credit cards so we bought a couple sandwiches.

Back to the taxi rank in front of the monument we bargained with a driver to take us to our hotel near the airport for $25.  I had heard it was $20 to the city and the airport was a bit further.