In March:

• Will and I continued our discovery of Quito by visiting Parque Alameda, which had been under restoration ever since we arrived and before and had finally opened again. On another day, later that month, we went back to the park at lunchtime for a romantic boat ride … ;-)

• We visited the Mitad del Mundo or the Middle of the Earth, a moderately interesting, very touristy museum site on the equator. But it’s hard to justify living in Quito for 7 months and then not know what other people are talking about. People go there to stand with one foot in the southern and the other in the northern hemisphere, but the site is actually misplaced - at about 240 meters south of the true equator - and should rather be promoted as a museum site commemorating the scientific expeditions (an interesting exhibition on that topic can be visited on the site as well) that took place to locate the equator than anything else ...

• Will and I went to (the end of) a demonstration, the Marcha por la Paz (a peace march). The funny thing is that people with very differing viewpoints took part in the march:

• some to say that they´re ready to go to war with Colombia,

• others wanting a diplomatic solution to the conflict,

• some against the FARC,

• some pro,

• a delegation that was protesting foreign military bases or any other foreign involvement and

• others (the majority I think) just for peace ...

Funny was that we met the owner of the hostal we were staying at in Canoa again, a Dutch guy who is also a reporter for the Dutch International Radio.

• March is also the month when one exceptionally clear morning - after an extremely chilly night - we were treated to a spectacular view of snow covered (something my Spanish teacher’s old grandmother had never witnessed in her entire life) volcanoes surrounding Quito and a view of the volcanoes that were more than 30 kms away from the city ... amazing!