Black Sheep Inn

October 4, 2014

Yes, the BLACK SHEEP INN is high in the Andes. It was a four hour drive up through the mountains. It was so shaky that I almost barfed. When we got there we looked at the lounge, which is the only place with wifi. After that, we had to climb 200 stairs up to our room with all of our luggage.

When we went to "explore" we saw a cute little kitty following us. We later named her Coco. Then, we saw another kitty on the roof of our room. We named him Sunshine. They became best friends.

We saw that the inn had a hot tub, a sauna, and even a zip line. None of which we used. Finally, that night we went to have dinner at the lounge. They said it was amazing. D@&$ straight! They served some Chinese soup with rice and sweet sauce. It was ok. But the second night was GNALRLY TO THE MAX!!! I don't even remember it.

Later that day, I picked up the cat Sunshine. I carried him up the 200 steps when he stabbed and bit me. I threw him on the floor and ran. When it was time to say goodbye, I was so sad to leave the cats, even Sunshine. It was so hard, but I was able to say goodbye and give them a kiss.

Skyrail

September 20, 2014

So today I heard we were going up a mountain, maybe on a hike. I didn't pay much attention as usual. After we got out of the brain flipper (aka taxi), I found out we weren't hiking. We were taking (as they call it) the Skyrail. That's the machine that takes you up a huge hill for skiing. I was majorly freaked out because of my fear of heights.

On the ride up we saw an amusement park. The ride took about ten minutes and we were moving at almost 10 mph. I almost passed out when we got off. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I was relieved it was over.

When we got to the top we all sat down even though we didn't do anything. Later, we walked around when Maeve suddenly got altitude sickness. So Dad and Maeve stayed behind while Mom and I went ahead and took the exhausting journey higher. Pushing ourselves to climb that much higher was miraculous. It was already hard, but when it's 12,000 feet, it's a lot harder. It got so cold I had to wear two coats. There were so many different platforms. I can appreciate a view or two, but it wasn't too great. We took some photos and went on our way.

Overall, I feel we didn't really get the bang for our buck. I mean $36 for four peeps. We didn't really do much.

Equator in Ecuador

September 9, 2014

The 45 minute drive to the Equator gave me a headache. When we got there, we saw two letters N and S for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. We also saw the big red line that separated them. Sadly that was not the real Equator. The real one was calculated by GPS. The first one was just predicted in the 18th century and they didn't have the right tools to calculate the Equator. We went to both. On the fake one there was a tall building with the Earth on it and it had north, south, east and west labeled on it. We got to go in it for $20. It wasn't very high, but there were those telescope things where you put a quarter in to see super far away. Fortunately, I brought my wallet and got to look through it. There were huge snow capped mountains. I also watched some kids play soccer, unfortunately the team I chose lost.
    Later, we went to the main little shops and got some frozen box ice cream. It turned out to be cookies & cream flavor. We walked around a little and found a park.
    Finally, we went to the museum which held the real equator. We learned about the tribes who lived there were bare naked. The boys had to tie up their "thing" to stop a fish from getting in because they're too lazy to wear underwear. The worst part was that there were photos.
     We did experiments with water. So, if you put water in a bucket on the equator and drain it out, it will just pour out and won't spin at all. But if you put it on the Southern or the Northern hemisphere the water will spin left or right as it drains. Then, we tried to balance an egg on a nail. Of course, I epically failed and never got it, but my mom did on her first try. When it was time to go, we saw a restaurant that served Guinea pig. It is a specialty in Ecuador. I don't think so. {Editor's Note: Museum's experiments were dubious - Coriolis effect is extremely small at this scale so water swirling clockwise or counterclockwise down a drain just a few feet north or south of the equator had much more to do with the guide's finger starting starting the swirl in the preferred direction.