La Mitad del Mundo

Deanna and I have attempted to go to the marked equatorial line once before, but had unrelated problems, and didn't make it.
My guidebook has been fantastic in helping us have semi-success for different things. The La Mitad del Mundo excursion is NOT one of them. I will have to write the book company and tell them that tranportation has changed.
The total cost for me to take the bus to the site should have cost .40 cents. That was not the case. We paid the quarter to take the Metrobus, which was allotted in the .40 cents. We successfully got off on the stop my book listed. After waiting 5 minutes, a security guard came down the platform, asked us if we needed help, and when Deanna started to tell him where we intended on going, he cut her off and told us what to do. He was nice to us, and we could wait at the corner OR walk 2 stops down to the station. We didn't want to stand on a random street corner, so we walked. The last two stops to the big station were more spaced out than the previous stops, but we like walking, so it was fine. We paid another quarter to enter the station to get on a GREEN bus. (Book says GREEN!) There were no green buses in this part of the terminal, so we crossed another turnstyle to where we saw the GREEN buses. We quickly realized that all the buses on this side were headed to places at least 2 hours away. We walked back to the turnstyle and the guy said we had to pay again. We paid a third quarter to get to the place we just walked through. (Up to .75 cents now). We got on a bus that was possibly the right one. The lady gave us little plastic cards that said 'La Mitad del Mundo,' so we were feeling pretty good. She collected out .15 cents (total-.90 cents)
The boy in front of us was probably 16 or 17 and kept playing with his tiny brother (maybe 1) and tiny sister (maybe 3). The other two brothers, probably 15 and 12, also joked with the tiny ones. Between watching how cute the 4 brothers and sister were with their dad and my obsession with the giant aloes here, I hardly looked out the other side of the bus (side with our destination). We made it to a town with a dinky monument and everyone got off the bus. Deanna and I followed. She asked the driver what was up, and he said we missed the stop. We waited 10 minutes about 30 feet up the road for the exact same bus to pick us up, where we paid another .15 cents. This time though, the driver and the lady attendent directed us where to get off. Our .40 cent journey turned out to be $1.05.
We had a blast! I took a lot of pictures at the faux-equator line. The Europeans deemed it accurate. We took more pictures at the real line (where the ancient people had many ceremonies in honor of the sun-knowing the equator was there). Here, I got to shoot a giant blow gun (& I hit the cactus target...I wasn't very far from it, and the gun was very long. haha). You can stand an egg on a nail. The Guide did so, but Deanna, German Guy, and I all failed! It's suppose to be harder to walk a straight line with closed eyes on the line because of the opposing forces pushing on both sides. Surprise, I failed! My sangria was not a positive force in that either. Our guide had pretty good English. I'm sure he's given that tour a billion times (Deanna argues with me that it isn't possible the number is that high. I say she's wrong).
We walked back to where the bus dropped us off, and the German Guy from our group was there. We got on the bus, paid .40 cents this time (so we didn't have to pay a quarter in the terminal and could board a new bus 'no charge'). I got to sit down about half way through the drive. German Guy got on the Metrobus with us because he wasn't sure where he was going. We ignored the creepy old man on the bus, and thank God for the German Guy who speaks English and Spanish. He spoke to the creepy old guy, and Deanna and I avoided eye contact with creepy old guy. We exited the bus after we made sure German Guy knew where to get off at. All was good. We took a cab back.
I decided I would be productive and do homework. I wrote about half my essay over a movie we watched for Spanish class, and the doorbell rang. Camila was busy, so I opened my door to go answer it, but Xime beat me. Margarita saw me and invited me to a dinner downstairs at Grandpa's. Dinner? Weird. We eat lunch there on Sundays, but our dinner is tea and bread (Lunch is the big meal, they aren't poor)! It was with her cousins, one sister, and grandpa. They are so loud and lively! I didn't follow most of it because all 10 people were talking over each other, but they laughed so hard they were crying often. There was a birthday involved and 4 people put their rings on the delicious cake. I didn't get why, but thought it was cute. The dinner was so fancy. We used the real china. Margarita called me Mija. That was a first. One of her cousins also called me that (not unusual to call someone that, just the first from the fam). A son of one of her cousins check kissed me. Snuck up on me mid-meal. They came down from our apartment, and I turned and he was there. Silly polite middle school boys!
Whew.. I'll try to shorten my posts.