The Observatory

Every year the university gives the teachers a little "present" for Christmas. One year they had a choir sing carols outside in front of the cathedral. That was very beautiful. This year it was a tour of the Quito Observatory. This is special because the observatory is not open to the public yet.

We were given the tour, and it was cool because as not all the glass is on the stands, the tour guide actually took some of the instruments out and showed them to us up close. The building belongs to the Politécnica, but hasn't been fixed up or given any maintenance for decades. Finally they are doing something about this, and it looks very nice. It is an exact replica of another observatory in Germany. Apparently observatories on the equator are very important, which is why is was terrible that Ecuador hadn't taken very good care of theirs.

We brought the kids and they really enjoyed themselves. Especially Tin, who loved getting a first hand look at all of those cool instruments!

Later that night it was another edition of The Grandpa Dan Show. This is NOT getting old. It was the big Christmas finale show, and the kids had a great time, as always.