Day 124 - Equator Line, Quito, Ecuador

EQUATOR LINE, ECUADOR (05/05/09)

Since Ecuador is named after its position on the equator we thought it would be a shame not to visit. Strangely there are two equator lines the official and the unofficial. It seems that having built the enormous monument above the goverment are unwilling to accept that the 18th century French scientists got it wrong by 240 metres. Whilst it was clear that many of the other tourists were blissfully unaware of this fact it made our visit slightly surreal.

Inside the pretend equator monument was an ethnographic museum containing such gems as the above... thing.

Feeling rather strange about spending much time at an equator line that wasn´t on the equator we quickly headed over to the unofficial, and military GPS tested, equator line. Here´s Liz with one foot in the Northern hemisphere and one foot in the Southern hemisphere.

In the museum surrounding the real equator was this real shrunken human head.

Various interesting phenomena occur on the equator such as it being the only place where a vertical sundial such as the above gives an accurate reading of the time. Also you weigh less on the equator than anywhere else in the world because the equatorial bulge means you are further away from the centre of the earth and so gravity´s pull is slightly less.

Another phenomena is that it is apparently easier to balance an egg on the end of a nail. The exact explanation for this currently eludes our memories. Adam did manage to balance the egg and got a certificate to prove it. He is, however, slightly dubious since the nail had obviously had so many eggs balanced on it that it had a slight egg shaped curve.

We spotted this hummingbird in a tree nearby.

Our first sight of some native South American guinea pigs. Unfortunately they were in a museum display showing how the indigenous people would keep them for food. Due to their obvious popularity with some school children we saw, these ones probably have a much brighter future than most of their relatives on the continent.

Adam in the Northern hemisphere and Liz in the Southern hemisphere.

The first night that we had an unclouded view of Quito from our hotel balcony.