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Published: August 9th 2023
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Middle of the Earth Monday’s adventure was to the Middle of the Earth. It was not too far outside of Quito. The Middle of the Earth is where is 1736, the French sent a team of scientists to determine the location of the equator and prove that the planet bulged at the equator. They choose Ecuador because of its altitude and temperature. The government built the current monument in the late 1979 and it was completed in 1982. When more instruments, GPS, were used the location turned out to be 790 feet to the North. The monument is several stories high and has a globe on top that shows the equator line. Leading up to the monument, there are statues of the men that helped determine the approximate location.
We took many pictures and went up to the observation deck. From the deck, you could see the greener mountains to the north and the drier arid land to the south. Each floor of the tower had exhibits of Ecuador. Some showed the different areas, coastal, mountains, Amazon and Galapagos. Other exhibits showed information on the cultures of Ecuador.
Around the monument there nice village area with stores and restaurants.
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The monument where in 1736 they said the middle of the earth was We went in a couple stores before finding the chocolate tasting. Yum, yum. There were all kinds of Ecuadorian chocolate. We bought a bit and also had drinks. Susan had Bebida Cacao (is similar to lemonade and is made from the flesh around the cocoa beans), I had a chocolate frozen drink and Ellen had a chocolate flavored beer. We shared a brownie. Afterwards we went to the area where they told us how to convert the bulb into chocolate.
After we finished, we then did more shopping and got several Christmas presents. The property also had some replicas of some of the previous inhabitants of the area which we toured.
Our next stop was a private museum which also contained replicas of previous Ecuadorian inhabitants, but is located at the true GPS equator. We learned that Guinea pigs were and still are important to the native population. They were the only source of protein in previous times. Our guide explained many aspects of the different areas of Ecuador and of its inhabitants. We learned how to make a shrunken head and actually got to see a real one. They were used to intimidated
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The real middle of the earth 800ft away found by GPS their enemies. Finally, we made it to the true equator. The guide showed us how to tell the seasons by the shadow along with the time, as long as you were at the equator. The day and the night are of equal in length here. The sun rises at 6 and sets at 6 all year round only varying a few minutes during the year. Next, he did demonstrations of the Coriolis effect, except it really was a trick as it doesn’t work on such a small scale. Then he did a demonstration of balancing and egg. Susan took up the challenge and could also do it. Still, it was fun and educational.
When we left, we headed to the top of the crater of the Pululahua volcano. There is a whole community inside the cone of the dormant volcano. There is a hotel and restaurant on the top of the crater, but both were closed when we arrived. The view was amazing. After that we headed back to the house.
Sorry for the delay but we had to leave early this morning for our day's adventure.
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