El Mitad del Mundo

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The Mitad del Mundo translates as the Middle of the Earth. Which it is. Well sort of....

Apparently some time ago the French built the gigantic edifice shown in the first photo of this entry where they calculated the equator to be, some hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately those days they didn't have GPS, and subsequently got it wrong by about 200 metres. What this all means is that there's a big complex that says it's at the middle of the Earth but in fact isn't - instead the real equator is a bit down the road, along with a far more interesting and much less tacky museum where you get to balance eggs on the end of nails, and watch water spiral down plugholes in different directions either side of the equator! The guide was great and for a couple of dollars took us around all of the exhibits with an interesting and fluent English commentary. Good news, as we hadn't started our Spanish classes yet.

All I can say about the middle of the world is, if you go to Quito and fancy putting one foot either side of the line, make sure you check out the Inti Nan museum. The big commercial not-quite-in-the-right-place tourist trap next door is vaguely interesting for it's quirkiness but nothing more!

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Photos

It's on the equator. Or not.
This is the aforementioned edifice. Very nice, but not on the equator, and tacky as hell.

This is what to look out for
Follow this sign and you're at the real equator, and the Inti Nan museum. Much better.

Unlikely but possible
That'll be an egg balancing on a nail, then.

OK it's not at the Mitad del Mundo
It's really a photo of Quito. I liked it so much I had to include it somewhere!