Journey To The Middle Of The World

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So today involved a trip to the middle of the world. In true explorer fashion taxis were ignored and local buses were the transport of the day.

The Mitad Del Mundo is the place where in 1736 Charles-Marie de la Condamine made the measurements proving that this was the equatorial line – its not, GPS has since proved that latitude 0’00 lies about 300m north, but it was 1736 so I think he can be forgiven for being a bit off.



It took a couple of hours, some walking and a change of buses to reach our destination from central Quito, but it was a lovely sunny day which felt right for an expedition to the Middle of the World!

It’s massively touristy, with local dancing and singing shows, tonnes of handicraft shops and museums of local history and artefacts but a good place to wander away a few hours.



Just up the road on the site of the (alleged) true equator there’s the Museo Solar Inti Nan, here we got to stand in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere at the same time and carry out ‘scientific’ experiments – balancing an egg on a pin and watching water drain away in different directions. It was a good show, I’m not totally convinced that it’s all it’s made out to be, there’s talk that it’s not quite the centre and that the experiments are a con, but either way it was a fun way to spend an afternoon – and no I couldn’t balance an egg on a pin, equator line or not.



Off to the Amazon tomorrow for a 3 day stay at an eco-lodge deep in the heart of the jungle; catch ya when I’m back in civilisation.

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Comments

[Steve]

Miffed
Gemma, I honestly feel cheated, as I got to see photos 2,3 & 4, but what happened to photo 1. Think I'll start a campaign for it to be published - who's with me??? Keep up the good work and fun.