Day 22 - La Mitad Del Mundo

Today was a very exciting day. VERY exciting. Today we went to La Mitad Del Mundo (the middle of the world), where we got to stand ON THE EQUATOR.



Tucked away about an hour outside of Quito is this tiny grubby little village built right on the line of the equator. A quid to get in and your in another MASSIVE village purely to house the tourists visiting the monument. Here's the thing though. Despite the red line depicting the equator, despite the signs telling you that you are at latitude 0, despite the hand-outs from the staff on the gates, those dudes are keeping a secret. The site was marked out by the french ages ago, the whole place was built, only to find out a few years ago that the equator was 200m down the road. STITCHED UP. The whole place is a FAKE. And only the guidebooks let you know the truth.



After checking out the massive monument (50p to go to the top - no way!) we went to a crappy one-room museum where I asked the dude where the REAL equator is. Obviously a bit competitive, he told me it was down the road, but that the museum there WASN'T built on the real equator either (it is, fact!). The whole place is crazy. But interesting, he did show us some stuff saying that thousands of years ago, the incas managed to find the right location and build temples on it, without even using GPS. Smart arses.





Found this cute church on the (fake) equator too. I lit a candle for justice, purely because it was cheaper than the one for sincerity.





Headed down the road for the real equator and found this GEM of a museum where you can do all sorts of experiments. It really is on the equator this time, and our guide showed us how water swirls down a plughole on either side of the equator (in different directions, if you weren't paying attention in physics class) and bombs it straight down right on the equator. You also lose your balance a bit if you try and walk a tightrope, can balance an egg on a nail, have less strength (sam and I tested this thoroughly and its all true) and even weigh a kilo less. I loved it.







Saw some other weird stuff about ancient ecuadorians too. Loads of weird stuffed animals and an explanation of ancient people used to behead their enemies and shrink their heads (down to the size of a fist).







Off out tonight to some bars with maria, and maybe a salsa club. although I'm not really into all that, despite being told I "could be quite good". WHATEVER. Chicks dig salsa - I don't need that sort of attention.