Ecuador and La Mitad del Mundo

I was able to experience another new country in South America a couple of weeks ago - Ecuador! I did not know much about the country, so I did a quick Google search to see if there were any "must sees" near Quito if we had time. Luckily, we did have time and I did find something online that turned out to be possibly one of the coolest places I have ever been - la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world.)

The equator runs across the top half of the South American continent, and right through Ecuador just north of Quito. I thought being able to stand with one leg on each side of the equator would be cool - and apparently others did as well because we found not one, but two large tourist destinations just to do this.

The first monument was erected with the help of the French government back in the 1970's. This monument was in honor of the first expedition to what is now Ecuador back in 18th century by French Academy of Sciences to measure the roundness of the earth. It was also during this expedition that the actual equator line location was determined. It is a giant monument with a museum about the expedition, and then the rest of the park is full of souvenir shops and restaurants.

The funny thing is that this monument is HUGE and it was  built to mark the equator...but they were wrong! New advances in technology have actually figured out the equator is about 240 meters north of here. Enter, the second tourist site over the REAL equator.

This site has the Museo de Sitio Intinan. This much smaller museum and tour sprung up in recent years when technology moved the line of the equator. For $4, a guide will take you on a short tour to discuss the indigenous cultures of Ecuador and then the "actual" equator line. I'm not sure if this is just another tourist trap, but I was highly amused. They showed us experiments with water - directly over the equator water drained straight down, on one side it swirled clockwise, and then on the other side it drained counter clockwise! They also talked about how the pull of gravity here is different - so we could balance an egg on the head of a nail. And, apparently, you weigh less on the equator. (No complaints here!) Again, I have no idea about the science behind this and whether it is all real, but it sure was fun!

I had to share this one. Supposedly a real shrunken head. Eeew, right?

Maria and I at the "real" equator line. 

Who doesn't love a random llama?

Quito was really nice, but I didn't see much due to work. However, I will share with you an (unbeknownst to me and also highly shocking) fact about Ecuador: they use US Dollars. No, I don't mean they'll take your USD and give you back their own currency. I mean, that's all they use. They got rid of their currency a few years back in order to have more stability with the dollar. So, money that is printed in the US is someone sent to Ecuador to be used by everyone. And, have you ever wondered what happened to all of those $1 coins that were made a few years back? Remember the campaigns to entice us into using coins instead of bills? Remember how that didn't work and the coins went away? I found them...in Ecuador!!

-Amber