Trip to the equator - last day in Quito

Our last day in Quito was when we made our trip north of the city to the Mitad del Mundo - aka the middle of the world. It is here where you can stand on the equator, and have one foot in the north, and one foot in the south. They have a gigantic monument, and it is pretty cool to walk around.

Interestingly, the line of the equator was determined by taking measurements and surveying from the surrounding mountain peaks in the 1800's by an expedition headed by a french scientist. There are stone busts of all of the people credited as you walk up to the monument. There is also an indoor area where it describes the equipment they used and how the went about it, and then contrasts the work with modern day equipment in another room.

This diorama showed the survey points from the various mountain tops. The ones with the white 'snow' at the top are the main volcanoes.

Of course we all took the requisite pictures on the equator line. N wanted his with the giant sundial instead.

Once the modern digital age came about, the equator was verified using satellites and GPS, and they found they were a little bit off (big whoops!).

Standing at the 'actual' equator

So now there is a second museum called the Museo Del Sitio Intiñan surrounding the 'actual' equator where you can do all sorts of little science experiments to experience being on the north versus the south. We had a lot of fun at this one as you can see below :)

Here are the kids trying to walk on the equator with their eyes closed. Since you are being pulled on from both sides, it is a little tougher to keep your balance.

The next challenge was to balance an egg on a nail. I have seen people do this on facebook on particular days (the spring and fall equinox, I think?) but here you can do it all the time. The most challenging part is trying to find the center of gravity in the egg. Everyone tried, but only I got it to stand (see pictorial evidence below - woot!) and I got a certificate to take with me for my efforts :)

My balanced egg!

One of the coolest parts was getting to watch water drain from a basin on the equator (video 1), and on both sides of the equator (video 2 and 3). Most people have heard of the ‘toilet flushing the other direction’ but it was cool to see it in reality. I had wondered if it was just an urban myth. Of course I am biased (scientifically), but I have to say this was one of my favorite places to visit so far in Ecuador.

In the first video - the water just pours straight out without swirling. You can see the leaves go right down the drain.

In the second one, you can see a distinctive clockwise swirling at the end, even though we had only moved a few feet off of the equator line.

And in this third one,  we moved a few feet to the other side of the equator, and there is a distinctive counter-clockwise swirling.