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.

 

Old town Quito

Old town Quito is breathtaking. There are multiple gigantic, ornate churches, various manicured parks and gorgeous Spanish architecture and colors on every block. Our first visit was to the Basilica, an amazing stone church built in the 1800's. The pictures can't do it justice with how imposing and beautiful it is in person.

Our next stop was the Palace of the President, where although we didn't stand in line to go inside, the guards let us go up on the porch to take some pictures.

Last, after traipsing up and down the steep streets of old town, we stopped into this great little coffee shop for a fancy hot cocoa for N and yummy Manzanilla tea for A and I before heading back up north toward our hotel.

After the trip around old town and some rejuvenating drinks, we went to the parque Ejido for the kids to play. This park has some pretty awesome stuff that wouldn’t be allowed in the USA since the early 80’s including a rusty old zip line that was quite a highlight for the kids. All in all, a fun day :)

Quito Day 2 - Science rocks!

Our second day in Quito was our natural science day. We headed north to La Carolina Parque to visit the Vivarium (herptiles), the botanic gardens and the Museo de ciencias naturales (museum of natural sciences).

The vivarium was awesome with a lot of great snake and frog specimens that were relatively easy to find and observe. They also had a caiman exhibit near the end, and while these were cool to see, they did creep me out a bit, and helped reinforce that I am not quite ready to take A and N into the Amazon rainforest at this age. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures inside, so nothing visual to share from that stop.

This rose was the size of A's head - crazy!

Our next stop was the botanic gardens which had some amazing specimens (no surprise) but also had three indoor greenhouses, two were filled with orchids, and one with carnivorous plants. I was in botanical heaven, and really put my camera and families patience to the test with taking pictures. 

There are A LOT of sweet pictures I put on the bottom of this blog post for those that enjoy gorgeous flowers :)

Our last stop was the Museo de ciencias naturales, which before visiting, we were surprised that it wasn’t mentioned in any of the guide books. And after visiting, now we know why as it is similar to what you would see as ‘displays’ in the main lobby of the zoology department of a major university. That being said, there were still some cool taxidermied animals, and a big mastedon skeleton, so for the price ($3) it was a win.