9/28: Quito, Ecuador: The Tale of the Equator!

I bet you were smarter than we were and had already figured out that Ecuador meant the ‘Equator’ as it seems like a no-brainer now but we’d not realized it until we had done some reading before coming to Quito. Not far from the city was a place called ‘Mital del Mundo’ or Middle of the World and that was where we were headed. We could have taken a bus there and back for $20 for both of us from the Community Hostel, the site of yesterday’s walking tour and where I was attacked. But I particularly didn’t want to return to that area and we preferred having the flexibility of being able to linger longer than the tour allowed and to also visit nearby sights. Even though we’d read about how dangerous South America would be, actually experiencing it first-hand yesterday was another thing and it had rocked me. 

Our open-air view from our guesthouse in Quito to the mountains surrounding the capital. Too bad we had separate beds as the nights were darn chilly and we could have benefited from each other's warmth!

On the way to the local bus stop, we saw that the Basílica del Voto Nacional or Basilica of the National Vow, the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas, was just a few minutes’ walk away so we made a beeline for it. Between 1892 and 1909, the Heart of Mary Cathedral was constructed and it was blessed by Pope John Paul II on January 30, 1985. The basilica remains technically ‘unfinished’ as local legend says that when the Basilica is completed, the end of the world will come!

The basilica was the most important example of neo-Gothic Ecuadorian architecture and is one of the most representative of the Americas. As there were no lights on when we entered through a side door in the middle of the church, the pinkish hues from the stunning stained-glass windows almost at ceiling height bathed the church in an other worldly light. The altar was in the center, not at the front of the church as it is virtually everywhere else.

I read later that there were rickety stairs up to the roof but I was just as happy to have missed another set of stairs to another church roof after visiting the Cathedral yesterday. The basilica's unusual lighting and aura made us content with what we'd seen.

The bus ticket for the hour long trip to Mitad del Mundo was only .50 each and the ride provided more in the way of entertainment than we could have expected on the hostel bus! Vendors got in at almost every stop selling snacks of every kind and giving their pitches in really loud voices. I felt so sorry for the bus drivers who had to deal with that incessant noise just a few feet from where they were trying to drive the buses and keep everyone safe.

The bus dropped us off across from the new headquarters for UNASUR or the Union of South American Nations, 'a startling modernist building with gravity-defying cubist structures resembling a misshapen spaceship.'

UNASUR was immediately next to La Mitad de Mundo, a kitschy, Disney-like place where there were a variety of sights and attractions with separate admission fees but we opted for the basic ticket. In 1736, Charles Marie de La Condamine made the measurements proving that the equatorial line ran through here. His expedition’s measurements gave rise to the metric system and proved that the world is not perfectly round but that it bulges at the equator. 

The path to the monument was lined with statues and monuments of men who made important discoveries in the field of cartography.

I always smile when I see these distance markers to cities around the world.

It was hokey to be sure but standing on the line between the North and South Equator was fun AND something to write home about! It reminded us of some of our other favorite ‘line’ moments such as between East and West Berlin several years ago and between Zimbabwe and Zambia last year near Victoria Falls.

We had some goofy fun taking photos of ourselves straddling the equator line or what they said was the equator! According to a sign we read, the equatorial line in El Mital del Mundo represented the 'five kilometer wide equatorial strip, the painstaking measurement efforts of the geodetic mission and the culture, history and mysticism of the Ecuadorian people.' 

The French emblem was carved on the east side of the monument

as it represented the participation of the French members of the First Geodetic Mission. On clear days, it's possible to see the snow-capped mountain, Cayambe, which is the only point on the equinoctial strip where the temperature drops below 0 degrees Celsius.

It was a hoot seeing the painted yellow line depicting the point at which the equator lay. As technology improved, it was discovered that the actual equator would lie just north of the Mitad del Mundo line. 

From the south side of the monument, we were able to see Cotopaxi, the most active volcano in Ecuador. On a clear day, apparently you can see its cone but we didn't have any clear days in Quito.

Equator's emblem was carved into the monument's south face in honor of an Ecuadorian who was part of the initial mission.

It was really hokey but we bought a certificate indicating we were on the equator. We don’t normally do that sort of thing but it was too cute to resist for a couple of bucks!

It was neat knowing there was some truth that we weighed less at the equator because of the greater centrifugal force on the equator than at the poles. But the difference was only about 0.3%, not the approximately 1.5% to 2% the scales at the Mitad del Mundo implied!

It was amusing watching people playing, or should I say, trying to play, the 'Balance the Egg Game.' The challenge was to try and balance the egg on top of a nail. 

The point where the weight of an object is carried is called 'the center of gravity.' When the point is supported by a rigid and fixed structure, its center of gravity goes through this support point and the object will balance without falling down. The only people I noticed who were able to balance the egg were the staff who must have had lots of time practicing!

Were we glad we visited Mitad del Mundo even though it was a thriving tourist complex, complete with a museum, planetarium and a monument dedicated to the equator? On balance, I would say yes but only because we spent 'nothing' to get there and it was a hoot. When Steven and I visit new cities, it's not always a matter of only touring the churches and museums, i.e. all the highbrow sights. It was a very welcome change of place for us to spend time at Mitad del Mundo and appreciate it for what it was, nothing more, nothing less.

I was intrigued by these wind sculptures as we next walked over to the Museo Solar Inti Ñan located just a few hundred meters away. 

Even the entrance looked more appealing and less touristy/hokey than Mitad del Mundo.

Luckily, we only had to wait a for a few minutes before an English-language tour began. The guide took us to a small hut where  she explained indigenous people used one end of their spears to kill animals and the other end to kill missionaries, loggers, oil workers, etc!

The guide then stated that men's penises had to be covered because of a certain fish that targeted a man’s privates. Squirm, squirm! Once scientists were able to pinpoint what fish it was in 1977, they were able to help men who had been attacked. The humid weather, not cultural choices, was the reason why people wore no clothing, the guide stated. This tour was already turning out to be very different than any other we'd been on with people being killed and talk about men's private parts!

Our guide explained that this representation of a burial site signified that for the indigenous people death was seen as a better place to go and that was why everything was taken with them. The pots or vessels symbolized fertile and pregnant women. It was tradition that when the husband died, the wife was killed to be with him. I didn’t like that concept! 

People weren’t afraid to be buried because they would have a better life. To ease the passage into death, the women were given peyote or mescaline. 

The green part of the plant was boiled for twenty minutes and made people high for three days and caused a very peaceful death because people knew they’d be making contact with their ancestors. When explained in that context, of course it was easier to understand their philosophy that dying wasn't a time to be feared as is common to so many Westerners.

Our guide told us that, according to GPS, it was determined this was the true equator line, not in fact the other so near by. Historians described the difference as being the ‘old equator’ and the ‘new equator’ lines. However, according to Lonely Planet, more fascinating than any of the myths perpetuated by both Mitad del Mundo and Inti Ñan,  the true equator (0.00 degrees, according to GPS readings) was really on a sacred indigenous site constructed more than a thousand years ago AND also nearby!

Though while we came to view what we’d thought was the monument and the hype to the ‘Equator line’ and had stood on not one but two such ‘lines,’ only you and we have to know that the photos of our straddling the equator were a bit off! 

Our shadows were much shorter here than at home. Our guide explained that every day is virtually the same as there are no seasons in Ecuador and no cyclones or tornadoes near the equator. There wasn’t a special planting time as plants were planted year-round. The incidence of skin cancer was much higher, she mentioned, because of the proximity to the sun and because of worsening pollution as the ozone layer was becoming depleted.

She conducted a number of experiments purportedly showing the Coreolis force - which causes weather systems to veer right in the northern hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere - which were fun to watch and participate in.

The phenomena associated with the equator was hard to grapple. Someone else explained it perfectly: "The tour guide very graphically illustrated how water swirls counter clockwise above the equator and clockwise south of the equator. She first put a pan with a drain and bucket below smack dab on the equator and pulled the plug. The water drained straight out. 

Then she moved it ten feet to the north of the equator and again pulled the plug. The water drained counter clockwise. Next it was ten feet south of the equator; plugged pulled and the water swirled clockwise. So how do you explain this? Well, it's not that it actually changes direction. It's that you're looking at it from a different angle/perspective. For example, if you rotate your finger in a counter clockwise direction, a person facing you will see it moving in a clockwise direction. It's the same with the water draining on the north of and draining on the south of the equator." But to actually see this demonstrated within mere feet of the two locations was simply astounding to me!

The next experiment or game was trying to balance an egg on its end. Steven could attest to how hard it was!

Walking the line while eyes were closed proved to be far more challenging that I’d ever have expected. The reason was the magnetic forces of the earth were pulling us in opposite directions at once. Thank goodness, we hadn’t been drinking and then tried to ‘walk the line!’

This was the best part of the tour!

Our guide took us next to an authentic home of an indigenous family home circa 1875.

She showed us a few guinea pigs and mentioned that the 'pigs' were actually large rodents and got their name when they were taken to England way back when and  they were sold for 'a guinea,' i.e. the unit of currency! In Ecuador, they were known as 'cuy.'

I had had no idea until our walking tour yesterday that Ecuador was so well known for its chocolate bars. The guide took us into a small hut and showed us the stages of cocoa production. 

These were cacao beans which were first discovered by the Spaniards in Mexico even though the beans originated in South America 5,000 years before Christ. The Mayan culture processed cacao beans and mixed them with other ingredients. The Aztecs made the famous drink 'xocolati' or what we know of course as yummy chocolate.

We each tried the slimy part that would eventually become cocoa but it bore no resemblance to luscious milk chocolate that I am quite familiar with! It had a faint, almost citrus flavor.

To make chocolate, the white part of the cocoa bean was fermented in wooden boxes covered with leaves for six days and then dried for several more days. Then the beans were ground; 50% of the bean was cacao butter. 

Scientists are making different varieties of cacao in the lab to resist diseases that impact the plant’s production. I wonder how much the taste varied from one variety to another.

Ecuadorian chocolate is dark chocolate and therefore known to liberate endorphins and has oxidants that are beneficial to people’s diets, according to our guide. I couldn't help but think this tour was becoming more and more enjoyable, especially when we had samples to taste.

But the tour turned a little macabre after that! We learned that indigenous people shrank heads as they wanted to keep important people such as warriors, shamans and chiefs around as a memory. 

Also kept were heads of their enemies as trophies. To shrink a head, the skull was first removed, then the skin was boiled in water until the head became the size of a fist. It was eerie seeing the man’s closed mouth, the eyelashes and all the wrinkles. Out of respect to the departed, no photos were allowed of the man from the Shuar tribe who died 170 years ago. 

The guide did show us a shrunken sloth’s head, though, which had been done as practice prior to perfecting the technique to shrinking people’s heads! It looked scarily similar to our own, I thought.

All of the attractions were outside so it appeared to be more like an outdoor science center. It was an entertaining way to discover more about the equator as well as learn about the natives and how early Ecuadorians lived.

Next post: Later that day: Quito From on High

Posted on October 11th, 2017, from Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador.