The REAL middle of the World

5 Jan 2007

The standard "must do" day trip from Quito is to head 45 mins Norht of the city and see the monument to the Equator... the reason behind this countries name.

Now I'll be brief. We bus it out there, pay outragous entrance fee, take photos "on the line" as you do... and are generaly pretty unimpressed. There are other special interest rooms here, but they all cost extra too. A tourist scam.

I am amused at the concept of weighing yourself ON the equitor. Because right on the spot there is a perfect balance of the North and South Coriolis effects.. you weigh less. Cool. SoI get weighed and indeed it says I am down to 85.5kg... from 92 when i left NZ. (Less beer might have helped recently too, just thinking about it..) Evidently the effect for my weight has dropped 2.5kg, so I guess I'm still 88kg.... not bad..

So things are slightly looking up. Next door though is a little museum... which turns out to be Excellent!!! The family who oned the land there decided to set up a museum a few years ago, mostly about native cultures etc. By co incidence GPS was developed a few years later. And then by an extroidinary stroke of luck, the US miliatary were nearby on excercise, testing their new fangled GPS system (well before they went public).

Wouldnt you know it... the Ecuadorian government had blown it when they erected the statue.. and put it in the wrong place! Halarious.... It is actualy on the property of the private museum! What a windfall! We learn all of this cos the nice girl who shows us around eventualy admits to being the daughter of the owner, and once that secret is out she spills on the whole history.

They have set up some cool experiments to show the lack of coriolis effect. Hardest is balancing an egg on a nail head. Quite tricky but we both pull it off, and even get a certificate for doing so!

But the funiest thing is watching the water go down the plug hole in a bath tub. Now I always thought it was Bullsh*t about it going down in oppossite directions. But wouldnt you know it... IT WORKS!!!!!! And when it is right on the equator there is no whirlpool at all.... I am genuienly impressed.

So we leave in a good mood. The day turned out well after all. As we board the bus I suddenly realise that the scales I stood on were NOT on the equator.. so does this mean I really weigh only 85kg?? I make to note to eat a decent dinner...