La Mitad del Mundo

On Saturday, we went to La Mitad del Mundo (aka the middle of the world). There are actually 2 monuments in Ecuador, one large stone monument built by the French or the Spanish, and one museum. They are about 250m apart, and the museum is actually the one on the ecuator line, where it is 0 degrees latitude. The location of the stone monument, calculated by the Europeans, was either wrong, or has moved since 400 years ago. Here´s the obligatory tourist photo you´ve all been waiting for. I don´t know if you can read it, but at the bottom of the sign, it says "calculated with GPS" in spanish. The people in the photo are me, an Israeli guy we met there who´s travelling through Latin America, Nour (the Canadian volunteer) and Nele (the German volunteer).

The museum was ok, really really touristy. They fully exploited the equator line thing, as they did some "experiments" that proved that we were on the equator line. For example, I don´t know how many of you know of the coriolis force? It´s a gravitational pull (affected by the earth´s rotation), and it´s why the winds and ocean currents move counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. It´s a bit hard to explain on a blog, it can be easily wikipedia-ed, so I won´t go on about it. Anyway, there´s this theory that all water moves clockwise in the southern hemisphere, and counter-clockwise in the north (this was also in The Simpsons, remember the episode where Bart rings Australia to check if it was true because Lisa told him about it, and the whole family have to go to Australia to apologise to the people). The theory is, of course, bullshit, because the coriolis force only works on large bodies of water (like the ocean!).

Anyway, enough background. At the museum, one of the demonstrations they performed was the coriolis force. They placed a sink right on the ecuator line, and when they drained it, the water flowed straight down. It didn´t spin. This was due to it being on the ecuator line, no gravitational pulls in either direction (so they say). The guide picks up the sink and the bucket of water and moves it 2 metres to the south. She pours the water in, and drains the sink. This time, the water spins clockwise! Wow! The tourists are all amazed. She picks it up and moves it 2m to the north, and pours the water in again. The water spins counter-clockwise! OMG!! The American tourists we were with were absolutely amazed, it was very funny. So anyway, yes, it spun like it was supposed to, HOWEVER, it was not because of the coriolis force. It was because she poured the water in from different directions. When we were in the south, she poured the water in from the left hand side, causing the water to spin around the sink as it filled. When she drained it 2 seconds later, the water was still spinning, hence causing it so spin as it went down the hole. Vice versa in the north. After the "experiment", she placed the sink back on the ecuator line with the water in it, allowing it to settle (so it was still) so it wouldn´t spin for the next group. Are you all following me? I´ve been telling everyone my theory (which I think is true), and I think they don´t know whether to believe me or not.

Ok, I´d better move on from the coriolis force. I only went on about it because it would seem like such an amazing phenomenon, were it not in reality a crock of shit! Not only is the body of water too small, moving 2m from the ecuator line is never going to make a difference in gravitational pull! There were other "experiments" as well, but I didn´t understand their significance. There was one where we had to try to balance an egg on a nail, which can apparently only be done on the ecuator line (because it´s not being pulled in one direction or another). I couldn´t do it, but I´m sure you´d be able to balance an egg on a nail anywhere.

We also went to El Panecillo, where the Virgin of Quito is. Here she is in all her glory. She is standing on a dragon because a dragon symbolises evil, or the devil. So by putting her foot on it, and having it on a chain, it symbolises the triumph of good over evil. A very common theme. She was a gift from Italy, I don´t remember how long ago. She was apparently going to be the Venus de Milo, except the sculptor didn´t want to do it or something, I didn´t quite understand that part of the story (it was all in spanish!). I´ll update it when I find more info.

Here we are on top of the Panecillo. You can just see the view of Quito behind us.

That´s pretty much all I did on Saturday, went touristing around the city. It was ok I suppose, apart from the exploitation of the ecuator line. What was cool though, was that the Indigenous people got it right (they were the ones who worked out where the actual ecuator line was), and the Europeans with all their fancy instruments were 250m off! Haha!