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Today I stood on the very center of the earth, or really close to it. I am in Quito and almost every person who passes through this city makes the 40 minute trip to the monument called la mitad del mundo or center of the earth. So being a good tourist I went as well and as with every other tourist trap I had been in was severely dissapointed. I knew beforehand that it wasn´t the real geographic center of the earth as the line that the monument was built on was determined in the 1700s by the french. The ecuatorian government subsequently built the monument on the same line in the 30s and since then thousands of tourists have visited the site thinking they are straddling the hemispheres. Nowadays most people know its a few hundred meters away from the real one but most people dont seem to care. Anyways the best thing I can say about it is the insect museum which showcases some amazingly large beetles and other things that are too wierd to be described. However there was a guy at the gates passing out flyers advertising another museum near buy that wasn´t government funded and had a free entry (I forgot to say it is two dollars to enter the site and another 3.50 if you want to visit the museum inside the monument, so we never went inside). Anyways we decided to check out the other museum and it was well worth it.
It is run by a private organization that has 5 members and is dedicated to the scientific investigation of the real equator and the ancient societies that have constructed numerous sites around quito to mark the lines of the soltices, equinoxes etc... About 12 years ago using modern GPS systems they located a small archeological site shaped in a kind of semi circle on a nearby hill on the summit of a nearby hill and further investiation proved that it measures not only the exact equator but also the summer soltice, so the line of the semicircle runs from the equator to the exact line that the sun passes over during the soltice and in total measures 23 degrees which is the tilt of the earth. You have to see a map to truly understand it but it is impressive none the less. Anyways following theses lines of the sun at all the soltices and equinoxes they have discovered several more sites that correspond to these lines and are all based on this principal site which lies directly on the equator. It is pretty fascinating if you think this was way before any contact with europe or any modern instruments such as a telescope.
Here in Ecuador (which means equator in spanish) is the only place where the equator crosses over mountains. The rest of the world it crosses over forests, jungles and oceans. This is important because oceans and jungles do not provide fixed reference points like mountains do, so it is a lot more difficult to trace the path of the sun if from one year to the next a tree has either grown a bit or fallen down because your reference point no longer exists. It is the opinion of this organization that that is why no triangle shaped pyramids are found in ecuador while in other ancient societies that also measured with accuracy things like the soltices, such as egypt and the aztecs and mayans. He went on to explain that this civilization was pre incan, meaning they had built this stuff before the famous incans invaded the area, and that the incans didn´t invade for wealth or territory as in other cases, but for the ecuator, as their god was itsu(sp.) or the sun. He also explained the origins of the name ecuador which is derived from an few different words in latin but basically means equal weight or balance. They show a map of the world that is not based on a traditional european invented north south alignment, but one that views the equator as running in the traditional direction of north, so the map is basically turned on its side. When you really stop to think about it this is a much more logical view of things, only that your whole life you have been taught that north is up and south is down, when really it is all a matter of perspective (there is no up or down in space). Another interesting fact was the name of Quito. The name of their organization is Quitso if I remember correctly, but basically in the ancient language to is world and quit is center, so Quito really means center of the earth.
The guy who taught us all this was very dedicated and enthusiastic and gave us so much information it was hard to absorb it all and I am forgetting a lot, hopefully all this makes a bit of sense. Anyways it was fascinating to say the least. This organization has several goals, the first of which is to save the original site/ruins where the equator runs. This site can actually be seen a little bit on the horizon of a distant hill when looking out the front door of the museum ( or even the monument of the fake equator) yet tourists can´t visit it and very few average people even know about it. Currently they are mining the hill and blasting away at it with dynamite so they predict that within ten years it could be destroyed. The government is one of the biggest buyers of what the mine produces so once again the economy takes precedent over conservation.
Their second goal is education, which is also suffering as due to a lack of funds they have to close the museum after only two years of existence. Anyways they are trying to make all of this common knowledge among ecuatorians and anyone who visits ecuador, although trying to introduce the fact that the monument (government owned) is not the real equator into the public school system is apparently just as easy as trying to get the government to give up economic gains for conservation purposes. (The rainforests they want to dig up to extract oil is a huge issue right now.) Anyways they have a very modern and egalitarian vision of the world which is based on the equator as being the union of people from all parts of the world and is reflected in their modified map of the world. They are very anti conquistador and promote indigenous rights and education. He used the example of indigenous people being unable to visit Machu Pichu, which was built by their own ancestors, due to the prices that mass tourism has brought. They also have constructed a huge sundial that lies on the equator about 40kms away and has only 1mm of error in the exact line. They have placed a large tube in the middle that when standing inside and looking directly up at the sky you can see the sun pass exactly overhead at twelve noon on the soltice and you will literally have no shadow. I have written a lot because I found all this very interesting, after his presentation (we were the only two people at this particular time) we hung around talking with him for another hour because he is a fountain of facinating information. Anyways I think I have covered the most interesting points here, or at least the ones i can remember right now. I had planned on writing about the climb up the volcano cotopaxi yesterday but this was far more interesting, as it was covered in clouds and after a certain point visibility was severely limited. I can´t remember exactly if this volcano or another one is the farthest you can get from the center of the earth due to the bulge at the equator (the earth isnt a perfect sphere), but anyways I was close to the farthest you can get from the center of the earth, just as I was close to the exact middle of it. The shelter on the volcano that I stumbled into, after about an hour of struggling with the flu and the altitude, is at 4,800 meters above sea level and there is still another thousand to get to the top. However to summit you need full mountain gear and have to overnight in the shelter, as just above the refuge is the limit of the glacier that covers the whole summit.
anyways that is it for today, staying in quito again tonight and then heading back to guayaquil on the night bus tommorow. Tommorrow plan on hitting up one of the the biggest artesanal craft markets in south america so if anyone wants anything specific let me know right away, otherwise you´ll have to settle for cheesy fridge magnets, haha. I am off to see if the beer tastes any diffent in the second highest captial city in the world. take care