Strange things happen at the equator....

Quito gets its name from the Quitu people who were in residence in the area long before the Incas (so we're talking a long time ago). The name literally means middle of the earth. They knew well back then that the earth was round and that they were in the middle of it! They used each solstice (in March and September) to plant or harvest their crops and they knew that they had 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness year round. They also knew that for 6 months of the year the sun was in the South and for 6 months of the year it was in the North. Smart people!

When the Europeans arrived in the 1700s (the French) they calculated an equator line about an hour out of Quito. The Ecuadorians built a rather large monument to it before GPS. Unfortunately the French were out by a few hundred metres. That didn't stop us from carrying out our craziest photo shoot yet!

After visiting the fake equator monument we headed to the real equator at the Museo de Sitio Intinan. It is one of the best museums I have ever been to. First of all we were shown a number of curios from the Ecuadorian jungle by the museum guide. I'm talking shrunken heads, massive anacondas and spiders preserved in a tank, and a fish that follows your pee stream if you pee in the river and enters your genitalia (yes I'm serious). The only way to remove the fish is with surgery. Kind of made me glad we went to the jungle in Peru and not Ecuador! Howard and Jo (on our tour) were heading there next....

We also carried out some cool experiments on the equator line. Using the same sink we were able to watch water go straight down the plug hole on the equator line, anticlockwise on the northern side of the line and clockwise on the southern side of the line. It was bizarre to watch. I have video footage which I will try and upload later. We also balanced an egg on the tip of the nail. I'm fairly certain this can only be acheived on the equator unless you are extremely talented!

We topped the day off with a ride up the volcano on the cable car. The top of the volcano is at 4100m. The view of Quito from the top was fantastic and we were treated to a rainbow on the way down. A great way to end the day.