Ecuador Equator Fraud Alert
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Quito's elevation is ~9300 feet. After huffing and puffing up and down the hills that abound when you walk anywhere in Quito, these final steps up to the apartment are the cruelest cut of all. |
I write this from the Bristol Park, apartment number #1103. According to my Lilly's GPS, the latitude reads 00° 10' 56" South. At 1.15 miles per latitude minute, I am 12.56 miles south of the Equator. (The airport is north of the equator so we crossed it in the taxi somewhere).
Since Ecuador is Spanish for Equator, there must be a marker somewhere around here in Quito, no?
Well yes, and it is called El Mitad de Mundo a tourist trap with all manner of demonstrations that supposedly can be done only on the Equator. There is a painted line between the hemispheres, where they offer various audience participation exhibitions parlor tricks, like water going in clockwise/counter clockwise directions depending on the hemisphere, balancing an egg on a nail and the weakening of muscles as you walk on the painted line, etc.
FRAUD!
I should have known something was up when when we asked the doorman of our apartment how to get to the Equator and he replied "which one?"
Huh?
A Frenchman was close in 1736 but now days we have GPS on billions of iPhones to double check. It turned out the "real one" is 240 meters north of Mitad in a place called the Intinan Site Museum that also displays real shrunken heads. A place nearby called Calacalà also has an equator plaza, but that not right either because (from Wikipedia):
"the precise location of the equator in not truly fixed. The true equatorial plane is perpendicular to the Earth's rotational axis, which drifts 30 feet during a year. The bulge of the Earth at the Equator must also be accounted for in detailed geophysical measurements"
I then did my own research and it turns out that some PRE-INCAN PEOPLE had it precisely right in a place called Catequilla just a tad before GPS, circa 800 AD.
What's a middle-class gringo to do? The options as I see them are:
1) go to a tourist trap that is not the equator, but has many selfie ops and illusory equator tricks (google the one about the water going counter clockwise due to the gravitational pull of the equator; hint: it is either the dude's sleight of hand spinning/pouring the water one way or another or the direction of the intake spray in the toilet bowl; or the one about the egg on the head of a nail).
This blogger explains away, in Busted! Top 3 Equator tricks, the one about the Coriolis Effect affecting the drains quite well. Can you say FRAUD?
Dude in our group actually BROKE THE EGG trying to balance it on the head of a nail, a feat that is supposedly easy to do on/and can only be done on, the equator.
2) go to a lesser tourist trap, 240 meters south of the main tourist trap, that is also not the equator, but close and also offers Incan displays and reenactors complete with real shrunken heads.
3) make a lonely arduous high altitude hike that passes through an isolated poverty stricken village, where they are known to rob people like us, to the precise equator, established in 800 AD. (I am not as worried about the hooligans as I am the altitude; we are still short breathed as it is, going up the stairs from the first floor to the third floor of our apartment).
Since you sweet readers demand it, here is picture of me in the Southern Hemisphere and Lilly in the Northern Hemisphere and Lilly meeting on an imaginary line hundreds of yards from the Equator.
According to our GPS, the latitude here was actually 00° 00' 04", off by ~809 yards. Good college try for a Frenchman in 1736, but not an A+ in this GPS world. I made such a stink about it that the guide relented and asked if we wanted to go the real equator....
which led to the highway and an apparent masonry dump out in front of the park. Not as many bells and whistles as inside the park, but finally allowed for the 00° 00' 00" GPS screenshot on Lilly's phone that is featured at the top of today's post. Whew! Who knew what a fucking process it is to find the real equator, y'all.
La Carolina Park, the "Central Park" in the wealthy part of Quito. ~165 acres of bicycle paths, extreme skateboarding runs, paddle boats, athletic fields, food stands, yoga and of course, people watching. The Park was started in 1939 from the expropriation of La Carolina farm.
There must have been some kind of Bonsai competition here at one time. Many of these miniature forest scenes are quite realistic.
There are plants from all over Ecuador.
Ecuador is divided into three basic bio-regions: The Amazon, the Andes and the Coastal. The Coastal would include the beaches and of course the Galapagos. There also must be thousands of micro-climates, many represented at the Botanical Gardens.
Ecuador is the world capital of orchids, so they have a big display of every kind of orchid imaginable.
There is special greenhouse with just carnivorous plants. An insect is attracted to the sugar water in the tube of the plant above. The plant feels the movement of the insect that signals the plant to close the lid on the top of the tube. The insect is then trapped, drowns in the nectar water and is promptly digested. Who knew?
The carnivorous plants flashed me back to an episode on Gilligan's Island, where Gilligan was attacked by a Venus Fly Trap, but was miraculously saved by the Professor.
Caught the Telefériqo Cable Car up to the visitor center at 12,943 feet.
That's stratovolcano Pichincha in the background which last spewed ash over Quito in 1999. At 15,493 feet it is a popular acclimatization hike for those going on to the larger peaks.
Ecuador has 47 active and inactive volcanoes, 15 of which are in the Galapagos. Too cloudy to see them today though. The clear weather in Quito is from ~sunrise to like ~10:00 AM, then the clouds, mist and rain roll in like clockwork. So a clear view of the volcanoes ain't gonna happen for us.
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$9.00 bucks to get in. Grilled local trout is the thing to order for lunch.
Stayed there until dark. We were so relaxed that we were dreading the bus, actually buses, back to Quito when a retired police officer soaking in the pool with us, offered us a ride in his mammoth pick up truck.
Metropolitan Park, 1400 acres and at 9840 feet, offers a respite from urban living. There is hiking, mountain bike riding, llama viewing and many other outdoor activities. Here a trail leads into a eucalyptus forest.
The park offers many views of Quito and the volcanoes. If you go early enough when it is clear (realistically not us ever) you are rewarded with a clear view of snow covered Cotopaxi Volcano at 19,347 feet.
After a month in a trendy high rise in the "Central Park" area of north Quito, we decided to take a bit of risk and move to the Historic Center. Quito's 16th Century Spanish Colonial Center is the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America, while remaining a vibrant living neighborhood. Besides being incredibly hilly, a tad chilly and misty, full of plazas, cathedrals and monasteries, it has a reputation as being a pick-pocket haven in the daytime and quite dangerous at night.
Although the general uphillness of the neighborhood, coupled with the high altitude can turn Chef Ted into Grouchy Grumpy Gramps at times, it has done wonders for my high blood pressure. Sort of a 16th Century Peloton bike I reckon.
A note on the difference between police presence in Mexico and Ecuador: In all parts of Mexico it is not unusual to see military like trucks packed full of city, state and federal level cops as well as soldiers from the army, navy and marines. These folks are masked and heavily armed with all manner of weapons; some even have a M-60 mounted machine gun on the hood of the truck. We have never had any contact with the law enforcement in Mexico.
So far, you never see that kind of police presence in Ecuador. The Historic District has a well publicized pick-pocket problem (uh, that's where the tourists are, waving around their $1000 iPhones around and all) in the daytime and more of a bump and run crime problem at night. Almost every time we are strolling the picturesque cobblestone streets, police make contact with us and warn us to be careful with our bags, phones etc. It is initially a little jarring when the cops call us over and it is in Spanish, but I am sure tourists from Norway get the idea. Almost every shop-owner and neighbor also tells to be careful with our back packs. Can't say we haven't been warned.
We don't go out much after dark, and our place is secured by two sets of steel doors...so far so good.
Here is a view of the Virgin of Panecillo from our bedroom window which serves as a backdrop and protector for the Historic Center. However, according to our host, Panecillo marks a boundary of sorts between the wealthy northern part of Quito and the more impoverished southern part. He notes wryly that the Virgin faces north and has turned her back on the people of the south.
Off topic, but what is it about virgins and so many religions?
Our abode in the Old City used to be a hostel until Covid got 'em. Now the whole apartment complex rents for $19.00 a night.
Very artsy.
I am guessing that this was the kitchen (now our kitchen) for a bustling hostel back in the good ole days.
Our patio is caged in to create a giant birdcage for two parrot/parakeet looking birds. We haven't seen one of them for several days....Egads! I hope we didn't leave the cage door open for too long.
Thanks for stopping by
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