mitad del mundo

today we journeyed to the center of the earth... how cool is
      that?! turns out we are only a little over an hour's bus
      ride(s) away from the mitad del mundo. I guess way back when,
      some smart dudes figured out where the equator is - pretty
      impressive before they had the tools available to us today
      (which determined the actual location to be 250m from where
      the original smart dudes had built their monument)... so
      today, we first went to the original monument and walked
      around - nothing too impressive - and then strolled down the
      street til we found the museum with the actual center of the
      earth coordinates - really cool! latitude 00*00'00" (note:
      asterisk = degree symbol, my phone isn't that
      competent)...
   
      I guess in terms of longitude, the reason the "official"
      center of the earth is in ecuador has to do with other even
      longitudinal coordinates (like 0 degree, 90 degrees, etc)
      being in the middle of the ocean. and the fact that ecuador's
      elevation at this point makes it the farthest away from the
      center of the earth, even farther away than the top of
      everest - crazy, right? and as a result we all weigh 1kg
      (2.2lbs) less here due to less magnetic forces from the earth
      since we're farther from the center. does this make sense or
      were we eating out of the palm of their hands, believing
      everything they were saying...?
   
      it got better. we were taken to this line that marked the
      equator. our tour guide took a small sink full of water, set
      perfectly on the line, pulled the plug, and we watched the
      water drain without swirling clockwise or counter-clockwise.
      how?!! wha...?! is this real?! so then she picks up this
      little sink and moves it 5 feet south - drain is pulled,
      water assumes a whirlpool spinning clockwise (I think, but
      that's the opposite of what the toilet just did when I
      flushed it to confirm, and now I'm questioning my memory).
      either way, then she moves her sink 5 feet north, pulls
      the plug, and the water clearly spins in the opposite
      direction. magic!! it was really cool...
   
      they had other demonstrations too, like balancing a raw egg
      on the head of a nail - which I did myself after a lot of
      focus. other parts of the tour taught us about the species
      and indigenous populations of the amazon. we learned how to
      shrink heads for goodness sake!! seriously, we saw a shrunken
      head, a real one, over 150 years old. and we learned the step
      by step process by which you too could shrink a head, if you
      had one in need or shrinking. what a wild cultural ritual...
      we saw anacondas and spiders, thankfully preserved and no
      longer alive, given that were all about 300 times larger than
      any snake or arachnid should be, as far as I'm
      concerned.
   
      after hours of living 2.2lb lighter than I am everywhere else
      on this planet, we finally set off for home. 2 packed bus
      rides later and we were back home, eating our final dinner
      with mami Gloria. tomo morn at 6am we take an 8 hour bus ride
      followed by a boat ride, deep into the rainforest. we're
      supposedly extremely isolated, so I am guessing I wont be
      posting blogs until friday, when we're back and I can bombard
      you with stories... wish us luck!!
   
      xo
      linds