From EcuadorWiki
Middle of the World Monument
Once again we all spent the morning in our Spanish classes. This includes two hours of lessons, a half hour break, and then two more hours of Spanish. I know a lot of us were a little overwhelmed today by our classes, because we have our final exams tomorrow, but I think we are all feeling more confident in our spanish speaking skills. We enjoyed some sunshine during our half hour break, which was really nice since it has been kind of rainy. After we finished our spanish lessons for the day, we all ate lunch, which is provided by the Academia. Although it takes a while to get used to the Ecuadorian cuisine, we have been enjoying the food the Academia has been preparing for us.
The real Middle of the World
After lunch, we had a little bit of free time and then we met our tour guide and the coach bus to travel to La Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, The Middle of the World. We had to travel about 30 minutes north of Quito to reach the Middle of the World Monument. When we got out of the bus, we were surrounded by beautiful mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous! We only spent about 20minutes at the monument, because it´s not actually the middle of the world. After the monument had been built, it was discovered that this is not actually the middle of the world.
We all piled back into the bus and headed to el Museo del Sitio Intiñan where the real middle of the world is located. We went on a tour of the museum and participated in several different experiments that proved we really were in the middle of the world. We took turns trying to balance an egg on a nail that was located on the Equator line. Andi finally succeeded in doing so, proving we really were standing on the Equator. We also took turns standing on the north or south side of the line and having a partner try and push our hands down, which proved to be a difficult task. We then stood on the Equator line and had a partner try and push our hands down, which proved to be a very easy task. We also filled a sink on the north side of the line, south side of the line, and on the line with water and watched the water in the sink on the line drain straight and the water in the sinks on the north and south sides of the line drain in opposite directions.
Proof we are on the Equator
Using a dart gun that was used as weapon by the indigenous people
We continued our tour through the rest of the museum, which included information and artifacts of the different indigenous peoples in Ecuador. We were able to board the bus just in time before it started down pouring. The traffic was so bad when we got back into Quito that many students decided to get out and walk to their homes for dinner.
