Middle of the world

Despite there being many places you can cross the equator, Ecuador have made a huge thing out of it. We had already crossed it twice during our Galapagos trip but Anna was extremely excited to visit the Middle of the World. I was less enthused - the main attraction for me is you weigh 0.5% less there than at the poles! Good excuse for an ice cream.

Three buses, a lot of tortoise-speed shuffling and over two hours later we had arrived (all for less than a dollar). A site has been created around what is essentially a tall monument with a line through it surrounded by a ton of shops and cafes. Inside the monument are multiple floors showing various science demonstrations of things like the Coriolis effect, indigenous tribe displays and a viewing platform at the top.

We took the obligatory photos with one foot either side of the line. However this isn't the actual equator line! The site was built before GPS determined the actual line was about 200m away. Oops. (Ecuador understandably tries to keep this quiet). We had wanted to visit this too as there are some cool sciency / gimmicky experiments that are done there but it was getting late and Anna was flumped. The equatorial line shifts so that's not exact either. To give themselves leeway they refer to it as a 5km wide line.

Anna didn't fancy the buses back so we bargained a taxi down to $15 and got to see the volcano in the distance on the way back. We couldn't see any smoke but the driver said they were still on yellow alert.

We were hoping to leave Quito tomorrow but the flights for Sunday took over 16 hours compared to 4 on Monday due to fewer stops and better connections. So we will stay here another day, which is probably good for Anna's ankle.Read more