The Equator

While we were in Quito Hamish and I headed out to the Mitad del Mundo - the Middle of the World. The equator was originally calculated a little incorrectly (not bad for a few eightenth century Frenchies looking at the stars though), so the main monument is not on the equator. However thanks to GPS we did discover where the actual equator line is (about 200 metres down the road).

Hamish made his first journey into the northern hemisphere!

While we were at the real equator we were able to take part in some pretty cool experiments that can only be done there:

We attempted to balance an egg on a nail - unfortunately Hamish and I did not qualify for the certificate for that one as we both failed!

Did some resistance testing which showed that you have less resistance while standing over the line of the equator.

Also saw how the water goes down the plug holes in different directions depending on which hemisphere you are in, or straight down the plug hole if you are right over it.

The museum also had some native culture exhibits. We had explained to us how to shrink a head. It was as small as a fist, still had hair but the face looked like a guinea pig!

Then we had a headdress put on us and used a blow pipe to blow a dart stick that was meant to emit a paralysing serum. I even managed to hit the target!