Centre of the World

 We've arrived back in Quito and have a free day before we fly out so we decided to take a taxi to the equator, just to say we've been there. Its about 22 miles from the hotel.

 There is a museum right on the equator that the cab driver took us to. Its a private museum with lots of interesting stuff.

 Natives from Ecuador used to be head hunters and there are still tribes that secretly practice it. In the museum is some info on how its done. Pretty gruesome.

 The item on the right is an actual shrunken head. The one on the left is a monkeys head; I guess they have to practice on something.

This is a statue of one of the natives. They are quite short and don't wear any clothing because of the heat. In the jungle waters, there is a fish called the Vampire fish that is attracted to uric acid and when someone pees in the water the fish can swim up the urinary tract and grow in the bladder. Apparently its very painful. To prevent this happening, the natives tie a loop around their penis to prevent fish from entering. Very ingenious. I'm not sure what the women do, stay out of the water I guess.

Here we are, Carmens in the northern hemisphere and I'm in the south. Sort of an east meets west sort of thing. The red line shows the equator.

This simple block is used at the equator to tell time of year, dates, equinoxes and a bunch of other stuff. The worlds first computer sort of. On the summer solstice there is no shadow because the sun is directly overhead, not east or west and not north or south. This only happens on the equator.

Supposedly the easiest place to balance a raw egg on the end of a nail is on the equator. The liquid inside is perfectly still and can stand on end. Off the equator, the fluid in the egg wants to rotate with the spinning of the earth and doesn't stay still enough to balance. I say supposedly because I couldn't get it to stand on end; although the guide did it. Just luck I bet.

Now this is the first time I've used a video and I hope it works and doesn't go too slow or something but its kinda cool if it works for you. I don't know if you've ever heard about water going down the drain spins in one direction north of the equator and the opposite direction south of the equator, but it does. What I didn't know was that right on the equator, its doesn't spin either direction. I know! Mind blowing, huh. Watch the above video to see what happens right on the equator. Note the red line on the ground is the equator.

On this video, the guide moved the sink about 1 meter off the equator line and refilled the tub. Watch what happens with the water as it drains. Remember this is only 1 meter from the location in the first video.

Then the guide moved the sink about 1 meter on the other side of the equator. The waters rotation then went counter-clockwise. Mind blowing isn't it? I can't believe it only takes that short of a distance to change the rotation. Snap quiz! Without flushing your toilet, which way does the water spin in your home?