The Mitad Del Mundo (Middle of the World) lies about 15 km north of Quito and is the supposed location of the equator based on a French survey in the 19th Century. In the 1930´s the Ecuadorian government built a large pedestal and globe on the site and declared it the middle of the world. Despite the governments claim, it probably isn´t.New surveys, aided by the GPS system, suggest that the real equator lies about 300 meters north of the monument. Not to be outdone, a local family conducted another survey, sans GPS, and claimed the real equator is 700 meters south of the monument, conviently running right through their family-owned museum. To cover our bases we wandered around to all of them.
In the end it doesn´t seem to really matter. After the Mitad Del Mundo monument went up a entire fake village sprung up in order to ensure that no tourist went home empty handed. They compare their "village" to Disney World, but it falls a little short. It is a bit closer to something like the world´s largest ball of string. The fun part of the adventure was the lack of gringos present. A few showed up while we were they, but mostly the park was filled with Ecuadorians taking their kids out on a Saturday afternoon.
This is a good time to mention the "Gringo Tax" that is levied both official and unofficially throughout Ecuador and most of South America. Unofficially it shows occasionly when you purchase something on the street. Yesterday, while buying an avacado we noticed that it cost a dollar for gringos and fifty cents for locals. Ironically, this rarely upsets the Americans or Europeans since the tax is never more than a buck or two, but it really upsets a lot of locals. They think it gives their countrymen a bad name and I witnessed one Quitoian yelling at a merchant who over-charged a gringo.
The offical Gringo Tax is even more fun. At a lot of sites, including the Midal Del Mundo, the admission sign has to columns: one for Ecudorians and one for Foreigners. Today it was a dollar entrance fee for locals and two or three dollars for Foreigns. This doesn´t happen all the time, but often enough to be funny.
This is our last day in Quito. Tomorrow we head for the Ecudorian coast and a small town called Canoa. This is were Drew and I will be attempting to relearn any Spanish that we once knew.
Adios.
3 comments:
Nate. I am looking forward to some photo's being added to this when you get to the coast. Sounds like a book in the making. You already have the best title "South American Shuffle"..
I vote for pictures too! And your trip sounds fabulous so far, keep the details coming. When you told about the paparazzi finding you at the airport I was speculating that they'd recognized Drew as Mario Batali...but then I realized the Food Network probably didn't make it there yet...anyway, I do remember that your name from high school Spanish was Nestor! Hablo espanol bueno, Nestor!
Nate, you can add photo's to the blog after you post an item. Then go to EDIT and in the EDIT mode you will see a photo icon on the tool bar. click on the photo icon and it will allow you to browse and upload a photo.
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