Quito and Equator

On the way back from Galapagos, Mary and I had a full day in Quito, so we took a tour of the old city. It's very European looking, with cobblestone streets and beautiful churches. Our tour included a visit to the equator, about 30 minutes drive north of Quito. They've made it into a tourist destination, with displays showing Indian life in the different regions of Ecuador, and activities demonstrating how the clockwise and counterclockwise forces of the Coriolis Effect cancel each other out at the equator. And of course, there's a line painted along the equator that you can walk on, or straddle to have one foot in each hemisphere.


This is the first half of the instructions on how to make a shrunken head. It was part of the display about the Amazon region of Ecuador. There were also creepy animals, like giant spiders, a humongous anaconda, and the fish that swims up your urinary tract if you pee in the Amazon. Mary hid in the coastal Indian exhibit until our group left the Amazon area.