Walking the Line

On Friday our class went to Mitad del Mundo, or the Middle of the World, or the equator, if you prefer. In order to get to the equator, we took the public bus. It took about an hour and cost a whopping 40 cents. On the bus ride over, I, along with most of my class, had to stand. Standing on a public bus in Ecuador is no easy task. It was quite a workout trying to stay upright, what with all the herky-jerky starting and stopping. Most of the time we resembled a bunch of wheebles, but luckily never bowling pins. In the seat next to me, there was an adorable little boy standing up in his seat and falling asleep. I would have gladly let him sit on my lap in exchange for his seat.

When we got there, we went straight for the real equator, not the fake one a few yards away. I pointed out to Martin that we were standing on different hemispheres and tried to give him a high-five from the southern hemisphere, but he thought I was trying to hold his hand (wishful thinking?) so it didn't work out so well. They did all sorts of science experiments to prove we were actually at 0'00.00 latitude. First they did the old water down the drain trick. Our guide emptied water from a tub right on the equator, and it went straight down without any whirlpools forming, then moved the tub a few feet in either direction to see the whirlpool going counter clockwise and clockwise. I know that this is a myth, but it worked. (I even had it explained to me by a Canadian physics teacher as to why it is a total myth, but I tuned out of that conversation pretty quickly, so I can't repeat any of it.) Then we tried balancing an egg on the head of a nail. I almost had it twice, but I swear the wind took it down. It's also really hard to walk in a straight line on the equator, due to centrifugal forces or something like that (see photo).

The complex includes indigenous houses and artifacts, as well as a sampling of Amazonian creatures, including the fish that makes it very dangerous to pee in the Amazon. Even the German students knew about this fish, thanks to an episode of Grey's Anatomy where the guy has a fish stuck up his you-know-what. (See? That show is educational as well as entertaining.)