Mitad del Mundo - Middle of the Earth

My new housemate Jake and his friend Johnny were on their way to Middle Earth on Friday, aka la Mitad del Mundo, and I sheepishly confessed that, even though I have been in Ecuador for almost 4 months now, I still had not visited the monument to the equator. So, away we went...two buses and an hour and a half later, we found ourselves at the monument, but before entering, we wandered along the road about 20 meters away to find the REAL equator line.

Johnny is quite happy to be entering the Museo Inti ñan which roughly means "Path of the sun."

At the top of the wall, please note the giant anaconda skin, not to be confused with the huge boa/python skin (not sure which the lower one was).

Shrunken heads!!! A sloth to the left and a 12-year-old boy to the right. The concept of shrinking heads originates from the idea that this process captures the spirit and powers of the person to be further utilized by the shrinker of the head. The Shuar people believed that the sloth was an ancient warrior who climbed into a tree and stayed so long that he turned into this unique animal. The boy's head was made miniature by his father who loved him so much he wanted to preserve his essence and spirit by shrinking his head. To my family members, I'm getting cremated so please don't touch the head. :)

How to shrink a human head: grab hair, slice around neck, separate flesh from skull and remove flesh, take out eyeballs and cartilage, place in boiling water with unknown herbs and remove head to discover it's at 1/3 its original size...

remove excessive flesh on the inside, sew the eye and mouth holes shut to keep the spirit from escaping, place hot stones and sand in the cavity to sear the skin and shrink the head further and shape it, leave the head to dry, decorate the head (gotta have a pretty tzantza). Voila! A human head the size of your fist.

Funky-lookin' turkey thingy roaming about.

A 140-year-old chicheria...a hut in which an alcoholic drink made from corn (chicha in Tena is made from yucca by chewing it up and spitting it out) is produced.

Future dinners...guinea pigs are called cuy (kwee) because of the sound they make: "cuy cuy!" I just saw cuy on a menu: $22 for an entire piggie.

Our guide picked up a bug from this cactus and smooshed it in her hand...it looked like blood, but apparently it was/is used by indigenous people for cosmetics and war paint.

The buggies were black covered in white powder.

A grave, not sure if it was real or not, but our guide told us that it belonged to a chief who was buried more than 20 meters deep with 15 other people in the grave with him as well as his possessions...apparently wives and children would jump into the grave to be buried alive with their dead patriarch.

Three's company on the REAL equator as calculated by the French with a pretty useful tool...GPS

One foot in each hemisphere...the traditional tourist position on the equator. :)

No, it's not a sundial...it's a compass!

Jake and I standing officially in Middle Earth. Where are the Hobbits?

So the Coriolis effect causes some pretty nifty things to occur at the equator...such as balancing an egg on a nail's head. Feel free to read through the explanation below if you're feeling particularly sciency (yup, it's a word...I'm a linguist, I know these things).

Johnny took a stab at it with no luck. Jake tried, tried again, tried again sweating a bit, and then finally emerged victorious against the dumb egg. :)

Ok, so this looks a bit strange, but in either hemisphere if you hold your thumb and forefinger to make a circle and have someone try to open it, the other person can't break the circle you've made if you resist. but, on the equator, you can't keep the circle closed.

You also can't walk in a straight line with your eyes closed and arms outstretched along the equator line.

So, on the equator, the water flows straight down the drain. There's no whirlpool. In the northern hemisphere, the water swirls counterclockwise as it drains. In the southern, clockwise. (I have video of the southern hemisphere drainage experiment, but these vids take way too long to load and I've used up all my patience this weekend ;) ). Apparently, you can't witness this with toilets because the flow of water is fixed to drain a certain way.

An indigenous woman selling crafts.

A loom used to make traditional Ecuadorian crafts. women weren't allowed to use it because they thought it would affect their fertility.

Oh, tourists.

The clouds were rolling in quickly over the mountains.

After visiting the REAL equator, we stopped by the monument to la Mitad del Mundo. The path was lined with important historical figures.

I think he's upset because of the bird doo doo on his face. Just a theory that is mine and mine alone. AHEM!!! ;)

Oh yeah, pushups on the fake equator. I was going for a non-traditional pose.

Another weekend in paradise

So it's been a while since I've blogged. I sort of got caught up in the daily grind in Quito and didn't think I had much to blog about, but I think my next blog should reflect my weekday routines as well. So far, I've just told you about the amazing weekend activities. Not that the weekday stuff isn't fun or different, but it's definitely not zip-lining through a cloud forest or anything. :)

This past weekend, I went to Tena, the capital of the Napo region of Ecuador to the southeast of Quito. The town of Tena isn't that impressive it's main road has been under construction for 6 months much to the distaste of its residents), but there are a ton of activities around the city. It's also one of the gateways to the Amazon rainforest. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to enter the rainforest, but there's always next time! I think we had a pretty spectacular weekend in spite of this fact, though... :)
On Saturday, we were a very excited bunch about to embark on some Class III whitewater rafting on the Rio Anzu (I think) and Rio Napo. Our rafting group consisted of Luke, Jake, me, Cat, Deborah, Veronica, and Diana. We had a great time and half the fun was just the antics on-board: general tomfoolery, pushing people into the water and whatnot. Good times! Only the guys ended up being popped out of the raft by the rapids. Poor things!

At one point in the journey, we hopped out of the boat to swim for a bit. We're sitting/standing on a rock in this pic. I started swimming just to the left in this photo and soon realized how strong the current was. I spent a good minute swimming hard against the current without moving an inch!

The rafting adventure was a nice blend of intense, choppy parts as well as very serene bits where one could just gaze at the gorgeous scenery. Gigantic puffy white clouds set against a bright blue sky, nothing but dense emerald foliage flanking the river...beauteous!!!! We stopped here for a taco lunch prepared by the guides under a thatch-roofed shelter. Yum!

I didn't want the day to end! This is the view of the river as we hauled in our equipment and rafts.

The dueña of the hostel we were staying at was about to fry up some chontacuros: big fat grubs that wiggled around in the bowl oozing white goo after the dueña ripped something from their bodies. My new housemate Jake and I were feeling a bit brave and decided to try one. After the fact, I learned that you're supposed to hold the head and bite off the body, but I ate the whole darn thing. No problem! Hmm, tastes like chicken! :) Not really, but I'm glad I tried one.
The tilapia dinner I had was a bit more appetizing than the worms, even if the fish's head and fins were still attached. The iconic patacones (fried green plantains) were also quite delicious when doused with aji (a spicy salsa made from the aji pepper).

After din din, we watched a bit of the Miss Cacao pageant where the contestants dressed up in garish metallic lycra costumes and danced around to demonstrate the different stages of the life of a cacao bean. When the men wearing shiny leopard print loincloths emerged and busted a move, I couldn't stop giggling. The whole thing was rather funny to behold. :) We didn't stick around to see who won, but I don't think we could take anymore.

On Sunday, we found ourselves on Monkey Island. Well, it wasn't really an island, but they did have monkeys and a pool! What more could tourists want? Here we have two woolly monkeys that look like grumpy old men.

The creepy and mischievous capuchin monkey.

La isla de los monos is a pretty nice hostel/restaurant as well with paved paths leading to a river nearby. Richard, Jake, Manu, Cat and I decided to go exploring. We discovered some interesting plants and insects along the way.

The gnarliest spider I've ever seen!

Gawking at the monkeys.

The pool at Monkey Island (ok, now I'm just saying it as often as I can because it sounds like a mythical land) was pretty nice. I didn't really feel like swimming, but it was nice to just relax by the pool after wandering around the place.

Haha, so I bet this looks like a fancy spa treatment, but on Monday we spent some time spelunking in the Jumandy caves just outside of Tena (named after an indigenous hero who fought against the Spanish and was eventually captured in these caves) and our guide led us to a spot with lots of mud. He assured us that it was good for the skin and hair so we slathered mud all over ourselves. We realized later that night that he was telling the truth! Our skin was so soft! A makeshift spa treatment for only a $4 entrance fee! Can't beat it!

Afterward, we rinsed off in the waterfall inside the caves. So powerful! It was definitely a bit of a hydro-massage. This pic isn't bad for being in a pitch black cave with only a few flashlights! The caves were so cool. Wading through cold water, feeling around in the dark, squeezing through tight spots, lots of stalactites and stalagmites that made for an interesting obstacle course. I stood up too soon at one point and didn't realize there was a giant rock overhang. I had a pretty good bump on my head after that!

The caves' exit led us upward on a hill through some trees to a grassy area with fresh evidence suggestive of bovine friends nearby. Still beautiful though.

In my guide book, I'd read that you could only reach the caves by going through a water park. A rather disorienting but funny fact. After rinsing off a bit more (mud everywhere!), we tried our luck on the water slide. The kids looked like they were having such fun! Little did we know that adults have a more difficult time on the slide. You pick up so much speed on the last stretch that it whips you up the side of the slide and drops you back down before you enter the water. Rather painful really.

Even though I practically bathed in insect repellent with Deet in it, I was assaulted by mosquitoes all weekend. The bites were unbearable and so swollen! Gross! I received many looks of sympathy mixed with disgust. :)

The taxi rides in the beds of pickups provide the perfect opportunity to stare absentmindedly at the incredible countryside. Makes it hard to return to the city, but it's comforting to know that the perfect balance of serenity and adrenaline is just a short bus ride away... :)