Race to the Middle of the Earth!...and shrunken heads?

On November 16th, Steph (see "Repelling Down Waterfalls" entry) and I ran the "Quito Media Maraton al Mitad del Mundo"-- Quito´s Half Marathon to the Middle of the Earth--as a team. So we each ran a 10.5K.





Here we are before the race posing in front of all the military high-school students who "assisted" in the setting up of the event by creating barricades, such as the one behind us in these pics.

I thought maybe they would run the race as well,... but they did not.

The "Middle of the Earth" is the site where the equator was first measured to exist in the early 1700s by Charles Marie de La Condamine. A representative of the French Academy of Sciences, Charles Perrier, confirmed the result in the late 1800s. There is a huge monument and some museums locatedat the "Ciudad del Mitad del Mundo", the "City of the Middle of the Earth" where our race finish line was located.

The site is located 18 miles north of the center of Quito, however we started 13 some odd miles away.

We ran the race as a relay-team, so each of us actually only ran one fourth of a marathon, about a 10.5K. Despite the high altitude of the run, starting at over 9 thousand feet, almost the entire distance was downhill, and we didn´t have any problems. It was fun to run to the Spanish cheers of "Si se puede!".... " You can do it!"

I got a lot of support just for being a female running the race "Viva las Mujeres" yelled one woman! (Long live women! ... or Go women! would be the translation for that one). There was a defined difference between the percentage of females running this race and the ratios I am used to in the United States.

Above, Steph and I pose in front of the huge monument that has been built to commemorate the "Mitad del Mundo" site. The line I am straddling was the line calculated in the 1700s and 1800s.

In modern times, the equator has been measured with GPS to be located about 150 meters away from the monument and original site! A private museum has been created commemorating the newly measure equator. We visited this museum as well, as we had heard it had lots of fun and interactive activities....

Here is the second "equator line" we visited that day!

The first thing that we witnessed at the "new equator" was water (with a floating leaf for the full effect) draining through a basin clockwise on one side of equator, counter-clockwise on the other, and straight down the hole on the equator. Our guide may have had to help a little, but it was still pretty convincing.

Next we were told that another proof of the equator´s presence was the power of the Earth´s two polar axis pulling in either direction which could diminish a persons strength at the equator. To witness these equivalent and weakening powers, our guide took volunteers and had them first put their clasped fists above their heads on one side of the equator while she pulled down on their arms. Then she did the same thing on the equator line. She did the same thing on and off the equator line by trying to separate a volunteer´s thumbs. The volunteers all seemed to feel a difference, including Steph (above), however she wasn´t sure if the guide had pulled harder on the equator line than off the equator line. (also, wouldn´t the volunteers generally have less strength the second time regardless?, just a thought.) Anyway, we tried it again later and I am not sure I could feel a difference.

The museum has a demonstration about balancing an egg which is supposed to show again the equalizing forces of the north and south poles at the equator.
I can´t speak in support, against this one, although our guide was able to balance the egg... I could not, and I am not sure I could WITH polar equalizing forces!

Other cool things in the outdoor museum were several precise solar clocks which worked quite accurately, and a cultural museum showing traditional practices of some of Ecuador´s native tribes. We even got toshoot darts out of a bamboo rod, a method for hunting monkeys, and view a real shrunken head (below)! A tribe called the "Shwar", who still live in the Ecuadorian jungle, used to practice head shrinking on their captured enemies, and other ill-fated persons. They now only practice the techniques on monkey skulls to retain their traditional methods. The methods include removing all skull bones except the bridge of the nose, and boiling the head for an extended period. This particular head was of a "bastard child."