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25 June 2006

The day before we set off for the Galapagos Islands, we were taken to the equatorial monument “Ciudad-Mitad del Mundo”. Then when we were done there, having taken our requisite “look at me, I’ve got a foot in each hemisphere” photos, we were taken to the real equator. You see, a bunch of French scientists worked out where the equator fell and the Ecuadorian government spent a small fortune making an enormous monument and a complex of shops, restaurants and whatnot around the magic red line.

Then along came GPS.

It turned out that the French guys had been out by about 200m. Bit of a bugger that. However, ancient tribes had accurately determined the equatorial line many centuries before, building their temples exactly along it. So maybe looking at what they’d done wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

The Inti Nan Solar Museum based around the real equator isn’t as glitzy as Ciudad-Mitad del Mundo, but has its own attractions. Our guide showed us around a replica Indian hut, complete with guinea pig pen (they’re a local speciality). We were told about how the Indians lived and worked. There was a mirror hanging on the wall and Mr Guide explained, “When the Spanish came, the Indians gave them gold. In return, the Spanish gave the Indians mirrors … ah, wotcha gonna do? At least we could see ourselves in the morning.”

A dried goat’s foot was hanging from a timber and we were told that this would have been used to whip any misbehaving children. There were just 3 rules children had to follow: 1. Don’t lie; 2. Don’t steal; 3. Don’t be lazy. I considered taking a dried goat’s foot with me for any spawn of Satan on the flight home and adding a rule of my own: 4. Don’t be a little bastard while I’m trying to sleep.

Our tour of the Indiany parts of the open air museum ended with being shown a fairly gruesome tiny shrunken head. Behead your enemy, scoop out their brain and boil their head with herbs, fill it with rocks and – TA DA! – you’ve got yourself a trophy of war. Good stuff.