La Mitad del Mundo

Quito lies only few kms south of the equators.
In actual fact in the natives language Quito means middle of the Earth.
For 50 cents we got a bus that took us to La mitad del mundo, a fairly big tourist centre where you can see the monument showing the exact location of the Equator.

To be perfectly honest we were not too impressed about this site as with the exception of the monolith and the equatorial line did not offer anything interesting to see.

Luckily, next door you can find the Intinan museum.

This is a much more interesting site and the 2 hrs guided tour is really worth taking.

They also claim to be located exactly on the equator, and at least they make every possible effort to prove it with experiments such as balancing eggs on a nail, showing clockwise and anticlockwise release of water from the sink etc

To be on the safe side we also took a picture on this second equator:

Elena was particularly happy to find out that you also lose weight  at the equator without the need of diet or exercise

Now,  if you are light hearted, look away.

At the museum they showed us an interesting ritual performed by the natives of the Amazon region.

The warriors used to decapitate important prisoners, but not only that, they would remove the skull from the face, boil the now empty skin with a special mix of plants that would reduce the head to the size of a fist.

Following is the process of mummification illustrated:

The now mummified mini head would be used as decoration or even worn as pendulum around the neck.

This is a real mini head, 160 years old, perfectly preserved

Only seconds from viewing the mini head I was lucky enough to capture a flying colibri grabbing some seeds from a plate nearby.