Ecuador Day 11

Lot's of pictures today from our activity of the day- the Equator.  That was our afternoon activity, after a long morning here at the apartment. Jace decided to wake up about 5 am (he is progressively getting earlier), which meant that we were all up by 6 ish. We had breakfast and baths and then had naps at 8 am. Devin and I at least napped...not sure about the kids. What good parents we are.

We played, watched Tangled, and Skyped with quite a few people (thank goodness for Skype, seriously, it is like our daily sanity! Thank you family for caring about us and wanting to talk to us during this crazy journey!) before lunch and naps. The kids all slept well, luckily (minus Hallie- she doesn't nap!)

After lunch, we left to go to the Mitad Del Mundo- or the Center of the Earth. We have felt a little cooped up lately, so it was nice to get out and have an all-afternoon activity versus just little walks around the neighborhood and to local parks.

I will narrate our journey with pictures....

On the way to the Equator, we passed a ton of these dolls being sold on the side of the road. This is in preparation for New Year's, where I believe they burn them on the streets. I was here for New Year's Eve in 2005, but I spent that night with Flor in the hospital. I remember the other volunteers telling me about watching these things burn in the streets to celebrate the new year. Crazy. Maybe we should buy one!

Our first stop was the "fake" equator. This is the one that gets all the hype. It has a big museum and a large ball monument to mark the equator. However, it was discovered 15 years ago (GPS) that this equator line is not accurate at all. The real line is actually to the north a bit. However, when you tell a taxi driver that you want to go to the equator, this is where they take you. So you would never know the difference unless you continue on up the road a bit to the actual (little) museum place where the real equator is. We enjoyed our time here, but Hallie mostly enjoyed the fun playground areas they have.

FAKE. Oh well, it looks good anyway, right?

Here is the huge monument marking the spot. I have fond memories of this place from my time with OSSO. We were funny and had some great poses back in the day on those stairs up there. Maybe I should get some of those pictures out. Anyway, Hallie took this gem of a photo herself. How's that for talent? haha.

Again, the play areas were a hit. Hallie and Flor played together in this tire swing for a while, which was great.

Sorry- it was windy. But cute of Flor nonetheless.

It looked like it was going to rain, so we stopped in one of the many little restaurants they had inside the Mitad del Mundo for some ice cream and shakes. Figure this out...you could get a whole meal of hamburger, fries, and drink for $1.50, but a milk shake (very liquidy) cost $2.50. Our mistake. Next time we will go with a meal! Just kidding...

The shake were delicious nonetheless. Devin kindly shared with Jace by dipping his binky into it occasionally,.

Flor got an empanada instead (remember the no sugar thing?) She was quite happy with it.

Onto the next "real" equator! We almost gave up on it because I remembered it was down the street, but a taxi driver pointed us down the wrong road and we ended up going by a circus instead before turning around and finding the real one.

We got a tour at the real equator. They gave us some history of some of the groups native to Ecuador, including the ones who shrink heads (yes, still) and the ones who only go naked and spear animals and each other with extremely long spears. These groups live in the Amazon region and are mostly isolated. The Woarani people number 4000 (the ones who use spears and blow guns). This is a real shrunken head of a 12 year old boy. Yikes.

Here we are on the actual equator! Wahoo! We made it. My third time here, but Devin and the kids' first time.

We got to do quite a few experiments on the line. First, water. Water drains exactly down with no spiral at all right on the equator. We then moved the basin to the south a few feet, and the water clearly spins clockwise. On the north side, the water clearly spins counter-clockwise. Very interesting, eh?

We also all got to attempt balancing an egg on a nail right on the equator. It is much more easily done right on the line than elsewhere, as seen here. None of us could manage it though! The guide did it in like 2 seconds.

Hallie wanted a turn too. She was unsuccessful.

We also did some strength experiments. Off the line, the guide tried to pry open Devin's fingers and could not. She also had him hold his hands, clutched together, above his head, and pulled down on them to see if she could break them open. She couldn't. However, right on the line, she could easily do both. It was very interesting to watch! She also had me try to walk in a straight line on the equator with my arms straight out on each side and with my eyes closed. It was impossible to do; I could feel the forces from both sides pulling me one direction or another. But, a few feet off the line, it was much easier to walk in the straight line with my eyes closed. All fun and interesting experiments on the equator!

 We definitely enjoyed the second, real equator more than the first, though it is much smaller and rather hidden. It was fun and interesting for us. I recommend it to all who happen to come to Ecuador (we are still open for visitors...so if you come, we will take you! Great incentive, I know!)

One thing I kept forgetting to answer is about Flor's clothes and her sizes. Hay, you reminded me, so thanks! We brought all of Flor's clothes with us. At the orphanage, the clothes are all kind of community property and they share. I was rather surprised at how cute they dress the kids, though. I think they have a lot of the clothes donated from the United States as they are Carters, Children's Place, etc. and I haven't seen any of those types of stores around here. We were never told Flor's sizes so we kind of guessed on what to bring. My sister Jennifer was kind enough to buy her a whole wardrobe basically and we went with leggings and stretch pants versus jeans. That turned out to be a really good idea...as she is tiny. We have her in 5T clothes right now and they are a bit big. We put her in pair of Hallie's 4T jeans a few days ago and they fell right off; she couldn't even keep them up! So luckily, we have a lot of clothes of Hallie's that she will fit into when we get back. We bought Flor some shoes here as we didn't even want to guess on that size...her feet are tiny, too. Smaller than Hallie's.

Another Ecuador Oddity:
People Loooooove their car horns here. They honk incessantly, even when it is obviously not going to make a difference (which is most of the time!) For example, we will be in a long line at a red light and the instant the light turns green, the whole mass of cars waiting in line begin to honk their horns like crazy. Really? That's surely not going to change the fact that we can't move yet. It's weird, but kind of funny.