Visit to the Equator - El Mitad del Mundo

In the 1700's explorers came with basic measuring tools and marked the equator where this monument stands.  Much more recently with more advanced instruments found the above is a few meters off so the below pix shows the current "exact location.

 

 The current monument, built in 1979, is almost 100 feet high, topped by a globe five feet across. 

Raquel Aldaz, the park’s museums chief, said the site first contained a smaller monument, erected in 1936. 

The builders, she said, believed they were placing the monument in the correct spot, except that measuring 

techniques at the time were not as accurate as they are today, so they were off by a few hundred feet. (Wiki)

 

 

View from the top of the monument to the current exact point.  Strange things happen at the equator.  First I weigh 20 lb less on the scales.  Second look at the above picture and see the yellow line.  It is impossible to walk a straight line with eyes shut without wobbling. BUT an egg can balance on the head of a pin.

The monument contains 9 stories - with each floor containing exhibits of the Indigenous tribes.  See next post.

 

This same day we visited a crater of an inactive volcano.  I used to think volcanos were small.  The one we visited in Africa was 10 miles wide.  This one we visited on our way to El Monte must have been close to that.  We did not go down but could see the homes that had been build in the huge crater.