Today in Ecuador our group managed a feat of weight loss to make even the strictest dieter proud – we each weighed officially 0.3% lighter than our regular UK weight this morning! How did we manage such an impressive achievement just 3 days into our Ecuador trip? According to Luis, our guide, it’s all thanks to more powerful centrifugal forces at latitude zero. Happy days!
As we passed through the Equator we took time to explore the quirky Inti’an museum. Interestingly it was here in Ecuador back in 1736 that the French mission led by Charles Marie de la Condamine first mapped the precise location of the equator (and also proved the existence of the world’s equatorial bulge). Unfortunately their measurements proved to be a few hundred yards off, leaving the small Inti’an site at the true GPS-measured Equator.
Performing scientific experiments here was certainly more fun than I remember from Mr Sturridge’s classes back in my school days. We proved that water does indeed flow clockwise in the southern hemisphere (anti-clockwise in the north, and vertically down on the equator line), balanced an egg on the head of a nail (just try doing that one back home in England!), and of course took the pre-requisite cheesy photos with one foot in each hemisphere.
With the science buffs satisfied we motored south down the impressive Avenue of the Volcanoes passing no less than 5 monstrous Andean peaks of over 4700 metres on route – despite the cloud cover we did get some pretty impressive views. After lunch we squeezed in a visit to the colourful local art workshop at Tigua, before finishing a rewarding drive at the quintessential indigenous village of Chugchilan. Recent rains had left the quagmire roads out of reach for our bus so we hired 4x4s for the final ascent – what Wild Frontiers’ journey would be complete without a bit of unanticipated adventure? Tomorrow we spend the entire day here to enjoy trekking / horse-riding and explore the stunning surrounding hills – always one of my personal highlights of this action-packed trip!
The only negative so far is that I fear our weight loss will be very temporary given the generous platefuls of food we are tucking away every day!!!
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