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Ecuador is named after the equator, which runs right through the country, and the many sights and activities designed to explore this unique geographical feature display the pride Ecuadorians have in this fact. There are numerous ways to learn about, and celebrate, the equatorial line that suit every type of visitor including families with children, the scientific-minded, and even hikers.
Families in particular enjoy Mitad del Mundo, and Museo Solar Inti Ñan, although most travelers regardless of age express delight in visiting these sights. La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World City) is 22 km north of Quito near the village of San Antonio and makes for an excellent day trip. The monument honors Charles-Marie de La Condamine who in 1736 made the measurements which proved the world bulges at the center and is not perfectly round. His measurements helped birth the metric system. It is worth noting that the government monument is not exactly on the Equator line, as measurements have improved since the early days.
Mitad del Mundo is easily reached by taking the metrobus in Quito to the last station in the north, Ofelia, and then catching one of the clearly labeled Mitad del Mundo busses. The trip normally takes about an hour and costs under $.50. Taxis can also be hired from Quito to take visitors to the entrance of the park for under $20. For taxis to make a roundtrip visit, including waiting an hour and swinging by one of the nearby sites, costs between $30 and $40.
Sundays are the best day to visit Mitad del Mundo as Andean flute music and a nine-piece salsa band add to the festive atmosphere. If you mind crowds however, attend during a weekday. The park is full of restaurants, activities for families, gift shops, and museums. Admission is only a few dollars and it’s open every day of the week from 9-6 and until 7 on weekends. All the sites within Mitad del Mundo have small admission fees in addition to the park entrance fee.
There are numerous ways to learn about, and celebrate, the equatorial line...
In the center of Mitad del Mundo stands a stone trapezoidal monument adorned with a brass sphere. Besides providing an excellent photo opportunity of visitors straddling the equator, the 30m-high monument houses an ethnographic museum about the indigenous people in Ecuador and a viewing platform. Unfortunately, in the 1990s scientists discovered that the monument is actually about 1,000 feet south of the true equator by using GPS.
Nearby is Museo del Quito en Miniatura, a 1:200 scale model of Quito equipped with a light show that takes the miniature city from dawn to midnight. This impressive model is 10sqm and took 7 years to build. The planetarium does a variety of 30 minute astronomy shows.
A few hundred meters east from La Mitad del Mundo and outside the park is the entertaining Museo Solar Inti Ñan where guides lead visitors through meandering outdoor dioramas displaying the lives of indigenous throughout Ecuador and exhibits meant to demonstrate the unique physical properties of the equatorial line. Visitors balance eggs on nails, try to walk a straight line, examine a “solar chronometer” made in 1865 that shows the exact time by the rays of the sun, and watch water swirl in different directions on either side of the equator. Some of these effects are tricks, but it is still pretty amazing to see.
Those interested in anthropology or archeology should take a short walk east of La Mitad del Mundo to Museo de la Cultura Solar, run by the Quitsato scientific research center, where visitors can learn about the whereabouts of the real equatorial line, located on a sacred indigenous site constructed more than 1,000 years ago on a hill called Catequilla. This site was only discovered in the 1990s and scientists are still in the infant stages of fully excavating and studying its design.
Scientists do know that one end of the wall lies directly on the equatorial line, another line creates a 23.5 degree angle to the equator, the same degree as the Earth’s axis, and two others point to the sun’s rise on the solstice in December and towards the sun’s set on the solstice in June, indicating that the indigenous people had incredible equatorial and solar calculations. Indigenous guides can be hired for a hike to this site for slightly under $30 per person.
3.5 km northwest of Mitad del Mundo is Rumicucho, a pre-Columbian archeological site built by the Quitu-Cara culture around 500 BC. The site was used as a place for ceremonies during the equinoxes. Normally, visitors have the site, and the views of Quito from a distance, to themselves. There is a small admission fee and taxis are between $6 and $9 round-trip.
Often overlooked by regretful travelers is the Reserva Geobotánica Pululahua, a 3383-hectare reserve which encloses the crater of the extinct volcano Pululahua. The crater is 400 m deep and 5km wide and the basin is used as agricultural space. The west side of the crater is open and a steep trail leads from the Mirador de Ventanillas viewpoint down to the center of the crater. The hike takes about half an hour on the way down and hour to come back up.
To reach the crater by bus, catch one at Mitad del Mundo headed to Calacalí and ask the bus driver to let you off at the closest point, which is about a 30 minute walk from the rim. Alternately, a taxi costs $5, or across the street from Mitad del Mundo green taxi trucks can be hired for $3. Travelers not up for the hike can sit and eat lunch at the upscale restaurant El Crater. The adobe-style building has large windows with sweeping views located up a driveway directly before the entrance to the viewpoint. The restaurant can call a cab for the trip back to Mitad del Mundo. It does get quite cold near the crater as clouds often roll in by the afternoon. Bring warm clothing.
