Visit to the "Meddle" of the World

August 25th, 2010

Up on one of the walls at the school, there is a white board where there is a list of activities that are organized for the students. For today, Yonseili and I had signed up to go to the middle of the world. You may be wondering why it is that I wrote "meddle" on the title. Well, if you are and you want to know, it is because when we went to the Mercado La Mariscal, there were souvenir t-shirts being sold and one of the t-shirts said "Ecuador - the Meddle of the World." So that's why.

Everyone going was supposed to meet at 1:30pm at the school. Yonseili's and my Marketing Research class ends at 1pm. Well, we wanted/needed to go back home to get some stuff and leave other stuff and then make it back to the school by 1:30pm. So as soon as we left the class, we were James-Bond-style. We booked it to get a cab and headed home. It took the taxi maybe 10 minutes max to get here. Then, on our way back, we were stuck in rush hour traffic, "las horas pico." We were starting to panic, and to top it all off the cab driver we got was new to the business... he even had a map with him. But we made it with four minutes left on the clock...and we still hadn't eaten. So there we go booking it to a nearby store to get "segundas" which is rice, hominy, plantains, and pork to go. Then it was time to go a la mitad del mundo.

Yonseili and I went with professor Wagner on a taxi to get the 'metro,' which isn't really like an underground metro... it's a bus system. The other students went with the other professor to the same location. Then we went only with professor Wagner on the bus for a 40-minute drive. The ride truly was long. I didn't have a seat the entire time, it wasn't a smooth ride, the smell of exhaust s*cks.

When we finally got there, we went to the REAL middle of the world at the inti-ñan museum. We had a tour guide who shared a lot of neat information with us. We saw the skin of an Anaconda, huge spiders (Migala spider), a parasite catfish that can grow inside you, Candiru. Oh! and we saw "Tzanza's." They are shrunken heads used as trophies of war that were made by the tribes with a secret process to reduce the size of human heads, especially from their enemies. It is not done on human heads any longer, but is done on animal heads. The mystery of this process has not been discovered yet. But we were told the steps: (1) take head apart from body (2) make incision on the back so that organs inside, everything can be taken out (3) boil the head in secret potion (4) sew up the mouth and eyes -Tribes believed that the spirit of a person used to be in the head so they used to do this so that the spirit of the enemy wouldn't escape and take revenge- (5) stuff the head. Thought I'd share that just in case some of you might want to know a unique way getting revenge on someone... JUST KIDDING PEOPLE!

After that we were able to take pictures on the middle of the world line. I must admit it's amazing to be able to say that I went there because I remember being amazed by the equator when I was little, and never did it cross my mind that I would be going. Several things are done on the spot so that we are shown that we are for real at the "Mitad del Mundo." The following link talks about what we went through today: http://www.rampant-books.com/south_america_travel_tips/water_circle_clockwise_southern_hemisphere.htm

I really couldn't have put it any better myself, so I hope y'all take a look at the link!

Yonseili Flores and Miriam Engseth, a student from Norway, were able to balance the egg on the nail! It was exciting and they both got certificates that say they were able to do so on the equator.

Afterward, I went with Yonseili to "Gringolandia." Florian, the international student from France also living in her house until Saturday night, invited us there just to go have a drink and have fun. I don't drink but I figure it would be okay to go out and check out this so-called "White-people-Land." So we and Nadia, a Lebanese student who will leave Tuesday, got a taxi and headed to the university which is where we were supposed to meet everyone going. We arrived, hung out for a bit, and then took off. The place was definitely busy for it being a Wednesday night. There were a lot of people out enjoying themselves. We went into a bar in which it was Ladies Night. An international student told us to go with her because they give I don't remember how many free drinks before 8...ish. I just got a coke without ice, that I didn't even drink. We left early because we had to do Spanish homework. Of course, we were looked at kind of weird. Some people like honey on their pancakes, I don't. I'd rather have my cereal separate from my milk. I like ketchup on my cheese Ruffles chips. And I don't like to drink. It is what it is. Word.