The real equator line lies a short walk away from the monument and park. By short walk, I mean a rather unmarked walk along an expressway where we spent the majority of the time wondering if we were going in the right direction or not. After turning down another unmarked road (that we were told to turn down) we kept walking until we saw a sign for the Museo de Sitio Intiñan. Once inside, we were led on a guided tour through the outdoor museum where we did some experiments and of course, had our picture taken on the real equator.
See what I mean about not knowing where to go? It’s a little bit strange how big and grand the official monument and park are for an inaccurate equator line and then how little (actually there is none) signage between the “two equators.” You would also think that the Museo de Sitio Intiñan would put more effort into the walk in between. For the record, we saw others walking in between, looking just as bewildered as we felt.
We started the tour in a huge group of German tourists, but quickly fled once we realized we couldn’t see, nor hear a thing and started the tour over in a smaller mostly English speaking group. The museum is nice, I think it was a bit more interesting than visiting the monument and fake yellow equator. We watched water drain in different directions on either side of the GPS calculated equator, tried to walk in a straight line with our eyes closed on the it, as well as balance an egg on a nail. Andrew walked out with a certificate confirming his abilities to balance the egg. I fully plan on framing it and hanging it up, if he lets me. An hour later, we were back in Quito for one more night, one more Spanish lesson, and one more afternoon in Quito before we started making our way north towards Colombia.