There is a well known tourist attraction outside of Quito that purports to be on the equator, except that it isn’t. Kind of like the ‘first flight’ hype down in Kitty Hawk, NC. Sorry Wright Brothers fans. But that’s besides the point.
Gaspar took us to a monument that IS exactly on the equator and we heard an interesting presentation from a man there about how the pre-Incas understood about equinoxes and solstices and how they aligned their settlements with points on important mountains where the sun would be on these days. In fact the archaeologists are using this (the fact that those peoples understood the relationships) to work backwards and predict where other settlements and monuments should be. It’s working.
this is the view toward Cayambe and the point where the sun rises on the equinox.
We went on to Pablo’s afterwards.