Ecuador and the 2 equators?

I have had a couple of days doing absolutely nothing! The flight from Lima to Quito was pretty good as I flew over the upper tributaries of the Amazon. Some of the rivers were huge. The surrounds of Quito are stunning with huge volcanic cloud covered green mountains. But today the exploring began. Alice arrived last night so today we visited the equator, in Spanish Ecuador means equator, which lies about 16 miles north, but there are two of them! The most visited is the "Mitad del Mundo" (Middle of the World) site, a popular tourist attraction, which marks the equator line with a 100 ft monument and a yellow line, which was the established equator from the 1700’s but unfortunately is in the wrong place- blame the French.

However the real equator is about 10 minutes walk up the road (according to satellite GPS). The Intiñan Solar Museum advertises itself as the home of the "true" equator. This place is bisected by a line of red paint, so we all grabbed our phones to see if were actually on the equator! and we were! The Museum was kind of like a fun year 6 science experiment - such as balancing an egg on a nail, walking in a straight line, and watching water run down a plug hole (and its true?? about clockwise v anticlockwise toilets!). One fascinating thing I learnt today is that on the equator the day is exactly the same every day of the year, so the sun sets at the same time every night for 365 days! (about 6pm). Also as our location is on the equator we experience the shortest sunrises and sunsets because the Sun's daily path is nearly perpendicular to the horizon.