The full story: GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

September 11, 2007 by Rick.

We spent the day today (Tuesday) touring Quito (about 2.2 million people) today checking out churches, museums and best of all the Equatorial line. It was phenominally cool!!! They had a demonstration of the Coriolis Effect exactly on the line, and then 3 m each side and the water actually drained through a sink straight down, clockwise, then counter-clockwise. Even I (who had taught Alex & Luke about the Coriolis Effect at about ages 7 & 4) had no idea that the results would be so amazingly visible barely 10 feet from the line. I assumed (somehow???) that we would have to travel a couple hundred meters either side to get a distinct difference. Verry, verry cool school lesson… Can’t wait to take the video back and show it in the kids science classes next year…

Tonight I added to the Machu Picchu and the Jungle (first note from Quito) Blog entries the rest of my journal text. I haven’t updated the prices spreadsheet yet, but thought eveyone would love to know that gas on the Galapagos islands and in mainland Quito is abot the same: 35 cents/liter for regular unleaded!!!!! Don’t feel too bad, a guy we met on the boat from the UK says that it is just over CAN$2/litre there….

We fly out of Quito tomorrow to San Jose, then on to LA for a 25 hour stopover…

The full Galapagos logbook entry: