Reloj Solar Quitsato [Solar Clock Quitsto] — Geocache of the week

Traditional
GC56FKX
by wen-go
Difficulty:
1.5
Terrain:
1.5
Location:
Cayambe, Ecuador
N 00° 00.000′ W 078° 10.500′

N 00° 00.000′ W 078° 10.500′ —

Aptly named, Ecuador straddles the equator where the southern and northern hemispheres meet. Exactly at latitude N 00° 00.000′, the Quitsato Sundial was the first monument of the Equator in the history of the Republic of Ecuador.

The location features a 54 meter diameter platform  embellished with a mosaic of  river stones. The different shades of rock create an eight-pointed star, also known as a  compass rose that indicates solstices and equinoxes.

At the center of the platform stands a giant 10-meter high sundial that can be used to tell time. This platform is also used to explain the albedo effect when the darker stones create higher temperatures from the absorption of sunlight. The cache takes you to a viewpoint to relax and absorb all this celestial knowledge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ellis is a geocaching Lackey and amateur weekend warrior. Her passion for travel and adventure has taken her to remote villages in the Brazilian Amazon, ski mountaineering in the Andes in Patagonia and sailing the isolated islands of the Kingdom of Tonga. She now resides in Seattle where her daily adventure involves competing with traffic while bike commuting and making frequent side trips to the beautiful Cascades and Puget Sound. She loves incorporating geocaching into all of these activities!