How much weighs a dream?

English, Phil O' Soph

Approximate reading time: 30 minutes

Wie viel wiegt ein in Erfüllung gegangener Traum?

German, Phil O' Soph

Ungefähre Lesezeit: 30 Minuten

Cuanto pesa un sueño?

Español, Phil O' Soph

Tiempo de lectura aproximado: 30 minutos

Be equilibrated and balanced at the ‘Middle of the world’

Journal

Approximate reading time: 7 minutes

Harmony. Zen. Balance. Peace. Don’t we all strive for that? There is one single place in the world, where you can have guaranteed equilibration. To go there, you need to visit Quito in Ecuador, the highest capital of the world. If you don’t have an own car, it’s a real odyssey to arrive their with public transport. I needed three different busses and two hours to get to the middle of the world.

Quito itself is in between the Andean mountains and therefor stretched horizontally. Approximately 22 kilometers away from the city center is the equator situated. The urban area is due to the narrow valley not wider than two to three kilometers and extends longitudinally in north-south direction more than 30 kilometers out. So actually the middle of the world is not in Quito itself, but close to it

Before the trip I heard several people speaking about the middle of the world. It’s one of the most visited tourism destinations of Ecuador. People told me about the real and the fake middle of the world and recommended to me to visit ‘Museo Intiñan’ instead of the renown monument itself. So after two hours of an exhausting bus ride I walked a bit to access the museum. Finally I can tell, that it was really worth it to travel that much.

How are museums usually from the eyes of a visitor? You have to be silent when you walk around, are not allowed to touch anything and pay quite some money to be allowed to enter. But this museum is something special, it’s comparably keen and there are several interactive things to do for a visitor, that it doesn’t get boring there. You will have a very motivated tour guide that explains even the most complicated physics of the odd features of Ecuador in an easy manner so that a fool like me will understand it as well. And yes, you can even learn something for real to be able to brag with your knowledge to others. For instance that your weight in Ecuador is one kg less than in other countries of the world:

“In Ecuador your weight is less than in your country of origin, because it is the most width part of the earth and we are far away from the centre/core of the earth. Therefore the gravity strength is less.”

Great for everyone who wants to boost his/her diet plans! Apart from that there were several other interesting things to see:

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One of the most interesting moments was to see the equator itself. The feeling of being at the middle of the world is also psychologic a good one and gives a boost of motivation and confidence. The psychologic advantages are carried on physical disadvantages. If you are exactly on the equator line you will not be able to shift from one foot to another with closed eyes because your sense of balance is interfered because of the missing attractive force of the poles. Another malus is that you can’t resist if someone pushes you away from your stand. You simply can’t stand still because of the missing attractive force and will be slightly pushed away. But for taking a rest at the middle of the world it’s quite suitable.

Another highlight was for me to balance an egg on the head of a nail – Nowhere else in the world is something like that possible. It took me several attempts and a lot of patience to accomplish that mission. And everyone who knows me good will confirm, that patience is not my specialty event.

But after ten minutes and with the power of the Ecuadorian football jersey it finally worked out for me:

Bams!

…Slowly

I did it

Have you ever thought, that even a water current is dependable of the attractive force of the poles? Check out the following three videos and you know what I mean:

So depending on where exactly you are in the world, the water flows down either clockwise, vertically plummeting or counter-clockwise. How shocking is that? And I always thought, that the Simpsons episode with Barts phone call prank with an Australian boy was just shenanigans. But lesson learned!

What you can see on my finger tip is the fake middle of the world. The monument itself was built from the Ecuadorian government, when they found out, that the museum was attracting many tourists and visitors. Their first idea was: “We want to profit from that as well”. And so they declared the term ‘middle of the world’ as a public possession and built their own attraction 200 meters away. Apart from that, they forbid the museum to have this term as well in their name. The museum changed therefor its name to ‘Museo Intiñan’ and every visitor needs to pay 5 Dollar to access the monument. And the monument is not even on the latitude zero.

My advice: Don’t miss the museum ‘Museo Intiñan’ (Inti = Sun. ñan = path). You can still go after that to the monument and if you have five dollar spare you should invest them. But the museum itself should be of your major interest and attention.

One day feeling like Eminem or: How to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Guallupe, Ecuador

Journal

(Approximate Reading time: 9 minutes)

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Yummy Ceviche: Chilean, Ecuadorian or Peruvian style?

Foooooood

Approximate reading time: 7 minutes

The South American cuisine has many things to offer for hungry stomachs: Lomo Saltado, Empanadas, Vori Vori, Mbeyú, Chrurrasco, etc. Some would say, that vegetarians could have a difficult time to find a for their conviction a suitable dish. And that might be true: Especially BBQ’s are popular for South American families at the weekends. And BBQ’s contain most of the time? Yes, exactly: Meat. But one South American dish might be a worthwhile alternative to try.

All hardcore vegetarians or vegans miss of course many opportunities for good dishes. Speaking of myself I can’t even imagine to not eat meat or fish. This scenario never popped into my head, not even when one of my ex-girlfriends tried to make the whole vegetarian style tempting to me. There is no way, that I will ever try to avoid meat. Unfortunately there is too many good food that includes meat or fish. And I don’t want to miss that.

If someone would ask me the question: “If you have to stop eating either meat or fish, what would you chose?”I would probably not be able to give a profound or well argued answer. Simply both would be sad to avoid eating. Probably I would chose fish, because it’s more difficult to acquire and therefor more expensive. Meat on the other hand is easier to produce for a costumer and better available.

The most tasty South American fish-dish is Ceviche. It has also regionally different names like Cebiche or Seviche. But these names look very wrong in my eyes so forget about the alternative spellings. Ceviche comes originally from Peru, but has emerged in different American countries, like Ecuador, Chile and Mexico. All of these countries have adapted the Peruvian idea of preparing raw fish with there own tastes and styles.
And Peru loves Ceviche! The Peruvian government declared 10 years ago June 28 the ‘Day of Ceviche’, a yearly commemoration day to honor their traditional dish. Since 2005 it is even a national cultural heritage. According to a resolution of the Ministry of Production, which was published in their official gazette, the decision aims to

“promote and disseminate the Peruvian seviche, both nationally and internationally, as a national prestigious dish, stimulating its culinary consumption.”

Although they wrote Ceviche with an S, it reads like a love letter to their own food. I had the luck to try so far the Peruvian, Chilean and Ecuadorian version of Ceviche. The Mexican one I didn’t try so far. But I would like to share and compare the other three ones I tried.

Chilean Ceviche

First I must say, that I only tried one single time Ceviche from Chile. In 2014 I was for a couple of days in Santiago and tried a local dish of Ceviche. Spoiled after spending some months in Lima and eating the original version, the Ceviche from Chile was more than disappointing and not worth the money. Besides the very sour taste, the garlic and chili was marinated as well. It also contained mint, which really didn’t belong there. I didn’t take any photo of the plate, but here you can see a video about other food travelers who compared Peruvian with Chilean ceviche:

Not my favorite, I wouldn’t order it again.

Ecuadorian Ceviche

A complete different style is the Ecuadorian Ceviche. You have more options to choose your main component you would it like to prepared with. Generally spoken, Ceviche Ecuadorian style is more expensive than the other in the two other countries, but this is due to the higher living costs in Ecuador. And it comes as well with a complete different style of preparing, check the following picture:

Different than the Peruvian one. It has it’s color and taste because of the addition of tomato.

What we see here is almost a soup. although the fish is already dead, it swims inside of tomato sauce. Same reason for its taste is the different color. The idea with tomato is interesting, but changed the taste of the whole dish completely. Both examples here did not taste like lemon or a comparable sour flavor. The left one ($11.50) was with prawn and fish, the right one ($9.00) with a mix of various tastes. Not one both pictures visible are popcorn, Corn (fried corn) and Chifles (fried banana chips), what is typical side dish for Ecuador.

Peruvian Ceviche

The original! The icon! The legend! Peruvian Ceviche comes with a sour taste and several side components. Slices of raw fish are marinated in freshly squeezed key lime or bitter orange juice. Nicely prepared and stacked over one another with eatable seaweed on top. Next to that it was prepared with sliced red onions, chili peppers, salt and pepper.

Next to the actual ceviche, the whole plate came with two sweet potatoes, fried yuca and corn. The second best after the unmistakable taste is the price: I only paid 31.00 Soles ($9.50). More than fair for a bunch of good food.

All in all the podium should look as followed:

5 reasons to live in Quito and 5 reasons to leave Quito

ecuador, English, Journal, Languages

Approximate reading time: 12 minutes

Quito! Capital of Ecuador! And at the same time the highest capital in the world! But how can that be with ‘only’ 2,850 m in altitude? I was very shocked, when I read this a few months ago, because I was always on the assumption, that Bolivia has the highest capital in the world. Then I was happy because my assumption was semi-correct: La Paz is on 3,640 m of altitude. Then I was shocked again because La Paz is the seat of the Bolivian government, but it’s not the official capital of Bolivia. Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and retains judicial power. And with only 2,810 m in altitude, it’s not the highest capital of the world. And Quito is very proud of 40 m more, because size matters!
Quito is as well the capital of the world, which is located closest to the equator. Apart from that, Quito has several wonderful nicknames:

– Luz de América (Light of America)
– Carita de Dios (God’s Face)
– Ciudad de los Cielos (City of the heavens)