The country where the Equator is located

The Kochi-based entrepreneur Balram Menon talks about his impressions of Ecuador as well as the Galapagos Islands, which was made famous by naturalist Charles Darwin

Photos: Balram Menon with  Dr Steffi Estanio; Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (Spanish for ‘Middle of the World’) and at the Galapagos Islands    

By Shevlin Sebastian

It is noon on a cloudy day in April. The place: Puerto Ayora, a town on the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. The Kochi-based entrepreneur Balram Menon adjusts his helmet and his sunshades. He is dressed in a black T-shirt and Bermuda shorts. A few metres behind him is a 27-year-old paediatric surgeon from Buenos Aires,  Dr Steffi Estanio, who is hunched low on a bicycle. A day earlier, they had met in a boat which was taking tourists around and agreed to meet the next day for cycling.

This is a downhill route, a dedicated track for cyclists. The length: 19 kms. Soon, they set out. On the left, there are tall grassy plants. On the right is a highway. Balram adjusts the Go Pro camera, which is shooting him as he cycles down. He says, “Steffi, say hi to the camera.” She duly does so. Soon, they are gathering speed. They are now going at 60 km/hour.  

After a few minutes, Balram hears a sound. He quickly looks back and realises that Steffi has fallen down. Balram begins to apply the brakes, but he is not used to the bike and falls down. Thankfully, he has a few abrasions only on his left arm. He gets up quickly and rushes back. Steffi is bleeding at the back of her head. The locals rush the duo on an open truck to the nearest hospital.  

But when her head is stitched Steffi loses her memory. “She asked me who I am,” says Balram. He calls a doctor friend in Kochi who tells him that the loss of memory will last a day. Nevertheless, Balram keeps showing the videos of their ride. “Steffi finally understands what has happened,” says Balram.

It is a novel experience for Balram. On the advice of a friend, he decides to go for a holiday to the Latin American country of Ecuador. It is 19,000 kms from Kochi. The flight route is circuitous. First, he flies to Delhi. From there he goes to Amsterdam. Thereafter, it is a 14-hour flight to Ecuador’s capital, Quito.

Since Quito is at an altitude of 18,000 feet, hence, first-time visitors face the risk of experiencing altitude sickness. So, when they check into a hotel, they are given cocoa leaves. “You warm it in hot water and drink it like green tea,” says Balram. “It helps ward off uneasiness.” Incidentally, cocoa leaves are used to make cocaine, the drug of choice for many international celebrities.

At Quito, Balram is taken up by the simplicity and friendliness of the local people.  “They had not heard of India and are happy to know that I have come from a far-off place,” he says. To one local, Balram gives a Rs 20 note. The man walks about showing it to everybody. Since the people only know Spanish, he uses Google Translator to communicate.

Not many people know that the Equator is located in Ecuador. The place to go is the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (‘Middle of the World’, in Spanish). “You stand on a yellow line and the latitude and longitude is 0 degrees,” says Balram. On the left side of the yellow line is the Northern Hemisphere while on the right it is the Southern Hemisphere. To show this, a tourist guide puts some leaves in a wash-basin filled with water. Then she takes off the stopcock, and the leaves on the left side will turn clockwise while it is anti-clockwise on the right. Also, because of the zero gravitational force, a local shows that he can balance an egg on a nail.

Soon, Balram begins travelling within the country. He goes to Banos, 220 kms from Quito to see the Pailón del Diablo or ‘Devil’s Cauldron’ waterfall. The fall of the water, from a steep height of 240 feet, is a fascinating melange of sound, foam and mist.

Another trip is to the world-famous Galapagos Island archipelago, which is 1000 kms from Quito. On one island, Santa Cruz, you can see the Charles Darwin Research Station, which was established in 1964. Among many other subjects, they do research on tortoises. Charles himself spent some time in 1835 and was so inspired by the wildlife he saw on the islands, he was able to pen down his revolutionary Theory Of Evolution.

You can see a carcass of an 800-year-old tortoise called Harriet. In fact, the world's biggest tortoise can be found in Galapagos. It weighs around 400 kgs and is 110 years old. Balaram gets a photo taken of him sitting on his haunches next to it.

There are some unusual birds, too. “One species is called the blue-footed boobies,” says Balram. Booby means clown in Spanish. Their feet are blue in colour. When the mating season arrives, the males raise their feet to attract the females. Then it flaps its wings, which are of a wide span. Then if the female is receptive, they will rub their long beaks together.

Finally, when asked about the cuisine, Balram says, “In everything the people use bananas. They mix pork and beef with bananas. The shrimp is not cooked. Instead, lime juice is put on it along with pepper. This is called ceviche. It is their national dish and very tasty. They also eat crabs, octopus and oysters. But their speciality, Cuy is a small guinea pig rat. It is roasted and eaten. Sometimes, it is grilled. They also use potato, rice, pasta and yuca (a type of bread roll).”  

Overall, Balram had the time of his life. And he is busy saving up money for his next sojourn to South America.