Like every other girl who´s watched A Walk to Remember, I´ve wanted to be in two places at once for ages. I never imagined that I´d check that off my bucket list by standing in two hemispheres.

Equador means Equator and the latitude line 0-0-0 is just 22 km north of the country´s capital, Quito. Actually, there are two lines for El Mitad del Mundo, or the middle of the world in Ecuador — calculated before and after GPS. Nora and I skipped the tourist trap featuring an enormous statue built before GPS and visited “the real deal” a few meters north. You can´t actually see that it´s the Equator line with your personal GPS because only military devices are accurate enough, so you have to believe the science experiments displayed on the line.

The line lies on the 1000-year-old indigenous site of Catequilla. The museum and tour explains how the tribe, Quitus, lived along with their ceremonial traditions. While much of their lifestyle is similar to other indigenous cultures, they have one tradition that sets them apart. They shrunk heads! After someone important died, they beheaded the body, took out the skull and used vapor to shrink the skin. After sewing the mouth shut, they used a rock to preserve the shape.

After the history lesson, it was time for science class. On each side of the Equator, energy pulls var, causing a variety of different phenomenons. The forces make it nearly impossible to walk straight across the line, but it´s the easiest place to balance an egg on a nail.

And here´s the answer to the famous question: Do toilets flush in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres? Yes. Watch this video demonstration to find out which way the water spins where you live:

And you of course can´t visit the Equator without cliché touristy photos. So here it is: I stood in two hemispheres, which made me feel closer to both my homes (the United States in the North and Chile in the South) all at once.

Nora and I standing in the north and south hemispheres, respectively.

Walkin´ the line. Cliché feet pictures are necessary when you´re standing on the Equator.

Me standing in the southern and northern hemispheres, respectively.

-JDF