September October 2017

Rich Leu. Sadly, Gavin was not able to go with us in the end; even though, he was instrumental in helping organize the trip. He was; however, able to secure a spon- sorship from Hemisphere GNSS. They graciously paid all our expenses for the day we visited the sun dial. Commemorative Monument One of the things we wanted to do while we were on the equator was set a com- memorative monument. Gavin arranged with Bernsten Monuments, to provide us with a disk to set, as well as duplicates for each of us. We originally planned to partner with the Universidad Central del Ecuador and Instituto Geografico Militar, IGM, to set the monument. The University was not able to participate. IGM is roughly the equivalent of our National Geodetic Survey, NGS. Due to all the red tape, IGM didn’t confirm their participa- tion until we were in-flight to Quito, but they made up for it with a very gracious and informative tour of their facility and capabilities. The original plan was to set the monument on the equator near the big touristy Mitad del Mundo, but a few days before we left on our adventure, our tour guide, Santiago Salazar, emailed me that he had contacted a Cristobal Cobo Arizaga who is an “archaeoastronomer” and has a huge sun dial located on the equator and would like to meet with us. As it turned out, this was very fortuitous because his family is the current owner of the original Hacienda Huachala where the French expedition first set up their base of operations. Cristobal gave us a presentation on the equatorial studies he has made which included some pre- Incan sites, then treated us to a delicious lunch. After lunch, we set the monument in a place of honor on the equator at the sun dial. My thought was to place our monument on the perimeter of the dial but Cristobal insisted on digging up a spot on the dial. His crew went right to work with pick and shovel. An interesting coincidence happened the next day. A group from the American embassy toured the sun dial site and Cristobal was quick to point out the newly set monument by the American survey- ors. We learned the embassy people had been there because we happened to meet them a few days later while we were on another tour. They told us our motel was only a few blocks from the pla- za where the newly elected Ecuadorian president would be inaugurated on our last day in the country. They suggested we relocate to a newmotel because there were fears of riots. Needless to say, we followed their advice. Luckily for every- body, there were no riots. Additional Exploration I mentioned Santiago was our guide and I can’t say enough good things about him. In addition to the four tours that would allow us to get out in the countryside, he also provided us with transportation on non-tour days. One of our tours was to the volcano Cotopaxi which was one of the original triangulation points used by the French expedition. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything remaining of the lo- cation used by the expedition. We were able to drive to about 12,000’ in elevation then take a brutal hike to the 16,000’ ele- vation where there was a hiker’s shelter. All but one of us completed the hike. I can remember telling myself put one foot in front of the other as I trudged up the trail. I allowed myself a brief rest at the switchbacks to try to catch my breath. Ken Bays has been doing some moun- taineering training and practically ran up the trail! We were treated to a Condor sighting on our way back down. There are only about 114 Condors in Ecuador. One of our last tours with Santiago in- cluded a 2–3 hour horseback ride up into the hills to observe wildlife. Now the last time I was on a horse was when I was a little kid at a carnival pony ride. I wasn’t concerned because I had watched a lot of cowboy movies so how hard could it be? The morning of the ride we arrived and we all gathered our gear out of the SUV. For some reason I was the last to get over to the horses so I took what was left, a small white innocuous looking horse. Not to worry, all good guys ride white horses right? Santiago had hired a couple of guys to provide the horses and assist during the ride. The horses were saddled up and we swung into the saddles. Why was it so far down to the ground? I guess they Geodesy The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 40, No. 5 10 Web Links Bernsten Monuments : www.berntsen.com Mitad del Mundo : www.mitaddelmundo.com , Santiago Salazar : www.neotropicalecuador.com Surveyors Rendezvous : www.surveyorshistoricalsociety.com Hemisphere GNSS: www.hemispheregnss.com/ Continued from page 9