IVAE20170609-Ecuador: A Hidden Gem 魔幻南美洲 ── 赤道之國（a）

Known and loved the world over, the famous Panama hat didn’t actually originate4 in Panama. Such hats are products of another, less-visited Latin American country. It might seem strange, but the Panama hat is actually Ecuador’s most famous export, and its national treasure. 　　These attractive, lightweight5, durable6 hats were invented around the 1800s in a country that, even today, is not a major tourist or commercial destination. The hat’s inventor knew that if her creation were to become a global marketing phenomenon7, she would have to launch8 its sale from a much busier location than Ecuador. Just a few hundred miles to the north lies Panama. Blessed by geography, Panama is the narrowest strip▼ of land to separate9 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This unique feature made it a natural stop-off▼ point for travelers between the coasts of the US and Canada, as well as the only feasible10 site for the construction of the Panama Canal▼, a development that would revolutionize11 travel in the era before air travel. 　　North of Quito, Ecuador’s 100-foot-high monument▼ to the equator, La Mitad del Mundo, which translates12 to The Middle of the World, is upposed to mark the location of that imaginary13 line. However, a recent, embarrassing discovery made possible by GPS technology revealed that the location point had been miscalculated14. It is actually located 240 meters to the north. Since the huge monument had already been built, the erroneously▼ calculated location remains the equator’s official home. The Intinan Solar Museum was later built along the true equatorial line. Here tourists try their hand at balancing an egg on the head of a nail, or lose their balance walking along the equatorial line with closed eyes. Supposedly15, a slight reduction16 of gravity here accounts for these phenomena. In any case, these sound like fun things to try before heading for the outlying▼ islands of the Galápagos National Park and Marine Reserve.