I suppose it would be best to first describe why Ecuador is the roof of the world. Lately the focus has been on the traditional "top" where some fat paganistic dude stokes the fire of consumer culture in children's hearts and loins around the world. I reject that arbitrary top because it doesn't present us with anything interesting or exciting about the "top of the world." Nobody lives there as its extremes are particularly unwelcoming. As far as we know, nobody bothered to find it until very recently in our species history. The only real argument for labeling it the top of the world is that the axis the earth spins on, and even then the southern pole could just as easily take the name. Using axis to define up and down is pretty silly given the universe doesn't care much for standardization in this sense. Speaking of which, only half the entire universe is visible when you stand at a pole. Based on my geographical experience, it seems to me like a "top" should allow one to see everything.
If we are going to redefine the "top" of the world, it's best we use a much more personally significant marker. Just standing on the ground it seems fairly easy to define. Everything underneath my feet is below. Everything above my head is up. It is an easy distinction that influences many ancient philosophical questions about the relationship of things in the universe. It is easy to distinguish between heaven and earth, and to refer to the myriad things that dwell in the border zone. Up, however, depending on where you stand becomes different, a relativistic mess that doesn't define a "top" very well. Inarguably the most important feature of the sky is the sun, the seemingly eternal source of all life and energy on this planet. The sun strikes me as an excellent reference point. Dante depicts heaven and hell in a similar fashion to what I'm getting at. The depth of hell is deep within the earth, as far as on can get from the sun. To move closer to heaven is essentially moving away from the center of the earth. He probably didn't imagine deep center of a globe as we do now, nor did he place the sun as the very top of this system as that would have been heretical to the existing models of the universe, but he choose to place god at the top.
I think we can comfortably replace god with the sun in this equation. As far as we can tell it is our only god. It created and continues our species on this earth. If we are going to define top and bottom, we will do it with the sun being the ultimate height, a fitting point of reference for a terrestrial based species. And if we are to use the center of the world as the lowest "bottom," and the sun as the highest, then it would mean that the point where one can be closest to the sun would be our worlds "top."
This point exists here in Ecuador. The volcano Chimborazo rests one degree south of the equator, placing it right on the bulge of the earth created by it's rotation. Combined with its height, standing on its peak puts you 6,384.4 km from the center of the earth, the furthers one can get on the surface of the world. This also means that when the sun is directly overhead, one is as close as terrestrially possible to it.
I think this is a much more fitting "top" of the world. Here in the mountains of Ecuador you can feel the presence of the sun when the clouds drift away. The intensity of the light on a clear day is almost blinding. Suddenly the big bushy eyelashes inherited from my father's side of the family makes a lot of sense. The white Panamanian hats you see the locals wearing have such a practical purpose. You can see it in the washed out photos of mine taken on days where few clouds are in the sky, with the light intensifying bright colors and completely darkening anything that isn't a white reflective surface. The less complex optics of a camera cannot convey the intensity the sensitive ones of human eye are capable of. I hope I can show you what the light blue of the cathedral outside my window looks like in person.
Hopefully this blog will get some of you interested enough to come see for yourself, not just the beautiful highlands of the Andes, but also the incredible diversity in the coastal lowlands and the biological jewel of the world, the Amazon. For now, since I have work and obligations, I am living only here in the mountains. This blog will focus on life and stories in this beautiful town high up in the mountains on the roof of the world.
