The Middle of the World (mitad del mundo)

Today we went to the equator! Incredible and so cool! I actually had no idea the equator was so awesome. I thought I was just going to stand on a line and have my picture taken (although I did that too, see below):

However, lots of cool things happen on the equator. Remember in school when you learned about the Coriolis effect (no? see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Intuitive_explanation). Basically, the forces from the Northern hemisphere are going counter clockwise and the forces in the Southern hemisphere are going clockwise. When they hit the equator they cancel out and bounce back towards the poles so all kinds of cool things happen:

- There aren't any tornados at the equator
- You are two pounds lighter on the equator
- There is less gravity at the equator actually making you a little weaker (we did an experiment with this - it sounds crazy but it's true)
- You can balance an egg on a nail head if you are right on the equator (this is awesome)
- However, it's harder for us to balance (we all closed our eyes and tried to walk in a straight line on the equator- surprisingly difficult!)
- When you drain water there is no vortex/spinning (just ten ft in either direction you see a vortex when you drain water - so neat!)

There are other cool things too -who knew the equator was so fun!?

That's all for now. All this traveling around and speaking/reading/trying to understand Spanish has made me muy cansada (very tired)! Dormir!