At the equator, about 45 minutes outside of Quito, Ecuador, at latitude 00'00'00, I balanced an egg faster than anyone else. It was beginner's luck, no doubt. It's one of the fun experiments they show people who come to see which way the water will flow and nerdy things like that.
There are two places that claim to be the middle of the world. The photo of Leza-the-lawyer and me is at "Mitad del Mundo" which is very touristy but still worth the trip up the tower. (Take the stairs down for the fun displays after going up in the elevator, but skip the rest of the park and go to the other place instead). The REAL equator is 240 meters away from Mitad del Mundo, the EXACT middle of the world (now that we have GPS). Those French dudes (the French Geodesic Mission) did a darn good job, with what they had to work with when they calculated the particular place of the equator way back in 1745.
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