There's very few places on earth where you can claim to have one foot on the northern hemisphere and another one on the southern. Ecuador, appropriate named for it's location on the equator, is one of those places. Looking for a bit of touristy fun, Adam and I crammed onto a bus and headed to the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the Earth) last Sunday afternoon. The Mitad del Mundo complex itself is precisely that, a bit touristy, with a gigantic line drawn the middle where tourists pose for pictures, buy souveniers and climb a silly monument. The funny thing is that this structure is not where the actual equator lies. A few years ago, NASA found that the local museum next door has the true equator line. We visited the museum, where we witnessed some rather unusual phenomenons. We were told that on the true equator Adam would not be as strong as he usual was (Which is hard to believe right? But supposedly, the farther you are away from the center of the earth, the less gravitational pull on your body, making you weaker). In fact, our 5'2" petite guide was able to break his grip quite easily! (For his sake, we'll blame that one being on the equator) Second of all, water in basins do drain in opposite directions depending on which hemisphere you reside in. Water drains clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Directly on the equator, water did not flow in a direction but rather drained straight down. Another one of the experiments had us walking the line, similar to the police sobreity test. Supposedly, it would be harder to walk in a straight line with your eyes closed because gravity on either side of the equator is pulling you off the line. We'll just say that we found this one a bit inconclusive, since we have a rather hard time "walking the line" on the equator, off the equator, sober or drunk.

After getting our fill of equator related experiments and hopping back and forth between hemispheres, we stopped to listen to a local band that was playing. A good size crowd was beginning to gather around the band, dancing and clapping along with the beat. We had read about bands playing at the equator on Sundays so we figured this was just a typical Sunday afternoon. What we didn't expect, was what came next. The crowd opened fire. But not with what you may expect. Adam and I got nailed with shaving cream-like foam. We soon learned that we had unknowingly visited the Mitad del Mundo during Carnaval (Brazilians aren't the only ones that enjoy this crazy holiday!). At first we were a bit concerned about how the blue foam would affect our clothes (afterall we do only have three shirts and a long ways to go). But after getting sprayed at point blank range, we were out for revenge. We're not quite sure if everyone's fair game or if it became a game of "Spray the Gringos," but we were soon both completely covered in foam. Oh, but we dished it out as well. Highlights included, Adam unleashing on a 12 year girl that was spraying the crowd and myself filling a grandma's mouth with foam (luckily she was laughing about it). The crowd was in hysterics, unarmed, armed, everyone was laughing, dancing and spraying one another. As the party started to die down and canisters became empty, we decided to call it a truse and headed back home on the bus. With people snickering as we walked on by, we raised our heads high and wore our tie died clothes like badges of war. The battle we may not have won, but it was hard fought nonetheless.