Today´s grand adventure was to the centre of the earth no less. Just north of Quito lies the exact line of the equator, with as you can see a latitude of 0 degrees. Now you might expect a grand monument and perhaps a tourist trap to mark this point and indeed there is one. 
As you can see on the left is a rather large monument. Now this was built by the French a couple of hundred years ago and they got their calculations wrong. The big tourist complex at la Mitad del Monde (Middle of the Earth) where this monument lives, is in reality in the wrong place, a couple of hundred metres in the wrong place. I did not go to the tourist complex but instead to the museum behind it, where the actual equator lies (proven by global positioning systems). It had no grand monument, instead it had a red line painted on the floor. What it did have though is the science that proves it is the equator. I watched the famous water test. A sink is filled with water and then the plug is removed. When the sink is placed in the northern hemisphere the water goes down the plug anti clockwise, in the southern hemisphere it goes down clockwise. When the sink is placed exactly on the equator the water goes straight down the plug. It is all to do with the fact that the equator is the widest point of the earth and fractionally closer to the sun and moon and therefore has different gravitational forces. Sounds boring but trust me, its fascinating to observe. Something I did not expect is that it is practically impossible to stand on the equator, hold your arms out, close your eyes and try to walk forward. It is impossible to balance - you just fall over! You also have alot less strength on the equator again due to gravity. This was proven to us by the following experiment. You stand in either the northern or southern hemisphere, clench your fists together and hold them above your head. Another person then applies pressure to your fists and tries to lower them. Using all your strength, you try to keep you fists above your head. Then you do this again whilst standing on the equator. Well there was no contest. With only one hand, the other person could lower your fists - try as you might, you have alot less strength. It was bizarre. You can also balance an egg on a nail on the equator - I saw it done. It was a truly fascinating, interesting afternoon and as a special treat the guide was allowed to speak to me in English - so I didn´t miss anything!
For the last week I have been in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. I arrived in South America on the 15th October with the purpose of trying to learn a little spanish. A little spanish is the exact phrase I need to describe the progress I am making. It is hard going as I am not a natural linguist. For two weeks I an staying in the home of Martha and Vincente, Martha is the director of the Spanish School in which I am studying. I have one to one lessons between 8:30 and 12:30 followed by a local ecuadorian lunch with the tutors followed by another couple of hours one to one - but in the afternoon we do not have lessons per se but experience a range of cultural activities. These range from walking around the local area, to visiting important sites or churches or museums and even salsa dancing. All the time I have to speak Spanish, no English allowed. I eat my evening meal with Martha and her family again totally in Spanish and then I settle down to complete my 2 or 3 hours of homework. It is as 
intense as it sounds and I am shattered.Quito is a lovely city not at all what I had expected. All the reports you hear about Quito is that it is an extremley dangerous city, very polluted and dirty. Obviously you have to be sensible about safety, ie not walking alone after dark but Quito is a beautiful place, full of museums, churches, colonial architecture and impressive statues. The picture above is of the Angel of Quito. She was built upon a hill overlooking the city to protect Quito from earthquakes. This is the view from the top. The views were spectacular, you could see the surrounding mountain ranges and volcanoes. Not content with climbing the Angel of Quito, I have 
also climbed a tower and spire in the basilica. You can see the spire to the right of the picture and the clocktower is on the left. To get to the top of the spire, I had to climb up a metal ladder on the outside of the spire looking down. It was slightly nerve racking. The ladders within the clock tower were all inside but as you approached the top you had to walk across the metal girders covered over in a chicken wire
material. That was worse than the outside ladder! Again the views were amazing and the sense of achievement you feel when you touch solid ground again is great. When you go inside the churches here, you really do need to wear sunglasses. Every inch of the walls and ceilings are covered in gold, arranged in ornate patterns. They take their Catholicism seriously here. So I have another week of studying in front of me, then I reckon I will derserve a treat - so I have booked a trip to the Galapogas Islands - I´m even going on a luxary catamoran! Thats how much of a treat I deserve.
Our first port of call within Panama was the little town of Boquette. Boquette is nestled within coffee growing areas and the stuff is abundant. A certain coffee king would have a field day here. Not only do Panamamians claim that their coffee is the best but for the last decade every winner of the coveted world coffee championship has been from Panama. Not always the same region but always from Panama. So theres a tip for you - find the Panama coffee not the Colombian. Personally I remember Boquette for "Zanzibar Jazz Bar" a 
wonderful establishment where I got very drunk on a wonderful concoction called chocolate martini. It has neither chocolate nor martini in it but it tasted good nethertheless. Due to the continual afternoon torrential downpours, we opted not to spend an evening camping on a beach but headed off a day early to Panama City. This was the view that greated us as we arrived on the outskirts of Panama City. Yes those Panama people can build impressive bridges (if only they would pass their knowledge on to the Costa Ricans). Not surprisingly our first stop was the famous Panama Canal. The Canal connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is 48 miles long. The French originally tried to build it in the 1800's but after the deaths of 20,000 plus workers and out of control costs they gave up. The Americans took over the construction and only left Panama in 1999. Ships are charged according to their mass to cross the c
anal. The most expensive ship cost over $250,000 whilst the cheapest crossing was done by a bloke swimming the canal. He was charged around $0.30. We stopped at the Miraflores lock. The size of the ships are immense, they really do have to be seen to be believed. The ships are built to the exact measurements of the Panama Canal. On average 90 ships per day can pass through, the canal never shuts. As they are passing through the locks, the ships have only centimetres to spare on either side. They are piloted through by smaller tugs and guided by vechicles that run on tracks beside the sides of the locks. The whole precedure only takes a few minutes as the ship passes through one lock to the next and is totally mesmorising. The next couple of days were spent within Panama City - not the most beautiful city in the world. One thing they do exceptionally well here is the fast food outlets within shopping centres. The food is up to restaurant standards at some places and costs less than $3. The taxis are also extremley cheap. We drove around the city for what seemed liked hours, to be charged the vast sum of $2. Alas this is the end of my Central American adventure - next stop South America.
When Costa Rica was first discovered, the Spaniards found an abundance of wealth here. In fact so much so that they over loaded some of their ships with gold and they sank with the weight. There is not much sparkly stuff left here now but what they do have is an abundance of wildlife. 25% of Costa Rica is national park and they are committed to maintaining it. Costa Rica is also unusal and unique in Latin America in that it is very stable politically. They have not had an army here since the 40´s. This is all making Costa Rica a very popular destination with nature lovers and with Americans who consider it close enough to be worth the effort (plus alot of locals can speak English - not that pesky Spanish). My first impression of Costa Rica was rain. It is the middle of the rainy season and boy can it rain. None of the other countries we have visited have had much in the way of rain - but here we are getting very wet. 
Our first stop was the shores of Lake Arenal in which we could see Arenal Volcano in the distance. This is the third most active volcano in the world behind Mount Etna and one in Hawaaii. The volcano first errupted in the 60´s much to the surprise of the locals, who believed it was just a mountain. It killed 87 people and has been errupting on average twice a year since then. We were allowed to climb to the outskirts of an old lava flow but for safety reasons could not get any further. What was really impressive was when night fell and we could watch the red hot lava tumbling down the side of the volcano. That was spectacular. The lava can´t half move at a fast rate. I also indulged in a bit of luxary here, visiting a 5 star hotel to make use of their hot springs. These are a number of natural pools heated up to 45 degrees by the underground magma chambers. The pools were so relaxing, they even had waterfalls within them so your back and shoulders could get massaged whilst you just sat in the warm / hot water. 
After all this luxary we moved on to San Jose (Yes I know the way to San Jose). Here I took a trip to the RainForest Arial Tram ride. Tram lines have been built above the rain forest canopy (up to 40 metres high) and you sit in a gondola as you move slowly amongst the tree tops. This adventure is not for those who don´t like heights and I must admit my heart was racing a couple of times as we just hung there, suspended, looking down. The views were out of this world though and you do get a completely different perspective on things. As well as all the flora and fauna I saw a sloth asleep in a tree (what else would it be doing) and toucans feeding and fighting. This rainforest was on the Carribbean coast of the country, we then moved across to the Pacific coast and another national park. Unfortunately the rain at this point was so torrential it was impossible to get into the park or to see anything. We did have a couple of adventures trying to get the truck over very tiny rickety bridges. Think Indiana Jones and hanging suspension bridges - those bridges were of more stable design then the ones we had to cross with a 40 tonne truck. We had an impressive 5cm to spare on both sides - luckily our driver is good. Onwards to Panama where they might have discovered the art of both road and bridge building!
Well its great to be somewhere that isn´t over run with Gringo´s and Nicaragua is that place. According to the lonely planet this is the 3rd best destination in the world. The country is only just recovering from a civil war and it certainly has an edge to it, that the other countries did not have. Leon is a former capital and is home to the liberal party. The city was surrounded by very colourful political murals showing the social and political history of the country. After spending a day in Leon we moved to another former capital, Granada, home of the conservative party. It was because of the political instability of these two cities, both fighting for the right to be the true capital, that Nicaragua decided to build another capital, one that wasn´t home to any political party. Manangua was built, was proclaimed capital and since them most trouble has died down. Granada is a beautiful city, full of colonial architecture, situated on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. The Lake is huge, almost a small ocean. It is the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world. 
The lake formed as a result of a volcano, 20 000 years ago and is still surrounded by volcanoes. The lake is also home to 365 islands created by the errupting rocks and debris. These islands range from being large enough to fit a village on, to small enough just to have one house on. Alot of Nicaragua´s wealthiest citizens own a private island on the lake complete with their own summer houses. I took a boat trip within these islands and wished I could own one. One island has been turned into a monkey sanctuary, so I was treated to a view of spider and howler monkeys close up. After a couple of relaxation days in Granada, we moved to La Flors. This is a turtle reserve on a beach. The beach is on the pacific coast, so I experienced swimming in the pacific for the first time here. We set up camp on the beach - it was so beautiful and at half 11 carrying red lights (as to not scare off any turtles with white light) we headed off to find the turtles. We were in luck. The turtles are in hatching season. Not only did we see turtles going for their midnight swim but we also got to see a fair number of eggs. Turtles and turtles eggs are considered a delicacy by some (and are also believed to improve male performance). As a result the turtles are now close to extinction. This turtle reserve is one of the first in Nicaragua and was heavily protected by armed guards. It was a magical way to end our visit to Nicaragua - a truely surprising country.
Late on Fri 22nd September we crossed the boarder into Honduras. It was 8pm by this time and very dark and our driver could not find his way to the campsite. So 8 very armed policemen had to escort us 20 minutes down the road so we could stop anoying them by driving backwards and forwards through their inspection point. It was an mini adventure in itself. The next moring we went to Copan ruins. This is an impressive collection of Mayan temples and obelisks. This is the last of the Mayan sites we will visit. My next set of ruins will be Incan in South America. After Copan we drove north through Honduras and caught a plane 
to Roatan, one of the Bay Islands. It is a large island 40 miles long but I did not get a chance to see any of it because I signed up to do my PADI scuba diving course. The course is normally run over 4 days but we had to fit it all in, in just over 2 and a half days. It meant we were studying till 9pm at night (not easy when you have been up since 5am that morning) and then getting up bright and early the next day to do our skills and breathing techniques. We practised these on the beach before doing our first dive on the first full afternoon. It was hard work but so worth it. We did a total of 4 dives all together. 2 were at 12 metres and the final two went down to 18 metres. That is the depth limit allowed for open water scuba divers. I saw a variety of things including parrot fish, cow fish, lobster, shrimps, sea snails
and sea slugs, a multitude of different coloured fish, an eel and amazingly another turtle. Turtles are even more difficult to spot off Roatan 
than they are in Caye Caulker but I guess we were exceptionally lucky. There was also a wide variety of corals and microscopic life. Because it is dangerous to fly untill 18 hours after your last dive (due to the risk of decompression sickness), we finished our last dive at midday. After taking the final exam (and passing with flying colours) this left me with the afternoon free. I treated myself to yet another opportunity of a lifetime. I went diving in a yellow submarine. Yes a real yellow submarine.
This sub has been built by hand by Karl Stanley, who takes you down in it. He is a keen marine ecologist and biologist and he knows heaps about the wildlife. 
It is only tiny and it is a squeeze to get into the front but it is capable of going to depths of 2000 feet. We only went down to 1000 feet. It was fascinating. Due to the domed window everything seemed alot smaller, starfish were the same size as your little fingernail. We saw rare creatures including the sea lilly which was thought to be extinct only a few years ago. The entire experience was wonderful and eerie and to quote a cliche out of this world, but is is so difficult to convert into words what we were able to see. All in all most of my experience of Honduras has been below sea level and it has been truely magical and fasinating. It is with regret that I am going back onto dry land now but it is now onwards to the unspoilt beauty of Nicaragua.
As you can see on the left is a rather large monument. Now this was built by the French a couple of hundred years ago and they got their calculations wrong. The big tourist complex at la Mitad del Monde (Middle of the Earth) where this monument lives, is in reality in the wrong place, a couple of hundred metres in the wrong place. I did not go to the tourist complex but instead to the museum behind it, where the actual equator lies (proven by global positioning systems). It had no grand monument, instead it had a red line painted on the floor. What it did have though is the science that proves it is the equator. I watched the famous water test. A sink is filled with water and then the plug is removed. When the sink is placed in the northern hemisphere the water goes down the plug anti clockwise, in the southern hemisphere it goes down clockwise. When the sink is placed exactly on the equator the water goes straight down the plug. It is all to do with the fact that the equator is the widest point of the earth and fractionally closer to the sun and moon and therefore has different gravitational forces. Sounds boring but trust me, its fascinating to observe. Something I did not expect is that it is practically impossible to stand on the equator, hold your arms out, close your eyes and try to walk forward. It is impossible to balance - you just fall over! You also have alot less strength on the equator again due to gravity. This was proven to us by the following experiment. You stand in either the northern or southern hemisphere, clench your fists together and hold them above your head. Another person then applies pressure to your fists and tries to lower them. Using all your strength, you try to keep you fists above your head. Then you do this again whilst standing on the equator. Well there was no contest. With only one hand, the other person could lower your fists - try as you might, you have alot less strength. It was bizarre. You can also balance an egg on a nail on the equator - I saw it done. It was a truly fascinating, interesting afternoon and as a special treat the guide was allowed to speak to me in English - so I didn´t miss anything!
