En La Mitad Del Mundo

This is how I got into geocaching: My wife is from Ecuador. In May of 2003, we went to Ecuador to visit her family and for me to tour some of the country including the Galapagos Islands. I always wanted to get a GPSr, and going on that trip was the perfect excuse. You can't go to the equator and not take a picture of a GPSr registering S00° 00.000'.

So, I bought a Garmin Etrex Legend and the WorldMap. Had a blast with it on the plane and everywhere else we went! Anyway, when we got to Mitad del Mundo, we went to the monument marking the equator, but we were still about a half of a minute from the equator. The TRUE equator was about 500 feet to the north of the marked equator, and you had to scale a fence to get there. Well, we were going to make our way over there, but first we stopped in a few souvineer shops and loaded up with goodies for family, friends and ourselves. When we were done, and stepped outside, it was raining! I did not want to expose my new video camera to the elements, so we just went back to the hotel! Now I'm regretting that decision.

Anyway, after we got home, I started researching the accuracy of Mitad del Mundo and GPS. The first page that came up during my search was

The Fake Equator by Steve (Licorice)

This page kept popping into every search I did. One time I clicked onto the geocaching.com home page link, started reading about geocaching, and the rest is history. So, here is a piece of my caching legacy!

Edit July 29, 2005: It is my great pleasure to announce that on July 21, 2005, I made it to the real equator!