Following the Equator | EF's Educational Travel Blog

Our 10 Best of 2009

Thank you to everyone for reading, sharing and supporting Following the Equator in 2009. We sure enjoyed posting great stories, facts, tips and profiles about educational travel and the group leaders who make it possible.

We're already planning some exciting new things for 2010. Most of all, though, we want to hear from you. What do you want to read and see on this blog—more interviews with teachers, more amazing travel photos, more fundraising and recruiting ideas, more tidbits about the things to see and do on tour? Let us know at equator@ef.com.

As we look ahead to an exciting year of travel in 2010, we thought we'd take a quick look back at a successful 2009 and our 10 favorite blog posts of the year. Feel free to post your own comments below.

Friday Fun Fact: March equinox

Today is the March equinox—the moment that the sun passes directly overhead the equator and the official beginning of spring.

In fact, the precise moment came at 11:44 UTC (7:44 a.m. on the East Coast) today, when, according to EarthSky, the sun was over the Atlantic Ocean, just off the west coast of equatorial Africa—south of Nigeria and west of Gabon.

The World Sunlight Map above depicts the position of the sun at the equinox this morning.

Peters Projection Map

We recently hung up a new world map at our house, and it's kind of freaking me out.

It's the Peters Projection World Map, and it alters the traditional shape of land masses to more accurately render their relative size, or so they say.

The traditional map that we're used to (and generally hangs in classrooms) is known as the Mercator map. Created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, it was well-suited for nautical navigation, and it became the standard representation of the world.

Watch African game drives live

One of my dream travel experiences is to go on an African safari. So I was excited the other night when I found WildEarth.TV and even more excited last night when I got to watch a leopard and her baby cubs live in the African bush.

WildEarth broadcasts live online around-the-clock from the Djuma Game Reserve in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The highlight is live video of two daily game drives (at about 9:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. EST) with an expert ranger.

The leopard, Karula, is a regular character on the WildEarth game drives, and last night was the debut of her cubs, who are believed to be about four months old. You can read more about the cubs on the WildEarth blog and watch a 10-minute clip of Karula and her cubs here (the first cub appears at about the six-minute mark):

Last night's game drive also found a pride of lions and some zebras. When WildEarth isn't broadcasting game drives, it delivers a live feed of its watering hole, which attracts wildebeests and other wildlife.

For more about my new favorite site, check out WildEarth.TV and be on the lookout for more wildlife on the game drive tonight.

Our 10 Best of 2008

This is the 320th post of 2008 at Following the Equator, and we decided to commemorate our blog's first full calendar year with a top-10 list of favorite posts.

We had a lot of stories, videos, photos, interviews, tips and perspectives about educational travel. We launched some regular weekly features, including our Tip of the Week and Photo of the Week. We debuted Life on Tour, introduced EF on YouTube and EF on Facebook and promoted the EF Tours group on Flickr (above). And, along the way, we encountered a lot of inspiring travelers.

Following the Equator also was nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award and finished fifth out of 1,177 blogs for Best Travel Blog. Thank you to everyone who supported our blog in 2008 by voting, reading, sharing, commenting and subscribing. We're looking forward to an even more successful 2009.

Twain's World

Mark Twain never grows old. That's the premise of the new Time magazine that just hit newsstands.

A gorgeous portrait of Twain graces the July 14 cover of Time's Annual Making of America Issue, which illustrates how Twain not only was the man of his times ("America's Original Superstar," he's called) but also a man for all times. His wit and wisdom on politics and race, just to name two, make Twain as relevant today as in the late 1800s.

While Twain is lauded as the inventor of the American novel and the forerunner to today's political funnymen such as Jon Stewart, Time also points out what we well know about our hero: "Twain was best known as a travel writer."

Time created a remarkable map (above) that marks where Twain traveled in writing his five travel books: The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), A Tramp Abroad (1880), Life on the Mississippi (1883) and, of course, Following the Equator (1897).

Ich bin ein ... Amerikaner

The United States Census Bureau includes a section on the census that asks Americans to state their ancestry. In the 2000 census, 80 percent of respondents complied, dutifully stating their origins. The results are interesting and possibly unexpected.

The most commonly claimed ancestry in the United States is … German. Forty-two million Americans (or 15 percent) indicated that their roots were either German or part-German. The runner-up ancestry was Irish, with 11 percent. Third was African-American, at 9 percent (24.9 million people), which just barely edged out English, also 9 percent (24.5 million). Rounding out the top five was Mexican, at 7 percent.

Learning African geography

Whenever I play the highly addictive Traveler IQ Challenge on Facebook or try naming as many countries as I can in five minutes or even just play with the globe with my daughter, I'm usually thwarted by my lack of African geography knowledge.

Well, I finally have found some help. The Lonely Planet Travel Blog pointed us toward an online quiz to test (and teach) African geography.

I'm getting better at deciphering between Niger and Nigeria, for instance, but I still need to work on remembering Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea.

Travel Tidbits: Can you spare $10 million?

Think the U.S. economy is problematic? It's nothing compared to the economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

Inflation is so bad—believed to be 50,000 percent annually—that Zimbabwe's central bank just began issuing notes worth 10,000,000 Zimbabwean dollars. Yes, 10 million bucks. That's the equivalent of 100 of the bills pictured.

Ten million dollars is believed to be the largest denomination of any currency in the world, but don't get too excited. At the current rate, it could be worthless in a few weeks. According to the BBC, one $10 million note (or bearer cheque, as its called) is worth less than $4 U.S. on the black market. That means the $100,000 cheque pictured is worth less than 4 U.S. pennies.

Gadling pointed us to a blog that describes Zimbabwe's rampant hyperinflation. The writer reports that the new $10,000,000 bill is the same color, layout and design as an old $20 bill (which expired in July). Fifteen months ago, that $20 bill was worth $0.025 USD; that same bill is now worth $0.00000005 USD. Hence, the $10 million note.

To illustrate what that means in daily life, here's how much it cost to buy a beer back in December.

Now, on to more Travel Tidbits …