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About 15 miles north of Quito, a yellow line representing the Equator runs up a long, regal walkway to the base of the Mitad del Mundo monument, built in 1979. The thing is, they built the structure several hundred feet south of the true Equator.

Much Ado About Nothing at the Equator

Just north of Quito stands a grand and glowing tribute to one of Ecuador’s proudest features: the Equator. The problem is, it was built in the wrong place

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SpaceX Wants to Fix Boeing’s Faulty Batteries, Possibly to Embarrass Them

Elon Musk has been critical of Boeing in the past

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Parking Meters, Originally Meant to Keep Traffic Moving, Need an Update

The long history of the parking meter - innocent seeming towers behind much of today’s driving woes

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Things to Do in Quito While Nursing Achilles Tendonitis

With its clean public parks, brewpubs, museums and tapas bars, Quito is a fine place to spend a week recovering from an injury

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This Is What Being a Google Maps Editor Is Like

Google maps is back on the iPhone, and thank goodness because the whole world could basically not function without it. But how does Google Maps get made?

This sign just north of Tumbes is a clear sign, if the mangroves aren’t, that one is entering the muggy, and in some ways dangerous, tropics.

Ecuador, Land of Malaria, Iguanas, Mangoes and Mountains

The author leaves Peru behind and crosses into Ecuador, where he encounters his first sign of a mosquito

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Scientists Don’t Quite Know How This Cat Managed Her 200-Mile Trek Home

Holly the cat’s 200 mile journey home has scientists wondering just how animals navigate

In Europe, These People Wouldn’t Be Allowed To Drive

A recent study found that drivers with blind spots were more likely to hit pedestrians and less able to respond to hazardous situations

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What to Eat—or Not—in Peru

The ceviche carts and meat grills are colorful pieces of scenery, but eating a cherimoya or a sweet and starchy lucuma could be the truest taste of Peru

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Star Trek Got Warp Speed All Wrong

Hold everything people. The blast of a star and light that happens in Star Trek when they jump to warp speed? Wrong! It wouldn’t look like that at all, according to some physicists

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The Latest Fleet of 787s Is Nothing But Trouble

The new 787 Dreamliner fleet has been plagued with issues, including electrical problems, broken windows, fires and engine failures

Accompanied by a mat of long brown hair, these broken bones on the side of the highway most likely belonged to a woman.

Braving the Pan-American Highway of Death

Along the roadway in Peru, hand-built memorials to accident victims occur almost as regularly as the kilometer markers themselves

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The Hot Condiment of 2013? Barrel-Aged Hot Sauce

Restauranteurs across the nation are feeding a new trend by feeding hot sauce into whiskey oak barrels

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One Man’s Seven-Year March Along Ancient Migration Routes

This past Sunday, journalist Paul Salopek began his walk from Ethiopia to Patagonia

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Preparing for a Mission to Mars Is Dangerously Boring

One of the biggest challenges to a Mars mission is just how long it takes to get there

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No Place Compares to the Unrelenting Lifelessness of Peru’s Sechura Desert

From tropical mountains, we descended into a landscape of flailing-armed cacti, spiny succulents like giant artichokes and sand dunes as high as mountains

The miserable sprawl and slums of north Lima make a poor first impression for tourists fresh out of the airport. Here, the author’s brother, Andrew, is shown 15 kilometers north of Lima, on the way to the mountain town of Canta.

From the Slums of Lima to the Peaks of the Andes

After unpacking and assembling his bicycle at the airport terminal, the author heads north on the Pan-American Highway toward the mountain town of Canta

Peru’s mountainous terrain is the landscape of dreams for climbers, hikers and cyclists.

A Short Bike Ride in the Peruvian Andes

The author kicks off 2013 with a 1,100-mile cycling journey through the Andes from Lima, Peru, to Ecuador’s lofty capital of Quito

A Roscon de Reyes, courtesy of Tamorlan

Don’t Wait til Mardi Gras for Your King Cake, Celebrate Tres Reyes This Weekend

The New Orleans classic has its roots in the roscon de reyes, a Spanish treat for the 12th day of Christmas

Is our world really not enough? Simple pleasures like swimming in the Adriatic Sea or hiking in the hills of Greece (in the upper right of the photo) will require staying on Earth.

Do We Really Need to Take Vacations to Space?

The possibility of entering a sealed aircraft, buckling up and exiting the atmosphere in the name of leisure is nearing reality

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