Coriolis effect and the equator

I made my way across the equator yesterday when I went from Nairobi to Mount Kenya. While I did see some cool tricks performed with a tub of water, I was a little skeptical... Later I learned that while the coriolis effect is real, it is insignificant for bathtubs and toilets. The trip to Mount Kenya was short; I only had time for a safari park and then back in the car to go to Nairobi. On the way back, we stopped to go through a market and saw the usual foods: bananas, carrots, watermelon, etc.

Heading back to Nairobi, the car got a flat tire. The driver put the spare on, which about 5 minutes later also became flat. As it was getting dark (and being on the side of the highway with an expensive car at night is not safe), we drove on the flat spare tire until we found a shop that could repair the real tire. Eventually we got back on the road, but heading into the city, we got lost on the highway because the highway was under construction and there were several diversions to different side roads. Somehow our driver must have missed an exit because we ended up ON THE CONSTRUCTION SITE, dodging traffic (apparently, we weren't the only ones who got lost!), cinder blocks, potholes, and construction equipment.* Woo, what a night!

At the equator

Chimpanzees at the safari park

Yum!

Weird vegetable

*Still, while Nairobi has quite some crazy driving, it does not compare AT ALL with India. In India, we would be on the construction site, dodging twice as many cars, ONCOMING traffic, cinder blocks, potholes, construction equipment, bulls, pedestrians, motorcycles...