Ecuador

Ecuador is a country in South America, cleverly placed right on top of the Equator.

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Looks can be deceiving

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Soldiers prepare to ruin everyone's months of hard work by shooting holes in the sub.

Though in most respects quite like its next-door neighbour, Peru -- vast coca plantations, ridiculously high-altitude cities, a hat-and-poncho-mad populace -- Ecuador is different in one crucial way. Acting at the behest of friendly Colombian millionaires, its citizens have taken to building huge submarines in the coastal swamps, filling them up with tons of cocaine, and delivering the coke wherever it is needed.

These submarines are as much as 100 feet long, are equipped with air conditioning and machine guns and can go more than 5,000 miles underwater without surfacing.

It is 3,527 miles from coastal Ecuador to Los Angeles. It is 9,009 miles to Tokyo.