The California school system teaches elementary students about the early Spanish explorers, or at least it use to back when I went to Painted Rock Elementary. It was the sort of watered down New World stories of action and adventure that rarely hint at the toll that the indigenous population ultimately paid, and in many places are still paying. It's hard to explain small pox to first graders, I guess. Anyway, Balboa was my favorite explorer, and for two reasons. There's a big creepy park named after him in San Diego, and there's a story about how he and his dog Leoncico fled their debts by stowing away in a flower barrel bound for San Sebastián de Urabá. Balboa was eventually found out, but was spared a long walk off a short plank by insisting that he knew the region and could be useful to the conquistadores on board. Balboa has an interesting, if spotted career as a explorer. His real claim to fame is his Western march across the jungle that is now Panama, and his subsequent "discovery" and naming of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately his end came at the end of an axe. Read more here.

Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (October 10, 1861 – May 13, 1930) was a Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest personalities in the history of Norway. Nansen initially started out as pioneer sports skier, and soon became interested in Arctic exploration. He led the first crossing of Greenland by ski, and achieved great success with his Arctic expedition aboard Fram. He later became noted as a zoologist and oceanographer, and was a pioneer of the neuron theory. He was also a distinguished diplomat, eventually becoming Commissioner of refugees for the League of Nations...Read more from the Wiki. There's a great recent article about Nansen in the January issue of  National Geographic; Chasing Nansen's ghost, by Peter Miller.