Python Basemap fails

I am using Anaconda 2.1.0 and Basemap installation is successful

conda install basemap

However, I keep getting the following error when I try to project lat,lon to a planar:

Assertion failed: (0), function query, file AbstractSTRtree.cpp, line 286.

My code looks like this:

import shapely.geometry as sg
from pymongo import MongoClient
from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap

p = Basemap(projection='sinu',lon_0=0,resolution='c') #fails here

projected_xy = p([24.4,45.1])

The code fails even before attempting to project.