ecuadorian immigration. molasses. colombia took 3 minutes, ecuador was 4 hours
just over the border. cool stuff, too bad we weren't there at night
beautiful open road. feels even more free than it looks
northern ecuador is apparently adament against abortion. saw about 20 "vota no"s for each "vota si"
curious little diorama park in the highway. if i remember correctly, they found some mammoth fossils nearby, promopting this
and this. the trash can
and this. don't let the cross in the right hand fool you, this is undoubtably snoop dogg. joint in left hand added for emphasis
cattle. blah
this is where i start to bore you with good light, scenery, and saturation...
cactus-tree
yawn
boring
eee
lifeless descent
...
sign near el juncal
el juncal
julian asking some local guys about where to sleep
girls in el juncal. one kept saying "dame cinco" (give me 5). when i held out my hand she scowled, and added "para comprar" (to buy). ha. cute
double helix clouds
next day, still really good scenery
having tea with claudio, just outside Ibara
first things first with the family...fix the girl's bike!
walking around with the girls to buy dinner food
i'm not a very good teacher
the grandfather of the children, Herman, seemed to me like a damn good business man. he didn't do any manual work - only bought and sold. i didn't get the entire story, but a collective of 80 people, headed by him, are looking to buy, from the local gov't, a small complex of 4 abandonned buildings to use as a factory for artisinal goods, and to possibly open a hotel too. a pretty lofty goal.
Herman in another building
hammock prep
washing the car. at first i was a little confused, because a car seemed like a big purchase for a family that makes hammocks. but the money comes from a brother who lives and works in spain. he was there at the time, so juilan was the DD
Herman and the girls
the camera was a bottomless interest for them. seriously, they took over 1000 pics with my camera. i spent as much time deletiing pictures as i did eating
eating in the tv room. from left, Fabiola (mother), Abuelita, Herman, Enrique (father), Julian (Enrique's brother)
toasted big-kernel corn in the center. if you ever come across this, buy as much as you can afford
the graveyard. i thouroughly enjoyed their ritual...instead of weeping, they left a few flowers and everyone ate lunch together (with the deceased), just as they would if they were at home.
"se fue la luz"...literraly the light is gone, i.e. no electricity.
fabiola and julian
lots of this
and this
it's not proper female traditional dress without the shoes. about 14 sizes too small
tres monos?? not this time
gender-correct dress now. i believe they call it la poncha
claudio. modern day scary italian count
gimme 5, the traditional meaning
rainy afternoon, no electricity
nearby mountain
backyard
front
pasta sauce. tomatoes are about 1/4 the price here, so making a sauce with fresh tomatoes for 12 is no big deal
enrique and the older girls by the lake
asymmetrical
more mountains
out searchign for medicinal herbs. yes, that's a 10 year old with a 2' machete.
Cuys!!!!!!!!!!!!! not for me
but i am assigned to cook the innards.
us
abuelita, toasting corn.
the mother and father and their kids are mormans, so none of this for them. but Herman drinks like a catholic should.º
Enrique rides with us up the first pass leaving otavalo. impressive
the top
call me whatever you want, but i'm a real sucker for beautifully paved roads.
descending from 10000 ft to 6000 ft
top-right is the beginning of the ascent to quito. about as unappealing as it looks.
took us almost 2 hours to reach the center from the outskirts of quito...we thought we would arrive mid-afternoon but this turned out not to be the case
riding in the metrobus lane in the new city. ridiculously great way to get around the city
the historic city, about as shitty as urban riding gets. nice church views, though
view from roof
massive rain, quito old city
cathedral
steep street
saw a lot of this on the way out of quito
valley just over the pass to leave quito
fortunately not as right leaning as Le Pen
stolen map
riding all the way to the left...assuming they are making this into 4 lanes
Annie, from switzerland. cool.
wet ascent to latacunga...started getting a little alti-winded but was soothed by nice scenery
right at the top of the pass...copotaxi
descent to latacunga
we saw rain to the left and right of us....shot for this little blue gap and won
bridge, latacunga
latacunga
near the hotdog stand
lake quilotoa. beautiful. yup
making coffee at the lake shore
Eli
left, stove that kept us from freezing our asses off while eating
store, stuff
should be fairly obvious why we got lost
mysty
village
clothes
waiting out the 2pm rain, more coffee
not too unhappy or lost at this point
view from the middle seat of the truck leavign chugchilan
pass on the way to ambato
me-ish
ambato
new bags up front. $7 for two and a way cooler design than anything from ortleib. custom attacment system
climb out of ambato
little village where i bought some water and later slept
hair thing has multiple uses. i'm not entirely sure why the brand is Si Cafe, but it may have soemthing to do with the fact that Nescafe is often referred to as No Es Cafe
bike in its hiding spot
sleeping spot in hiding spot
reading in bed
view from the hut in the morning.
the hut
6:30 starting the climb towards guaranda...cold, but i'm in good spirits
chimborazo starting to peek out
in the light clouds.
forget my frankengloves....this bottle contains the potent mixture of water pump-filtered from the tap in ambato, sparking water from the tienda on the road, and apple soda.
four!
showing a little more now
the road descends to the desert before it peaks
bike and chimbo
the three of us
the alti-desert
did i mention i'm very anti-flash? a rare example of when it really helps.
playing soccer in the alti-dessert
full diversion!
more alti-dessert
pictures don't capture this well...it was really stunning
house at the top of the pass
volleyball at 13500
descending into the clouds
visibility was really, really bad. glad i have a reflective bright orange jacket. constantly looking back and waiving my arm when i saw a car behind me
early into the climb out of san vicinte. the road up to chimborazo was very pleasantly graded around 4%...this was much more like colombia at 6-8%. i felt really strong, though, probably due to the drinkably thick air at 9000 ft
shitty
really, really shitty
yes, i'm still riding in sandals
i probably felt worse than i look
and this is a good part of the reason why
the coast, altitude about 50m
yup
entering babahoyo
poor composition due to camera display being shot from the rain, but you're supposed to se my dirty foot and the sandal stuck to the pedal
lots of traffic queueing up to cross the bridges from duran to guayaquil
bridge 1
bridge 2. in between i stopped to ask the traffic police for directions to the park nearby the recommended hotel. the guy was very friendly and personable and actualy drew me a map of how to get there. the people of the ecuadorian coast get kind of a bad rap -- but so far i'm finding them much more enjoyable than the quiet, reserved, and somewhat phobic people of the high mountains.
Not Sure. guayaquil in what looks like a downpour
highway from guayaquil to playas. it rained...
...but not too much. side road to playas. not counting intown traffic, i estimate 5000 cars passed me going the other direction (sunday evening, back home to guaya) in 25k. in theory not a big deal, but the trucks and busses create a nice little headwind, and since there was no traffic going my way the guayaquil traffic used both lanes. not really dangerous, but fucking maddening when the car that is passing is 6 feet from the car being passed and close enough to me to make a whiz in my ear. in reality, their chance of even knicking me is .000000001, but nobody ever (anywhere, really) consideres the fact that if you clip the guy on the bike you can cause some serious harm, but if you clip the car on the other side of you it's a scratch at worst.
road again. not usually this quiet
in town traffic...got much heavier than this. nice to be on a bike
playas
inbetween guayaquil and la troncal...this same plane flew over me just a few minutes before. can't recall ever seeing a crop duster, it's mostly a Flight Simulator term in my head
all day from guaya to la troncal. unawesome shoulder too
la troncal with the mountains in the backdrop. these go up to 3000 meters, but above meter 500 or so it's all in the clouds (more on this in the blog)
it starts
prayer flags at the beginning of the climb
gaining some altitude
steep and choppy
and THIS is why i hopped the bus. the picture captures the misery fairly well.
ecuadorians know how to brainwash their kids
saftey, inventiveness
not captured well...very steep road after cuenca...about 9%
near the top
space capsule, right next to the higway
cockpit view
freedom
it's raining somewhereº
trabahandos
view of the descent and ascent to oña
more scenery
cool tree
scenery
oña
ha!
view from the table, dinnertime, oña
morning riding
whole pile of dogsticks!
hell yeah
more
near the top of the first pass after oña
looking down
down down down
in a rut
forgot where this is. i ate lunch across the street
the scenery these two days was pretty spectacular...not caputured well by the cam. then again i can't see anything to compose the pictures, which doesn't help much
new bike setup...notice the dogstick/ hat stand in the cockpit
yes, a smil
loja!
they could do worse than to blame it on geology
loja
