As usual we find ourselves far behind on writing but we are doing our best! We are in Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca. It is both a climbing and hiking mecca here in Peru. There are something like twenty plus 6000 meter or more peaks in just this small area. But first we had to get up here.

We left Trujillo and rode along the Panamerican for about 70 kilometers before turning off onto a private company road that allows cyclists to use. The road was really beautiful and quiet. It went through the dry desert foothills of the Andes mountains. Literally nothing more than rocks, sand and occasionally bigger rocks. We wild camped in a river bed because we were pretty sure it was not going to rain and we enjoyed the nice peacefulness of the area. The next day we continued along the road until it came to a small town where we were accosted by thousands of sand flies. Sand flies leave the worse bites ever and for about the next 20 kilometers we tried to avoid being completely devoured by them. My legs still have the telltale small droplet size scabs they leave. We finally did leave the sand fly area and got to a small town where we enjoyed a menu. A menu is a Peruvian set meal that includes soup, plate of food and a drink. We had just consumed a whole papaya as well so we left the town a little belly heavy.

We crossed the bridge over Rio Santa and continued into what we though was the Canon del Pato. After about 15 kilometers of climbing a truck pulls over to ask where we are going. Well, we find out we have taken the wrong road. Whoops! Anyhow we went back downhill and since it was so windy we were in our lowest gears just trying to ride downhill. That is the best definition of frustration I can think of. Anyhow, we make it back to the bridge and see it is a small gravel road we have to take to go to the Canon and Huaraz. So with our lovely road bikes we head out mountain biking. We slogged our way through the gravel for about 10 kilometers until we found a small rest stop/restaurant thing. There a man named Coco immediately said we could camp and shower. He then told us stories about all the travelers who have stayed at his small stop. In the morning he presented us with apples and membrillos to take with us on the road. Happily, we set out to the sandy gravelly road. The scenery here though was spectacular. We just kept following the river higher and higher through the gorge. The higher we got the steeper and more treacherous the canyon became. There also began the tunnels. There were at least 40-50 tunnels in only about a 40 kilometer stretch. Finally we left the canyon and found ourselves on paved roads again and winding our way through a wider river valley. From here the views of the Cordillera Blanca are supposed to be the most impressive, but it was clouded in. It was still a very peaceful road to ride through all the farms and small villages. We stayed the night with some firefighters and they gave us a recommendation about staying in Huaraz and we headed off after eating breakfast with them.

Along the last section to Huaraz the road was littered with potholes and finally I hit one and gave myself a flat tire. As we were stopped fixing the tube and man came up and invited us to have a soda with him. So after I fixed my wheel we went inside and attempted to down a liter of coca cola at 10:30 in the morning with this guy who was already a little drunk. Then we continued on to try and make it to Huaraz but the rain set it. So we set about finding a place to stay the night. We found a hotel that was being renovated and we found the owners who immediately asked for 10 soles to stay. Merilee and I waffled on this because it would be sleeping on the floor and taking a cold shower for 10 soles. Not really that ideal. Soon enough though the owner lightened up and decided to let us stay for free. Maybe it was the party taking place in a big hall or the beer he was drinking, but Juan invited us to a drink and a plate of food. He told us about his travels in the USA and drew us a map of Lima. Which he said he would give us in the morning. Except, next morning, he was too drunk to wake up and we waited until about 11 for him before we finally left to ride the final 20 kilometers into Huaraz.

Along the road there we met some old friends. As we stopped for a construction site some folks we met a few days earlier drove up and then Antonio, a cyclist from Trujillo, also rode up. So we chatted together and rode into Huaraz. Since then we have been hanging out with Antonio and Nat, another cyclist from Trujillo, who made it into Huaraz the following day.

By some strange force of the universe, as we were entering a cafe Merilee ran into an old Online Cafe co-worker. Joe, it turns out, and his wife Nina are volunteering in a community school that helps students who are falling through the cracks (i.e. can't pay for books, school uniform, family doesn't even have space for them to do homework, etc.) here in Huaraz. Anyhow, Joe and Nina immediately invited us to stay a few days to work at the school and spend Christmas with them and their roomates Jan and Shelly who also work at the school. Merilee and I decided it would be best to spend Christmas with a bunch of good people instead of riding through Lima (which had been our previous plan). Yesterday we had our Christmas dinner because in Peru the 24th is Christmas dinner day. We had a huge feast of american and welsh food. We had cheesy leeks and nut loaf, two welsh classics. And, of course, a turkey. At midnight we went up to the roof to watch the town explode in fireworks. It was pretty awesome to see everyone shooting off their own individual fireworks.

Trujillo and Fun

Well we have had to jump on a bus for the first time here on our trip. Between our last stop, Guadalupe, and Trujillo there is a small town named Paijan. This time is famous for cane fields and cyclist robbery. Some people decide to attempt to pass the city and have no problem but many people have been robbed recently and many have narrowly escaped. Anyhow, we decided that getting on a bus for about 130 Km is not too bad to avoid this, and the massive expanse of desert that is the coast of Peru. Now we are resting in Trujillo enjoying the company of other cyclists here in a casa de ciclistas. We have met very few other cyclists on this trip and the casa de ciclists here in Trujillo is kind of a cyclist mecca. Everyone goes here.


Me and Merilee had plans to leave today but we had some work to do at an internet cafe this morning so we headed out to do it. As usual, we were up too early and the cafe wasn't opened. Merilee walked into the hardware store next door to see if they knew what time the cafe opened. Before she had the chance to ask some random kid walks up behind her and grabs her butt and starts to take off. Merilee turns after the kid and grads him by the hand and demands an apology. He spitefully says he's sorry. But, by now passerbyers and the hardware store guy have taken note of the situation and are telling him that he is disgracing the people of Peru by his actions. Then the police drive by and hop off their motorcycle to join the fray. It was good to see some people on our/Merilee's side in trying to give this kid a message that what he did was complete crap. Anyhow, the police took him and us down to the station to write up a report on what happened. They told us that they were going to call his parents (he was 17) and hold him for 24 hours. Never has anyone really taken that next step of assault on us like this kid did. It was a bit uncomfortable though because the police while detaining the kid proceeded to assault him as well, by slapping his face mostly as asking him what are you doing/thinking? They also rather roughly pressed him against the wall the. I think Merilee and I agree it may have been better had the police never showed up because local people were seriously offended by his action (Still harassing/yelling at women appears alright) and talking with him. Although one guy also landed couple of slaps on his face. But, still it was pretty poor actions on the police side of things in how they treated the kid.

So, after all this fiasco we finally made it to the internet, which had opened by then. Since it was getting later in the day we decided not to leave because the afternoons on the coast just bring too much wind to really ride too many miles. It just goes to show you never know what kind of road blocks we will meet!



Photos; Streets of trujillo, Church in Guadalupe, lunch in Guadalupe, Classic car for dad

Outta Ecuador Into Peru!!!!!

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OK, alright we are back on the road finally!! We have crossed into Peru and are aways into the country staying with one of my old professors from Evergreen. He and his family have let us stay at their house during a very busy time of year. The whole town is filled with people attending the festival for the patron saint of the city. Last night we attended a Cumbia concert and danced until 3 and left
before 99% of the crowd. But, let's rewind!

We descended out of the mountains of Ecuador after leaving Cuenca. We rode through miles and miles of banana plantations and arrived at Santa Rosa and stayed with our last fire station crew. Many thanks to the firefighters of Ecuador!!!!!

But, I think I will just write interesting stories that have happened to us, because that is more fun!

As we entered the border town in Ecuador (called Huaquillas) we saw a Colombian bakery, and since we wanted bread we stopped. As we were sitting enjoying bread and yogurt a man walked up and proceeded to pull his 2-year old son's pants down and allow him to pee on the pan-american highway. CooL!

Crossing into Peru consisted of walking down a crowded market street and all of a sudden a welcome sign to Peru shows up informing you of the border. Then, we are surrounded by moto-taxis and the chaos of the Peruvian highway.

We have camped out a lot so far here in northern Peru. The coast of northern Peru is mostly a dry sandy desert dotted by small desert towns. We have enjoyed amazingly clear beautiful skies for star-gazing and the dead silence of the desert...punctuated by braking semis avoiding potholes and oil derricks.

We have also weathered some of our worst riding conditions here in northern Peru. Many of the towns are separated by 20-150 kilometers of pure desert and sand (oh and plastic bags). This creates two things; wind and sun (and the pleasant sound of bags waving in the wind). The past several days we have spent the afternoon riding into a driving sandstorm of a headwind. Literally sand dunes are blowing across the highway and we have to drop into our lowest gear and ride about 3-5 KPH. Those of you planning this trip...start in South America and go South to North, you will thank us. Our faces, bags, sleeping rolls, bikes, everything you can thinkof (yes everything) fills with sand. Ask yourself, how to urinate? Good times!!

Peru is the first country where people really try on swindle us on our money. Some examples; "I give you 13 breads at 10 cents a piece...that will be 1.50". A woman tried to sell us 1 banana at .50 cents, the going rate is 8 for 1.00. People sold us honey mixed with sugar water, thus the honey tastes like smoke because they cooked it on firewood to melt the sugar into the honey. When we are on our bicycles people yell incessantly at us, when we get off people shut up.

We have had a mixed experience to start Peru. It is not an easy place for two women to cycle through (very few people recognize I am a guy). We are on the receiving end
of both positive and negative comments. Bicycling is interesting because we tend to see both the extreme best places have to offer, but also the worst. The trick is to take it all in stride and attempt not to be negative towards the next people we see on the side of the road if the previous people have been disrespectful. The most interesting thing we have heard up until now is about two bikers (guys) who rode north. They told us nobody hassled them. Maybe Merilee and I are more sensitive or maybe as "women" people feel it is ok to hassle us. We don't know.

But now we are staying with the wonderfully generous and nice family of my professor. We greatly appreciate their support as this is a very busy time of year. It has also been great for me to see old friends and for Merilee to make new friends. Hopefully we will be graced with tail-winds soon. And if not, we are headed into the Cordillera Blanca in a few days!!!

Photos; Merilee eating CUY!!!! (guinea pig), scenes from the North, Eric silhouette, Lima is FARRRR!!! yarrrrrr, Merilee pushing her way through where the Panamerican used to be....DEMOLISHED by 1000 meters of pure rock slide!

Video! Time to spread a little Christmas cheer! Cheers! Happy holidays from the Bomberos of Santa Isabel in Ecuador! Actually it was pretty funny because they were decorating the tree when we rode up and the strung the lights and let the songs play until the wee hours in the morning! Rockin'! But, really I got fed up and turned it down, but it still drones on in my head.

Census Time!

Today all of Ecuador shut down for the 2010 census. Any and all forms of movement (other than official census business) was restricted from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Everyone from locals to tourists had to stay inside and wait for high school students, who were conducting the survey, to come by your house or hotel. We were not able to bike because people found traveling were subject to fines. Who knows how strict the police really were going to be. But, me and Merilee have now been officially counted as part of the foreign population of Ecuador! Whooo hooo! We did lament that this would have been the greatest biking day ever because there would not have been a single car on the road.

On another note, we are now working our way through the Harry Potter's. Yup, 1 - 7, all horribly streamed from the internet. We have only finished 1 and 2. We really need to start riding more.

We skyped the whole family for the first time! It worked out alright. Andy's computer tends to not have good video quality so most of the time we spend saying "your frozen" or "refresh the video". They were all up in Bellingham for a late Thanksgiving. But, it was nice for us to have a bit of family time (i.e. making weird faces at the computer, singing horribly, etc.)

Merilee made two batches of brownies. Tomorrow we will roll out on our stomachs as opposed to our bicycle wheels. I recommend never eating more than 7 brownies in a 1 hour time period.



Photos! Us and firepeople (they occasionally burst into flame or are gender neutral fighters), Biblian, reflections of Cuenca, Miguel and Carmen (two lovely folks we are staying with in Cuenca)

And on to Cuenca....

We left our little mountainside town still not feeling 100%, but we wanted to make it to Cuenca by Thanksgiving. We feebly rode our bikes to a small crossroads town called Zhud. There was not much to see there but we did have a fabulous sunset. We met a local person who was trying to set-up tourism in the area and he set us up with a family to stay with. They had a beautiful and huge empty house. We simply made dinner and went to bed because we were so tired. The next day we had our last major climb before we start to descend out of the Andes and travel along the Coast. The road was still beautiful as ever with huge looming Andean valleys dotted by farmhouses and squared off by agriculture and pastureland. They were rebuilding the road in parts so it was a bit dangerous because one half of the road would be raised cement while the other half was pocked asphalt. We reached the top dead tired, but thankful for the upcoming downhill. As we were making our descent into Biblian a huge dump truck nearly ran me off the road. I thank him for making my day a little scarier. We made it to Biblian where once again the firefighters immediately agreed to let us stay the night in the station. We couldn't have been more thankful for a place to sleep, cook, and get a warm shower. Merilee, however, was still feeling pretty bad and couldn't hardly dress herself because she was so bloated. Kinda funny.

Onwards we pushed to Cuenca where we had another warm showers contact. In Cuenca we met up with Miguel and Carmen. They had a little guest room prepared for us and are eager to practice their English and talk with us about our trip. They have a youthful yappy dog named Cooper.

In other news it was Merilee's birthday on Turkey day!!! I prepared her a nice roll with a match burning in it to make her birthday wishes. Now those of you that know Merilee know she is a cake fiend. I have to hold her back every time we pass a pasteleria. Of course, for this special occasion, we make the exception to go buy cake. What happens next is a shocker...Merilee opts for the birthday baguette and gruyere(spelling)! A new birthday tradition is born!! Later, we prepared a Thanksgiving dinner of spaghetti, mashed purple sweet potatos, and bread and butter.

Cuenca is a neat little colonial city. It was formerly an Incan city named Tumipamba. Even more formerly, it was a Cañari town named Guapondelig before the Inca's conquered it. The Inca road runs through the town connecting it to Quito to the north and Cusco to the south. Yay history!!!

The Good Life

Sickness struck me first. We ate at a tourist stop where a bunch of women had set-up food stalls. I thought I had ordered a potato and chicken soup, but it turned out I received some sort of seafood soup. It is never good to be eating seafood in the middle of the mountains, it just cannot be very fresh. Anyhow, with a bloating stomach Merilee and I tried to go as many miles as manageable. We made it to a small indigenous town called Guamote where we stayed the night with some firefighters. Here in Ecuador we have gone through the most indigenous towns of our trip. It is good to see people retaining old ways of life and trying to mix it with the current world. There is no lack of problems while doing this, but Ecuador's president Rafael Correa appears to be strongly pushing indigenous rights (giving rights to the land, schools taught in Quichua, etc.)

We thanked the firefighters for a comfortable bed and warm place to stay and took off. It wasn't long before Merilee was struck by some intestinal bug. I was still hurting pretty bad from my intestinal friends so we stopped into a small mountain town called Empalmira de Gonzol. We met a man named Claudio and he immediately offered up the floor of a house he was constructing as a place for me and Merilee to stay the night. These folks lived right on the ridge of a mountain with an amazing view. They had lots of cute little animals like baby chickens and dogs. His neighbor Maria, was immediately excited to have us as guests and invited us over for coffee and popcorn. She invited us to stay the next day to make bread and kill a chicken to make a cauldo. Since neither one of us were feeling great we decided to hang around the next day. We slept mostly. We also tried to starve whatever was eating us from the inside by not eating ourselves. And in the evening we made fresh homemade bread. By the way, no chickens were killed because of Merilee and I. We assured Maria that killing a chicken for two sickly people would not be a good use of a succulent bird.

It is interesting here in Ecuador because we have met several people who have family that work illegally in the USA. For a country so far away from the US, I am surprised by this. Here are some average numbers about these people; they have been away from home for more than 7 years with no hope of visiting, it costs at least $10,000 to hire the Coyotes to take you (up to $18,000 we have heard), it takes up to two months to make it to the USA, often times they end up with no work in the US too, and sadly some never make it. Several months back there was a story in the BBC about 75 immigrants (or so) heading to the USA who were intervened by a cartel in northern Mexico and forced to join. When the immigrants refused the cartel killed all of them except three who managed to escape. One of the escapees is a neighbor of a woman we met. It is a hard reality to wrap my head around; seeing travel to the USA as a good viable option to helping your family make ends meet. We do see the positive effects for some families. They have a descent house, food, and exist above subsistence. We also see the left behind people going forward with their own life here. No real good summing up here.


The photos! Claudio, Maria and family, Bread!, views form the farm, cuteness on the farm!

Video too!

Finally leaving Quito

All good things must come to an end, and so did our stay in Quito.

But first! Our awesome mechanic, Hugo, invited us to stay with his family while we wait out our package from the post office. His wife and two children made for a household full of fun and good food. Their daughter Nicol has about 25 dwarf hamsters running around. She also loaned us plenty of dvd's to watch, and of course, we chose Sponge Bob. Or Bob esponja. On a sunday afternoon we went to the Mitad del Mundo to see the museum and arts and crafts fair that goes on to commemorate the equator. I got my first chance to roast some cuy. Cuy is guinea pig, and Andean specialty. Alas, we did not try any cuy, but I had eaten some when I was in Peru and it is not my first choice of food. It is kinda like gamey tasting chicken. Next we went to some local ruins. By this point in the afternoon the clouds had rolled in so we didn't see much, but it was a great time we spent with the Vivas family.

Anyhow, finally our package "arrived". It turns out the post office had had our goods the whole time we were in Quito, they just couldn't find it. Arrgh! A little annoying. But we finally took off last Tuesday. The rains in Ecuador have decided to hit. And we spent several days trying in vain to stay dry and warm. We wanted to ride the mountains in Ecuador to see all the high Andean peaks but rarely does the cloud cover lift enough to see the full mountains. Finally, one night we decided to camp real high and up close to Chimborazo, the tallest of the Ecuadorian Andes. We asked a family if we could sleep under the porch of a house they were caring for. They agreed and me and Merilee hoped for a clear morning to see the mountains. In the morning after I had a terrible sleep feeling sick we did awake to beautiful sunny skies.

P.S. the feeling sick part is a foreshadow.
Pictures; clouded in countryside, mountains, Hugo and Family, Merilee...ground zero

Tomatos?

A little story....


The ride into Quito is not an easy one. The city rests at about 2800 meters above sea level. As Merilee and I were riding up the 15 kilometer climb into the city a car pulled over in front of me. They gestured out the window to come up to their car. As I approached, they stuffed a bag of tomatos into my face and said ¨take them¨. I wasn´t sure at first what to do because it was a huge bag. I asked them if they were sure it was all right, and they said yes. That is when I noticed the whole bed of their truck was filled with tomatos. Again, they told me to take the tomatos because they qwench your thirst. So I firgured why not, 25 tomatos are handy to have around. And so that is how Merilee and I went into Quito carrying over 10 pounds of tomatos!

Stranded in Quito

The good part about being stranded in Quito is that we are hanging out with good people! We've been staying with a fellow cyclist and her family, and they have generously let us stay with them for a week while we wait on the postal service. Argh. Never again through normal post.

Anyway, we've had a chance to see the city, which is full of contrasts. Poverty in the south and exorbitant wealth in the north. We had the good fortune to get to see a dance performance by a Brazilian dance company in the national Teatro Sucre in the heart of old town Quito. I've seen a lot of choreography in my life, but nothing like this. It was truly innovative, beautiful and unique and impeccably (almost :c) performed. We enjoyed it so much that we got up early the next morning to head back downtown to get tickets to last night's performance, another in a series of dances offered by the theater. As it turned out, it wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as the first, but it was incredible to watch a woman in her 40's perform solo for an entire hour. Impresionante!

The other day Hugo, our awesome mechanic, took us up to El Panecillo, the hill we tried to climb on foot but were thwarted by sketchy characters. We saw pretty much the whole city from there, and afterword he invited us out for lunch. We really enjoyed our day with him, and we are actually going to stay with them for the weekend. Carolina has family coming in to town, so we are trading houses so that her guests have a place to stay! A todos en casa - Carolina, Silvia, Elizabeth, Isabela, Emma, Roxy y Sole muchisisimas gracias! Tenemos un recuerdo para siempre de ustedes y de Quito, y eso es lo mejor de este viaje. Un beso!

My last little comment is about the surrealness of the airport. It's in the middle of the city. I took some photos and a video so that y'all can check it out. We about had a heart attack while riding into the city, looking up, and seeing a giant airliner that looked like it was about to squish us flat!

Photos: Spaghetti dinner for everyone; Hugo and Eric; La Virgen del Panecillo; giant plane landing in the city

Welcome to the middle of the Earth!

Photos : Inside the Basilica, Outside the Basilica, and some countryside photos


Yes, we have finally made it to the country bearing the name of the equator. Sadly, we somehow missed the famous imaginary line. We choose the shortest road to get to Quito, and found out it does not go to the famous "Mitad Del Mundo". We both wanted to have pictures of half our body in the northern hemisphere and half in the southern and feel a bit lighter. Oh well, to our consolation the monument is in the wrong place. But we have enjoyed our first week here in Ecuador. We have enjoyed small cheap hotels at 6 dollars a night. We have eaten lunch out every day because both me and Merilee can eat a bowl of soup, rice, beans, salad and a meat for 3-4 dollars! We have decided yucca fried in chicken fat is quite amazingly delicious. Also, there are fried mashed potatoes (can't remember the Spanish word for it) that are to die for. It is not an uncommon sight to see numerous pigs hanging up from hooks being slowly cooked or sliced up to be prepared in some great tasting dish. Ecuador's mountains also do not disappoint. When the cloud cover is light, because here in the Andes there always seems to be clouds, we get to see great snowy mountain peaks towering about the huge valley's and farmland that we bike through. It is pretty spectacular. It is something I was really looking forward to on this trip. Yay! We made it!

The night before we arrived in Quito we stayed with some firefighters in a town outside the city called Tabacuba. They were a very cheery bunch to spend the evening with. At first, they offered us to sleep on the roof, but after a while decided to let us bunk downstairs with them in the dorm. They even fed us dinner and throughout the whole time if anyone coughed one of them was ready to slap you on the back to keep you from choking. Or make you choke more. I am unsure of current red cross regulations. It was pretty funny. But we had a terrific warm shower and comfortable mattress to sleep on to prepare ourselves for the ride into Quito.

Heading into Quito we had imagined absolute chaos more or less. That is scooters everywhere, bikes, trucks, buses spewing black smoke, and that sort of thing. We found a city that was not at all like this. Traffic wasn't too bad and...and...of all things the streets were ALL signed!! It made the city a piece of cake to navigate (and there is cake too!). We kept riding by beautiful plazas, parks, and churches. We were headed to the center to meet up with a guy who belongs to warmshowers and had agreed to put us up for a few nights. When we got there we had to get on the internet to find his exact address and what do we find? He has sent us a message that he has left town and can no longer help us out! It was hard not to be annoyed. So we looked for a cheap hotel. We found one above a pet food store so we hung out there for two nights sleeping soundly with the smell of kibbles filling out nostrils.

We were in a nice location in the city. We climbed El Pancillo (sorta), which has a view of all the city. Don't climb El Pancillo is the advice we learned. Passerbyers told us there were thieves waiting at the top. So we took a different route and saw sketchy dudes drinking so decided best to head back. Then the tourist police picked us up and took us to the Plaza Grande. From there we walked to the Basilica of Quito. It is probably the most impressive church we have seen thus far. Really amazing. Go photos!

Anyhow, we were also in contact with another warmshower user named Carolina. We gave her a call and she and her family kindly opened their doors to us. We are super grateful because we are waiting for a package for the US, and we have no idea when it will arrive. We got at her house yesterday and promptly went for a nice hike up a mountain. We went with Carolina and her friend Sebatian. Whew! They kept calling it a small mountain but, it was a long long way up! There was a really great view from the top of the area around Quito. Anyhow that is about all for now. We are here in Quito until we get our stuff! What a shame!

OK Merilee wants me to add this because I have had uncounted woes with my rear wheel. In the mouth of October I broke 17 spokes. November has started out much better. Maybe because we haven't rode too far yet, but good wheel builders are hard to find.

Check out our last few blogs because we finally got a add pics!!!!

Popayan

Photos! Don't look down this bridge, breakfast time, the church at Las Lajas, Popayan at night, all of us around the car!




Well, now that we are out of Colombia we can tell y´all that we heard guerilla fighting alongside the highway. Crazy. Apparently guerrillas will fire single shots at soldiers to harrass them, and soldiers retaliate with machine gun fire. That pretty much sums up the pattern we heard while riding to Popayan. I looked up news online later and found out that guerrillas had killed a police officer in a town not far away that same day...So, we´ll never know exactly what happened - Eric has thrown out a jackhammer theory - but it was rather sobering to have a tiny inkling of what Colombians have to deal with in their own country. The amazing thing is that we didn´t feel at all unsafe despite that episode. Colombians are just such wonderful people that it´s hard to imagine that the guerrillas, paramilitary and narcotrafficers are also Colombian considering the horrible things that occur.

When we arrived at Popayan we called Johnson, the man who had pulled over on the highway and invited us to stay at he and his wife Nelly´s home. He met us in front of his car dealership and led us down the block to an enormous, beautiful house. We were invited right in, and Johnson gave us little breads and Coke to snack on. Nelly arrived soon thereafter and we met everyone including their daughter Merian and their two dogs Osley and Aker. We had a lovely time chatting about our trip and talking Colombian politics, but we´ve been sworn to secrecy about the latter!

That evening we went out in their 1950 Willis for a night trip of the ciudad blanca. It truly is a beautiful city, and Nelly whisked us around showing us all the sights in the main plaza, including the mayor´s office where she works. To end the evening we were treated to hamburgers at a little roadside stand because, ¨Colombian hamburgers are so good!¨ And they were :c)

It is hard to sum up our stay with Nelly, Johnson and Merian (and Ampara, Edwin, Aker, Osley!) Eric would like to interject here that it is easy to sum up his relationship with Aker, the 4 month old German shepherd puppy: dog diarrhea outside his door every morning. But back to the point, this family was just unbelieveable. Not only did they open their home to us, but they went out of their way to make us feel comfortable, show us around their city, and fill us to the brim with new and delicious regional foods. They even invited us to travel to Medellin with them to meet their two other children and other family members! Unfortunately we felt like we really needed to keep riding, but it would have been a lovely trip. One day we decided to do something for them, so we made breakfast for lunch. We cooked up some delicious french toast with blackberry compote, potatoes and greens and bacon - it was a hit! All in all we stayed for 4 nights, learned how to salsa at their discoteca, drank lots of yummy coffee made with raw sugar cane, talked and laughed for hours and left with an even deeper impression of what Colombian culture is all about. Mil gracias!!!

After Popayan we really began to use our legs. Too much, really. We seem to have unlocked the mystery of the Andes - up for 40 kilometers, down for 40 kilometers. Repeat. Colombia has had, for the most part, great roads, but this section of highway was rather atrocious. It´s redeming factors were beautiful views, 50 cent papayas, $6.00 hotel rooms, and potable mountain water. We had the honor of staying with 2 more families on our way out of Colombia, both of which began as an invite to put up the tent but ended with us sleeping warm and dry in their homes. Oh! At one home we had homemade coffee. As in they cultivated it, harvested it, dried it, ground it, and served it to me in a cup. Brilliant!

So we fiiiiiiinally reached El Santuario de Las Lajas, our last stop before exchanging all of our leftover pesos, and we spent two nights hanging out in the little town. Las Lajas is a rather spectacular cathedral built into the side of a gorge, natural rock creating it´s altar wall. It is quite the hike up and down and around the grounds, and my calves are still sore! I declared our day off to my day on - bring on all the Colombian food I could stuff myself with. Mini potatoes, thick slabs of bacon, ice cream, corn, coffee, chorizo, Pony Malta (malted soft drink - heart!), corn pastry, corn bread, soup, rice and beans, etc. We blew through a ridiculous amount of money, but I was thoroughly satisfied!

Ta daaaa!!!

PS We crossed into Ecuador today!!! And, like all border crossings, it was super rainy. Why oh why? But now we are toasty and dry in a little hotel in San Gabriel (turns out we landed, by chance, in a really cute colonial town). Tomorrow we are going to a bread festival. Yay!

PPS We´ll get photos up one day...we´ve got some good ones!

The verdict is in:

Colombia is amazing. The people here are so generous and friendly, and I am still constantly impressed by all the random acts of kindness that we encounter on a daily basis.

So, where did we leave off? Cali. We stayed at a Casa de Ciclistas run by Hernan and his family - Sixta, Arturo, Daniel and Paulo. The real head honchos, however, were the two canine companions, Tobi and Nacho. Yes, Nacho is a real name. Nacho is even nacho-colored. Nacho, Nacho man... Anywho, we had a wonderful time with the family sharing cups of hot chocolate and tea, munching arepas con queso (corn tortilla-type flat breads with cheese and butter. Go arteries go!), and baking oatmeal cookies. We were lucky to get out of Cali alive, however, because we were addicted to the local bakery. It´s goods weren´t even that good, but our stomachs always won out against our brains´ better judgement. At Hernan´s house we also encountered our 3rd cyclist of the trip! Carl, a Swede with the raddest touring bike we´ve ever seen, was just finishing up a 10 month tour of South America. Freaking amazing! Kudos to him - his stories are just making us all the more excited to keep going!

Y ahora un poquito en Espanol...A todos que hemos encontrado hasta ahora en Colombia - mil gracias! Se nota que a la gente de este increible pais que le importa que los demas tengan una verdadera imagen de lo que es Colombia. Es verdad que a todo el mundo llegan malas noticias del narcotrafico, de los guerrilleros y FARC y tambien de los paramilitares. Es verdad que pasan cosas horribles en este pais, pero ese no es lo que defina la cultura Colombiana. Seguimos en este viaje como embajadoritos llena de ganas de informarle a todos que Colombia es unos de los paises mas encantadores del mundo. Muchisisimas gracias por toda la hospitalidad y amistad que nos han brindado!!

After a tearful goodby at the Casa de Ciclistas de Cali we were back on the road with newly tuned and greased bikes and panniers full of clean clothes - I even washed my sleeping bag! Just outside of the city Eric got a flat tire, and as we were fixing it a car pulled over. The couple inside introduced themselves as Johnson and Nelly and asked if we´d like to stay with them at their home! We got their cell numbers to call them when we made it to Popayan, and they zoomed off toward Cali (meaning they had seen us and turned around to offer us the invitation :c)

That evening we arrived at a little town called Mondomo and began the search for a place to stay. We landed just on the outskirts at a cute brick home where we were invited to pitch the tent. Rosalba, Gerardo, Maria Socorro, Alejandra and Manuel received us with open arms, and we spent half of the evening talking about our stove - they had never seen such an odd contraption before in their lives! They graciously offered to lock our bikes up in their kitchen and let us each take showers. An unexpected addition to our campsite was a 5 week-old puppy. It took an immediate liking to us, even though we kept shooing it away, and it wound up sleeping UNDER the tent by my head. We hope we don´t have fleas. I´m serious. Eric, stop that itching!!

The next morning we set off into the ups and downs of the region and arrived in Popayan in the evening. That story we shall leave for the next blog - it´s that good!

Internet is also being picky, so we´ll try for photos next time...