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...

After two nights in Medellin we left with our faces covered by bandannas to save our respiratory system from being engulfed in exhaust. The traffic of the city is terrible and the air pollution is trapped between the walls of the valley. We made it out of the city to find a cyclist paradise. Everywhere Colombian cyclists were riding to train, and to have fun. As we were working our way to our next climb and car drove by and everyone inside turned around and waved at us (not too uncommon). About 10 minutes later the car came back the other way and a woman leaned out the window and asked if we would like to have lunch at their finca. Merilee and I agreed so we followed them up a short steep climb to a beautiful little farm on the mountain hillside. There we met Laura, Piedad, and Mauricio. Three generous people who went way out of their way for us. They fed us lots of good food and asked us about our trip. When we informed them that the last time we had called our parents was the end of April they insisted we call them. We thank them very much for their hospitality and allowing us to make the phone call home! Laura was a nanny in Connecticut and spoke English very well. They told us about how Mauricio was kidnapped and they had to pay ransom for him! We left the next day after sleeping soundly in comfortable beds laden with fresh homemade cheese and again amazed at the generosity we receive.

We have had our first item stolen on this trip. A water bottle. As we were in Chinchina, a town famous for the brand Colombian Coffee (you know the guy with the sombrero and donkey on the big metal tin can) someone stole Merilee's blue water bottle while we were in a bike shop. The only consolation to this story is the sad state of being Merilee's bottle was in. Sometimes things get into our bottles and cause mold to grow up the sides and the water to smell like toilet water (it is a technical term). The stolen water bottle was out of order at the time of theft due to this vile smell. I am sure the person is thoroughly amazed at how disgusting gringos and their water bottles are.

Chinchina proved to be a nice stop despite the bottle incident. Outside of town we met three cyclists. Because they were on the older side they did not just fly by us like most of the serious young cyclists do, but slowed their pace to chat. They ended up taking us into town to show us the famous coffee factory and the local bike shop. One man, Fernando, went so far as to buy us lunch of carne asada, rice and hot chocolate. We sat around and chatted about the town and his work. He told us about how he ran away from home at the age of 7 because his parents were abusive! I cannot even imagine having the reasoning mind at 7 to decide my parents suck to do that! Everyone has an interesting story. Fernando told us the way to ride out of town that would take of through all the coffee plantations and we soon we riding up and down hills laden with this precious crop for the world, and especially the northwest. FACT! Coffee originally comes from Eithiopia.

One night we came into a town late and could not find anywhere to stay. So at a gas station a dude on a motorcycle decided to show us to a hotel where we could camp. When we got there we could tell it was a "fancy" camping place as there was a swimming pool and breakfast included. We asked a couple of women on the street where we could find somewhere cheaper and they told us of a finca nearby. We went there and the caretaker agreed to let us camp. In the morning he gave us all we could eat guavas, a papaya and a couple of coconuts. Then as if that wasn't enough we went to the two women's house to thank them and they gave us some bananas. One of the ladies was named Esperanza. She was 72 years old and perhaps starting to suffer from dementia, but a very warm lady. She called us "my loves" or "good lookings" or "my children" probably more times than I have ever heard that in my life. A little too much for me, and especially trying to avoid telling her no we are not christian, but still a good heart. I now have my first rosary. At least I think that is what she gave us.

Now we are in the city of Cali and staying at a cyclist house. Hernan and his family have been hosting cyclists for over 3 years and we are about the 70th people he has taken care of! Talk about giving forward! He has a really cool journal with photos and stories of the people who have come through. Merilee and I are excited to host possible cyclists when we make it back to the USA.

Ok, the video of our arrival to Medellin!

Photos : Me and Merilee with Fernando, Basketball court filled with corn drying, Cauca Valley, colombian train tracks, Merilee and a horse

It is always hard to sum up over a weeks worth of travel, but I will give it a shot.

We left Cartagena amongst a spree of scooters and buses. We headed out onto a nice flat easy highway that left the city quickly and we made it 60 kilometers to a small rural gas station where some young kids running the place let us sleep under a small palm branch shelter. They shared with us coffee, yuca and some fried fish. It was a very nice introduction to Colombia. People say that Colombians are talkative and are chatty. It is very true. Wherever we go people stop and ask where we are from. In fact, we probably spend up to an hour a day speaking with random people at gas stations, market stores, and anywhere else we decide to take a break. It also makes Merilee a happy camper because she does not have to try and keep conversations going anymore. On the other hand we still meet odd folks. For example, we stopped for lunch one afternoon. While I was fixing a spoke (again) a dude came up and started to talk with us. Quickly though, he decided it would be better if he sat in the road and just looked at us. So, Merilee and I decided to move on as we did not want to eat lunch in front of the random guy not saying anything. Another guy stopped us when Merilee was taking a picture and told us to take his picture because he is a traveler too. And we should send it to some random town. Alright then.

Colombians, we have also discovered, can have a very hard Spanish accent to understand. A couple of nights later we stayed in Sahagun where neither Merilee or I could hardly understand people. Later, we asked folks we met in other places about the town and everyone agreed that Sahagun has a strong coastal accent, which differs from the rest of the country. But, Sahagun was very kind to us, and the school of fine arts let us sleep on the floor of one of their classrooms surrounded by giant paintings. One of which was a man defecating on a stump from a tree he had cut down. It is famous in Spain I hear, but that is a lot of work just to poop.

Another odd fact about many countries we have gone through are what small town communities are built upon. Often times we will drive through a town and everyone will be selling the same one or two things. For example, in Oaxaca one town would sell nothing but Mezcal. Here in Colombia we have gone through two such towns; one was selling nothing but chairs, tables and beds. Every shop was exploding with furniture. The other town was a bit more creative, and most people had several hoses connecting water sources on the hillside and left running for passing trucks to clean their rigs. (this is pictured with the hoses shooting water into the air) What makes this even more puzzling is that after we went through this "water town" we made it to a small town, where we stayed, that hadn't had water for 15 days! Yes, development occurs very unevenly. This town without water though was the apex of our climb into the nothernmost section of the Andes. (I am not even sure to call the mountains the Andes here)

We stayed the night in a pueblititito called el Silencio. We were at the base of a three day climb up to over 3000 meters so we wanted to find a good place to rest before our grueling climb to come. We stopped in at a small school to ask for a spot on the floor to sleep. We ended up meeting a woman named Luz Marina who invited us to stay at here house with her mother. We agreed and her "companero" led us to their house. We found a frame of logs wrapped with blue tarp. The roof consisted of a thicker black plastic. We were met by her mother and many small children both of Luz Marina and her eldest daughter. They were very nice people, perhaps a little puzzling though as one question went "how did you two learn english?" But, both me and Merilee were blown away by the fact that these extremely poor folks were still willing to help us find a safe place to sleep. It caught both of us off guard I think when we first saw the house, but at the same time people are people.

Anyhow the next day we started to climb and climb! Wowza we just we up and up to the clouds, into the clouds and finally through the clouds. And we found ourselves far away from the humid heat that we have been so accustomed to. We needed to break out our jackets and long pants. Merilee went gaga over the small coffee and bread shops we started finding and we discovered another drink called agua panela. Agua panela is a block of cane sugar boiled into water making a lightly sweet wonderfully caney tasting warm treat on a cool evening. After several days of hard work to climb into the mountains, we made it to the top of a huge valley and looked down to see Medellin at the bottom! yikes! (The pictures again) And we began our arm workout as clenching brakes for 30 kilometers can make your forearm burn. We also got to play chicken with semi drivers who like to play how many people can you pass on a blind corner. Needless to say I feel much safer climbing than descending! But we rode into Medellin safely until we saw the weather approaching. It had been a beautiful sunny day until we arrived to the bottom of the valley. We could see rain clouds pouring on the east side of the valley and lightning striking the top. We rode as far and as fast as we could but we could not outrun the rain. We took shelter under a little gas station next to the police station, which did not keep us very dry so the police invited us to stay dry in a bus they had there. Kinda funny. But finally the rain subsided and we continued on...only to find the streets completely flooded! (I hope the video uploads!) We had to walk/wade/ride through rush hour traffic with the motorcycles and cars sloshing their way home. Anyhow, we made it safely again, a bit wetter than anticipated, but safe. We found another love hotel and decided to stay there because we are disgusting siblings. Actually it is cheap, has wifi, and near all the hustle and bustle.

More Colombian facts; Most people here think people in the USA are scared to death of Colombia. Beef is cheaper than chicken. It is much poorer than Costa Rica or Panama. Postobon is the name of a soda, and cola can be strawberry flavored.