Los Andes!

We made the really smart decision to take the bus out of Quito and avoid the crazy buses and traffic. Getting dropped off on the side of the road in Cayambe in the the middle of a hail storm with our bike boxes was rather exciting. Luckily we were right in front of a hostal. Later we would find out our luck went only so far and we got to rock out with some terrible kareokee until 1 AM. We put the bikes together for the first time and made the necessary adjustements to kick off on our first day riding. We planned a nice first day with just 30 KM and 1,000 elevation gain to the beautiful Lago de Mojanda.

We left the hostal early in a slight rain. After abour an hour the rain had let up and we decided to stop for some cafe and empanadas. Then another half hour on pavement before we turned off the main road onto our dirt road to the lake. It gradually got steeper and steeper and we began to realize what we were in for. Oh, 1,000 meters of elevation gain, slightly different than 1,000 feet!!! Being the first day and in poor shape my legs were burning by lunch time and we were just slogging up this hill. We stopped every couple hundred feet for a breather and even pushed the bike at times. Did I mention we started the day at 10,000 feet and would end at the lake at round 13,000 feet. After a nice lunch break I felt like I could continue. And as I looked ahead I saw what might be the pass, could there be downhill around that bend???

No such luck! As I turned the corner I saw the triple switch back in the picture above. The mental challenge had begun. Could I really continue and could I make it to the pass?? Well, I really had no choice. Tina had already pushed ahead and was probably half way up the switchbacks. So I slogged on.

Luckily the road was not as steep as some of the previous terrain and I was able to make it up in decent time. What a relief to be looking back down the valley from the top. One final climb into the clouds would find us the pass. Phew!!!!!!

And than it was nothing but easy downhill cruising to the lake. Beautiful, eh?

After a sleepness night from the altitude and pouring rain, we awoke in a cloud, of mist. After a short breakfast we began what luckily was a mostly downhill ride. A long 1,500 meter decent 20 Km to the city of Otavalo, along a cobblestone road that made it and extremely bummmmmppppyyy ride!

Otavalo is a really cool city with a majority indegienous population. We arrived on Friday and had time to get settled before the huge Saturday market. On saturday the streets were flooded with vendors for multiple blocks spilling out from the main market square.

We're off

Its a beautiful morning in Quito. It rained last night and the city seems cleaner for it. This is our last day on free computers at the club so this could be my last post for a while.
Before our river trip, we went and checked out the museum of Oswaldo Guayasamin, the world-famous Ecuadorian artist. His work is amazing,very intense and very political. Frequent subjects include poverty and repression and are a good representation of life for many people down in these parts. I'd recommend checking his stuff out online for anyone that is interested.

Politics are more than something in the news down here, protests are common and police presence is quite visible. We ran into a huge protest in the park yesterday, thousands of people, mostly indegenous. You would think it was a big picnic except for the flags and the megaphones, there were tons of families and kids running around. Totally peaceful, but the swat teams keep a couple lines of cops standing in front of the gov building across the street just in case. (we see these cops everywhere, they are really nice to us, we hear they are not so nice to their own people) Protests are about wanting to dissolve the congress and write a new constitution due to long-standing corruption and huge social inequities. The people aren't so in to privatization here, and people seem to be pretty politically active and involved as a whole.

A few additional words on the river trip...
Part of what made it so fun was the cast of characters on the trip. Steven already mentioned the older couple (in their mid to late 60s?) that braved the class 4 river! (It made me think of rafting with Grandpa Ned when he was older than that) There were some typical frat boy types, this classic California dude in his 40's with great lingo (nice snaps, bro! translation: nice photos man!) And our driver who spoke like Kerouac writes and has adventured all over S. Am. for the last 8 years getting into all kinda of adventures. It was a well traveled group (lots going to or from Columbia too!) with good info on volunteer projects, hiking, safety and all that... all in all a great group. The river was beautiful and the rapids quite exciting.
The vehicle crawling up the huge hills to and from gave us a glimpse of what is in store for us....

We are heading out of town today on a bus, going to put the bikes together in the next town over and hop on. We are heading to Otavalo for the famous indegenous market there on Sat and then are heading into the cloud forest to volunteer for 2-3 weeks. It looks like the work will be focused around conservation, reforestation, and possibly some endangered species stuff with this endangered bear. You can get the scoop on the place at www.zoobreviven.org.

We are very excited to be getting out of the city and on the bikes!
Hope all is well with y'all back home,
--Tina

Whitewater Rafting

Happy Birthday!!!

John Michael McDowell!!

We had our first adventure outside the city, whitewater rafting on Rio Quijos which eventually flows into the Amazon. It was really great to get outside the city and see the amazing mountains surrounding the city. Huge, steep, lush, green mountain sides. The river was really nice, a few class 4's but nothing too crazy. But of all the people in our boat to get tossed out, no not the 250 pound 65 year old or his wife who managed to hit 2 different people int he head with her paddle, but me. The water was really cold but they provided us with wet suits so it was fine, and I never really knew how good I look in a wetsuit. A pretty amazing day all around. The ride was a little epic in this huge German army vehicle that took an extra 1-2 hours each way but worth the ride.

Quito y Espanol

Well Quito has turned out to be a pretty cool city. The Spanish is going well. The pick up Ultimate is really fun (Tina about to make a great catch to the right). We are trying to complete our research of the country in order to pack the bikes and leave the city. We are planning on leaving Quito early next week to explore the rest of the country by bicycle. We will head south for the next 2-3 months of exploration before entering into Peru for 2-3 months and will finish our trip in Bolivia for 1-2 months. Photos: Me and Tina chilling in the hostel courtyard for a relaxing afternoon. Tina working with her Spanish Professor. Some school kids playing on the sculpture in the park right next to the hostel.





























Me and Tina´s different study habits. And I wonder why she knows more Spanish then me, Huh!

-Steven

Yep, its been cool. It took us forever to find the Ultimate players as the park is huge and is pretty dedicated to soccer, and also since they weren't throwing as they forgot a disc. (not so different here). The field had rather large sand pits to navigate and all the classic characters one would find at good pick up in the US. (the guy with the overhand flipper throw, the guy that is perma-dump with 70s style short shorts.) It was super fun. Steven had lots of turns due to the lack of air and lack of touch on throws.
Spanish lessons are hard, 4 hrs a day. Neither of our teachers speak much english but they are patient and we are working on it!
--Tina

Finally

Whew, we finally left!
Flew out on friday and arrived in Qutio at 10pm after a sweet ride in business class (thanks Aunite Barbara!). The whole process of getting through immigration, getting our bike boxes, going through customs, and getting a taxi was done in record time... we must have been out of the airport in like 15 minutes. The taxi fit our bikes in the back and we made it to our hostel with typical honking and assertive driving, carried our boxes up three flights to our room (breathing a little at the 9,000 ft altitude here in the city, being in GA for a month didn´t really help with acclimatization) and sat down amazed at how easy everything was.
We woke up to sweet views of the green peeks outside of our balcony, Quito is in an Andean valley and tucked right next to some volcanoes; part of the surrounding city and farmland spill up the sides. We spent the majority of the day walking around, getting oriented and eating. The fruit is incredible! Weather has be beautiful, high 70´s during the day, a little chilly at night.
We went the the South American Explorers clubhouse (we are members) and they are going to be an awesome resource for us down here. They have staff, guidebooks, maps, and notebooks filled with trip reports from other members about the various regions and activities, safety, volunteering, ect, and they even have one filled with bike touring info. Believe it our not, on their message board we found a flyer for Ultimate frisbee pick up at a park in Quito. We are going to go and check it out on tuesday. Shoulda brought the cleats.
We are starting Spanish classes tomorrow!
--Tina