We're going to start this post off right, with the most fantastically fantastic photo of the trip so far. Photographic evidence that the equator is rather anti-climatic in person, and that, in Ecuador specifically, and Latin America generally, there are many, many women in tight pants, that maybe shouldn't be wearing tight pants.
This equatorial monument was pretty mellow and unimpressive, but did have the benefit of actually being on the equator, unlike tourist extravaganza "Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world)" north of Quito. There the "equator" sits about 30 yards off the actually line because of an inconveniently steep hill. Oh, and this monument was home to an organization devoted to all kinds of "equatorial research," though they weren't so good at explaining what said research actually consisted of. I was hoping to at least see some very scientific toilet flushing.
Schwan on her sitting rock at our campsite about 200m south of the equator, luckily she had lots to choose from.
Little kids on bikes are awesome. Until they fly by you like you're standing still, then they're just assholes.
The 2,300ft climb up into Quito took us all morning. It was steep and nasty and Kelly had plenty of time to take pictures of me.
Some houses on the same climb. Concrete and haphazard would probably be the best way to describe the typical Ecuadorian building style.
Huge dirt BMX track in the park just across from the apartment we rented in Quito. Awesome. Had me reliving all my youthful dirt bike fantasies engendered by watching "Rad" every time I could get my hands on it at Valley Video. For those of you who haven't seen "Rad," do yourself a favor and Netflix it, a high-point of 80's culture and features Bart Conner in all his toe-headed glory.
Sweet concrete skatepark in the same park. The kids around here are pretty spoiled for radical infrastructure. Sorry, I don't have any terrible movie recommendations to go along with this one.
Quito's historical downtown.
Unfortunately anything of cultural or historical interest was closed up, even on a Saturday.
Here's a pretty church, it was closed up too.
Luckily there was a guy selling street sherbert. It was delicious.
This church is ridiculous. Happened upon it in the early stages of our day-long shit-show of navigating back out of Quito. Welcome break from the fumes and perpetually self-righetous bus drivers.
Dude has some pretty sweet wheels on his plastic patio chair.
Our first campsite south of Quito, looks pretty idyllic right?
Maybe not so peaceful. But the world's all in how you want to look at it, I suppose.
This is Maximus. He was really excited. Maybe to see us, maybe that he was heading to the coast to rest his hemroids.
I often feel very especial.
Camping in a schoolyard while the kids were off on break. Marco, the caretaker, didn't have much to say other than "muy bien (very well)," which he liked to say, a lot, even when nobody had said anything for a few minutes. Needless to say, we'd had our fill of conversation pretty quickly.
Hiding behind the tent. Marco is probably somewhere off camera saying "muy bien..."
This sign was a new one.
The local gang at our terrible idea to camp, again, in a town plaza. So sweet, so inquisitive, so immune to subtle hints like: We're tired and we're going to sleep now!
This dog was so ugly we had to take a picture.
Or two
River near the town of Baños. A little day trip we took with overbearingly nice Rios family.
Another rio with the Rios.
Cool little ecological park just east of Baños
The density of vegetation is unreal.
Further east from Baños, starting to get into the eastern reach of the Amazon jungle now.
And still driving. Cause what says restful afternoon in preparation for a two-day climb up to 12,000ft like a 9 hour car ride?
The next day we opted to shell out the money for a door that locks. Well spent.
Nevado Tungurahua belching some smoke into the evening sky. The night before, on the way back from our Amazonian expedition, we saw it erupt a stream of lava that ran glowing down its flanks. Pretty silly.
Climbing up towards Mt. Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador, topping out above 20,000ft. The PanAm runs up to about 12,000ft. I realized how silly the terrain is here the night before, when Kelly was talking to her mom and asked me how far we had to climb the next day. "Oh, not to bad...only a little more than 2,000ft" I replied, then though back to the start of our trip, when an impending 2,000ft climb would produce shivers of nervous excitement for a week beforehand. Now it's just another day.
Topping out it looked like we'd been cast into Northern Europe.
Anyone who's ever used the gravity drops at Adapt Training (www.adapttraining.com) knows how amazing this felt. Schwansky in heaven.
Finally, days after riding right under it's cloud-covered dome, we caught a clear enough view to see the peak of Chimborazo.
Another random camp site. Ever taken a poop out in the rain? I can now check that one off my bucket list.
Not an atypical campsite view. This country is gorgeous.
The town of Alausí.
Not sure how this women doesn't just topple backwards.
View from the train "El Nariz del Diablo," one of the first real touristy things we've done on this trip. Pretty amazing track.
El Nariz
Opting not to take advantage of the photo stop for the view available right of out the huge window in front of my face. So quiet!
Some of the locals offering themselves, llama, and donkey for photos for $1. They were giving pretty nasty looks to everyone who didn't want to pay. I probably wouldn't be a very happy camper either if my job was to exihibit my cultural heritage as a prop for tourist photos. Hooray for the globalized economy!
Something like 2,500 people died to construct the switchback that drop down to this station.
Schwan's very happy to not be pedaling through this.
Climbing out of Alausí, steep from the start.
And stayed steep. We both felt good on our bikes for the first time in a while though.
This is our campsite where we add some bad rice and got laid up for 2 days puking. Constant fog and intermittent rain.
But this is what it looked like when the fog cleared.
Now we're in Cuenca, recuperating and eating some real food before we head back into the mountains.
It's pretty here.
And there's real coffee.
And some sweet street art.
Schwan likes short old ladies.
Cuenca, you'll do just fine.
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