NvEoUlMkAeNrN

Salcedo and Warubi

Oy, so I was going to update 2 days ago and was so pooped after the Mt. Biking trip that I never got around to it. Plus the music at the internet cafe I was at sucked and the mouse was mechanical and sticking.

Thursday Morning it was Up And Atom at 7am to get to the Biking Dutchman at 8am. Anthony and Jarrad had gone to Otavalo on Wednesday and bough 2 large bags of ponchos and blankets that they wanted to mail bu couldn’t get it off at the local post office so they were stuck with an extra 2 bags to take on the road.

Fernando, our guide for the trip, showed up right at 8 as did a couple from Amsterdam. On the way we passed through Salcedo, some kind of ice cream capital for that area. Every little store in the town has a big white cooler of these truncated code icecreams on a stick that are super tasty. Like whole milk and all that with layers of different flavors. mhhh. I’ll try to find some here in Quito. Our biking trip was to first go to Cotopaxi and hit Chimborazo the next day. A nice Landcruiser ride and we were at 4000+ meters below the refruge on Cotopaxi - strapped on some kneepads and elbow pads and we were off. Straight up downhill cruise. For 3 hours probably. My only complaints were not having bar-ends as I wanted to change my grip after half an hour of riding down washboard roads and the other complaint was not having toeclips which I got so used to on my bike. I was getting better at bunny hopping without them after a while but I was still intimidated out of taking a bunch of really big drops.

That night we stayed in Posada Urbina, an old train station converted into a hostel. Beautiful, and it was refreshing to be out in the countryside. It was cloudy when we arrived but the morning granted us an amazing crisp view of Chimborazo in all its glory. After a tasty breakfast we loaded into the SUV and took some backroad cutoffs. That was the most impressive part of the trip sofar. Almost more of a highlight than the biking and views was peeking into the life of the campesinos (countryfolk) as they were driving their assorted herds of sheep, burros, cows, and dogs along the road. The burros were sooooooo soooooo cute with the long hair that had to be cut out from in front of their eyes. Reminds me of Kandu, the Lhasa Apso I grew up with.

We drove near the refuge on Chimborazo and hiked the remaining bit to get to the refuge, nestled in at 5000 meters. Feeling the altitude on the hike. I can’t imagine what it’s like to summit that mountain. Maybe I’ll get around to climbing Cotpaxi, we’ll see.

The ride down from Chimborazo was really incredible. The first bit was a nicely banked dirt road and then we got onto a paved road cut out of some of the volcano exposing beautiful stratifications of volcanic sediment. Probably a Geologist’s dream, something I don’t know a whole lot about.

On the way back to Quito we dropped off Jarrad and Athony in Ambato and their extra bags to catch a bus to Baños. I hope they fare well. Alone again I rode back to Quito with Fernando talking about bicycle advocacy the whole way. When he was in college he was one of the early members of Ciclovias para Quito, which has now progressed to getting a main drag in Quito cleared of cars for one Sunday every month to promote alternative forms of transportation. In a sec I’ll email him and put him in touch with Bikes not Bombs, it might be good for the organizations to know about each other.

Back in Quito I checked into the Posada del Maple and got a private room because I was super-pooped and wanted to spread out my gear and just escape for a bit. I spent the day walking around Parque la Carolina, a great urban park with lots of futbol, Ecuavolly (a volleyball variant played with a soccer ball) and Pelota Nacional, a game unlike any I’ve ever seen. Big wooden clubs/raquets with conical rubber bumpers on them and a long narrow field they volley a rubber ball back and forth. It’s hard to explain even in person. Maybe I’ll get some pictures up one of these days.

Warubi is what was written on the back of the sign of the public workout spectacle that was going on when I arrived in the park. It was sort of a live Jane Fonda workout. Like those things you find on the low-rent cable channels. What was cool about it was that It was in a park and there actually a few hundred people participating in situps and armtwists and whatever exercises the group did to the Bangels and Billy Joel.

I spent some time kicking the hacky sack and doing yoga and some plyometrics to try to get used to the altitude. Sprints and high jumps kicked my ass.

All day I had out my dictionar and was translating things that I saw in the park. It was like spelling class in grade school, Unit 12: Around the Park. I forget a lot of the words but I’ll definitely recognize them when I see them again or hear them. It’s a start.

I had my first Ecuadorean meal at Camino Del Sol just beside the park. Fritadas with all kinds of things I don’t recognize and a huge helping of Avocado and Banana, peanuts, mote (almost like edamame) - Damn good, too much for me to eat. I can’t wait to try Chugchucarras and Llapingachos and Cuy… And yes, the juices are heavenly.

On the way back I was cheking out some internet cafe’s just to find ones with good mice and USB in the front of the computer and good music and got invited to drink beers and shoot the shit with one of the owners and his friends/employees for an hour or 2. My first real attempt at Spanish conversation.

At the hostel I ran into a new crew of kids and it was time to go out and celebrate a birthday. I was so full from lunch I only ate Tiramisu for dinner. While at the restaurant two different musicians came in on their circuit and set up camp at the door and played for a while. I’m pretty intrigued to see a harp as one of the local instruments.

We ended up at Blooms again, this time it was only $2 to get in and the Saturday night DJ was decidedly better than the one on Tuesday. Figures.

I’ve been having a hard time sleeping well. It must be the new environment, so many new stimuli, new sounds… so much to process every night before going to sleep. Should be interesting when I go on the Malaria pills.

Today they don’t have cars in the Old Town so I think I’ll walk around there for a bit. Tomorrow I’ll look into finding a Spanish school.

Posted by volker at February 1, 2004 12:08 PM