life @ 13

sombered

back to posting on the road. in ibera right now, going to stay with a family in octavalo tonight, just 25k or so away. tomorrow to quito.

yesterday....woke up early. still not feeling too great, but after 3 days rest it was time to move on. leaving colombia was quick, only 5 minutes wait. not quite the same for ecuador...waited almost 4 hours to get our entry stamps.

ecuador was off to a very bad start. slow border, shitty police asking how much money we had a few k later, a cold cimb to 3200m, and no decent food on the road.

but after lunch things turned up, some nice decents for a while, then rain, then up a little more.

once we climbed back to 2800 the scenery was as spectular as anything. huge valleys, open roads, good weather, spectacular light (you'll see in the photos later), and 1300m of descening (video of this later too). at almost the same time, we both blurted out ´this is freedom!´saw some strange dioramas of mammoths, saber tooth tigers, and snoop dogg. ecuador, fuck yeah!

so what was going to be the story of a shitty day turned great eneded very quicky when we were going up a little climb, heard a siren behind us...around the next corner there was a crowd of people, streams of blood, and a body with a blanket over it. we only stopped for a few seconds, not really wanting to find out what happened (an accident, somehow). a very quiet next half hour riding. i guess as travelling brings you closer to life, it also brings you closer to death (philosopically speaking)

anyway, descended down to a little town (everyone was black, a little surprising for ecuador), couldn't find a hotel..but 5k later found one, chilled out, ate some spectacular grilled chicken, and slept.