Hola, Ecuador!

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

We left Popayan earlier than planned for Ipiales, which nearly gave me a heart attack, or at least it gave me an alsure, because I wasn't informed of the change of plan. But oh my God, the landscape! Wow.. The roads were really great too. I`ve improved my riding a lot as for taking turns and standing up whenever its bumpy or there`s gravel. I haggled us into a nice hotel in Ipiales, had a nice shower and POW! It struck me that I had left my passport in Popayan, too stressed to remember that it was in the safe. Our room hadn`t been possible to lock, so I had done that to keep it safe. Should've kept it on me, and learned from it! I did that the day before the border crossing, leaving behind a rather dangerous stretch to do by nightbus! So problem-solving was needed. The amazing hotel owner of our Popayan hotel, Pass home, who had already gone out of his way to be a great host, sent his employee on the bus there. So I had to pay for the bustickets and 100 pesos extra. It worked out, but it was another lesson learned.
We went to Ipiales in the morning. The church is very touristy, very beautiful. We didn`t stay long, but went straight for the border crossing, though I would've liked to stay longer. I was nervous about crossing without a licence(I have a police report saying that I have lost it), but I charmed my way through! The guys were really nice and one of them actually said: its just one girl.
We did encounter some drama in leaving Colombia, however, because they couldn`t find their temporary importation papers for their bikes. So for a moment, it looked like they couldn`t leave with their bikes, and that I would be crossing alone. After a while, they found the papers and we could breathe again. We said our goodbyes to Colombia, welcoming Ecuador and its cheap gasoline.

We spent the night in Ibarra, after a delicious meal: lasagna and strawberry milkshake, to great old hits. Finally something tasty!
The landscape in Ecuador has changed drasticly, and its so interesting now that we`ve had enough of the same green scenery. And the mountains.. We went up to lake Cotocatchi in the morning. There`s a beautiful village and the lake is stunning! After that, we had lunch and went to Quito. There was a scary moment where we were following the taxi that was supposed to take us to their spanish school, and the dad, Mike, tried to position himself on the side of the car, when the car was taking a left turn, and he bumped into the son, Sean. The bump caused him to fall on his bike, and he almost got hit by a taxi. He instead slid across the side of the taxi before getting back up again. If the taxi had been a Little bit slower...

The family had arranged a weeks spanish lesson with home stay, in Quito. That`s where my bike is at right now. I`m staying at the Secret garden, where my stuff has been waiting for me for quite some time. It was great travelling with the family. I learned a lot from them. Also a bit of mechanical stuff and mandarin. At least I tought them a little bit of spanish in return. I`m forever thankful for their kindness.
But its also very wonderful to be free and independent again. I can now go where I want to, and they said that I was ready to fly off on my own, skillwise. However slow I`ll probably be driving down to Banos. (That they didn`t say)
I`ve had dinner and met some new people. I`ve been missing the hostel/gringo lifestyle a bit. Its good to relax and heal my knee. Tomorrow I`m taking my bike to the dealer to tighten my chain and chop off 1,5cm of the kickstand to make up for the lowering and extra luggage. Don`t know quite yet what time I`ll be off to Banos. I want to go to Cotopaxi, but not with this knee. I! can decide that now. Victor and Ray are staying in the hostel across the street, actually. We`ve said goodbye quite a few times.