Hello from Cuenca, boy does it give us a feeling of Quito! Beautiful, colonial, a
nd it rains everyday, all afternoon long! Here we´ve been staying with the coolest bomberos ever... there´s hundreds of them (they have an *excellent* system of bomberos here with tons of machines and equiptment...). What a journey since Trujillo! We are so glad to be un in sierra again, and especially in Ecuador where it is so green a
nd there is so much diversity in such a tiny space...
P.S. Here are some old fotos that were sent to us by friends... one is me and Cristhian climbing in Puquio, Peru and the other is me with Jesus (friend of my friend and ex-professor Paul Dosh) and his family in Villa El Salvador near Lima, Peru.
nd it rains everyday, all afternoon long! Here we´ve been staying with the coolest bomberos ever... there´s hundreds of them (they have an *excellent* system of bomberos here with tons of machines and equiptment...). What a journey since Trujillo! We are so glad to be un in sierra again, and especially in Ecuador where it is so green a
nd there is so much diversity in such a tiny space...We left Trujillo with Lucho, Tyson and Carlos... and did two days in a row of over 100km it was sweet lots of back wind and flat desert land. We arrived in Chiclayo with Tyson and Carlos and stayed at another Casa de Ciclista, with Javier, who took us out for cerveza and ceviche. Tyson made a Guitarro (guitarra made with a tarro or can) for Javier´s father and we had a grand old time playing around with it. We really enjoyed our time with this chicos and hope to bike with them more in Ecuador... Then unfortunately we had to part ways with our wonder
ful crew of cyclists, and we headed up to Mancora (taking the bus in order to save time since it´s running out...!). A few wonderful beach days in Mancora and we headed north again... where we ran into some trouble (which we
will inform you on later) and so took combies (mini buses) up to the border with Ecuador, Huaquillas. Whew, what a relief to pass into Ecuador, and how exciting!! We biked to Arenillas where we stayed with bomberos and then to Pasaje, again with bomberos. Pasaje is in the middle of giant expanses of banana plantations... that´s where our bananas come from folks, in these giant stretches of monoculture! There in Pasaje we saw many cyclists, more than most towns, and the coolest thing was that there were women biking, and even little girls! We saw a great site... a little girl no more than 5 years old 
in a white dress booking it down the highway, she was going so fast she passed us! She´s a rockin´ biking and an inspiration to us. And then we started our climb... from a few hundred meters to 2,600 meters! It was awesome... we started in banana plantations, climbed up passing through small banana and orange farms... one thing we have noticed about Ecuadorians, is that they are amazingly generous! We were gifted oranges and bananas one day, soda the next, leamonade the next, etc... everyone is so kind and open here! It was truly tropical for a day and a half and then we entered the real mountains... we camped one night and the next we stayed with a kind woman who has a store in La Union. She had an interesting immigration story... actually we´ve been learning a lot about immigration lately from many folks. Her husband immigrated 15 years ago and never came back. Their 15 year old son doesn´t know his father. They are still married but she knows that her husband is with anther woman, a
nd just doesn´t tell her in order to keep up the appearances. He still sends money and it´s very obvious in her house which is very nice. But... he´s gone, and never coming back. It´s another sad im
migration story... A bombero in Pasaje also told us about his crazy experience crossing to the US, a three month journey, over 10,000$ to cayotes, he found a pregnant woman in the desert who had been left behind by her cayote and helped her to the next town...he broke his ankle in the desert and no one helped him and he swam across the rio bravo to arrive in the states, only to be exploited for 2 years wor
king 3 jobs 16 hours a day. He came back to Ecuador, happily, to be with his family again... From Union we climbed all the way up to Portete, over 1,200 meters in one day. It´s amazing to go from the flat hot humid coast to the freezing cold misty mountains in a few days... it´s so chevere. The roads in Ecuador are amazingly interesting (the landscapes are breath taking!) but also amazingly STEEP! It´s almost funny. In all the other countries we´ve been to the roads loop around a mountain to be more flat, but in Ecuador it heads right up the slope! So we´ve had some of our biggest challenges here, but we don´t mind, because it´s gorgeous. In Portete we stayed in the community center thanks t
o Rita and Vicente (the president of the community... it seemed very well organized!). Over a dozen young folks watched us cook dinner and made Cristhian nervous as he fried an egg tortilla. They were so kind and fun... the next day we headed to Cuenca and here we´ve been, reparing our equiptment and biking around! It´s a good city to bike in, it´s flat, a lot flatter than Quito, and with less traffic. The drivers aren´t super agressive and generally respect cyclists. Cuenca is very well known for it´s cyclists, there are many here who do it as a sport (cross country, downhill, bmx, racing, etc...) and so there definately is a strong bike culture, but it is based on sport. However, there are a fair amount of young men biking around the city as transportation, some carting gas tanks (we saw one man pedaling without a seat! ouch!) or string trimmers. We saw one man biking with a motor cycle helmet! T
hat is real safty first...hehe. There are no projects to promote bikes in the municipality, however, bike lanes are something they are thinking about. The only organized bike event that is not sport is Ciclopaseos, that occur on sundays, organized by El Tiempo the daily paper here in Cuenca. Cuenca a
s far as we could tell has no bike organizations that aren´t focused on sport. However, they have a lot of potential since there is already a kind of bike culture here and the streets aren´t too dangerous or steep. With a li
ttle initiative, an organization could do a lot of good here in Cuenca! And today we sadly say goodbye to our bombero friends in Cuenca (MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS BOMBEROS DE CUENCA!) and continue on our journey to Quito. We are planning to arrive for the Ciclopaseo June 15th and have invited various environmental and bike organizations to meet us in Ciclopaseo and acompany us into Quito! Saludos de Cuenca... Claire
ful crew of cyclists, and we headed up to Mancora (taking the bus in order to save time since it´s running out...!). A few wonderful beach days in Mancora and we headed north again... where we ran into some trouble (which we
will inform you on later) and so took combies (mini buses) up to the border with Ecuador, Huaquillas. Whew, what a relief to pass into Ecuador, and how exciting!! We biked to Arenillas where we stayed with bomberos and then to Pasaje, again with bomberos. Pasaje is in the middle of giant expanses of banana plantations... that´s where our bananas come from folks, in these giant stretches of monoculture! There in Pasaje we saw many cyclists, more than most towns, and the coolest thing was that there were women biking, and even little girls! We saw a great site... a little girl no more than 5 years old 
in a white dress booking it down the highway, she was going so fast she passed us! She´s a rockin´ biking and an inspiration to us. And then we started our climb... from a few hundred meters to 2,600 meters! It was awesome... we started in banana plantations, climbed up passing through small banana and orange farms... one thing we have noticed about Ecuadorians, is that they are amazingly generous! We were gifted oranges and bananas one day, soda the next, leamonade the next, etc... everyone is so kind and open here! It was truly tropical for a day and a half and then we entered the real mountains... we camped one night and the next we stayed with a kind woman who has a store in La Union. She had an interesting immigration story... actually we´ve been learning a lot about immigration lately from many folks. Her husband immigrated 15 years ago and never came back. Their 15 year old son doesn´t know his father. They are still married but she knows that her husband is with anther woman, a
nd just doesn´t tell her in order to keep up the appearances. He still sends money and it´s very obvious in her house which is very nice. But... he´s gone, and never coming back. It´s another sad im
migration story... A bombero in Pasaje also told us about his crazy experience crossing to the US, a three month journey, over 10,000$ to cayotes, he found a pregnant woman in the desert who had been left behind by her cayote and helped her to the next town...he broke his ankle in the desert and no one helped him and he swam across the rio bravo to arrive in the states, only to be exploited for 2 years wor
king 3 jobs 16 hours a day. He came back to Ecuador, happily, to be with his family again... From Union we climbed all the way up to Portete, over 1,200 meters in one day. It´s amazing to go from the flat hot humid coast to the freezing cold misty mountains in a few days... it´s so chevere. The roads in Ecuador are amazingly interesting (the landscapes are breath taking!) but also amazingly STEEP! It´s almost funny. In all the other countries we´ve been to the roads loop around a mountain to be more flat, but in Ecuador it heads right up the slope! So we´ve had some of our biggest challenges here, but we don´t mind, because it´s gorgeous. In Portete we stayed in the community center thanks t
o Rita and Vicente (the president of the community... it seemed very well organized!). Over a dozen young folks watched us cook dinner and made Cristhian nervous as he fried an egg tortilla. They were so kind and fun... the next day we headed to Cuenca and here we´ve been, reparing our equiptment and biking around! It´s a good city to bike in, it´s flat, a lot flatter than Quito, and with less traffic. The drivers aren´t super agressive and generally respect cyclists. Cuenca is very well known for it´s cyclists, there are many here who do it as a sport (cross country, downhill, bmx, racing, etc...) and so there definately is a strong bike culture, but it is based on sport. However, there are a fair amount of young men biking around the city as transportation, some carting gas tanks (we saw one man pedaling without a seat! ouch!) or string trimmers. We saw one man biking with a motor cycle helmet! T
hat is real safty first...hehe. There are no projects to promote bikes in the municipality, however, bike lanes are something they are thinking about. The only organized bike event that is not sport is Ciclopaseos, that occur on sundays, organized by El Tiempo the daily paper here in Cuenca. Cuenca a
s far as we could tell has no bike organizations that aren´t focused on sport. However, they have a lot of potential since there is already a kind of bike culture here and the streets aren´t too dangerous or steep. With a li
ttle initiative, an organization could do a lot of good here in Cuenca! And today we sadly say goodbye to our bombero friends in Cuenca (MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS BOMBEROS DE CUENCA!) and continue on our journey to Quito. We are planning to arrive for the Ciclopaseo June 15th and have invited various environmental and bike organizations to meet us in Ciclopaseo and acompany us into Quito! Saludos de Cuenca... Claire 
P.S. Here are some old fotos that were sent to us by friends... one is me and Cristhian climbing in Puquio, Peru and the other is me with Jesus (friend of my friend and ex-professor Paul Dosh) and his family in Villa El Salvador near Lima, Peru.
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