And the tour is over...!

June 23rd 2008
Saludos desde Quito! Hello, hello. We have arrived at our “destination” (for the moment) having accomplished our goal… Santiago de Chile hasta Quito, Ecuador en BICICLETA! We biked a total of 6,320 kilometers, in a total of 116 days biking and another 86 days resting, investigating and getting to know places (plus 20 days spent in Santiago). Our overall average was 55km biked per day, though it ranged wildly between 16km and 125km. Our lowest altitude was 0 meters above sea level (in Moncora) and 4,500 meters above sea level crossing the mountain range near Cochabomba, Bolivia. Our hospitality was free probably about 95% of the time (camping, bomberos, churches and schools) and we spent an average of about $6 a day per person on food, toiletries, international phone calls, internet and a fair amount of bike equipment. The total spent on the trip was $1,630 each person for 7 months 1 week—about $225 per month (which includes the bus down to Santiago). Our bikes each weighed about 120lbs, that for the next trip we will definitely try to lighten up. We passed through 5 countries, all of which lay claim to part of the Andean mountain range. Throughout the course of this journey we have learned about many cultures, places, people, mountains and bicycles, and we have learned a great deal about ourselves. We have rediscovered the sense of solidarity between humans that we all long for, but which we all lack. Our muscles have grown, as have our capacities to endure pain, be open to new experiences, communicate with people very different than us, and be spontaneous. The adventure was a great teacher… and we know we will continue to learn from it as the experience sinks in and as we reflect.
Cuenca and Chinquitad—
After spending a wonderful day with our bombero friends in Cuenca (they gifted me a bombero jacket!), we biked outside of the city to a small town called Chiqintad, where Rosa, the aunt of our friend Daniel lives. We ended up staying over 3 days with her and her 4 awesome kids… Daisy, Jonathan, Jenny and Andrea. It turns out we had arrived just in time for the preparations for a giant party to celebrate the confirmation of Jonathan. So as soon as we got there we dug right in, peeling papas, cutting col and Cristhian even helped to butcher 2 pigs! Daniel came down from Quito on Saturday. We picked maiz with the girls, shelled beans, and prepared the house. On Sunday we went to the church and helped to document the ceremony, and then…the fiesta began! All afternoon and night long, eating amazing food (Cuenca´s famous mote, hornado—which is pork, salad, papas, etc…), drinking chicha and aguadiente, and dancing. We dancing until we were exhausted at 11pm and then crashed. We had an awesome time with this family…very good and fun people and we hope to see them again! On Monday we continued on our journey… to Riobamba! Only a few hundred kilometers away, but…boy oh boy what a journey!
Cuenca a Quito—
Wow! Ecuador… is incredible. The segment from Cuenca to Riobamba was one of the most challenging and difficult segments of our entire trip. As I have mentioned, Ecuador doesn’t have an altiplano. Instead, in order to travel through the sierra, you must climb to 3,500 msnm and then go down to 2,500 msnm --- only to climb up to 3,600 msnm again the next day, and go down to 2,700 msnm the next… and it goes on and on for days like that. This was, of course, extraordinarily challenging physically, but also emotionally as you knew as you went down the giant mountain that you´d just have to climb right back up the next one. Once again, we longed for bridges—big giant bridges to cross the valleys between mountains. But no, nature rules, so we sweated and busted and we did it. The first day we made it to Azogues, and the next we climbed a ton and got to Tambo. Tambo had just recently formed their cuerpo de bomberos and they were telling us about how low on resources they were… but what they lack in resources they have in spirit! All the volunteer bomberos crammed into the tiny firestation to watch the soccer game. The primer jefe was really awesome and kind to us, and took us out to breakfast the next morning. That day we made it to the bomberos in Chincha, passing through the thickest pea soup fog I have ever seen—you couldn´t see 10 feet in front of you! Luckily the cars were going slow… Then on to Aluasi, following a road under construction that was incredibly slow. We left Aluasi late the next day and ironically ran into 2 different groups of bike tourers! At the top of one of the most insane up-hills we´ve seen (it´s only 4 km long but it takes over an hour!), where Cristhian scored a bunch of broccoli that had fallen out of a truck, we were passed by an Italian cyclist as we ate lunch. The man was older than 60 and was booking it, 80km-100km a day in the sierra! There are some really incredible… and crazy!...cyclists out there. Then, as we headed down the hill we met a Swiss couple on a tandem that was coming all the way from Alaska. It must be intense to be a couple on a tandem… you cannot escape your lover…ever! It must make or break a relationship. Well, then we climbed and climbed and climbed and thought it would never end, and pushed it hard to be able to arrive in Guamote, where I had to interrupt the bomberos drinking in the soccer stadium in order to ask the favor of a place to stay. And it was over… the crazy climbs! We glided mostly downhill to Riobamba the next day. The bomberos in Riobamba really took care of us. They have a new 4 story building that´s quite luxurious. They gave us our own private room with a bathroom and mattresses! We had a great time talking with them and learned a lot about what it means to be a bombero. They don´t use volunteers in the bigger cities in Ecuador, mostly because paid staff are more reliable (of course). It´s quite a contrast to all the bomberos in Peru which are 100% volunteers—Ecuador definitely has more resources for their fire people. We saw more cyclists in Riobamba than in any other Ecuadorian city… it seems to have to do with the fact that it´s quite flat and also very “tranquillo” or peaceful, there aren´t many robbers or anything so people feel more safe on their bikes. In fact, we saw a ton of bikes left outside buildings without locks--very surprising in a city so big! There must be a lot of trust in Riobamba. Of course, it was almost 100% men on bikes. The drivers were tranquillo and generally respectful and I felt quite safe biking there. We met an older man who works as a bike messenger and he gave us an interview (see the google group to listen…). From Riobamba on to Quito the road was relatively easy… we climbed up to 3,700 msnm to pass by the foot of Chimborazo (due to its location on the equator, it´s the mountain furthest from the center of the earth) and came back down to visit Ambato. Again the bomberos were very open and told us very intimate stories about the trails and tests you must go through in order to be a bombero. These men were my age or even younger and they are doing very trying and dangerous things… I respect it a great deal. From Ambato we biked quickly to Lasso (since it was relatively flat) stopping on the way for Salsedo´s famous natural ice creams. From Lasso we meandered to Machachi since we had an extra couple days before arriving at the Ciclopaseo on Sunday. We accidently stayed in an expensive hostel but got them to charge us half price (it was a miscommunication…) and the next day we biked to La Ecuatoriana, the neighborhood in the far south of Quito where Cristhian´s grandparents and uncles live.
La Ecuatoriana
We met up with Crithian´s mother to be guided up the mountain where the abuelos live. They didn´t know we were coming but welcomed us in anyway, with wide open arms. They are high in years but also very high in energy… they have been campasinos all their lives (lived under patrones in their younger years) and continue to plant and harvest corn, avas, papas, etc… They were so kind and generous and kept us very well fed. The uncles also live there, and are awesome, took us walking up the mountain… On Saturday there was a little party to celebrate father´s day and we danced all night long… It was a lovely stay in La Ecuatoriana…
Ciclopaseo: Bikin´ into Quito
And the day finally arrived, the day we were planning on to arrive in Quito, to arrive home, in Ciclopaseo (every 15 days they close down 30+km of streets to cars and only bikers and pedestrians are allowed). We made our way to the Ciclopaseo tent in Quitumbe and were instantly approached by a middle aged man who had read we were coming in the Ciclopolis boletin. He had come to the south to meet us, with his daughter, on father´s day because, “getting my biking in is more important than anything else.” He had had a bad accident with a car a few years back and so now he never bikes in traffic, only in Ciclopaseo… wow, if it wasn´t for Ciclopaseo this lover of bikes would never get to bike! It just shows how important an event like Ciclopaseo is for cities. He bought us fruit salads and had to take off…but meanwhile, more and more folks showed up to meet us. Everyone was bubbling with questions, everything from how much does your bike weigh to what was the coolest experience to how many times did you get diarrhea. It was so wonderful to see old friends, and meet new ones! When about 16 people had gathered we took off north… what an amazing experience, to be entering a giant city relaxed because rather than being surrounded by cars you are surrounded by cyclists. Yay for Ciclopaseo! More people joined us as we biked, and others tried out our bikes to see how they felt. We continued to converse and answer questions and arrived at the Plaza de los Presidentes, where we thanked the folks who came and opened it up to questions. People passing by stopped to listen. The questions were good and interesting. We got invited to be on the radio. Next week we will give a presentation to the public on our experience and on the bike movements we learned about in the offices of Ciclopolis in order to spread the word about bikes in South America. Also we are busy making documents to be able to put on the blog and send to the bike activists we met on the road. There is still much work to be done! So we said goodbye to the folks who had gathered and pedaled our final leg of the journey, up to Cristhian´s parents´ house… tired, a bit nostalgic, but satisfied and happy. May this just be the first of many…

Coming soon… the following Document: A Powerpoint Presentation of the Tour

A few interesting signs we saw along the route in Ecuador...