The Perfect Border Crossing

Ipiales, Colombia – Ambuqui, Ecuador

To start with, we’re both feeling better. Thanks to Dr. Liu’s medical guidance, my tummy issues seem to have resolved themselves. And Diana says her knees are fine. So that’s good!

Today’s topic: the mystery of Latin American restaurants and eateries. 

Okay, we just don’t get it. The places we go for lunch have super limited menus. There is generally sopa – soup. But only one kind. And then there might be a few options on the main course – pollo (chicken), res (beef), pork, or pescado (fish) – but all of them are served with rice, maybe some beans, maybe some plantains, and maybe a little salad. In other words, they vary the meat but otherwise the dishes are identical.

But then for dinner we frequently eat at the hotel restaurant. There is never anyone else at these places. But the menus are extensive. All the same things that the lunch places have – plus things like lasagna, crepes (I had crepes last night), arroz con pollo (a brilliant chicken and rice dish), shrimp, etc. 

We get why the lunch places have no options. They are small and just do what they’re good at. Makes sense.

What we don’t understand is how the hotel restaurants can have such a varied menu. How do you keep all this variety of stuff fresh when you have no customers? And yet the stuff we get always seems good. Last night’s crepes came with chicken and mushrooms. Excellent. And, as Diana points out, it’s not that easy to keep mushrooms fresh. 

Do they just throw stuff out on a routine basis so they always have fresh stuff? Or do they have some other magical way of handling all this? 

Now, don’t start thinking we are living all high on the hog. I mean, it is not a bad life, that’s for sure. But it’s crazy how inexpensive everything is. Lunch today? We each had soup, a bottle of water, coffee, and one of the standard rice/beans/meat plates. Total cost for both of us: $5.50 (Ecuador uses U.S. currency). I think our budget for the day, including hotel, three meals, and bottled water was about $70 – for two of us. Crazy . . .

Ecuador. I’m sure you want to hear about Ecuador. 

The border crossing was beautiful. It was a perfect border crossing. My friend Vladimir Putin even said it was perfect. 

Seriously, putting Trump-isms aside, I think we are becoming pretty good at all the passport and money changing type stuff. We even had two other cyclists – from France – ask us where to get their passports stamped. 

So we totally won the border crossing.

We ended up biking about 60 miles (with a huge net down – last 18 miles we basically didn’t pedal – my wrists are sore from braking, but otherwise no effort at all . . .). 

First impressions of this country on the equator . . . Beautiful, duh! Lots of bucolic scenes. Seems like there are a ton of small farms all over the hillsides. And biking! It’s what, Tuesday? And there are bikers everywhere. And they aren’t just ordinary putzs. These people look serious. Serious bikes. Serious fitness – they were flying up the mountains. I’m guessing there were some pros among the people we saw today. But it’s not just the bikers themselves. There is also bike infrastructure and bike art. Ecuador – or at least the part we were in today – seems super into biking culture.

Also super small sample size, but we were impressed with the education system. You just have the impression that they take school pretty seriously in this country. Kids all dressed in those Catholic school uniform type things. Which makes sense, I guess, because it is a Catholic country. The national motto: Dios, patria y libertad – which translates to “Lord, homeland and freedom.” Anyway, hard to put our finger on the difference, but it just seemed like school is a big thing around here. 

(By the way, feel like we can already see a contrast with Colombia on religious stuff. Yes, like all of Latin America, Colombia is Catholic as well. But Colombia just didn’t seem that outwardly Catholic/religious compared to say, Mexico, or – small sample size – Ecuador. More on this topic later when we write our Comparative Culture of Latin America on a Bike three volume treatise – sure to be a cult favorite for years to come . . .)

We managed to stop at a paleontology museum in the little town of Bolivar. I guess they found fossils from mastodons and this other huge rodent-like creature in and around Bolivar. We had a personal tour as we were the only people there. But paleontológical terms are not the first thing they teach you in Spanish class. So, as Diana pointed out, for us it was like being in a Peanuts cartoon. You know when the adults talk and all you hear is “wa, wa, wa . . .”

We did occasionally pick out a word – like “mastodon” – but we may need to take some advanced Español before we head back. 

What I did manage to glean from the visit was something like this: there were mastodons and other big cool creatures running around in this part of the world 10,000 years ago. But then people hunted them out of existence. (I’m not sure about this last part – but if you read the very good book Sapiens you learn that humans have been eradicating other species for a long time . . .)

Last thing . . . After the 18-mile descent to end the day we found ourselves at a hotel that is like Ecuador’s answer to Telemark Lodge. Like Tony’s resort hotel, this place looks like it’s the cutting edge of 1972. The difference is that it’s still here . . . Complete with the colored tile bathrooms, swimming pool, and lots of activities. 

We’re pretty excited about the next few days. Tomorrow we go to Ibarra – which is supposed to be an interesting historical town. We’re staying with a WarmShowers host and expect that to be fun. Then the next day we’re going to hike around a crater lake that our La Squadra friend Mark R says was the best hike he’s ever been on. (Thanks to Mark and his wife Linda for really helping to get us going in the right direction in Ecuador!)