La Niebla – The Fog

Riobamba – Alausi, Ecuador

Today’s ride had a little bit of everything. Some sun, some rain, some clouds, some fog, some hot, and some cold. Even the terrain changed pretty radically as the day went along. 

We started with a little spitting rain in Riobamba. But that didn’t last long – and the cloudy cool weather was actually perfect for our first long climb of the day. And what was really nice was the much more quiet road that we were on. 

We saw indigenous people.

We saw cows, pigs and sheep.

We rode through a desert type area.

And there really weren’t the super big climbs that can be so discouraging. Just a lot of rolling hills going gradually up until we reached the big descent into Alausi. (Diana informs me that we actually ended up doing about 5,500 feet of climbing – so definitely no slouch of a day . . . Basically, every day here in the Andes is no joke on the climbing front . . .)

But the descent? That was crazy. So much fog. Never seen anything like it . . . We actually have no idea what the Alausi area looks like because we couldn’t see anything – in fact, we could barely see the road. I mean, we know it is super green and maybe looks like Ireland or something – but that’s about it . . .

The thing is, we are reaching the end of our Ecuador mountain shelf life. While there were times in the middle of the day when the sun was shining and it was kind of nice, once we started descending into Alausi and the fog set in, the temperature dropped radically, and, while it wasn’t raining, the effect was the same because the condensation was making us wet. 

By the time we were half way down the hill I think Diana had all of her clothes on – including the puffy she recently bought – but she was still cold. 

When we finally did emerge from the fog we headed immediately for our hotel. We didn’t pass go, we didn’t collect $200. 

Diana’s only question for the hotel:

”Tienes agua caliente?”

”Oh, si, we have hot water.”

But when she went to shower she was greeted with water that felt like a Colorado river – as if it had been snow just minutes before . . .

Can I just say that this is another Latin America-ism. Most places don’t have hot water at all. On the occasion when they do, the “hot” water is set at luke warm . . . Which is not a big deal – except when you are already frozen. 

Doesn’t matter. Diana is thawed out now. After her cold shower she put all of her clothes back on, crawled under the covers on the bed, and shivered for a while. That helped. 

But what really did the trick was the soup at the Chinese restaurant next door to the hotel. 

That wasn’t the best part of the Chinese Restaurant though. No, that was Chin. Chin is a 64 year old from North Carolina, via Taiwan. Three years ago Chin had what I understand to be triple-bypass surgery. After he recovered, he realized that life was too short not to follow his dreams. He quit his job and has been traveling the world ever since. 

He drove across the United States. He traveled through Southeast Asia. He toured Central America. And now he’s working on South America. 

He’s been taking the bus from place to place. I guess it cost him $3.50 to take the bus from Riobamba, where we were this morning, to Alausi, where we are now. 

So we saved $7 by biking. 

Chin has been following a route through Ecuador that is pretty similar to the one that we’ve been on. On his second day in Ecuador he was in Ibarra – the town where we stayed with Elaine and Marian. 

I guess he saw some children playing – with a volcano in the background. He asked the children if he could take their photo, and afterwards he gave them a little money for their troubles. 

This turned out to be a bad idea. 

Some adults saw this and concluded that Chin was in Ecuador to maybe traffic kids. They were infuriated. They took his phone, they started hitting him, and eventually turned him over to the police. Sounded terrible. (Reader Steve S sent this NYT article on the Ecuadorian election – and they talk in there about four children who recently had been playing soccer, disappeared, and were later found dead. People were outraged – and I’m wondering whether this may have further fueled the incident with Chin).

I guess he ended up having to buy dinner for the police officers, but they checked him out and concluded that he was okay. 

Definitely need to make sure we’re not taking unapproved pictures of children. And definitely will not be paying children for their photos . . .

Now, Alausi is itself a pretty cool city. On the lack of separation of church and state theme, it has a giant Jesus statue that looks over the whole town. It’s a cool statue – but it’s not something you’ll see in the States . . . though maybe it keeps people on the straight and narrow. Don’t want to be sinning in plain sight of your savior now do you? (Wonder if anyone has ever done a study on this? Do people behave better when they feel like a religious icon that they hold dear is right there watching? I kind of doubt it – but what do I know?)

Our friend, Mark R – who has been so helpful in Ecuador – told us that he really enjoyed this tourist train that is a feat of engineering genius. Sadly, the tourist train was a victim of COVID. It shut down back then and has never started up again. 

Tomorrow is looking like a short day – because there is a big gap in hotels. We can either go 25 miles or so with several thousand feet of elevation – or like 50 miles with a ka-jillion feet of elevation. We’re thinking 25. But then the next day we should land in El Tambo – which is the gateway to the Ingapirca – which I guess is Ecuador’s version of Machu Picchu. 

Looking forward to that for sure!

And, by the way, I know we shouldn’t be complaining about the cold because it might be a billion below zero in Minnesota right now. But, whatever, it’s all about the right clothes. And there’s a reason we don’t bike in the winter . . . 

It’s all good. Pretty day. Fog was amazing. So lucky to see all these different things and to wake up not knowing what the day has in store for us . . .