PowerCycle

Even though delivery on my tires ended getting pushed back until Tuesday UPS came through and got them to me today. Tomorrow I’ll pop new tires on and head out of here on Sunday morning. I was going to get a tune up on my bike but the guy at the bike shop (Zona Bici) once again was as helpful as a bad case of saddle sores. He couldn’t do any work on the bike because 4 of his 6 mechanics were sick or didn’t show up and it would have been too much of an effort for him to recommend another shop so I didn’t ask.

The biggest and best news is that I have a new camera! I’m now the proud owner of a Canon Powershot SX20 IS. It’s pretty sweet. And what a zoom range! 28mm – 560mm (20x). (I have it sitting in my handlebar bag since I don’t have a waterproof case for it. The pictures from today were on the Olympus so stay tuned for better shots (hopefully). Getting it was a stroke of luck. Marten, Karin and I were walking around last night and I happened to peek in a store called Contino on Independencia and saw some DSLR cameras sitting there. They didn’t have the one I wanted but they were happy to order it even though its not something they stock (see how that works Zona Bici?). It came in this afternoon.

As usual VISA’s top-notch anti-fraud team caused me more gray hair today. They let the charge for the camera go through yesterday but decided to decline the charge the next day from the same store (SD card). I had to sit on the phone with my bank for 30 minutes using Skype while they explained how a problem that had nothing to do with me caused my charge to get declined. That is one screwed up system they have there.

I also have some antimalarial pills now (Aralen). I have to take 2 per week until I get to Panama where I’ll have to switch to a different kind. Fun. I hate taking pills.

It’s very hot here now. It got up to over 90 F this afternoon when we were walking around Mount Alban. That was an amazing place. It’s a large pre-Columbian archaeological site that dates back to 500 BC. We took a bus up a very narrow, winding road and wandered around the huge site for a couple hours. I’d say this place was my favorite so far even though there were a lot of tourists and vendors.