11/15 The rain finally caught me. It started at noon and continued non-stop for the next 4 hours. The temperature wasn’t horrible so I just zipped up my rain jacket and rode on. There was also a decent shoulder for the entire way which helped. Had a guy on a motorcycle blast his horn when he was right beside me which almost gave me a heart attack. No dog encounters today. 
Hernando called the hostel this morning and told me to check and make sure the bolts on the crank arms were tight. They were. You would really be hard-pressed to find a bicycle mechanic as good as he is. I asked if I could bring him along in a trailer but he said no.
I had this (horribly wrong) notion that the hills wouldn’t be too bad today. The descent to start off the day was fun but the long climb after that seemed to go on forever. The bike rode like it was fresh off the showroom floor. The brakes have never been better and shifting was perfect.
Armenia is big and isn’t in very good shape. There was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake here in 1999 that did extensive damage and killed over 1000 people. It’s hard to tell what damage is from the earthquake or from just normal wear and tear but the roads and buildings are very worn down.
Staying at Hotel Jeronimo for 40 mil which is kind of pricey but the lady said they have wifi and it was the only one I could find on short notice with rain coming threatening again. It was also in an area that didn’t look quite as bad as when you first enter the city. A couple hours after settling in I find out the modem is broken so they don’t actually have internet.
On a serious note I’d like to apologize to the hundreds of chickens that were put to death over the past year so I could enjoy all their tasty parts.
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