PowerCycle

12/05 Big event of the day was crossing over the equator! This was kind of exciting for me if only because I wanted to see all 0′s on my GPS. Sure enough it hit N 00 00.000 right where it was supposed to. Not sure why it said N (for north). It should have been blank because I was in the middle of the world. The toilet flushes counterclockwise as expected.

The weather was perfect for a change. After leaving Cayambe the road climbed up and down and then dropped for a screaming descent into a river valley. Then life started sucking because the road climbed right back up almost 4000 feet. Those friendly Ecuadorians let me have it the whole way up. Every time traffic, of which there was a lot, got backed up behind a semi, people would cheer, honk and wave as I trudged up the hill. It was actually quite embarrassing.

It wouldn’t be a normal riding day without something breaking and today was no exception. Near the top of the last big hill my right pedal went out. It still spun but it jumps around so much I can’t stay clipped in. Looks like I’ll be doing a little more shopping in Florida.

In Quito I tracked down my warmshowers.org host’s apartment complex but he wasn’t home and I think the cell number I had for him was wrong. I shot him an email and grabbed a hotel over by the airport. He’s the awesome guy letting me store my bike with him for 3 weeks.

While I was hanging out over there I ran across the street to a bike shop to see if my pedal was fixable. It’s not. Dead at 17,120 miles. I did some rough math and that pedal has spun around 8,734,260 times since I left Florida almost 2 years ago.

The airport in Quito is insane. It sits right in the middle of the city of 1.3 million. There are neighborhoods right up against it on all sides. Can’t wait to fly out. Quito is also the second highest capital city in the world at 9,300 feet (2850m).

[osm_map lat="-0.072" long="-78.674" zoom="6" type="GoogleStreet" width="400" height="250" gpx_file="http://www.powercycle.net/maps/leg3/120510.gpx"]