PowerCycle

Happy New Year! Unfortunately I missed all the festivities in Quito last night because I’m sick. The fever broke this morning but my throat is still sore. Rather than collapse at the side of the road from not having any energy and from not being used to the altitude yet I’m going to stay here until Monday (Quito is at 9895 feet).

My plans quickly changed as they always do. I was going to leave Thursday but it sounded like the roads would be kind of crazy with everyone out celebrating (aka drinking) so I decided to ride into the touristy area of Quito called Old Town and stay there until today. Elmono, my warmshowers.org host, rode with me which worked out perfectly because he knows the area like the back of his hand. Staying with him and his wonderful family was a treat. Everyone made me feel very welcome there, even the family cat that attacked my feet in the middle of the night.

I also learned a lot about New Year’s traditions from them. One of the things we did was put together a stuffed dummy that they burn in the street. The dummy is actually called Año Viejo, or Old Year and it represents all that was bad in the previous year. It has a plastic mask on its face that represents famous politicians or a public figure (ours was the president of Ecuador). They have all kinds of other interesting traditions here: everyone wears yellow underwear for good luck, at midnight you’re supposed to eat 12 grapes really fast, saying a wish for each grape and anyone thinking about traveling in the following year must run around the block twelve times holding a suitcase and an umbrella (I should have done this one).

There was a Christmas miracle while I was in Florida that I forgot to mention. My hair started growing back. OK, it wasn’t like I could have put it in a ponytail but after 2 weeks there was definitely some activity up there. This was unexpected and since I didn’t have my clipper thing with me I had to get a haircut. That set me back $15 freaking dollars! It took her like 4 minutes. I was mad. Anyway, back here in Quito I went and got one for $2. She even did a better job.

The hostel I’m staying at is called Mia Leticia. Elmono and I stopped at a bike shop and one of the guys knew about this place so he called over to see if there was a room available. I even got a bicyclist discount. It’s a shame that tourism is so dead here because this is one of the nicest hostels I’ve stayed in. They have wifi, excellent hot showers, breakfast is included and there are laundry facilities.

Providing that my health is back to 100% I’m leaving Monday. As far as what I’m going to do about the winter weather in Argentina I’m just going to ride south and see what happens.