3 Aug
We left Quito and went the long way around the city to avoid going through the city. We didn't feel that guilty due to the price of gas. Roger thinks it was back in 1979 when he paid less than $2/gal. From Quito we headed south towards Ambato, through the flower district. There were lots of greenhouses throughout the area, and numerous shipping warehouses. I suspect the Quito airport is busy shipping flowers, because truck traffic wouldn't get flowers exported in any shape.
From there the agriculture turned to potatoes, onions, broccoli, and several long grasses that I didn't recognize. It was interesting to note that people or trucks carried produce as opposed to horse or donkey carts in rural Colombia. It is a lot colder in Ecuador than the mountains of Colombia.
We started heading west at Villa la Union and crossed over the Cordillera Occidental and began our descent into the coastal area of Ecuador. It was fascinating viewing the changes in terrain, from arid high country, to greener lower high elevation, to more tropical vegetation, to finally banana and sugar plantation land. The first half of the drive was through mountain rises and descents, the third quarter through high country valley, and the last quarter through rougher low country roads.
We thought we were going to stop in Machala, Ecuador and drove through town looking for a place to park. After getting through town with no luck, we headed further south and stumbled across a restaurant that was gated. We asked the staff if we could spend the night since they were closing and the head lady called the owner. The owner said it was OK if it was OK with the night guard. While we were waiting we talked with three senior citizen motorcycle riders from Machala. All were interested in the RV and glad to talk about their rides. Roger was quite impressive with his Spanish and hand signals to get the conversation across. These men were also very informative about propane gas. They told us where the plant is, so tomorrow we'll be heading first thing to the nearby plant to see if we can get our tank filled. We've been looking for a plant since Quito, so hopefully we'll be lucky and be able to get our tank topped off first thing tomorrow. Right now we've only been using propane for the refrigerator, but as things get cold, having hot water for showers is a nicety as well.
Roger got to use his EMT skills today too. One of the motorcycle guys (who happens to be 81) tripped on a curb and fell directly on his face. He bled from over his eye, his cheekbone and nose. Roger patched him up with butterfly strips and neosporin. We gave him a couple of tissues for his nose and eventually he stopped bleeding. He was very embarrassed, but at least Roger had his small first aid kit.
Tomorrow we will head into Peru if the propane quest doesn't take too long in the morning.
We left Quito and went the long way around the city to avoid going through the city. We didn't feel that guilty due to the price of gas. Roger thinks it was back in 1979 when he paid less than $2/gal. From Quito we headed south towards Ambato, through the flower district. There were lots of greenhouses throughout the area, and numerous shipping warehouses. I suspect the Quito airport is busy shipping flowers, because truck traffic wouldn't get flowers exported in any shape.
From there the agriculture turned to potatoes, onions, broccoli, and several long grasses that I didn't recognize. It was interesting to note that people or trucks carried produce as opposed to horse or donkey carts in rural Colombia. It is a lot colder in Ecuador than the mountains of Colombia.
We started heading west at Villa la Union and crossed over the Cordillera Occidental and began our descent into the coastal area of Ecuador. It was fascinating viewing the changes in terrain, from arid high country, to greener lower high elevation, to more tropical vegetation, to finally banana and sugar plantation land. The first half of the drive was through mountain rises and descents, the third quarter through high country valley, and the last quarter through rougher low country roads.
We thought we were going to stop in Machala, Ecuador and drove through town looking for a place to park. After getting through town with no luck, we headed further south and stumbled across a restaurant that was gated. We asked the staff if we could spend the night since they were closing and the head lady called the owner. The owner said it was OK if it was OK with the night guard. While we were waiting we talked with three senior citizen motorcycle riders from Machala. All were interested in the RV and glad to talk about their rides. Roger was quite impressive with his Spanish and hand signals to get the conversation across. These men were also very informative about propane gas. They told us where the plant is, so tomorrow we'll be heading first thing to the nearby plant to see if we can get our tank filled. We've been looking for a plant since Quito, so hopefully we'll be lucky and be able to get our tank topped off first thing tomorrow. Right now we've only been using propane for the refrigerator, but as things get cold, having hot water for showers is a nicety as well.
Roger got to use his EMT skills today too. One of the motorcycle guys (who happens to be 81) tripped on a curb and fell directly on his face. He bled from over his eye, his cheekbone and nose. Roger patched him up with butterfly strips and neosporin. We gave him a couple of tissues for his nose and eventually he stopped bleeding. He was very embarrassed, but at least Roger had his small first aid kit.
Tomorrow we will head into Peru if the propane quest doesn't take too long in the morning.
Yea, Roger! Glad you had your first aid kit with you!
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