Mechanic in the Making

Well, I ended up spending an extra day in Quito. Essentially, I got up super early yesterday am and was goign to give a complete look over my bike, take it for a test ride, and then take a bus up to Otovalo around 9. --Otovalo is maybe about 80 miles (?) north of Quito, and is home to the biggest indian markets around, surrounded by several lakes.
Well, (and sorry if this bike speak bores some of you!) but realized that my wheel was out of true, so i went about truing it, but it was pretty severe, so then i was thinking maybe i just need to go the shop to start out totally in alignment. And also realized that my hanger did get bent so the shifting was less than desireable on a couple of gears -- and bending a hanger is not a recommended project for a blossoming mechanic. My stem also got knocked over a bit. Alas after much debate i decided i was better off to wander and find a good cafe for breakfast then head over to the shop. Truing wheels are superior in life to my tampering about with only a spoke wrench. Breakfast was great -- I went the centro historico which was full of life at rush hour on a monday morning and found my desperately needed coffee.
Meandering back through the cobblestone streets, I picked up my bike at the hostel and headed to the shop. Well, dumb me didn´t realize that my brakes were also knocked a bit, and hence sitting too high on the rim, and in the 1.5 miles to the bike shop i totally demolished my sidewall. nice. so now i had to use my spare tire, and they don´t sell my size tire in ecuador (though the shop has tons of nice parts -- shimano, mavic, campignola, etc). Well, this turned into an adventure as Oswaldo didnt have a patch big enough for me, so his friend, Diego took me to a couple shops in an attempt to locate one, but to no avail! I rode back to the hostel, and figured out the route that I would need to take to leave town, whenever that would be. -- I got a little lost, but not too bad considering! BUT, and I only went partway, the descent when leaving Quito will be an adventure as the road is of course narrow and windy, all cobblestone with stacks of major potholes. I am hoping for the best tommorrow when I leave -- I plan on leavign around 6 am, so hopefully traffic will be light.
Anway, Oswaldo and I had decided to meet for a beer, so after ducking out of the intense afternoon rain in the hostel, I headed back downtown. We met his friend, Miguel, an Nicaraguan who works for the American Embassy, and went to a pretty modern place for a drink-- similar to any TGIFridays or soemthign of the like. This was not the original plan, but traffic was atrocious so it seemed to make the most sense. I had had plans to meet a dutch girl that is living here, Ana Maria, in the Mariscal (downtown, foreigner area) at 8. So we headed over there and contined our drinking. Though, of course, I remembered my lessons of drinking a lot at altitude and kept it pretty easy. As it turns out, Diego offered to take me on a motorcycle ride up to Otovalo the next day, so I thought that would be a good plan. I agreed to call him at 7 am -- and i must say the payphones here work a heck of a lot easier than many countries i have been in!
Now first, i had to go to te pharmacia because i had run out of drops for my pink eye, and am SO sick of wearing my stupid glasses! So i am chatting with the pharmacist, who learns that I am plannign to cycle through ecuador, and that I live in SF. Well, next thing i know he is dialing his son on the phone for me to talk to. Right. So he hands me the phone, and Pedro, his son, is clearly confused as to why he is talking to me (though he studied in Calif. and speaks english fluently so this helped my case!). Cool guy -- as it turns out they are doign an adventure race in early november and need a girl for their team -- sounds awesome, though i told him i dont have much experience in most of the things. And the biking bit is mountain biking, where clearly my skills leave a lot to be desired. but i said maybe, but dont hold the spot for me.

Otovalo was fantastic -- though definately has been turned into a tourist city, albeit a very pleasant one. The motorcyle ride took us about 1.5 hours, with a stop at a lake and hat shop. The countryside was pretty dry, but majestic nonetheless. Otovalo is a small town, with a number of craft shops and a permanent market set up in the main square. I would have loved to buy some of the ceramic bowls, either for myself or a gift! They of course had lots of woven bags, in addition to tapestries and some wooden carvings. I really liked some granite bookends, but the thought of lugging them around just wasnt going to happen! We had mexican for lunch (ecuadorian - mexican if you will) and headed home with a few stops in some pueblos along the way. Diego wanted to take me to the offical equator line, but i needed to do a couple errands in the city (a killed belgium cyclist two months ago convinced me that pepper spray was at least a good idea to carry). Some emailing`, erranding, packign and then off to bed.