Of Dutchmen and bikeshops

I love the biking dutchman. So, for those of you that don´t know, I arrived in Quito last night. Now, I had a bit of a worry (understatement) when I went to retrieve Jake (my bike) from luggage at the airport. The side was bashed in, with a HUGE hole at the top and dents and holes where the derailleur resides. Thank God I took it off at the last minute. -- the derailleur, that is. Friday, the day before departure, got to be very heated in 1505 (my apartment). There was grease. There was sweat. There was lots of sweet talking and cajoling, as well as some rather short conversations with Jake. But we made it through.

Now, I stayed calm (mostly becuase I was tired, I think), and I knew that there was a biking dutchman in Quito, so maybe he would be able to direct me to a bikeshop, or help me fix it, if indeed there was a problem that I couldn´t take care of. Meg the Mechanic is still a project in the works (reference the need for sweet talking). Thankfully, I don´t think anything is to bent, though I haven´t shifted through all the gears (the room does not have much room in it), but things seem to be at least somewhat in order. But I did still seek out the Dutchman to get a feel for road conditions, recomendations, etc.

He was GREAT!! We talked about a bunch of the major passes, which roads are passable, the best way to get out of Quito, and DAMN all I wanted to do when I got out of that shop was hop on Jake and take to the mountains. --Unfortunately, I still am getting lightheaded pretty easily from all the alititude! Details, details. Full on hop, skip and jump in my step. From there I went to a bike shop where I needed to get some screws that I must have left at home (I thought I had left them in my fork, but appranetly not). I ended up talking with the bike guy, Osvaldo, for another 30 minutes (though this was in Spanish, so in reality a lot of it was probably dead air as I formed my sentences!). And I know now how to say Phillips screwdriver in spanish, for my next stop, the hardware store.

Quito is really picturesque city. It sits amidst the mountains, and this morinng was about 80 degrees and incredibly sunny. The streets are relatively clean, and especially in the new town seems incredibly modern. Since you can read everything (even though you may not understand it), it does not seem that foreign. Likewise, the food is not necessarily that different -- lots of pollo, arroz, hamburgesas and fast food, sandwiches, jugos, naranjas. There are several big parks in the city -- similar to city parks in Spain, I feel like. The old town is pretty fantastic. Looming above the Basilica is Mt. Cotapaxi, and at the time the fog was rolling in over it. Colored houses --yellow, pìnk, blue, green, orange -- line cobblestone streets. I wandered though a market with the typical stalls carrying everything from backpacks to sewing machines to burnt cds. There are multitudes of street vendors, selling mostly snack food. My favorite are the girls selling helado. They are holding these huge Thanksgiving platters full of what looks like whipped creme with severeal sugared ice cream cones sticking out. In a lot of ways, the old town reminds me of Lisbon, Portugal. Though they sell t-shirts likening it to San Francisco, and maybe given the fog, hills and colored houses I can see it.

From what I have seen wondering the old town, new town, the areas in between and the outskirts, Quito is a lot wealthier than I expected. There were incredibly few beggers when compared to anywhere in SE Asia that I visited. Thankfully, there were even fewer disfigured or handicapped beggers, which I can only contibute to the lack of landmines littering the countryside. People also take cabs a fair amount, and there is nothing like Tuk-tuks, songtheows, or even moto-taxis.

Alright, thats all I´ve got for now. Tommorrow I hope to go hiking on Cotopaxi, since I am still trying to adjust to the altitude (go AWAY headache!) and therefore holding off on the bike just a bit. Until next time.