Wednesday Jul. 11, 2007
Luckily, I hadn't seen much rain since Medellin and my tires made it here without any problem, but the rear was completely shagged on the left side. I had the used set I bought from Nick & Lesley in Medellin installed, but it wasn't possible to balance them - seems that's not common practice down here. Besides, my rims have several dents in them anyway.
My foot that I was stung on in Atacames was now infected and swelling up, so I visited the hospital ($15 US) and got some more antibiotics and anti-inflammatories ($16 US).
One day while driving around the city (lost, as usual), a cop who was walking the streets tried to get me to pay him $40 US cash because I did a U-turn. I told him I wouldn't pay him anything there on the street, but if he wanted I would pay it at the police station. He suggested riding there with me on Buzz or that I leave Buzz and take a taxi, but I disagreed with both. When he ran out of ideas he finally gave me my license back and said go.
I've already learned that Ecuadorians do not have the same moto-culture as their Colombian neighbors (possibly because gas is only $1.48 US/gal), nor the same respect for motorcyclists - they are bad drivers. And they are not nearly as good salespeople either.
Then it was time to do some touristy stuff. I visited the Equator - both of them. There's the original one and then there's the newer GPS one, about 600 m (2000 ft) away (but you have to drive a couple kms to get there).
The GPS equator was more fun, but when I asked why my GPS said it wasn't the center of the earth, they said it was because I was using a different setting. All righty then.
Quito is an expensive, modern city but it has a very nice old-town zone with some impressive buildings. I spent a several days roaming around the city while my foot healed up.
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