Quito - Ecuador

David:

I remember being completely amazed at the system at the Mapping Department which involved choosing the maps you wanted at one window, going to another room to collect the maps up the corridor, and the going to a third office to pay.  Coming straight out of Australia this seemed to be such an obvious inefficiency it was unbelievable.  However, after three months in South America and now getting close to three years in Thailand, I can reflect that this now doesn't faze me at all.  A bonus from all this was the location of the Department had excellent views over the city.  

Quito, like a lot of Ecuador we were to see, lies in the valley that runs down the almost the length of the country between two chains of Volcanoes.  (This is where the name Avenue of the Volcanoes comes from which we describe more in the next section).  This means there are big mountains that rise up from the edge of town (topped with some, always delightful, TV antennas).  It also means they have an air pollution problem (However, as for the maps, three years in Bangkok would have changed my view on the severity of the problem).

Their solution for this is electrical busses that run down a defined alley in the middle of the road and are powered from electrical cables above.  They are basically trams, without the cost of laying expensive tracks.  I couldn't get over what sense this system made.  The infrastructure costs are much less without laying rails or any other special surface.  They come through regularly and really move some people.  I wonder why this option isn't found more often around the world.  I suspect, it isn't expensive enough for the vested interests on multinational lenders, construction/engineering firms and politicians.

We did get to do some walking around the part of town we were in.  I remember seeing bombarderios (firemen) wearing camouflaged army gear that instead of being based on greens, comprised a red camouflage pattern.  Not sure what the use is of a fireman been camouflaged up against a fire. 

But we were getting impatient to begin our cycling plans.  The bikes were reassembled and I tried to remember what I'd learnt in my bicycle maintenance course.  Not very successfully, as it turn out.

Adjusting rear derailiers is still witch-craft as far as I'm concerned and this was the cause of the terrible start we got on our trip.  Read about Danielle's version of my mechanical and navigational cock-up on the first day of our trip as we rode down the Avenue of the Volcanoes.