Mountain Accident - 3 February 2018

3 February 2018 – I was up by 6:00 a.m., knowing I had a long day’s ride ahead of me. I found my way onto Hwy E35 traveling south, just fine. Traveling through the city went well for the most part. Blanche obediently followed her route and I turned onto the correct streets at the correct time. We were working together quite well. As I neared the center of the city, I started seeing more cows and pigs in the back of trucks, all going in the same direction. It wasn’t overly alarming but I was wondering what’s up with this. Today is Saturday, and sure enough all these critters are on their way to market for selling.

The nearer I got to the outskirts of the city the more congested it was getting. Finally, you guessed it, the traffic stopped dead. I’m setting there wondering if I should wait or push on. I probably waited five minutes and then some other motorcycle riders pulled in with me. They hung around for a minute and surveyed the situation and then moved on. I decided to just follow them as best I can. They were weaving in and out of oncoming traffic and slowly moving on down the road. Those kids weave in and out of traffic like it’s no big deal. If they miss a car by inches, no big deal!  As long as you’re not hurt or injured, it is no big deal. I would say this was going on for a least 1.25 Miles / 2 Kilometers, maybe more. It’s hard to keep track of distances or lengths when you’re driving the center line or the shoulder of the road with traffic only Inches / Centimeters away from you. Eventually I and the other motorcycle riders did reach the end of the line of vehicles. It ended with most of the vehicles making a left turn in to market. I don’t know if the live cattle and pigs were to be slaughtered; they maybe were there just to be sold.

Once I got to the head of the line I was free of traffic. I was planning on being in Loja, Ecuador tonight. The day started out as a bright sun shiny day. I filled up with gas when I left Riobamba, Ecuador so I would be good on gas for all day. I was well passed the city when I entered the mountains. Probably for the next 10 hours I drove straight mountain roads. I believed I crossed five or six mountain peaks and passes. The first couple of passes weren’t too bad. I was in and out of the clouds with no visibility problems. By the third pass, I entered the clouds and they never went away. The next three mountain passes were socked in with fog and you could barely see 17 Yards / 16 Meters in from of you. I was in the 9,000+ Feet / 2700+ Meter height range. The fog was so heavy that the visor on my helmet instantly fogged up. The only way I could keep driving was to lift my visor and take off my glasses. My glasses fogged up just as fast as my helmet visor. I then drove probably no faster than 20 Mph / 32 Km/hour. I also turned on my left signal light so trucks, semi-trucks and buses could see me. I mostly guided myself through the mountains using the white shoulder line. I continued to drive like that until I got to the lower elevations and the fog went away. All the best scenery was masked in fog.

I broke out of the fog coming down one of the mountains and I met another motorcycle rider. He was just waving a lot. He was an Ecuadorian rider and I thought to myself that was odd. Local riders do wave a lot. I suspected something was amiss up front and he was giving me a heads up or a warning. So, I kept my eyes open just in case. I was just coming out of large curve and there were 6 or 8 vehicles….cars and trucks stopped on each side of the road. I slowed down, not knowing what might jump out at me. I passed through the accident scene and in the oncoming lane was a man lying on his side. Two or three people were kneeing by his side. If I had an opinion I would say from his clothes and the fact that he was laying in the road that he was a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. The reason I say that is, people, horses and cows are regular walking travelers on the major highways in all South American countries I’ve been in. I said a prayer for him and wished him the best of luck. I continued on down the mountain and in 10 minutes I met the ambulance coming to accident scene.

Like I said, all day I drive up one side of the mountain and down the other. When I was in the higher elevations I was in the fog. You know, when it was that foggy I met vehicles without head or parking lights on. I know that fog here is not a once in a year thing. It’s probably pretty regular depending on the weather. I was wondering how the mountain folks keep that dampness out of their homes. I know what it is like inside my tent on a rainy / foggy day. The kids and people seem to be undaunted by it. They’re standing around in short sleeve shirts and skirts.

I was coming down my last mountain in the fog about 6:00 p.m. It was still daylight but it was getting dark fast. I was hoping to break out of that fog soon because I was entering the lower elevations. I was probably 12 Miles / 20 Kilometers out when I broke out of the fog and could see the lights of the Loja City. I continued driving until I was on the outskirts of the city. I then stopped, put on my glasses and looked for my hotel in Blanche’s lodging memory. Sure enough, it was there. Good thing. 

So, off we go through a policia check point. They weren’t interested in me. I made all the correct turns but missed one near the hotel. Blanche had a hard time recovering from that. After several recalculations we ended up in the right place. They had a vacancy for $15.00 dollars a night. My kind of hotel! I started things off real smooth and locked my key in the room. The receptionist looked at me like “you got to be kidding me.” They had to do a major dig to find a spare key. Well, I got unloaded, got my bike secured and ate a Hawaiian pizza for supper. I couldn’t eat sitting down because my butt hurt so bad.  After the pizza, I called it a night and went to bed. 

Yay For Strong WiFi - 2 February 2018

2 February 2018. – I cancelled my travel plans for today. The wi-fi signal is good and strong here so I should have no problems sending my 31 pictures. I don’t know what the next few days will be like, I mean as far as wi-fi goes, so I need to take advantage of the strong signal today. I may stay in some cheaper hotels and they will have wi-fi but you can’t use the internet, Skype, and you for sure can’t send pictures. Anyway, I’m going to scout around for an ATM so I’ll have some dollars to change when I get to the Ecuador / Peru border. There are no guarantees of anything to be available when you cross borders.  

I Almost Ran Her Over - 1 February 2018

1 February 2018 – I typed yesterday’s travels and planned on getting out of Quito today. My buddy the dog was back this morning. She was trying to kiss up after chewing on my tube of blue Loctite. She was trying to be overly helpful again and being a silly hound. I found out she had another buddy, a cat which she tormented. The cat boxed her back when she got out of line. I said goodbye to my buddies and headed out of town.

Leaving Quito went quite well. At the first roundabout, I took the wrong exit. That cost me some extra time. I had to drive back into Quito about 3 Miles / 5 Kilometers, turn around, and then drive back to the roundabout where I took the wrong exit. Blanche followed her route without a flaw. I really don’t know how before GPS’s and cell phones, people got through these cities. Even now there are very few signs. You put your blind trust in your GPS or cell phone.

So far, the roads in Ecuador have been really good. I can’t complain. I spent an hour or so driving 62 Mph / 100 Kph. My motorcycle didn’t know what to think about that. I entered the city of Ambato and it looks like about 100,000+ person city or more. There were a difficult couple of turns in this city which Blanche had problems with. Either I goofed up Blanche’s route or she didn’t like the route and deviated. Whatever the reason, I spent more time in this city than I would have liked. I staggered around being a pain to all the other drivers trying to figure my way out.

I eventually located a sign pointing to the city I was driving to: Riobamba. I almost hit an 18-ish year old woman when she stepped out in front of me. I was driving alongside of a bus when she stepped out from in from in front of the bus. I had to swerve into the ditch to avoid her. I could have done without that.

Once I found my way out of that city and got back on Hwy E35 it was pretty much straight driving to Riobamba. I arrived at the hotel I was planning to stay at. I was met at the door by a gentleman who said the hotel was full. Great. He spoke English which was helpful. He offered to lead me over to another hotel. That was nice of him. He also spoke to the receptionist which was more helpful. The hotel had nice rooms and a really nice strong wi-fi signal. Good parking security. I had the receptionist order me 2 hamburgers to arrive at 7:00 p.m.

It was after 7:00 p.m. and I went to check on my hamburgers. Low and behold they just arrived. The receptionist wrote the price down on a piece of paper. I read it. Huh $1.25!!! That not bad. I go get the money with a tip. I give it to the delivery man and he gives me this…what do you think I’m stupid look. I standing there saying what? The receptionist realizes I misread the price and then re-writes the price. it’s $7.25. I went oh!!! I went and got the rest of the money. I misinterpreted her 7 as a 1. They both were standing there thinking “Loco Gringo”. I spent the rest of the night planning my route out Riobamba to the border of Ecuador and Peru. It was quite a fight with Blanche but I think I got it completed without any glitches. It was after midnight before I got finished. Let’s hope everything works in the morning. I went to bed.

Equator Letdown and Ring Around the Collar - 31 January 2018

31 January 2018 – I was mostly organized last night, so getting my bags ready wasn’t a big deal this morning. I took a shower and then checked with the receptionist to find out how to get my bike out of secure parking. I also asked him if I had to pay to get it out. He said no, that was part of the price of the room. So, off I go to fetch my motorcycle.

I’m standing in front of a sheet metal steel gate that you can’t see through. I knocked on the fence hoping for a response. Nothing. Then it occurred to me maybe they had a bell. I started looking around and found a push button similar to a door bell button. I pushed it two or three times. I waited about 3 to 5 minutes and sure enough a lady showed up and let me in. She unlocked the gates and I went to re-claim my bike. I put my Spot up on top the wall and let it run while I was removing the cover off my bike. I backed it down the small hill it was sitting on to some more level ground. I put the kick stand down and the stick under my right-side foot peg. The stick keeps it from falling over to the right. I started it and let it warm up some. It was 54 Degrees / 12 Celsius this morning. After it had warm up, I grabbed Spot off the wall and drove back to hotel. I hope Spot had sent a message. I can’t tell for sure.  I loaded my bike and check out of the hotel. Another guy walked up and told me in broken English how much he like my motorcycle and would like to take a motorcycle trip similar to me. He took my picture and I gave him a card. He was happy.

I was off and Blanche was navigating. We got out of town just fine. I drove by a gas station, hooked a U-turn and went back. I pulled up and they said they couldn’t sell gas to me. I never did understand why. Then security told me no gas and to go back into town to buy gas. The cars there were filling up with gas. I was mystified. I went back into town looking for a gas station and I ended up back at same gas station with no gas. I saw a couple of guys and they recommended I drive to the next town. I was just hoping there wasn’t some weird gas shortage / problem where they weren’t selling gas to motorcycles. About 20 Miles / 32 Kilometers down the road I found a gas station and filled up.

I drove Hwy 35 most of the day. It was mostly four lane and relatively new pavement. It was a little bit of heaven. While I was enjoying the ride, Blanche deviated from her route again. I caught the mistake in about a mile. I was going to turn around but then just drove the 37 Miles / 60 Kilometers on the two lane. It was a nice road and hooked up again with Hwy 35.

I was excited because I knew today I was going to be crossing the Equator and was looking forward to taking a picture of myself by the sign. I crossed the equator and there no sign or buildings showing that I just crossed the Equator. I was really let down. It was going to be one of those memorable moments in time.

I eventually arrived in Quito. Well, just short of it. My hotel is about 7.5 Miles /12 Kilometers out of the city in something like a suburb. Blanche navigate to it….almost. The coordinates were about three blocks off. I asked lady I saw and she told me where it was and then when I didn’t find it, I asked a police officer. He verified what the lady said. It took a bit but I found the place. I was just hoping it hadn’t gone out of business like one other hotel I stopped at. I parked my bike on some level ground and walked back to the hotel. The hotel is on street that is a hill. I reach for the door handle and it was locked. Oh God, it went out of business. Then I thought maybe it has a bell. Sure enough, there it was bell / timbre.

I pushed the button and a receptionist came out. They had a room and secure parking. I checked in and they had nice rooms. Just out of curiosity I asked if I could get my clothes washed and they said yes. So, I unloaded my bike on another piece of level ground and then drove it into the secure parking area. It was a nice green lawn with a young dog who instantly was my buddy. I parked my bike. I removed all my clothes for washing and put on my riding pants. I put Spot out to mark my location and adjusted the counter balance chain in my motorcycle. My buddy the hound / dog was being very helpful being in the way. I was on one side and she was on the other. I didn’t see it when she stole my tube of blue Loctite. About 5 minutes later I saw she had chewed on it and poked holes into it. I was not happy. Then she thought she was my best friend and started laying on top my tools and stuff. I had to forcibly remove her from my work area. Finally, she got the message and stayed away.

While I was in Tulcan, Ecuador I couldn’t receive Mary’s texts and today once I was hooked up to the internet they came flooding in. By the time I got all my tools put away the lady had my laundry done. I was nice to have clean clothes again. I had some bad ring around the collar on my shirt. I then worked on my route out Quito heading south. I got that pretty much finished except loading it into Blanche. I took a break and went and ate supper. I ordered about a 10 inch / 25 Centimeter Hawaiian Pizza. It was really good and it filled me up. I walked over to a nearby store and bought myself a small container of ice cream. While I was at the store there was a GMC Jimmy parked there. It looked in real good shape. I’m thinking it was a 1975 / 1976. I couldn’t tell for sure because it was dark and I couldn’t see the number on the taillight. For those of you who know him, it looked a lot like Bud Wagner’s 1975 blue Jimmy. I know it was worked over several times but it still looked good.

Anyway, I came back to the room, ate my ice cream and programmed Blanche. The route looked good except for one deviation. I think I can live with it. All I have to do is keep riding the route and ride right thru her goofiness. She’ll catch on and get back on track. I think in the future I will build a series of shorter routes instead of one long route. That way if Blanche decides to deviate, I can fix the shorter route easier than I can fix one long route. Just food for thought. I went to bed after Skyping with Mary.

Child Bride and Snickers - 30 January 2018

30 January 2018– I worked on my blog all day today. I took two breaks; one of them was to go looking for apples and Snickers candy bars. I found the apples but not the candy bars. When I bought the apples, the guy I paid told me I should marry his daughter. She was about 18 years old, maybe. I wrote on my cell translator that she doesn’t want on old man for a husband. Both the mother and the father said that doesn’t make any difference. I wrote back that she would much prefer a nice young man over me and left to end that conversation.

The second break I took was at 6:00 p.m. to go eat a hamburger and French fries. It wasn’t bad. The lady making the hamburger was pretty chilly though. I ate my hamburger and left. I stop into another store to buy some water for tomorrow, and low and behold they sold Snickers candy bars. I bought four of them to have one for tonight and three for tomorrow if easy food wasn’t available.

Today was the first day I saw blue sky in weeks. For the most part since I arrived in Bogota, Columbia the skies have been mostly cloudy. Once I saw a night sky with stars. Tomorrow I got to get my motorcycle out of secure parking about a block away from the hotel. I hope that’s not going to be another adventure I have to deal with.

I found out how people know how to put their trash out for collection. The trash truck comes slowly driving down the street playing a certain song on a loud speaker. That alerts the people that it’s trash day. So, they dash into their homes / businesses, grab their garbage and set it on the curb for the trash collectors. That’s what I observed while I was eating my hamburger. I programmed Blanche to navigate me out of here and into Quito. I also typed in the GPS Coordinates of the hotel I’m planning on staying in. I tracked Blanche’s movement against Google Maps. She was right on locating with Google Maps. I think Blanche will be ok for the rest of Ecuador. I’m going to try and rise early tomorrow. I want to stop at the Equator and also get to the hotel before the sun goes down. Well that’s my plan anyway. DaveR out

Where is Ecuador? - 29 January 2018

29 January 2018 – While I was waiting for Mary to get back to me I have been working some on my blog but mostly I was worrying why I hadn’t heard from Mary all day. So, I got on a chat line with Garmin and typed in all the symptoms Blanche was exhibiting using maps City Navigator – South America NT 2017. Within 5 minutes I was chatting with Lynn. She was quite pleasant and after reading my tale of woe, she replied back that City Navigator – South America NT 2017 did not include Ecuador Maps. She provided a link which showed all the maps covered by South America NT 2017 and Ecuador was not there. Now don’t I have egg on my face.

Mary finally e-mailed me that I haven’t replied to any of her texts. I replied, I haven’t received a text from her since I was at the border. Today I found out Mary can receive my texts but I can’t receive her texts. Well that answers a few questions. With that knowledge, I jumped on the internet looking for Ecuador GPS maps compatible with my Garmin ZUMO 660. I found a maps at GPS Travel Store. I also made a mad dash to an electronics store to purchase a micro s/d card to load the Ecuador Maps on for Blanche. It was fairly reasonable, $8 USD. I went shopping looking for more food while I was out.

When I returned, using Skype, Mary and I purchased and downloaded the Ecuador Maps onto the micro s/d card. It looks so easy but I struggle with downloading and that’s why Mary was helping me. I would say by 8:00 p.m. we had the maps loaded and tried out in Blanche. When I put in the S/D Card all of sudden I had streets, gas stations, grocery stores, hospitals etc. etc. The South American NT 2017 maps literally stop at the Columbian / Ecuador Border. Blanche was mindless once she crossed the border and it was very obvious. Once I tried out the maps and Blanche seem to working again I breathed big sigh of relief. I went bed feeling like a weight had been lift off my shoulders. I went to bed and slept well.

Border Crossing, Columbia to Ecuador. I’m Popular with the Ladies....I Think – 28 January 2018

28 January 2018 – I back tracked my way out of town to the highway which took me to the border. Blanche took me right to the border and it wasn’t more than 4 Miles / 6 Kilometers away. I was motioned off to a side parking lot. Customs / Aduana wanted to talk to me. I exchanged all the Columbian Pesos for American Dollars so I was good to go there. I got my papers and headed to the Customs / Aduana. I gave the guy all my paperwork. He was shaking his “head wrong papers, wrong papers”. Finally, he gave up. He told me to go to Immigration and get my passport signed. So, I walked around the building and what I saw made my eyes pop out of my head. The line of people waiting to go into the building was something I’ve never seen before. Conservatively speaking there must be more than 300 people in front of me and growing. Unbelievable!

I went to the end of the line thinking this will be a 3 or 4 hour wait. I was standing in line for about 30 minutes and this young woman came up to me and said that people 65 years or older can go to the front of the line. Wait, you mean there is something good about being old? But this didn’t just happen: there was a lot of cell phone translating go on. Eventually, a man offered to show me where to go. So, I followed him and he showed me the door to enter. Security asked to see my passport. After he did the math he let me in the door and showed me the window where to get my passport stamped. I felt sorry for all those people still standing and waiting in line. I went back to Customs / Aduana and they told me to wait while a decision is made. Uh oh. Actually, they were quite nice. Nicer than I thought they would be. 10 minutes later the door open and I was invited in. Imagine being invited in to Customs / Aduana.

They asked to see my passport and all my paperwork. I spread it out on the table and the new official looked at all of it and then went to his computer for a second or two. He turned around and said I could go! I was expecting him to say go back to Bogota, Columbia and get the right paper work. I quickly gathered my paperwork, shook the guy’s hand and got out the door. I wasn’t waiting around for him to change his mind. I don’t believe I spent more than 2 hours at Columbia’s border. I went back to my motorcycle and pulled off my sweater in case I have to do a lot standing in the sun.

I left Columbia and entered Ecuador. I stopped and took a couple of pictures of the Welcome to Ecuador sign and continued on to Customs / Aduana. I was motioned off to the side and told to park. I took a look at the line waiting to get their passports signed. It was again unbelievable. I was on the side that went in to building. Then I walked around end of the building and continued walking along the other side of the building to almost the end. I was mortified. How long will I be in this line? It was a giant fish hook. I believe I stood in that line 5+ hours. I didn’t know at the time but my face and ears took the worst sun burning in 30 years. I forgot I didn’t have hair covering my ears. I was pretty red by the end of the day. I was thankful it was a cool day because I didn’t have any water and I had my red AeroStitch suit on. It would have been quite a sauna if the temperature had been hotter.

I met a family from Arkansas who were missionaries. It was a husband and wife and two sons. I put the age of the boys at about 6 and 12. I figured if I needed to use the latrine or get some water, I’d ask if their oldest son could stand in my place while I was gone. I never needed that, thank God. They were very nice. Another guy sought me out. I was surprised. He was driving a newer Kawasaki KLR 650 and needed a rear wheel sprocket. He said he didn’t have any teeth on his rear sprocket and was wondering if I had a sprocket to give him. He probably looked at my motorcycle, saw the spare tires, and figured I might also had spare sprockets. So, I asked myself this: if the rear sprocket didn’t have teeth on it, how could the chain or the front sprocket be any good? I didn’t give him my sprocket and felt guilty about not helping the guy out, but I brought that in case I need it on the trip, and there was no way to get another one.

I was about half way to the door to get into the building when an Immigration Official came around and was writing numbers on everybody’s wrists. The reason for that was people where cutting in line in front of people who had been standing for hours. Your number was checked as you entered the building. If you were out of sequence or had no number, you waited your turn. As fate would have it, I eventually did make it into the building and while waiting to get my passport stamped I took a couple pictures of the people who were still 5 or 6 hours out waiting on the opposite side of the building. It was a horrible wait.  I got a drink of water from a guy from Venezuela. His name was Alex. He spoke some English and he did some translating for me. A nice guy. We parted ways after we got our passports stamped.

After I left Immigration, I went to Customs / Aduana to get my motorcycle processed in to Ecuador. Guess what…….problems right off. My passport was stamped incorrectly. I had to re-enter Immigration and get my passport stamped correctly. Can you imagine that? I asked myself whether it was intentionally done or was that an honest mistake. I walked back in to where I had gotten the incorrect stamp, and before I said anything, the woman who stamped my passport was motioning me to her window. She fixed the mistake in ten seconds and I was off. I went back to Aduana and the lady there was now happy. 

She proceeded to fill out my paper work on my motorcycle. She must have been interrupted 5 times by the same guy with some kind of problem. She typed in all my info online and took a picture of my motorcycle and license plate. She printed out a form with all my motorcycle info and asked me to double check it. I went through it all and in the VIN number, there was a mistake. I showed her that and she fixed it and printed out a new form. I double checked that one and signed it and another form. Whew, I was done with Customs and Immigration / Aduana and Migration. Free to enter Ecuador. Praise the Lord.

I immediately headed to the bathroom and got a drink of water. My stomach was screaming for some food so I walked over to the nearest ice cream stand and ordered an ice cream bar. That soothed my growling stomach. I went back to my bike and a guy from Whistler, British Columbia, Canada wanted to talk to me about my motorcycle. We had a fun talk about our experience riding the Pan American Highway. I then typed in the GPS Coordinates for Hotel Lumar in Tulcan, Ecuador. No problem; Blanche accepted them. While I was doing that there was a growing ruckus with the people in front of my motorcycle. First someone tried to talk to me in Spanish about my motorcycle. I told them I didn’t understand. They were laughing about that. Then a guy who spoke English asked me about my motorcycle and I answered all his questions. Then he told me that one of the girls in the crowd wanted to travel with me when I left. I told him to tell her I would love to have her come with me on my motorcycle but she would have to ride on the handlebars. He told her that and the crowd erupted in laughter. So I started my motorcycle and all the guys wanted to listen to it. I let them listen for a moment and backed out. The girl was watching me real close and I kissed my hand and blew her a kiss. The crowd again erupted in laughter and I drove away.

I headed up the hill toward Tulcan, the city where my hotel was, and Blanche was acting weird. I pulled over and re-entered the GPS coordinates of the hotel. She took them without a problem, but something was wrong. The screen was orange brown. I was mystified. I continued to follow Blanche’s direction and she took me right downtown. I was lost. I parked my bike and asked two guys sitting there under a canopy with a computer. They knew where the hotel was but I didn’t understand Spanish. So that was no help. Finally, one of the guys said I should get a taxi and have them show me where hotel is. So that’s what I did. The taxi cab driver requested to be paid in advance. I paid her and asked her to drive slowly so as not to lose me. She agreed. So off we go and she showed me the general location. I was probably 100 yards from the hotel when she took off. Another taxi cab driver showed me the hotel as he was driving by. I thank him for that.

I parked my motorcycle and feeling somewhat tired, I headed for reception in the Lumar Hotel. There was a room available with secure parking. It was a nice room, with hot water and good wi-fi. I unloaded my motorcycle and asked the receptionist if he could show me where the secure parking was. He walked down the street and he pointed out the location for me. They were waiting for me when I arrived. I parked my motorcycle, marked my location with Spot, and covered my motorcycle. I talked to the lady some with my cell phone translator and then left. I walked past a small grocery store and bought a few items to eat for the night. I came back and ate 5 sandwiches, with meat and peanut butter. The day all of a sudden started looking up.

I talked to Mary later in the evening and told her Blanche is acting up again. I told her the screen is orange brown and the cities have no streets, no hotels, ATM’s or gas station. Something is amiss with Blanche. Mary told me she would check into it tomorrow. I took some pictures of the screen of Blanche showing the colors, cities and route completion flag. Also, the container the S/D card came in with the part numbers, SKU numbers and the receipt of purchase. I also gave her Blanche’s identification number for when she calls Garmin. 

Now it’s a waiting game to see how Garmin will react to how Blanche is acting up.  Will they be able to solve my problem? I went to bed being glad everything went well at the border today and worrying how will I navigate if Blanche is on the fritz.