Quito, Ecuador

We got up early today, eager to get to the border and into Quito, where we could get a hostal and regroup. We were left with only the clothing on our back, so our first order of business would be to find a new wardrobe.

We drove in silence for most of the way, each of us still bitter about what had happened, contemplating how to recover. Before we had left for the trip, we both agreed that we should only take things that we could part with, but now that it was all gone, we realized how much we liked our stuff. It was the simple things like how my new bag could be converted from a shoulder bag to a backpack when we needed to trudge up steps, or how I’d never again be able to play the first guitar that Shelly gave me as a birthday gift. For Noah, it was how his favorite coat was gone, the one that had arms long enough to actually fit him comfortably. We became angrier as we realized that every piece of fly fishing gear we had collected was now out on the streets of Colombia, probably only destined for the trash. Six years worth of flies that I had collected from regions spanning from Alaska to Colorado and everywhere in-between were gone in a flash. I thought about all the hours I had sat at the fly tying table, laboriously creating flies that I hoped would one day land a fat trout.
We half heartedly joked about how we pictured the thieves getting back to their hideout, opening up our gear bags and pulling out fly tying feathers, reels, and Noah’s gigantic waders and having no idea what they were looking at.

The one shining light out of the whole experience was the Colombian people. As I was standing there waiting for Noah to return with the police, a man holding a baby walked up and asked what had happened. He spoke a little English so between my broken Spanish and his broken English, we could carry on a conversation. I explained what had happened, and I could sense his heartfelt regret for our loss. Soon he was offering me his guitar, which he admitted he couldn’t play very well. Next it was his clothes, which he said would probably be tight, but I was welcome to them. Later that night after we had pulled in at a hotel to camp, another teenage boy learned of our story and did the same thing, offering what little he had to us. These are people that had little to give, yet they would do anything to help us. While my confidence in our safety was shaken, my confidence in humanity was renewed, and I once again believe that this world is filled with more good people than bad.

Later that afternoon, we crossed the Equator, a large milestone for our trip. It was unfortunate that we were crossing it under these circumstances, but if anything it encouraged us to forge ahead, regroup, and continue with this amazing journey.

After getting settled into Quito, our first order of business was finding some basic clothing. Quito was the first area of this trip that was commonly cold, so we had to find jackets, hats, etc. to prepare for the cold weather to come.

To our surprise, the owner of our hostal, Ricardo, took us in his car to the old town, and personally escorted us to various stores, negotiating good prices and patiently waiting for us to try on shirts, pants, and jackets. As expected, the majority of the clothing wasn’t even close to fitting us. Noah especially had trouble, finding just one hoodie and a pair of sweat pants. While we had initially envisioned ourselves returning from our shopping excursion dressed in the local attire of an alpaca poncho and a fedora, we ended up not doing too badly, and ended up getting outfitted with the basics…

After getting some work done on the computers this morning, we headed off to meet Noah’s friends Dave and Bree, who had just arrived in Quito back from the Galapagos Islands. They were being picked up by their guide Christian. While talking over the phone to Dave explaining that we had some things to attend to on the van, Dave informed us that Christian’s uncle was a mechanic, and was located right next door to his house, so we should just come over there. We figured “why not” so before too long we were off to the airport to meet the group. We followed Christian to his house up on the hill above Quito and after meeting his wife and boy, were treated to some great pizza! Soon we meandered next door, where his uncle added some transmission oil and greased our sliding door, which was gritty from our travels over dusty roads. The last item we needed to figure out on the van was the broken window. Our initial investigations by Ricardo resulted in the possibility of a custom made window, but it would take eight days to complete. Christian’s father knew of a glass shop just down the road from their house, and he thought they could do it faster, so we jumped in the van to try to find it. Sure enough, they could make us a window, and they could have it done in one day! Once again, people’s hospitality and caring got us out of a bind.

Today we had to wait around until our window was supposed to be finished later in the afternoon, so we decided to take the cable tram to the top of the mountain that lies behind Quito. The view of the city was amazing, with the buildings stacked on top of each other for miles and miles in every direction. Once at the top we decided to follow a trail that climbs a volcano nearby for some exercise. It felt good to stretch the legs, and we were treated to some cool views of the volcano as the mist danced over the ridges and swirled into the valleys. Dave motored on ahead and actually climbed to the top, while Noah and I stayed back and took lots of pictures and just took in the scenery.

We came back down to meet Christian at the glass shop, and when we arrived, it sounded like the window wasn’t complete. Crap. Rolling blackouts have been instituted in all of Equador because the severe drought is hampering their ability to make hydro-electricity. Because of this, the glass shop didn’t have power most of the day, and couldn’t work on the window. After talking with the lady at the desk for a bit, she made a phone call and low and behold, it sounded like we would have our window within half an hour. Sweet! Soon a guy came out and started the install. Ten minutes later we were on our way, and prepared to leave Quito and put on some more miles southward!