Day 94 & 95 1/28/2022 – 1/29/2022
Odometer 33,430 – 33,435 —- 5 Miles (10,735 Miles Total)
Quito, Ecuador.
I’m going to add both days together here since not much happened with this horrible weather and all the warnings were getting all day everyday about how dangerous it is here.
We got up and it looked nice out through the windows from the hallway so we rushed downstairs to get breakfast and we planned to check out the middle of the world city where the equator passes through. Once we were done eating we went to the front door to get the bike and ride out to the monument but it was raining pretty hard out. We were so bummed. We decided to call an Uber and paid $9 to get a ride to the Monument. The monument was pretty cool but I had a feeling when they built this thing in 1930 it was off. And sure as shit I was right. The real equator line was about 200 meters off to the North. I checked it with my Garmin Inreach rescue beacon. I can’t believe these people don’t tell anyone that it’s all bullshit. Instead they just keep it a secret and make everyone think it’s the real equator line. We walked over to where the gps said we were on the equator line and I took a video to post on social media about how it’s a fraud line they have!
We got an Uber ride back into the city and had some food and walked around the rest of the day and got warned about 15 times by civilians and police about having our phones and cameras out. We were going to take the gondola ride up into the mountains but it was so cloudy and rainy we wouldn’t see much from up there so decided to just play cards at the hostel and do nothing.
1/29/2022
We woke up and had breakfast. Surprisingly it wasn’t raining very hard so we got the bike and took it up to the statue behind the hostel again to take some pictures. Once we did that it started to rain a bit so we took the bike into the city to get Jacki a Covid test so she can go home tonight. It started to rain pretty hard so we dropped the bike back off at the hostel and went out for some coffee and snacks. We bought some coffee for her to bring back home and walked around a bit. Again got warned by a bunch of cops about the same thing. The cops were so sweet about it every time it was very kind of them. We had some dinner at a place we ate at last night and then called it a night. She got an Uber to the airport and we said our goodbyes.
I feel like my trip is coming to an end soon. I feel very stagnant about it. There’s not much more to explore in Colombia and the weather sucks in Ecuador right now with my riding gear failing. I’m sick of hearing how dangerous it is. I made the decision today to ride back to Medellin over the next few days starting tomorrow morning. Once I get there I’ll do some salsa classes for about a week or two and while I’m doing that I’ll start looking into extending my visa for the bike as long as I can. It will be either 90 or 180 days. Either way I’ll have to fly back down here once or twice to extend the TVIP if it’s even possible to keep extending it. I have a few leads on bike storage so i’ll have to take care of that and confirm it all. I think I’m going to go back home in late February or the first few days of March.
I feel good about this decision. I should probably get back to my union job for a little while to keep my health benefits back up along with getting a few hours in to get my pension credit for the year. So I’ll probably go back home and work the union gig for a month or more. I’m bummed my Yamaha Tenere 700 won’t be in now until early summer as the dealer told my friend that called for me. It looks like I’ll have to go buy my other dream bike. A Vespa 300 GTS Sport so i’ll have something to ride around until the Tenere comes in.
