catacocha

i am staying in this little town called catacocha about 60 miles to the west of loja. my hotel room was only $4, and the ladies who work there are so nice! they just cannot believe that today i rode my bike from Loja to Catacocha. i told them i was going for a walk around the town, and one of their husbands poked his head out from another room, and told me to walk up this hill for a "beatiful view of our lord jesus christ." i told him i needed to bring my camera for that, and he was like, "oh, yes! bring your camera! it is beautiful." i'm going to start posting some photos from earlier in ecuador because i didn't get a chance to post them before. this is Cayambe volcano as seen from the town of Ibarra. i never would have imagined that there are snow covered volcanoes at the equator. i literally haven't seen snow since northern canada. crazy, huh?
just north of Quito lies the equator. this is a photo of me with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern hemisphere. i'm not totally sure how exact that line is though because about 50´down the road was another sign and another monument that said "equator". i got my photo taken next to the bigger one. later on that day we stopped at this indigenous village for lunch. i don't know what tpye of meat that is (clyde thinks goat), but it was totally delicious. there were no utencils, and everyone there, including the local police man, was eating with their hands. we each got exactly one napkin.
this photo is of the outskirts of quito. i'm not sure what it is, but you can instanly recognize that you're not looking at a US city. i really liked quito. the new part of town is really clean and nice, and has a shopping mall that made me feel like i was back in the US. the historical center is really cool too and has a lot of beautiful colonial architecture. i needed to replace my chain, rear cassette, and middle chain ring, and asked this cyclist i saw to recomend a bike shop. i ended up at this place called The Bike Shop, and the owner Diego was super nice. they replaced everything on my bike for free, and Diego spoke perfect english. everyone who worked their was really awesome, and i ended up learning a lot about ecuadorian history, and cool places to visit in quito while i waited for my bike! Thank you to eveyone at The Bike Shop!
Tomorrow i will be at Macará, which is the border town to Peru. the cycling has been totally gorgeous, but there is not a lot out here. the other day i had run out of food and was totally starving. i had one last hill (mountain) to summit before the descent into Loja, and i was dreading doing it on an empty stomach. just as i started to climb, this car pulls up next to me filled to capacity with an ecuadorian family. this guy leans out of the passenger window and says, "how are you? where are you going? do you need any water?" i told him i was all set on water, but that i could definately use some food. he gives me a bag of christmas cookies, and then this grandma in the back seat passes up two weird looking pieces of fruit for him to give me. they were about the size of grape fruits with a peel that was dark grean to black in color. i asked them what they were, and they told me "tangerines". i've honestly never seen tangerines that looked like that before, but i don't i'll ever enjoy one more in my life. it was a total miracle that that car stopped when it did, and the cookies and crazy looking tangerines totally got me up the hill. anyways, hope everyone is doing good!
-jessie