Ecuador, right on the equator

There was no hustle at the border between Colombia and Ecuador when I arrived there at 8:30 on Monday morning.. The procedure of leaving Colombia was easily finished as usual. Then I wanted to exchange my money from Colombian peso to Ecuadoran sucre. A money exchanger had a wad of US dollars in his hand. I heard the Ecuadoran currency had been changed to US dollars two years before. The immigration of Ecuador also finished in about five minutes as usual. Then, the problem was about the permission of temporary importation of the bike. As the people leaving and entering were not so many, the customs officers were helpful. One of them took me to a probable office. But they told us that they were not in charge with the permission and proposed going to the town of Tulcan 4km away. I remembered that a motorcycle tourist whom I had met on the way to Ecuador told me it would not be easy to get an Ecuadoran permission for a bike without a “carnet". I felt an impending problem. But, the officer told me he would accompany me to Tulcan. My anxiety was relieved. But he didn't have a car. So I asked him to shoulder my knapsack keeping a computer and two adults of us sat on the seat that had a room only for one person. It was really uncomfortable. I had never done this before.

To tell the truth, the customs office was in Tulcan, not at the border. The young officer who came with me from the border saluted like a soldier when entering the room to be responsible and explained what I needed to an officer on duty. The person in charge was a woman who looked intelligent and kind. Immediately after asking various things about my travel, she told me she would give me a permission. I told her that I had already get a permission for myself to stay for three months and asked her to give the same three-month permission for my bike. The woman officer went to another room. When returning to the room, she told me she wouldn't give more than 15 days. I told her 15 days would be too short and asked her at least one month. She soon took me to her boss's room. Her boss was unwilling, but she said on the spot, "You can do that" and persuaded him. As a result, I was given one-month permission. She was the most impressive government worker that I had met at the borders during this journey. On entering Ecuador, I came to like the country.

I cross the equator on land for the first time. The well-known large cities right on the equator are only Nairobi in Kenya, Singapore and Quito. There are some equator museums in a small town La Mitad del Mundo in the north of Quito. At one of them I saw an experiment to show the Coriolis force. The water in the sink flew down, moving counterclockwise, in the North Hemisphere 2m away from the equator, and clockwise in the South Hemisphere equally 2m away. I realized the equator. But, something is funny. The ocean current of the North Pacific moves clockwise by the effect of the Coriolis force. The ocean current in the South Hemisphere must be moving counterclockwise. Therefore, in the region near the equator of the Pacific Ocean the currents move from east to west. But curiously enough, there is Equatorial Countercurrent that flows on the contrary from west to east. I have read in a book that there is a possibility that the people who sailed to South America on the countercurrent introduced the pyramids of Egypt to Peru. The jet stream also flows from Japan to the USA. I went to the museum, expecting to see the Earth in the range of 4m of the equator in the small museum. Not to mention that the condition is different in between the sea water that flows from the warm equator to the poles and the water in the sink, but even so I still think the movements are inverse. I went out of the museum, feeling unsatisfied. The museum didn't have more things special to show. They charged $2 for this. I was impressed to know that they made a good business, under this circumstance, out of only a sink and a leaf that shows the motion of water.

If you go 22km south from the equator, you hit Quito. As Quito conserves its colonial buildings, the city was declared to be a World Heritage site in 1978. Quito is located at 2,850m above sea level. Quito stands in a higher place than Bogota, the capital of Colombia, which has an elevation of 2,600m. It was cold in Bogota. So I was afraid it would be colder in Quito. But on the contrary it was much warmer and I enjoyed the comfortable temperature where I sometimes sweated. And, Quito was a beautiful city although its center bustled with people and cars.

On entering Ecuador, I noticed that commodity price was more expensive than in Colombia. The local people told me the prices went up after the currency was changed into dollars. The hotels are as inexpensive as in Colombia, however, daily necessities are more expensive. As Ecuador produces oil, the price of high-octane gasoline is about 55 cents per liter, which is slightly less expensive than 58 cents in Colombia. But the things such as food and clothes are imported and they are more expensive. Among all, restaurants charge much. I was surprised when a Chinese restaurant charged me $5.5 for four small pieces of dumpling and a small bottle of beer. It is the same price as in Japan. By the way, the restaurant told me at first that the only small bottles they had were "Chingtao" imported from China and Japanese beer that cost $5 each. I was stunned. In Colombia there weren't large bottles of beer, but usually small bottles. In Ecuador there weren't small bottles on the contrary. Coffee was changed into instant coffee in Ecuador. It costs $0.55 to $1. It was shocking to me, because I usually had authentic, delicious coffee for 14 to 18 cents in Colombia. I also could buy a pack of cigarettes for 32 to 41 cents in Colombia, but it costs 73 to 91 cents in Ecuador.The price of the gasoline is nearly the same in Ecuador and Colombia and in the northern half of Ecuador the roads have tollgates at every 30 - 40km as in Colombia. So the road condition is good, although not so good as in Colombia. But there is a great difference between the two countries. In Colombia motorcycle tourists were able to pass through the side of the gates without paying any money, but the Ecuadoran gates collect money. The fare itself doesn't matter much to me because it is only 20 cents. Nevertheless, it is bothersome to take off the gloves for paying the fare. Riding on the road, I found another difference. Indigenous people began to occupy the major part of the population I saw on the roadside from the bike. The population ratio of the indigenous people in Colombia is only about 1%, however in Ecuador it occupies 40%. Their multicolored traditional clothes somewhat remind me of Guatemala. The last difference is "topes". In El Salvador after Guatemala, the "topes" disappeared and I could ride comfortably as far as Colombia, with the sole exception of Costa Rica that has poor roads. But in Ecuador this obstacle lying across the road reappeared. Both Guatemala and Ecuador are the countries that have larger population of the indigenous people. Might this anarchistic device be the idea of the indigenous people?

Alausi, 220km south of Ba&#241os, is a small town in a valley enclosed by tall mountains. The motorcycle trip between the two towns was really great. The road coiled through the beautiful mountains under the clear sky. Ecuador is, as well as Colombia, a country that has a different kind of beauty of a mountain scene from Japan. I felt a motorcycle trip is the best as I did so in the Rocky Mountains. In addition, unlike the trip of those days, now I have a woman who is waiting for me. I thought it was right to quit the job for this journey. I confirmed my determination that I would not go back to Japan. From Alausi where I arrived, a train runs through the deep valley. Although the railway connects the capital Quito, Alausi, and Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador near the Pacific coast, the train with full of tourists on the roof goes down straight into the deep valley below in Alausi and comes back. It is a two-hour trip. A return ticket costs $7.8. The ticket is quite expensive for the people of this country, and even for me. The trip was not so exciting to me for the expensive fare, probably because I had once taken a mountain train through the gorge of Kurobe in Japan. Bathing in a hot spring might fit for me better.I thought the roads in Ecuador were good, but the road to the south from Alausi located in the middle of Ecuador became bad. The road was not good from the exit of the town, and the number of potholes increased soon. Meanwhile, the road changed into a dirt.road. The dirt road continued and crossed a high mountain. For the first time I saw a dirt road after riding, in large part, on the Pan-American Highway from Guatemala. A paved road returned, but it had lots of potholes again and in some places it had totally lost its pavement. I though I would be glad to pay the 20 cents without complaining it is bothersome.

However, this bad road became good before Cuenca, the third largest city in Ecuador. It soon turned to be a 6-lane road. I was riding at the speed of 100km per hour and I saw the road was closed. But the blockage was opened for one lane. I rode through the lane, thinking it strange. Soon later I found all the lanes were totally buried with the earth from a landslide. That caused me to make a detour over a mountain. It was a bad day today. After entering Ecuador, the sky has been clear, while I was under a curse of rain every day to leave Colombia. It was also fine this morning when I left the hotel. But dark clouds began to cover the sky before Cuenca and soon some raindrops began to fall. To tell the truth, I didn't feel like coming to Cuenca today, because I imagined that hotels would be full and more expensive because of the big festival they have in the city. I had an idea to stay in a town on the way. I visited relatively larger towns, but most hotels didn't have a parking lot or the hotel with a parking was expensive. So against my will I came to Cuenca having a festival. In Ecuador I stayed in hotels for $5 except in Quito, but the hotel costs me $11 in this city. As Cuenca is also an old city, the hotels in the center don't have a parking lot. I walked around and found a hotel with a parking for $5. I moved there. After I parked my bike on the busy street in front of the hotel and took the luggage to the upstairs room, I was moving the bike to the parking. Then I found out that it was not the parking of the hotel, but a public one charging as much as $6.6 a day. I got mad and complained in a loud voice. I have never done this since I started this journey two years and five months ago. I loaded the heavy luggage on the bike again and rode around the city center to find another hotel. Finally I found a hotel with a large parking. The hotel charges $9 a night, but the room with tree beds is as spacious as a dormitory and is bright with light from large windows. It is a very comfortable room. But, hot water didn't come out from the shower, although they told me it would, as it also happened in the hotel I had stayed previous night. I was able to endure the cold shower, as it was not so cold as in Bogota. Nevertheless, why do they always tell a lie that will be easily revealed to be untrue? I like the old, beautiful city of Cuenca, but unusually I was angry about the hotels. I haven't got accustomed to the rhythm of Latin America yet, while I have been in the region for two years now. This fact can explain why I can't speak Spanish well even now. Under these circumstances, I, as an afterthought, won't be able to acquire the personality of Latin-Americans that I want. Besides, what I want next must have been the mental world of Buddha.

In Cuenca I met a person who rides a BMW. He offered me to go on a motorcycle trip to Loja with his group of around 20 riders on the weekend. As Laja was my next destination, I put off my departure for a day and accepted his offer. It would be my first experience to join a group motorcycle tour in a foreign country. I got up at 5:30 in the morning as we were supposed to meet at 7:00. I imagined the departure would be postponed till 8:00 when 20 Latin-Americans gather, and it came true. All of them came on a big off-road bike. And, they rode very fast. They overtook the cars one after another. In a short time I was riding at the last line of the riders. As I mentioned before, Ecuadoran roads are bad in the southern half of the country. They rode down at full speed on the bad road full of potholes. I was really afraid of those potholes, because I also speeded up unusually. To make bad things worse, the road turned to be unpaved for a long distance. The Pan-American Highway stopped being a highway anymore in Ecuador. I came to understand why all of those riders had a dirt bike.The road was good for 200km between Loja and the international border in the south. A tollgate appeared after a long distance. Somehow, however, they let me go without charging the fare. Fortunately it happened two times in this country. Mysteriously, the road was always good near the border in the countries in Central America and it is also true in Ecuador. Is it preparation for a war? As I came closer to Peru, the mountains seen from the road was gradually losing the trees of a vivid green.The things in Ecuador were more expensive than I had expected. It is reported that the prices are three times higher than its three neighboring countries of Colombia, Brazil and Peru. I don't know the average monthly income of this country, but it mustn't be so high. I guess the life of the ordinary people must be hard. And probably this is true. The workers, especially in restaurants, are not so serviceable either friendly as in Colombia. I sometimes wondered if they were just tired or angry about me. Nonetheless, the rich and beautiful nature of this country compensates for these deficits. Ecuador is better than Costa Rica where it is hot and its nature isn't so fantastic, but the things are more expensive.