Riobamba and Volcan Chimborazo

We have come to Riobamba in the central Andes for its Saturday market and to mountain bike down Chimborazo.  After Salinas, Riobamba is downright bustling.  It's a clean and safe city where we feel comfortable walking around at night.  The Saturday market draws many indigenous people from the surrounding mountains, all the women wearing different styles of hats and garments.  It's rude to just snap people's photos so I don't have any, but they were all fascinating to see.  The market was bursting with all manner of raw meats, produce, housewares, jewelry, and gorgeous hand woven items made from the wool of sheep, lamas, and alpacas.  Markets are the best places to eat with so many different cooks serving up their specialities.  We were the only foreigners in the market so we were already getting a lot of attention.  I only have one picture of the market, and it's just the colorful fruits.  It's just not a place to be waving a phone or a camera around.  Latin American markets are too crowed and chaotic to be taking pictures, I need to pay attention to my surroundings and it takes a lot of focus! 

We returned to the market to find some dinner, and it was a much different place, meaning louder, even more chaotic, and families enjoying time together.  The sidewalks were packed with the after hours indignous folks selling the last bit of their wares,probably hoping to sell everything before returning home.  The streets were jammed with street food carts and hawkers.  Grilled meat on a stick, if there's one food that you can count of to be excellent in Latin America it's this!  A mixed meat kabob costs just a dollar.  Add an empanadas and a morocho and dinner for two people costs $3.  That's how we eat cheap when we travel...breakfast at the hotel, lunch in a hole in the wall, dinner on the street.  

After a final stop at a grocery store for a few more provisions for the trip to Chimborazo we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

There always seems to be some adrenaline fueled excursion on these trips, and Ecuador didn't disappoint!  We went with a long standing and reputable company , Pro Bici, to mountain bike down  Volcan Chimborazo.  The owner of the company spent 90 minutes with us explaining every detail and safety procedure.  We were informed about hurricane strength winds, what clothes to wear and provisions to bring, and about village dogs that would chase us and how to best avoid getting bitten (if you can't outrun them, get off the bike and put the bike between you and the dog). He outfitted us with elbow and knee pads, a helmet, and had us ride several bikes while he analyzed our riding style so he could provide us with the best bike.  

This dormant volcano tops out at 20,702 feet and takes a mountaineer 9 hours to summit from the refuge enterance.  We had an excellent guide who picked us up front our hotel at 7:00 am.  It took about 2 hours to reach the refuge enterance in the truck with our guide as he explained things and made a few stops along the way.  The closer we got to the mountain the more breathtaking it was. 

Our experience started at 15,748 feet.   We took a few photos and got ready for the descent.

I've never actually been mountain biking.  I'm a casual rider a few times a week with my dog, on flat paved city streets so I had no idea what I was doing but I knew I was in for something that would be petty difficult and probably way over my head. The photos really don't show how very steep this was...I am sure I wore through the brake pads on the bike.  Not only was it steep, but it was a technically difficult 19 miles!  Lots of volcanic sand, rocks, single tracks, ravines, freezing howling winds, relentless sunshine.  It was exceptionally windy, and covering the neck and face is essential.  There were many times I had to walk the bike down steep and sandy sections.  There were only two up hill sections, and since I don't have the strength or lung capacity, I put my bike in the truck for those sections.  Maya was of course stronger than me and powered through the up hills like a person training for an endurance competition.  We had two animal experiences, one cute and the other terrifying.  Vicunas are like smallish lamas, so cute.  They are a protected species and we passed several small groups of these guys.

The other experience I don't have a photo of because I was too busy trying to scramble up the embankment trying to avoid the bull that was trotting towards us.  The whole ride up from Riobamba, our guide talked about all the bulls that are raised in this area for bullfighting all over Ecuador.  He pointed out how dangerous they could be even though they look docile.  When we were riding through a farm area there was suddenly a large herd of cows and bulls heading our direction.  The support truck was meeting us at the end of the section so he was not in sight.  The herd was tended by two guys on horses who were frantically waving their arms at us, presumably to get off the road, out of the way and to higher ground.  There really wasn't a place to get to so we jumped up on the embankment and used our bikes as shields.  Most of the herd veered off to a pasture behind a fence, but one bull with big horns didn't follow the group, he came towards us.  Kind of panicking at this point because there was no where for us to go as we were up against a double rusty barbed wire fence that was 5 feet tall.  One of the herders came up behind the bull yelling and making all kinds of noise for that bull to get away from us and keep on going.  When they finally passed us I was really freaked out because I thought I was probably going to get a lung puncture by his horns, at the very least. 

After that, we only had one pack of dogs chase us but we we're able to out run them.  Riding down Chimborazo was an incredible experience,  photos just can't explain the magical beauty of the high Andean plains.