In the morning we left on the 9:30 flight and arrived by 1:30 to find that the conditions in the Ecuadorian capital had worsened during our absence. Quito was in turmoil. Oh well, back to reality. Adios Galapagos until we meet again.

When we last left Quito there was trouble a brewin'. It was now a full blown kegger. Apparantly when the President declared that the government would 'peg' the Sucre to the US dollar, which has become all the rage in South America, the idiginous people of Ecuador took offense. In their mind they believed that by tying the Sucre to the US dollar they were, in effect, becoming a province of the US. In reality it means is that in return for tying your national currency to the US dollar you basically give up controll of your economy to those nameless individuals who try to stabilize it. They, whoever the hell 'they' are, implement conservative and heartless tactics to reign in inflation. Meanwhile the indiginous people of Ecuador shut down the Panamerican highway in an attempt to paralyze the country. They called for the immediate resignation of the President, the Supreme Court and Ecuador's equivalent of the Senate. They vowed not to lift the blockade until their demands were met. Back on the ranch, the President of Ecuador made the critical mistake of thinking that, because the demands of the indiginous people were so ludicrous, the whole thing would blow over in a couple of days. His relationship with the army became strained when he refused to take responsiblity for the army's attempts to retain the peace. All the while thousands of indiginous people were descending upon the capital to emphasize their displeasure with the current form of government. And there we were trying to figure out how to get through the blockades and see some sights. Oh the naivete of the innocent traveller.

We checked back in to the Hotel Pasada Real. In answer to the rampant inflation, they raised their room rates from $8 a night to $9 a night. It was good to see familiar faces. Next stop was laundry and then a visit to the SAEC to pick up the bikes. While there we asked about the current situation and whether it was possible to head south through the mountains. They told us that there were no buses or trucks getting through and that they thought that we might be able to make it on motorcycles. It would be risky though because the confrontations were worsening every day. Everyone was taking a 'wait and see' attitude. So we thought we'd just take the spare time to finish off the Colombia journals and catch up on our sleep. So off we sped to the hotel room for a little writing and a little nappy poo. We woke up famished so we went to the fabulous restaurant Casa Vieja. When we walked in the door everyone including the owner, Carlos, recognized us and seemed really happy to see us. We brought the hand held with us to do a little typing. We dined on a sumptuous plate of paella and washed it down with some Chiliean wine. After dinner we retired to the fireplace and while I smoked a Cuban cigar and sipped French Cognac, Linda was showing the fellas the pictures on the handheld. We shared stories of our trip and conversed with the whole restaurant staff. Even the Chef came out to join the fetivities. It was great fun. Total price of the feast: $30. I may never be able to set foot in a cafeteria again. Carlos gave us the business man's view of the problems facing the country while waiters gave us the working man's view. Neither were in conflict and each seemed to respect the other's point of view. Very interesting night. We promised to come back before we left town and said our goodbyes. Still tired from the Islands, we crawled back to our hotel and sawed logs.

We woke up to the morning paper declaring that more protestors were moving towards the capital and that if something wasn't done soon the otherwise peaceful demonstrations could turn violent. It documented all the road closures and numerous other problems from the blockade. In our little section of Gringoland it was hard to tell anything had changed. We went about the business of posting pictures and journals to the website. No sooner did we have that albatross put to bed when we realized that we were already falling behind on the Ecuador journals. Oh well you know what they say, "a travellers' work is never done" or something to that effect. We returned to the SAEC clubhouse to see if there were any new developments and try to pin down a time when we could leave. At the clubhouse they had heard of reports of the protestors littering the roadway with sharp objects to puncture tires. Great news. The general consensus still was that the whole thing would blow over in a couple days so you might as well just wait a while and see what happens. In reality we couldn't have picked a nicer capital city to hole up in. We thanked them for the info, took a team photo and went back to the hotel for the evening.

We were up early and off in search of spare helmet parts to replace the duct tape that now adorned both of our helmets. We had noticed quite a few Bieffe 3 sport helmets in the bike shops so we figured we'd have a good chance to locate the parts. One shop recommended another and we finally found a shop that had the spare attachments. We bought three sets at $7 a pop. Afterwards we looked around for malaria pills and other assorted items. We couldn't find malaria pills so we headed back to the SAEC clubhouse to buy some for $3 a pill. Everyday I'm considering to just forget the whole malaria pill thing. We bought a three week supply and would decide later whether to buy more. While we were at the clubhouse we met up with Kevin and Julia from Cambridge, England. They were riding a BMW R80GS, two up, from Miami, Florida. We immediately started sharing travel experiences and could tell that we would have to meet again a little later over a couple beers to do all the stories justice. Later that night we met back up with them and talked for hours about the trip. Kevin is a motorcycle instructor in Cambridge and Julia worked as a chartered accountant for Price Waterhouse in England. Just what the world needs more of: travelling accountants. We found a little place that brewed their own stout and after they ran out of that we hit the disco in search of Lionel. Lionel is an Oregonian who is riding through South America from Montana on what I think is an older model Suzuki Virago cruiser. He met up with Julia and Kevin and together they flew from Panama to Quito.

Official prices for the Panama to Quito section are spendy: $350 per bike; $450 per person; and about $30 to $40 in immigration charges. It took them one full day to get the bikes through customs and they were able to get a 15 day permit with no real problems. Kevin thought that they could have easily received a 30 day permit. Not too bad. With all the motorcycle traffic bypassing Colombia the Ecuadorian customs officials must be getting a little more leniant.

As we talked over the blaring disco music, Lionel's friend, another Oregonian who lives and works in Quito, had just returned from the Jungle and he confirmed what we had heard about the protestors throwing nails in the street. Their bus was held up for over 24 hours because of the roadblocks and flat tires. He said what everyone else was saying. Just wait in Quito for a couple more days and it will all blow over. Meanwhile Linda was looking a little sickly so we had to check out early, around 1 a.m. Besides we had already made plans to ride with Kevin and Julia to the Equator monument in the morning so we needed our beauty sleep.

Thursday the 20th of January we met up with K&J and sped off to the Equator 26 kilometers away. It was fun being one of three relatively large bikes cruising the streets looking for trouble. We toured the monument, visited the museum, took the obligatory pictures and then discussed 'Operation Escape from Quito' over lunch. We decided to wait until Saturday, January 22, and if things didn't improve we would ride with them through the faster and presumably safer coastal route. That night we all went to Casa Vieja for more of the same delicious fare. Once again we brought the handheld and Linda showed K&J our website and the photos of the trip so far. K&J then headed back to their hotel and we stayed on to talk with everyone. We were now officially one of the family. They let us use their phone line to send and receive e-mail and we all exchanged addresses. I'm going to miss this place, especially the $2 Cuban cigars and $1.50 glasses of cognac.

Scribe: LindaThe previous evening we had agreed with Kevin and Julia that we would meet up Friday night at 7:00 at their hotel to discuss final departure plans. We set off about 11:00 to see if we could buy maps, exchange travel books at the used book store, use the ATM and I wanted to buy an Ecuadorian bag. We walked round and round the new town, searching for book stores. We changed travellers' checks into dollars and I bought a bag while Jeff went back to exchange books at some of the bookstores. When I went back to meet him, I noticed that one of these bookstores had closed. That was strange. When I found Jeff he was pleased as punch to have sold our Mexico book to a fellow traveller. I told him about the closed bookstore. We decided to eat lunch and try back later. Hmm... still closed after lunch. We decided to try the bookstore in the mall. We went to get the bike to go the mall, fill up with gas and hit the gym. On our way to the gym we noted the streets were eerily quiet and there were lots of remnants of burnt tires. We'd have to ask someone what was going on. We didn't have much success with maps at the mall, nor books for that matter. We set off for the gym. Upon arrival we were informed that the gym was closing because all public transportation had been shut down and the taxis were striking and were blocking off all street corners in order to shut down traffic. Well, we still needed to get gas so we set off for the gas station. We were greeted by the manager of the gas station, Andres Molestina (phone 239015 or 237226). Andres is the unofficial moto touring expert of Quito. He informed us that he had a '95 KLR and that he had toured South America a few years earlier. He invited us up to his office to check out his photo collection. We had a great time sharing stories from the road. We also discussed the current events in Quito. As we were preparing to leave he gave us tips on different routes we could go to get out of Ecuador that would allow us to bypass the protests. Apparantly things were really coming to a head with the protests and there was a huge demonstration at the Government Palace. It was expected that there would be an announcement regarding whether the president would resign or not. Well, it was nearing 6:30 so we bade him farewell and thanked him for the travel stories and other information. It was too bad that we didn't meet him sooner because he said that he could have taken us on a motorcycle tour of the jungle that would have bypassed the protestors. Definitely, if we ever come back, we'll look him up.

On the way home we had to squeeze in between the taxi blockade of the roads to meet up with J & K at their hotel at 7:00. We were supposed to discuss what each had learned about the state of the roads and our escape route. After de-briefing each other, we decided to head down the inland route, via Guayaquil, to the border and would try to get as close as possible. We planned a 6 a.m. departure as the border was nearly 500 miles away. Feeling both nervous and excited about what Jeff likes to call 'Operation Escape from Quito', we separated once again to eat dinner and pack and get some beauty rest before the big day.

Well, here it was! Departure day. What would it bring? Nails in the road, burning tires, protestors hurling rocks at us, people blocking the road, maybe asking for money? Only one way to find out so we dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:45 in order to prepare ourselves and the bikes. I was feeling pretty rough as Uncle Montezuma had decided to pay me a visit and had been with me for about four or five days. I decided that eating was not in my best interest so I downed a coke and we set off to meet J & K just before sun up. With churning stomachs (and I don't mean because of Uncle Monte), we took off through the chilly Quito morning. Jeff and I still couldn't help wondering if it was really necessary to bypass the mountain route and were still mourning what we would be missing. But what can you do? Running into these problems was just another interesting nuance to our trip and an experience to be remembered. SO! We flew through the empty streets of Quito. It was as if the whole city was recovering from the events of the night before. We blew through red lights and stop signs, after all we were above the law, we were now in full blown 'Operation Escape from Quito' mode! We wound around the equator monument and up the volcano. The sun was coming up and it was very brisk. We were to start our descent back to sea level on the other side of the volcano. As we rounded the bend, the sky changed from bright blue to dull gray and it was obvious that we were heading into fog and rain. The road was paved but not in the best of condition as there were numerous wash outs. The further we descended, the foliage began to change. We entered green rolling hills dotted with small towns and banana plantations. We stopped for Kevin to get some gas as the rain started to fall. We all got off the bikes to stretch our legs and Jeff and I stood chatting while we noticed some commotion with J & K over at the gas pumps. Jeff idled on over to see what the raucous was. After saying something to Julia, he burst out into peels of laughter. I couldn't hear what was going on but when they all came over, Jeff explained that when the attendant had asked for 35,000 sucres (less than two dollars) for the two gallons of gas Kevin bought, Julia had misunderstood and thought he said 350,000 or $12. After borrowing extra money from Jeff she handed the guy a big wad of cash, to which the attendant was dumbfounded. Feeling really silly (Julia is a Chartered Accountant and a fellow big sixer like ourselves), she made us promise not to include it in our journals. "Of course not!", we said. And so there you go. After a good giggle at Julia's expense, we headed off down the road into the thick fog and rain. Bummer. I really don't like riding in the rain. Jeff says it's 'cause I'm a gallina (chicken). He's probably right. Nevertheless, I kept talking to Lady Luck to offer up some dry roads and sunshine and she responded with just that. As we continued our descent into flatter and flatter territory, the sun peeked out and we met smoothe dry pavement. Yippee! I hope some day not to be such a fair weather rider.

Around 9:30 we reached our first major concern, Santo Domingo de los Colorados. It was here that they had road block problems and protests. We also had to decide whether we wanted to cut across to the coastline or push on inland towards the border. We stopped at a rotunda and without too much thought we took off for Peru. We had been able to skirt the center of town but noticed no problems in the road where we were. We did see black marks on the road where tires had been burnt but there was no current activity. What did this mean? Were the demands met - did the president resign? Or were the protestors sleeping in and planning new antics for the afternoon? No time to think though, we had a long way to go. We moved on the down the road and stopped around 10:30 for some lunch. I decided that the no-eating plan was too hard so I ordered a plate too. As we ate, we sat around discussing the fact that we had not come across any problems yet and that maybe everything on the news was just a bunch of reactionary hoopla. We also took the opportunity to ring out our wet socks over the railing which I could tell the people in the restaurant loved.

We re-mounted the bikes and set off through the flat land. As we headed south, we rode through some of the most depressing towns we've seen thus far on the trip. These people were living in utter squalor and we strained our eyes to find anything of beauty. We were searching for a place to take a rest but couldn't find much. 100 miles after our lunch stop, we pulled into a gas station for some cokes. Normally we don't go for such long stretches but we were really pushing and it showed as we plopped down in some chairs. We were all feeling pooped and decided that we would stop at the first town that looked decent. We were originally planning to go to Machala, 50 miles from the border and Ecuador's fourth largest city. However, we had already ridden nearly 300 miles and according to our calculations, we had another 120 miles to go. It was 2:00 and we had been on the road since 6:00. We needed to make a go of it though as we were to cross the border the next day and that's always a full day. So back to the bikes it was. As we rolled down the road, I spied some very dark clouds looming in front of us. Great. We were probably gonna get soaked again. Although, it was really hot so maybe it wouldn't be too bad. I decided to turn to Lady Luck again. Mile after mile clicked off on the odometer and we still hadn't crossed any towns that we wanted to stay in. We had gone about 85 miles and we were only 35 from Machala. We decided to push on in. Fortunately, a second wind had come over me and I was enjoying the afternoon weather which had cooled down and the rain clouds had even stayed at bay. Finally, around 5:30 we crossed into the crowded city streets of Machala. Julia yanked out the Lonely Planet and directed us from her backseat perch. Within a half hour we had settled on a really nice hotel with hot water for $13. A bit high on Jeff and I's scale but well deserved. We had just completed our longest day to date, 420 miles. We unloaded the luggage and hauled it up three flights of stairs and then rode the bikes over to the parking garage down the road. It was now close to 7:00 and we were all tired and hungry. We agreed to meet up for beers and dinner after a shower.

Feeling greatly refreshed from our showers, we sat down at an outdoor cafe for some congratulatory beers. We had done awesome that day. 'Operation Escape from Quito' was an unmitigated success. We had flipped on the news in our room and found that the President had in fact resigned. We informed K & J of this and we all agreed that this might be the reason that we saw not hide nor hair of a protestor. We found a nice Chinese restaurant with AC and proceeded to eat a huge dinner (seeing as we hadn't eaten in 9 hours). And guess what? Even Uncle Monte didn't bother me. We walked back to the hotel with nice full bellies in search of dreamland. Before saying goodnight, we all agreed to sleep in a little and head off around 9:00 for the 50 mile journey to the border.