Ecuadorian Fruit!

This morning Lisa and I decided to go to the store and buy all the fruit that we couldn't readily identify and bring it all back to my house and try it.  In the store we stopped in front of each unidentifiable fruit and picked up a bunch of them, smelled them, squeezed them, trying to determine which one to buy.  We weren't sure what we should be looking for so we guessed we didn't want the hardest one in the bunch and we didn't want the squishiest one either.  At one point I was trying all the pepino dulce and a lady starts telling me in English that it didn't matter how soft or hard they were - the color was more important, that I want the yellow ones.  This caused me to start to second guess all of our previous purchases but decided that we better just go with what we had.

It took us a while to identify each of these (they aren't marked in the produce section, I guess you're supposed to know what they are) so I was watching like a hawk as the checkout guy at the grocery store was putting in the codes and the name would appear on the register display so between that and our receipts we were able to piece together what each one was.

It's kind of hard to read all the labels so from top to bottom left to right here is the list:

First Row:

• pineapple of course (not weird but I need it to make colada morada which is a drink associated with the day of the dead November 2nd, I'll post more on this later)
• melon canario (yellow mellon)
• guanábana (soursop)
• papaya
• babaco (no direct English translation that I can find)
• tomate de árbol (tree tomato)

Second Row:

• granadilla (passion fruit)
• pepino dulce (melon pear)
• pitahaya (dragon fruit)
• mandarina king (large mandarin orange)

Third Row:

• tuna (prickly pear)
• taxo (banana passion fruit)
• maracuyá (also translates to passion fruit)
• naranjilla (translation I'm finding for this is Quito Orange but this is really nothing like an orange, it is super super sour and it goes into my canelazo, a hot tea like beverage with aguardiente, a type of alcohol)

I had to take pictures of the insides of all of these because the insides generally look nothing like the outsides!!

Taxo

Unfortunately the taxo we had wasn't quite ripe so it was pretty sour.  We had a taxo tree in our back yard last year and we weren't tall enough to reach to pick them off the tree so we had to wait until they fell to the ground.  Turned out that was when they were perfectly ripe and sweet.  So inside it's a bunch of seeds with gelatinous but watery sweet outsides.  We just swallowed the seeds - otherwise it would take forever to eat if you spit out each one by one!  Overall I like this one - I will wait for the other one to get ripe and then eat it.

Tuna

It turns out "granel" just means buying in bulk so this fruit is just called a tuna or prickly cactus in English.  This one was sweeter than the taxo though it wasn't something that we wanted to keep eating.

Pitahaya

The pitahaya was delicious!  It is sweet and the seeds aren't prominent and don't detract from the flavor. I wasn't sure about the texture at first but we really liked it.  This was one of the favorites.

Maracuyá

The maracuyá is super sour but absolutely delicious.  If you like grapefruit you'll like this one.  We ate it with a spoon, seeds and all.  We ate the whole thing - yum!

Pepino Dulce

The pepino dulce was a little strange - the taste seemed to change as you were eating it, and the flavor was unlike anything I've tasted before.  We ate both the "meat" of it as well as the seeds in the middle.

Granadilla

The insides of the granadilla were just like the maracuyá (seeds surrounded by gelatinous stuff) but it didn't have all the flavor.  It wasn't sour like the maracuyá, and it tasted more like water than a fruit.  Or I guess I could say it had a "subtle flavor" - how about that for finding something good to say about it!  We still ended up eating a whole one so I wouldn't rule this one out completely.

Guanábana

So I've had guanabana ice cream and guanabana flavored cakes and things before and I've enjoyed them all so I guessed I would enjoy the fruit on its own.  I'm still trying to make up my mind on this one.  It comes off almost in sections where each of the seeds are.  It's milky, nutty, sweet, but watery at the same time.  The flavor is distinctive.  This one goes at the higher end of my like scale - I think I'll look up some recipes and see what I can make with it.  

Babaco

The babaco was a no for me.  The middle was like this spongy thing, we were speculating that you could just take the middle out and use it to do dishes or wash the counter.  Let's see - flavor-wise - it was like a lime flavored pear maybe?  What the heck am I going to do with the rest of it - it's huge!!!!

Tomate de Árbol

I've had tomate de árbol juice and I love it.  The fruit does taste similar to a tomato but slightly sweeter.  It's okay on its own but I think it's better as a juice with a little bit of sugar.

Naranjilla

Naranjilla is super super super sour but I like the flavor.  I love it in my canelazo and I bet it would be good juice with a bit of sugar.

Melon Canario

This tasted a little like honeydew - you take out the seeds just like a regular melon.  This one was the closest to the fruits that we are used to and was a good break from the other ones that had "interesting" textures and flavors.

Lisa with the maracuyá and babaco - they are huge fruits!!

What a fun morning!  I'll have to start buying some of these on a more regular basis - especially the pitahaya and the maracuyá!

Hiking Cerro Ilaló

We decided at the last minute to go hiking at Ilaló, a volcano located just to the east of Quito.  We followed the not so great directions in our guidebook and after a few wrong turns we eventually found the "trailhead" (really it is a bus stop where we weren't even sure we could park).  We asked a couple people and they assured us that we could park there though.  I guess it isn't like bus stops in the US where you'll get ticketed and towed if you park there!

So we drove to Tumbaco, the goal is to find the intersection where there's always a bunch of people crossing the street.  This is the "main" intersection in Tumbaco.  It's maybe a traffic light or two past the Puma gas station on the left.  If you get to this cool looking mural on the left you've gone a bit too far.  You could turn right here though and then turn right at the next road and then turn left to get on the road going up to the trailhead.

So going back to the main intersection...once you are there you want to drive just a bit further (200 meters or so) and turn right on the next road.  Go a little more than 1 km and the road forks, take the right fork and go a bit further.  Here you will see the church with the blue domes on your left.  From here you want to continue uphill.

Next you will see a sort of open area with a bus stop - this is where you should park.

The "trail" which is really a cobblestone and then finally dirt road is straight uphill from this open area.

Follow the cobbled road up and up and up...

Enjoy the views along the way...

I think this is Volcán Antisana in the background

A beautiful field nestled into the hillside

You will reach a junction where the road kind of ends and you can go straight or turn left - you want to turn left up this trail...it leads to a farmer's front "yard" but he is friendly and he assured us that we were on the right track.

Then you continue past his house and look for orange flags that mark the way

The trail gets really narrow at this point, keep huffing and puffing your way up

And finally you reach the giant cross!

This took us about an hour and a half but you can keep going up for another hour or so to reach the summit, it was hot and we decided to save the summit for another day.  Round trip it was a little less than 4.5 miles with 2000 feet of climbing.

We headed back down for some pizza at Ali's (right side of the road as you're driving from Cumbayá to Tumbaco), it was fancy but they seemed okay that we were in our workout clothes.  The pizza was good but as is usual for Ecuadorian pizza it was very light on the sauce!

Adventures with the Clio!

Our plan was to spend the weekend at the Secret Garden near Cotopaxi, a nice relaxing weekend outside of Quito.  I was looking forward to relaxing in the jacuzzi, hiking to the waterfall, enjoying the inclusive meals, not having to cook or clean up.  It would be such a nice weekend!

Hoping also to get some better pictures of Cotopaxi!!

The trip started off so well – I mean the car didn’t even have any flat tires (rare for our car that has them about weekly, even 2 at a time sometimes)!  And we (to my surprise) easily manage to shove camping equipment for 4 of us along with a guitar and 4 not so small people into our teeny tiny little Renault Clio – without strapping anything to the roof!  We head on out into Friday afternoon traffic and I opt to get out and walk to the ATM instead of continuing to drive to it in the car.  I get to the ATM, get money out (without any issue!) and walk back to the car just a few minutes after they arrived at the corner.  We soon arrive at bumper to bumper traffic we find out 20 minutes later that it was caused by a lane ending a mile or two up the road.  We get through that and are on our way to Machachi!  20 minutes later we again arrive at bumper to bumper traffic caused by construction that would result in one lane for each direction on the Pan American highway – at least we still had a lane and it wasn’t one lane to be shared by both directions! 

We get through the traffic, get some gas, stop at Tia for some beer and snacks, and finally start up the cobblestone road, it was 17 kms on this road to the Secret Garden.  The road probably should be only for higher clearance vehicles but Sung carefully makes his way up the road while drinking some Club (Ecuadorian beer).  We bottom out a couple times and then while going up a steeper section the car completely dies, I mean, the engine cuts out.  I assumed that he had stalled it accidentally and initially I thought nothing of it.  He starts it up and we continue and it dies again.  We repeat this a few more times until the car won’t start at all.  We all get out and are thinking about the options – do we try to make it to Secret Garden?  Can we make it to Secret Garden?  How far to Secret Garden?  Should we go back to Machachi?  Can we coast back to Machachi?  Is there a place to stay in Machachi?  Should we camp here?  Can we leave the car here?  Where are we?  So many questions, it was tough to tackle all of them at once.  But first we need to put on some warmer clothes.

We add layers and then Phil calls the Secret Garden and they tell us that we’re about 30 minutes away by car but they offered to pick us up.  Sung and I weren’t so sure about leaving our car and then having to deal with it from the Secret Garden the next morning.  We decide we better cancel the reservation and attempt to coast the car down the hill back to Machachi.  We push the car to turn it around and the car continues to die every 5 seconds which means that Sung has to use all his strength to get the brake pedal to work and he has no power steering either which makes it even more exciting.  He gives up about 10 minutes later and says that this is just not going to happen.  He pulls the car over as we finish off the 2 6 packs.  We get out again and kind of look at each other not sure what to do.  There is a farm house right there so we push the car into the driveway which completely blocks it.  We know we can’t leave it there so we walk toward the house at which point the dogs start barking and lights start turning on (it is now pitch black outside).  We talk to two ladies and a guy about our situation and they give us permission to leave our car in front of their house for the night.  We push the car into the spot and then stand there, not quite sure what to do.  We have no plan from here.  How are we going to get to Machachi?

We ask the owners if someone could take us to town.  They say of course and the guys pile into the back of the truck and I go in the cab with Jorge.  Jorge explains that he is a dairy farmer and he also raises crops like potatoes.  The two women are his sister, he is single without kids - I was shocked, I don't think I have met a single Ecuadorian who is his age who doesn't have kids.  He asks all about us, where we are from, if I’m married, if I have kids, we talk about food, the usual questions and chit chat.  We finally arrive at Machachi and he drops us off in the back alley of a hotel where there are already two Ecuadorians waiting to be let into the hostel, one of whom is wearing a ski mask.  We hope that the ski mask is for the cold and not for some kind of robbery that they were planning!!!!

We wait and wait for about 10 minutes and finally this really young girl lets us in the gate and we go upstairs and are finally shown a couple of rooms by an older lady who is not in a night gown.  Our room smells of sewer and had a bunch of really weird stuff in it.  I avoided the bathroom unless it was an emergency because the smell in there was worse than the room itself.  Just outside our window was a bar that had pumping music and yelling people until all hours of the morning.  Between the smell, the sounds, and the worry over how we were going to get the car off the mountain, I got very little sleep that night.

The bar outside our window the kept us awake the entire night before:

The weird stuff in our room:

The piglets and the shoe???  This should be a nursery rhyme or something, maybe I missed it as a kid?

Of course, the room would not have been complete without the kissing swans!

Next morning we eat breakfast and the older lady offers to drive us to her mechanic to ask him about the car - so nice of her - it is amazing how nice everyone was to us!  Of course before we leave we have to load a bunch of really heavy bags into the back of her pick up truck.  No problem, we're happy to help, but it's just funny it's so Ecuadorian.  We head to the mechanic (luckily his shop is at his house) who tells us that we need a tow truck but that he didn't know of one in Machachi.  But next thing I know he's on his phone calling someone and then he tells us to wait at our hotel, that the tow truck would arrive at noon.  After that we dropped off the cow feed or salt or whatever it was in the bags and headed back to the hotel.

We wait, and wait, and wait, and 2:00 PM rolls around and we are sick of the sewer smell and have to at least leave the hostel.  I'm starting to get anxious because all the mechanics close on Saturday by noon (if they're even open) and Sundays they are all closed.  This tow truck is probably never going to show up.  And I still have no idea how we are getting the freaking car down the mountain.

Sung hanging out in the hotel:

We finally give up on this tow truck ever arriving and head out to eat some lunch and as we're eating our chancho (pig roasted on a spit), potatoes, mote, and salad mixture feeling pretty helpless I suddenly remember that our insurance comes with roadside assistance!!!  Sung texts our insurance lady who responds and says that the tow truck will meet us in the plaza in 45 minutes!  Horray!!!  We were SHOCKED that when we got to the plaza an actual tow truck DID SHOW UP!!!  Amazing.  We rode with our savior up the mountain 45 minutes to the farmhouse where he expertly hooked up our car and secured it.

We head down the mountain and the car is shaking all over the place, alarm going off from all the movement, Sung constantly hitting the alarm button to shut the thing off.  After a LONG ride down we finally got off the cobblestone road and into town.  We brought it immediately to the mechanic that we had met the day before and OF COURSE! he wasn't there!  But his dad was and he allowed us to leave the car and he assured us that he would be able to fix it.  In all other car repair scenarios in the past we've had to go to the Renault parts place and buy the parts and bring them to the shop before they'd even think of doing the repair.  So I'm thinking my next week was going to be running to Machachi a bunch of times.  But the dad said they would get the parts and fix it so we'll see!!

Monday Update: the car is ready!  There was a crack in the oil reservoir (probably from us bottoming out) and they repaired it and added new oil - $100.  I'll be on my way back by bus tomorrow morning with the cash - hopefully it's as simple as handing over the money and driving the car back home to Quito!

'Robbery - just outside our door

So around 10:00 PM Sung and I were just relaxing in our apartment when we heard a whole bunch of yelling outside, commotion that we aren't accustomed to hearing.  Sung went to the window and said - "Michael is being robbed"!  Michael is our downstairs neighbor and my heart started pounding through my chest. We rushed outside but it was too late, the car was speeding away.  I guess there was a group of 5 of them all standing outside of our front gate and a car had passed by them and circled the block and then came back.  As soon as it came back two guys jumped out, one with a knife.  The two girls and one other guy ran away and Michael and another teacher Greg got the brunt of it.  They started beating on them and demanding their phones.  Greg didn't have a phone or anything so they hit him even more to see if they could get something out of him.  Michael gave them his phone which I guess made them happy enough and then finally took off.  The girls had run to get the police (who are a block down the hill) and they arrived on the scene about 2 minutes after the car had taken off.  Michael and Greg conveyed the story to the police who listened but didn't offer any kind of further action.  It makes us re-think a lot of decisions we've made in the past.  No more walking up the hill at night when it's dark.  No lingering outside our front door even if it's for only a few minutes.  This city really is pretty crazy.  I hear a new robbery story every week and I try not to let them get to me too much but this one was way way way too close to home.

A Microwave - Finally!

We finally broke down and bought a microwave last night.  In the morning I like to make my tofu breakfast which consists of toast, peanut butter, sliced bananas, warmed tofu, topped off with a spice mixture of cinnamon, sugar, curry, and cayenne.  Without a microwave I have to saute the tofu which means more dishes to wash!  I already do enough dishes (no dishwasher of course) and just warming up the frying pan takes a while and then the tofu sticks which means using oil which changes the taste of the tofu.

The other night Sung and I were warming up pizza in the toaster oven and I lined the tray thingie with aluminum foil so that cleaning it would be a little easier.  And the pizza ended up sticking to the aluminum foil - ugh!  I think that was the last straw, we both looked at each other and said - let's get a microwave! It will mean less dishes and it will be so much easier and faster to warm stuff up.  It takes 20-30 minutes to warm up leftovers in the toaster oven and now it will take 2 in the microwave!!  With no extra dishes!

So now the problem is that we only have one available plug for the microwave, toaster oven, and washing machine and even with the extension cord we can only run one at a time.  This works out more or less okay since the microwave is super fast!!

Our $91 microwave, cheapest we could buy at Mega.

The tofu breakfast - I love it because I don't get hungry half way through the morning, it's the best sustaining breakfast ever in my opinion.

AND last night we found CRUNCHY peanut butter which we're both really excited about!!!  First crunchy in 7 months!  $5.20 for a 16 oz container, expensive but not outrageous.  I tried to bring some back from the US for Sung a couple weeks ago but my checked bags were overweight so I just grabbed a bunch of stuff out of them and stuck them in my carry on bag and of course the peanut butter got confiscated by TSA!

 

And I just made curry cauliflower in 10 minutes - delicious!  With the stove the water would just about be boiling in 10 minutes!  Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.  :)

 

Safety in Quito

I should preface this by saying that I have only been in Quito for a couple months and am no means an expert on safety here – these are just some of my anecdotal stories and things that I’ve heard about and experienced in my time here so far.  I am hoping this doesn’t change anyone’s travel plans or scare anyone away from coming here.

View from the upper part of our garage gate/fortress

Where to begin…well, the safety issues and concerns started early before we even moved here.  People forwarded us emails from the embassy about foreigners being targeted in robberies involving scopolamine, a hallucinogenic drug that causes the victim to feel very sedate and when under the influence they can be coerced to do pretty much anything including showing the robber around the house and giving them all their valuables.  The victim usually wakes up afterward and has to piece together what happened.  The scariest part is that the drug simply has to be blown into the victim’s face, in one case it was on the robber’s map as they asked the victim for help with directions.  So there’s not a ton you can do to prevent it except refuse to accept anything anyone is trying to give to you.  Watch for people trying to distract you with something on the street but other than that I’m not sure what else – short of someone inventing a scopolamine detector device that can be worn on your person.

Okay, so being drugged with scopolamine was the first big thing that I remember being freaked out about.  Next was the general pickpocketings.  We read story after story online about people being pickpocketed in Quito and all over Ecuador.  There was one story about a woman who walked with a cane who was wearing a gold chain and they stole her chain from her neck!  She fought back with her cane and eventually got it back! After reading all these stories I remember second guessing my decision to go – did I really want to put myself into such an unsafe environment?  I’m so safe in Denver, I can leave my purse on the back of my chair, I can accidentally leave my garage door open and the door unlocked to the house and have no issues (okay, there was the mountain bike incident right before I moved out but they still didn’t come in the unlocked house).  Anyway, I was nervous that I would be completely locked inside our apartment here.

So now that we’re here I can see how it really is and hear about everyone’s experiences with safety in Quito.  We’ve heard stories about corrupt ATM machines where they steal your account number and PIN and proceed to empty out your account.  And then there’s the petty robberies – pretty much everyone I know has one or more stories about themselves or people they know being pickpocketed.  One moment they have their camera, phone, money, and the next moment it’s gone.  I’ve heard about backpacks being slashed and all the robber got was a soccer ball, someone else had their phone and camera stolen on the same night, someone else had hundreds of dollars in his left pocket along with a macbook pro in a briefcase held in his left hand, and his wooden hostel key chain in his right pocket and what did they steal?  Yep, his wooden key chain because it had the shape of a wallet.  Lucky for him.  And that was in the touristy area where we visit at least once a week.  (Knock on wood) Sung and I have been okay in this respect.  We rarely carry our cell phones and only carry as much money as we think we’re going to need for that trip.  We only carry our credit card or ATM card if we know we’re going to buy something using it or stop at the ATM.  And ATM trips are also carefully planned and we go home immediately after we get our money.

If we do carry anything with us we are super vigilant on the Ecovia, the bus, in markets, anywhere in Centro Historico.  I am so vigilant that sometimes it is exhausting constantly walking around being so aware of everyone around you, looking over your shoulder, pressing my hand against my pocket at all times.  There is no down time when you are out of the house and you have any money on you.  This past Saturday we were in Centro Historico and we stopped to eat and when we went to leave I realized my zip pocket on my jacket was open and it was the pocket where I had my money.  I started to have a heart attack when I remembered that I had switched pockets after paying for our food.  The energy expenditure thinking about safety, changing my plans around it, worrying about it, this is probably the hardest part about living in Quito.  And being blonde haired and blue eyed I am no doubt the biggest target out there.

And then there’s physical safety overall.  I think this might be a larger hazard than pickpocketing.  In the US when there is work being done there is careful thought into how to block off the area so that pedestrians, bikers, cars, everyone can stay safe.  Here that is definitely NOT the case.  There are huge gaping holes in the middle of the sidewalk that if you aren’t watching for you could just trip right into.  And then there are the wires hanging down, the ankle breaking sidewalks that are at an angle, cobbled, and some with ceramic tile that is super slippery when wet!  And Latinas love their high heels and walk through all of this unscathed – this completely amazes me!  I am here in my sneakers trying not to twist my ankle and I’m watching them in their 4” heels in front of me – wow.  Oh and I can’t forget to mention the hundreds of stairs everywhere that are generally not level, have lots of holes, and are of varying heights (read: lots of tripping and ankle twisting possibilities not to mention trying to huff and puff your way up hundreds of them with 20 pounds of groceries, in the rain).  Ah, but I digress.  Safety, back to safety.  The houses near where we live are all fortressed with high walls and above the walls there are several parallel wires that are flowing with electricity.  In fact you can hear the periodic spark of the electricity as you pass by (comforting, very comforting).  And then if that wasn’t enough there are large shards of glass with only the sharpest of points sticking directly upward out of the ledge at the top of the wall.  Needless to say the old people here don’t sit on their front porches all day and watch the world go by.  In fact any exposure from the house to the outside world is carefully fortressed with metal bars so that thieves can’t just smash them and get in.  Even some stores you can’t get in unless you ring a bell and then they have to buzz you to get in.  If you’re too unsavory looking I imagine that you don’t get granted access.  Each block here has its own security guard who stands watch all day (and sometimes all night) to make sure the residents and businesses are safe.  Somehow for me, the more guards the more scared I feel overall.  I’m always glad when it’s the weekend and our guard isn’t there – he actually kind of creeps me out a little bit.  Maybe it’s because of all the weird security guard stalkers I’ve had over the years.  I am a creepy security guard magnet apparently.

Just found out that the apartment next door was robbed this morning at 11:00 AM.  Somehow their gate was left unlocked and the robbers got in.  This is despite the fact that our block has a guard who I know was there this morning.  And this robbery took place while I was playing the ‘flag down the gas guy’ game where every time I hear a horn I sprint as quickly as I can outside and try to flag down the gas guy with the goal of getting a full gas canister.  It’s exhausting and took most of the day.  Anyway, I can’t believe I didn’t notice anything.  Now I’m really wishing I hadn’t forgotten to pack my Valentine’s present from Sung – runner’s mace – so I would be ready for these robbers.  I also need to figure out the number for the police and set it to a speed dial in my phone.

I haven’t even touched on the safety of walking overall.  This can be highly dangerous, and I’m not kidding!  Just crossing the least trafficked road you can think of can result in being run over by a quiet moped or a mountain biker flying down a hill at top speed.  And then there’s the intersections with lots of cars – these require Frogger like skills that must be honed over time.  When I’m trying to cross a street I generally find an Ecuadorian who is trying to do the same thing and try to cross when they cross, and even then sometimes it seems too dangerous and I wait until there are less cars.  The other day Sung and I were crossing when we had a chirping crosswalk sign (meaning – go) and this lady tried to mow Sung down in her SUV!  He had to run to avoid being hit at the very last second.  Cars have the right of way here, not pedestrians.  Drivers use their cars like weapons and the pedestrians are the targets. 

Sung has a book that describes all kinds of hikes around Ecuador.  So a couple weeks ago when our maid arrived I decided I would try one of the hikes on my own.  I took the Ecovia until it ends at La Marín, a major transportation hub.  At that point I had to find a bus that had a couple specific words on it (along with about 20 other words that I had to read as they were breezing past).  I finally manage to get on the right bus and an hour bus ride later I arrive at the cross street where the ‘hike’ was supposed to begin.  Of course it was an urban start – I was walking up into the hills from town and so I was passing all the locals.  At first it was no big deal but then after a while I started to get more and more strange looks.  And the book had terrible directions on how to get to the trail so I kept back tracking and trying new roads to the trail.  I finally found the right road and I hear a few people calling after me in somewhat nervous/serious voices: “Senorita, senorita” – so I walk back down to where they were and they start speaking quickly to me, something about something that happened to a couple people over the weekend.  But I couldn’t understand what – so I clarified – and it sounded like they were robbed while they were hiking.  They were telling me that I shouldn’t go up by myself, that it was too dangerous.  So I heeded their advice and turned around, disappointed.  But I’m sure they’re right, and I need to be smart about it.  Frustrating because I’m home during the weekdays when everyone else is working and I feel kind of trapped.  I spend my time studying but I don’t have the option of going to a coffee shop to study – it’s too much of a risk to carry my laptop anywhere, and if I’m in a coffee shop with the laptop out then robbers know I have it and when I leave I’ll be a huge target.  So most of the time I end up staying home.  I know once I do move back to the States I’ll never take my safety for granted again. 

Bici Nueva!!

Went to Bike Stop on Eloy Alfaro/cross street Granados last Saturday - great shop!  We talked with the owner/manager who ended up speaking perfect English (he went to Colegio Americano for high school), great guy.  He had just come back from Denver where Orbea was introducing their new 2013 line.  We asked him if he had any mid-range bikes for me, used preferably, for use at Parque Metropolitano and on Sundays for the Ciclopaseo.  He showed us a Felt RXC Team hardtail - very lightly used, really a nice looking bike, decent components (much better than some of the other bikes we'd been looking at over the past few weeks)!  I took it out for a one minute long ride and realized right away that it rode amazingly well and was a great climber!  We went back and bought it this week after several strategic trips to the ATM over the course of this week to collect the pile of cash I needed to buy it. Of course, cash only.  I wanted to buy it this past week but was nervous about walking a mile with a ton of cash on me.  So today we split up, Sung with half the cash, he rode his bike, and then I took the other half and jumped on a bus for the short trip down Alfaro.  Learned yet another lesson after the first bus rushed past me without slowing down - you have to signal to them that you want to get on otherwise they won't stop!  Despite the fact that I'm standing in the bus stop and staring them down!!!

Anyway, back to the bike...so I researched it a bit more online and it looks like it's made for cross country riding and racing, nothing super technical, it's definitely perfect for me! Frame is scandium (which I had never heard of) and a tiny piece is carbon in the back.  The other components aren't super high end but this bike should be perfect for me.  Who knows, I might even ship it back to Denver when we're done!  Super psyched for Ciclopaseo mañana!!