Los bicicletas

DSCN1747
Originally uploaded by Cameron/Duff.

Sadie and I rented bikes from the hotel, bumping on cobbles away from the little fortress down into town. Wearing the yellow helmets the hacienda required, we were more conspicious than ever, however we were greeted pleasantly everywhere we went. We bumped down a road that had been torn to shreds. A teenage girl informed me they were finally getting private phone lines. Then we bumped onto the dirt and grass roads through the agricultural fields, delighted by all the animals and fence posts growing new leaves. The mountains loomed all around us with their patchwork of green and brown agricultural fields shifting in and out of the clouds. Four kids herded their calves, a mama pig, and 11 piglets out of the irrigation ditch and back onto the roads. Workers picking strawberries laughed at us. A Venezuelan man moving his cow along (gently) with a switch struck up conversation and told me I should stay in Ecuador with him. Being that i am married and he about 70, I didn´t think that would work. He suggested that being that I don´t have any children, I could buy some in Ecuador. I believe he was joking. Eventually we turned around to meet the wedding people in a distant field up another stone filled road for a barbeque. i was enchanted by la fritada- salty pork from a pig grilled on a spit. Sadie said later, "no matter where you go, you should always take a bike ride- you see so much more that way." I couldn´t agree more.