Wednesday February 17, 2016, 106 miles (171 km) – Total so far: 14,417 miles (23,202 km)

February 15, 2016 We took the day off yesterday to rest and perform more bike repairs from the last two off-road days. Several components were loose and a few needed mending with our abundant supply of ties wraps. My brother-in-law Jim suggested Teflon pipe tape for the continuing loose headset nuts on Jocelyn’s bike so we walked through town and actually found a roll. I wrapped the threads in this tape and tightened the nuts. We will see how this works. Great idea – thanks Jim! We headed west towards Quito but will not actually ride to Quito. Soon we will turn south through the Andes. We are very close to the equator at North 0 degrees 4.553 minutes! That’s about 5.75 miles.

February 16, 2016 We started our climb into the Ecuador Andes cycling most of the day to get 24 miles. We crossed the equator from the northern to the southern hemisphere.

From amusingplanet.com:

Although the equator runs through hundreds of places, one country that takes particular pride in its unique geographical location is Ecuador. In fact, the official name of Ecuador - the Republic of Ecuador literally translates to "Republic of the Equator". Its capital city of Quito, lies smack in the middle of the imaginary line.

The Equator was discovered and mapped out by a French geodesic expedition team that was led by an explorer named Charles-Marie de La Comdamine in the year 1736. La Condamine spent 10 years in Ecuador taking measurements and proved that the world is not perfectly round, but that it bulges at the equator.

With frequent on and off hard rain it was a tough day. We were looking for a dry place to camp when around one corner appeared a small mountain village. For some reason there were three hotels on the one street town. On further inspection two were closed and we got a $10 room in the other. Jocelyn also cooked us another delicious dinner.

Even though we were wearing our so called waterproof jackets they were soaked through and not from sweat. We wonder if there are really any totally rainproof jackets besides the heavy yellow ones. I’m glad to say our Outdoor Research waterproof pants worked great. I believe what we have are soft-shell jackets although both were advertised as totally waterproof and breathable. Maybe a hard-shell is called for. Tomorrow we continue climbing and are currently at right under 5,000 feet. It sure took a long time to get that. But the Andes are beautiful and well worth the effort.

February 17, 2016 It rained all night. Jocelyn read that it is the rainy season here. On a trip like this you just go with the flow and can’t always cycle a country in their best season. So we once again put all our rain gear on and took off. Soon a giant cloud descended on us and it rained hard dropping the visibility to around 20 feet. It was difficult because the water was running down the road. We descended for many miles and my brakes gave out. Jocelyn tightened the cables and we continued. I don’t know why the brake cables (both front and rear) loosened or some other problem. It was scary though. Near the bottom there was a roadside cafe where we “enjoyed” hot chicken soup. I say enjoyed – just look at the picture. But it warmed us up.

While there we met a local from Quito who introduced himself and spoke good English. He is a bicycle racer from Quito. Since we were going the same way he offered us a ride in his truck to get us off the dangerous wet road. His name is pronounced “Second” but I’m sure it is not spelled like this. He loved practicing his English and we learned so much about Ecuador. What a nice guy. He dropped us off at the intersection to our next town of Baeza where it had stopped the heavy raining. He invited us to Quito but we declined as we try to avoid large cities. We are more interested in the old Spanish colonial city of Cuenca which is way south.

We are spending our days cycling soaked to the bone and evenings trying to dry everything for the next day’s soaking. Just a week ago we were riding in 120 degree heat and now 50 degrees wet. This is adventure cycling at its finest. The golden rule is always having one dry set of clothes for night and wearing the wet ones during the day.