Day 12... Los Perros... Los Perros

Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war....

At least that's what it felt like this morning. It was like someone had alerted all the bloody fcuking dogs in the entirety of Ecuador that I was on the move.

Is all I was trying to do was get over the other side of Quito, skirting the south of the city. Yet one by one, or rather 3 by 4, I got charged at... growling, teeth baring from different sides. It is quite a scary thing to be surrounded by dogs that are most certainly NOT friendly.

The best practice I found was to get off my bike, stand my ground and put my bike between me and them... usually then you could move on, they would lose interest and you could walk away. Once this morning however, as I was starting to go up into the hills, 5 dogs came rushing out at me. I jumped off my bike... placed my bike between me and them, difficult when they were coming round the sides, and kept trying to move on, but as soon as I turned, one or 2 would make a lunge, requiring me to turn and stand firm...

This stand off looked like it was going to last a while when a man drove up in his car, opened the door, took off his belt and starting lashing at the dogs. Can't say I was particularly happy about that either but it left me free to move on.

From there the road ran up into the hills alongside the river. Now when anyone says that.. you assume flat right? Remember , this is Ecuador!! The road ran up the side of the river gorge, always up. Sometimes the track was ok to cycle, sometimes so sandy that even pushing my bike through it took a huge amount of effort.

As I was pushing, I noticed the strata in the rock and the yellow banded layer (?sulphur). I wish I knew more geology, but it looked like you could see millennia in this bit of rock. It made me feel small, like a blip in time.

One foot in front of the other, slowly.....

As I rose up to the tops of the cliffs, I emerged from nature, into civilization... and more dogs!!!

At the top, there was a massive flower farm, one of the biggest exports from Ecuador. It was in an almost military style compound with guards at the gates and all visitors requiring i.d!!

I then ran up a paved road,  past some poor houses and found a restaurant. Good job really, the hike up the gorge had been hard work and although it wasn't scorching hot, it wasn't cold. I stopped and found myself with a plate of chips and a really nice salad within minutes.

I began to assess my options for the day... I could hop onto tarmac and head for a small town. The hike in the gorge had.taken a long time due to the nature of the track and I was knackered after the exertions of the other days. The tarmac to Yarunqui was not flat either but at least it was cyclable and so despite the traffic it was nice to be able to continuously peddle for a while.

I found a hotel, a nice spa place... where there were more dogs! The husky decided to claim my bike as his territory, which is better than claiming a chunk of me!!!

And so I fell asleep.... with dreams and plans... and explanations....

all to come!