..Coup dEtat.. live in Ecuador :)

wellwellwell.. at laest I made it before they closed the boarder (I think getting out of Ecuador should not be a problem, but as Peru and Colombia closed the boarder to back up the Ecuadorian president, I could not have entered.

then on the other hand.. it didn´t have to be this very day, when I arrived at Quito (capital) as they started the riots :P got some nice picture of people manifesting and burning tyres to block the road ;) ..found the place where I wanted to go to, where all the bars and discos are, but unfortunately it´s the meeting point of the supporters of the president that is hold "hostage" by the police in a hospital :P
so I got myself a nice place close to the airport.. cheap, with cable TV (probably smart to watch TV and not go shopping in the center ;) and a closed parking lot (just in case people start looting ;) hehe ;) ..nah.. actually five banks have been robbed (or they tried) and most of the shops are closed because of no police force is present in the streets.
so as far as I could figure out, they wanted to cut the salaries of the police and their answer is a strike and local people manifest against corruption and their president. ..as always it´s hard to say who are the bad guys.. I heard the president made things better but also favored the rich people and the economy stayed the same over the last years (very bad).
So my plan of partying this weekend have probably been canceled and I will be moving on soon (probably tomorrow, if the situation consists). But no worries.. no shooting in the street, no burning cars or people lynched on street lights ;) hehe ;) just better not to throw myself into that debate ;)

so about Ecuador.. mentionable is the scent of Eucalyptus over the last two days. There are millions of Eucalyptus trees here in the Andes and it reminds me of Sauna all day long (aaaahh.. would be devine to take a steam bath! ;)
still haven´t tried "cuy" but I remembered the english name: it´s chipmonk, if I´m not wrong ;) ..had some good cheese today and I LOVE their milk coffee.. it´s hot milk with instant coffee and suger and I haven´t had it for years.. in fact, I´ve totally forgotten that I used to make this myself back home ;)
drove to some lagoone in the mountains (pretty high up) and found myself alone there.. normally you would pay a dollar entry, but there was nobody around. Restaurant closed.. totally abandoned. I wonder when high season is of the place.. took though some nice pictures and will upload them soon in my Picasa.
..yes.. they have dollar here as local currency, but their economy is so low, that you deal with 5 cents. A full meal in a restaurant can be as expensive as 1.50USD :P
so they have dollar, but mostly it´s handling cents (I like more paper money.. less heavy and doesn´t make noise in your pocket ;)
it´s pretty chilly here in the mountains (will soon head to the beach ;) but closing all my air-pockets and waering jeans and sweater under my bike gear helps a lot. In fact, I felt a lot of different temperatures.. between freezing and melting and can handle quite a spectrum of it :)
Haven`t learned too much of Ecuadorian history so far.. just Simon Bolivar (national hero) wanted to unify Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru but somehow failed and Colombia took a big part of Ecuador, so now it´s pretty small ;)
hmmmm.. that´s it I guess.. sometimes my mind is pretty blank and don´t know a lot to write.. as over the last 2 weeks I lived a zillion things and most of them can´t be given in a blog (or are not adequate to be posted here ;) hehe ;)

oh.. yes.. should see that I can capture some impressions with my new camera :) the people are pretty traditional and wearing hats and clothes, it reminds me a lot of Peru (like the foretaste of Peru ;) doesn´t have a lot in common with Colombia, as it seems to me..
today I´ve seen some snowy mountain tops :) (while closing my jacket ;) the landscape is really nice! Even if it doesn´t change a lot.. must the the Andine region ;)

how could I forgot this¿?!¡ ..I just made it over the Ecuator today!!! :D haha!! YESSS!! 0`0"0 latitude (or longitude? :P ..got some pictures of the place as well. so I´m half way down ;) hehe ;) naaahh.. I guess that the distance from Fairbanks to the Ecuator is more than from the Ecuator to Ushuaia (well, I won´t reach Ushuaia anyway, but I tell you.. I´ve driven a veeeeery long way down to here and hopefully it´s not the same ammount of km left ;)
made by the way 35 000 km so far.. :D weeeha!!