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Published: February 18th 2011
After the first two weeks it was time to make the first real sports activity. A mountainbike tour.
Actually I was quite curious how I would make it, as I had note made any sports here before and therefore I did not know how my body could deal with the thin air at 2800m. Luckily I got a bike from my company, however it was way to small. But hey, better than nothing.
So of we went in a group of three. A colleague from work, a guide and me.
In Quito itself its not that easy and nice, as the air is highly polluted by the traffic and until now I have only seen one single cyclingway. Still there are the extra bus lines! In the middle of the road and almost completely free.
As we got outside of Quite the air finally got normal, but the only way was up for at least 10km... Freaking exhausting! I think the actual plan was to go even higher, but lucky me we did not. My legs wouldn't have worked anyway any longer.
At our highest point we left the road and took some sort of path which was a nice contrast,
as it was EVEN (finally) and completely green. no more roads.
It's really surprising that some people still live out here, hardly to reach by car. But thanks to them I met my first Lamas in Ecuador and a turkey.
After this path we reached the point to get back to Quito. Downhill!
I loved it! The streets up here are quite challenging as they are not in such good conditions (some really mean potholes were hiding behing small hills) and beware of the dogs who are chasing you, but with at least 40 - 50km/h not a big deal 😊
What I learned for the next tour downhill, when you know that chicanes are coming, hit the breaks soon enough (moreover check them upfront properly) I had some close situations there.
Now comes the most crazy part. As we were back in the city we still had to get back home. So what is the fastest way? Oh yeah the expressway with tunnels sourrounding the city! The first tunnel was just fun, as we were faster than the cars and buses, however the second one almost killed us. It was a bit smaller and at some point a bus
passed us and wow, that was thight. Gabriele infront of me and I both scratched the walls slightly causes us almost to fall. That gave my adrenaline level definitely another kick.
But hey, we survived and everything is still intact!
For the coming weekend is already the next downhill track planned, starting from more than 4000m of the mountain Pichincha! It's gonna be awesome!!!
The following day was pretty shitty and it rained almost the whole day. Therefore I decided to prepare myself a bit for the Amazona. I went to the so called "Vivarium" in Quito in the Carolina Park. Here they have only amphibians. Dozens of snakes, frogs, turtles and also a small Cayman. It was quite interesting to get to know some of these fellas and just before I wanted to leave the museum team made some sort of class, where they explained the differences between the poison and constrictor snakes, including touching one. Still it was pretty hard for me to follow as everything was in Spanish and I still have to pr
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anonymous
non-member comment
Ich hab deinen blog abonniert und freue mich über jeden neuen eintrag!:-) Bin auch froh,dass du diese tour heil überstanden hast!