Saturday Jun. 30, 2007
I knew it could be tough/expensive to find tires for big bikes further south, so I'd already bought a spare set of Brazilian made bias-ply tires (Metzler Sahara 3 rear for $60 US in Medellin & Pirelli MT60 front for $40 US in Cali, which I would pick-up at Randy's place on my way back through). But when Nick & Lesley (www.pooleglobaltrek.com) from England offered me their slightly used set (Metzler Tourance rear & Michelin Anakee front) in Medellin at a price I couldn't refuse, I took on two more. All I had to do was relocate my front panniers and make a small metal bracket that allowed me to carry them on the crash bars. It actually worked out great because they allowed me to carry water, stove fuel and a few other things inside them which added some welcomed weight to the front end. Buzz was heavy, but stabile and all I wanted to do was make it to Quito, Ecuador to finish off my existing tires.
On my way south out of Colombia I saw more interesting things that I have somehow become accustomed to after being here so long. A little cowboy with an attitude larger than his horse, dropping off a young girl at her house in one town. And a guy hanging onto the back of a semi-trailer going down the highway.
Once more, I rode through the Zona Cafetera, full of its rich coffee plants and beautiful bamboo trees.
I saw a semi-trailer that had somehow rolled over in the ditch on a very clear and straight section of highway, and hoped that he driver was alright. And a beautiful mansion in Cali that I was told had been seized from a drug-lord.
And then it was time to enter Ecuador where I saw more dogs on rooftops and visited a very different cemetery at Tulcan.
Of course I would continue to see things that would be considered extremely odd in North America. But here, utilitarian practicality rules and anything goes. Shortly after crossing the border I headed west to the coast at Esmeraldas. It had been a long time since I visited the Pacific and I'd been told it was nice. The lack of military presence here - as compared to Colombia - was obvious, and welcome, but somehow I didn't feel safer. People were nervous and everywhere I stopped they kept telling me to keep an eye on my stuff.
I arrived at Esmeraldas to find a busy, dirty city without beaches. So I continued south to the over-priced hotels with private beaches in busy and unwelcoming Atacames and then a little further to the small beach town of Sua, where I found a nice quiet beach in front of a reasonably priced, but antiquated hotel.
The next morning, while walking back in from a swim in the ocean I was bit by something on my heel. The pain was strong and it was bleeding pretty good, but I wasn't sure what happened. I bled back to the hotel where the owner and one of her staff told me told me they knew what it was - but it definitely wasn't a stingray (apparently, those scare away tourists). They said they knew how to treat it and proceeded on inflicting a traditional treatment used by locals to help draw out the pain or venom. It involved holding my foot over a smouldering coconut husk and squeezing it repeatedly while the blood dribbled out. Now, I have broken several ribs and dislocated shoulders before; this pain was possibly even stronger. Eventually, the bleeding stopped, they wiped it off and sent me on my way. But after half an hour, the pain was still very strong and I could feel it starting to throb up my leg to my knee.
I decided to hop on the local bus and make the half-hour trip to the hospital in Atacames. It was hard to find anyone in the sleepy little hospital (straight out of the 50's), but when I did they took good care of me in their little emergency room. They cleaned out my wound, prodded me with needles and told me it was definitely a sting from a stingray. One of the injections I got was a painkiller in the rump, which caused nearly as much pain as the stingray. While I was there two other guys came in with the same thing; one on the top of his foot and the other on the bottom. They came directly from the beach and we all agreed that the rump shot was almost not worth it, although theirs seemed to work faster and they were released after about an hour, whereas I was there for over two. The nurses said it was because I had taken longer to get into the hospital and the venom had gotten further into my system.
After it was all said and done I believe I received good care. And my 2 hour hospital visit including 3 injections cost $17.50 US, while a prescription for antibiotics and painkillers was another $4.50 US.
The next day I passed on the morning swim and decided to take a small boat trip into the Pacific to do some whale watching. After an hour or so of "looking for the signs" I was starting to think we wouldn't see anything. Then they appeared; popping up out of the ocean like submarines. This was the first time in my life I'd seen Humpback whales in person, and they were huge! Of course it didn't help to be sitting in a tiny 8 m (26ft) boat only a short distance away. They playfully rolled against each other on the surface and every now and then one would slap its fin loudly on the surface or come jumping out and make a huge splash. On the way back to the mainland we passed a bird island where I saw a Blue-footed Boobie.
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