A bike ride at 11,000 ft. and some good old fashioned shopping.

After a good night sleep, we realized the market was still not open. Susie and Tanner decided that biking was in order.  The original plan to ride up the local mountain and back down was quickly nixed by all parties except Susie. Thankfully we didn´t ride up (I’ll get to this in a moment).  For $12 we got a ride up the mountain and bike rental for 6 hrs.  We reached the top of the mountain at 11,000 ft. and it was freezing.  Anat looked at the driver of the car and offered to buy his hat off him.  The offer was denied, but he did let her borrow for the afternoon and return it with the bikes.  Note: Never be afraid to ask.  No matter how silly it sounds, everything in a developing country is negotiable. We rode around a lake and onto another mountain for a good hr.  There is nothing like riding at 11,000 ft. to make you feel like your lungs are going to explode.  But this pain was much better than the journeydown the mountain.  The drove about 2000 ft. up the mountain.  As we were about a quarter of the way up we passed a European couple riding up.  After 30 more minutes of driving, we laughed at this prospect. We started our journey down, oh did I forget to mention that the rode is developing-world paved.  That means cobblestone.  That´s right a 2000 ft. drop in 30 minutes on a cobblestone road.  How I want to explain my bodily pains this morning, are inappropriate for a pseudo-professional blog that we are posting.  Lets just say its like riding a jackhammer for 30 minutes.  My gluteus is no longer maximus. 

Upon arriving at the base of the mountain we noticed that market had opened.  Now I may have been in pain, but there is nothing like some good old fashioned shopping to make me feel better.  We shopped for a good 4 hrs in the market.  I got pretty good at bargaining in Spanish.   Mae and Susie had never seen a guy shop like that.  The San Francisco side of me was in full form.  Which leads to my final thought for the day:

 Tanner and I need to spend a good 2 weeks apart after this trip.  At this point I think we are sharing a brain.  Not 1 brain plus 1 brain, but we are each using half a brain.  It seems like we finish eachothers thoughts and jokes.  Proof: (1) Tanner is not much of a shopper usually, I think I got him to spend $100 more than he originally anticipated, (2) more than half of the days we wear matching clothes, (3) we have posed for more than 20 pictures that are priceless.  I know this probably sounds adorable and all, but I am pretty sure its annoying to the outside world and in 5 years we are going to look back and laugh.  And I am almost positive our wives are not going to find our humor that funny when we return to the states. Its back to Quito because there might be a strike that closes all the roads.

Needless to say, Nick and Tanner got along well.

-Nick