Last night we went for a bit of a wander for dinner. The place seemed eerily abandoned. The police had started taping a few of the cross streets off for some reason.
Found a steak place that we had to ourselves for dinner and then headed back. Then most of the streets are taped off, there’s a lot of police and even some ambos. How strange…
Then we discover why. There’s a 10k running race around the churches of Quito on tonight.
Seems like the whole city is out running. These guys are fit..I huff and puff just walking up these hills at altitude and the leaders are pretty much sprinting.
Sunday morning I’m keen to check out the Ciclopaseo. They started by closing some of the streets of Quito one a month for a few hours on Sundays so that bikes could take over the streets in safety. Now they run it every Sunday from 8am-2pm.
We grab some bikes from El Ray which is located on one of the closed streets which is extra handy and head further into new town.
They also block a lot of the cross streets off so it’s a bit weird riding through red lights.
We’ve got a beautiful morning for it aswell. Not too hot or cold and no rain in sight. I definitely feel the effects of every incline more at this altitude…if you think you suck at hills try them with less oxygen..they suck even more.
This is us at the northern turnaround point. We decide not to ride all the way to the other end as it goes through old town which is much busier with pedestrians and there’s a lot more hills.
I think It’s a great initiative and it was great to see lots of dad’s out riding with their kids aswell. B great to see something like this in Brisbane on say the SE Busway every month!
Back to our apartment where the neighbours dog is waiting on the roof to say hello. He looks so sad.
Then a wander into town for lunch. A few of the streets here are also blocked (in addition to the cicloplaseo ones) for pedestrians. There’s heaps of people out and about.
Grab some supplies as we’re heading out for a few days of riding volcanoes in the Andes. I think I might be using the sag wagon a bit as Chimborazo is 6000m!
Haven’t decided if we’re taking out laptops with us yet and unsure on the internet situation so might be radio silence for a couple of days.