so it finally happened

IT actually represents two things.

My inevitable confrontation with a Latin American bus driver finally occurred. They have been a thorn in my side since I crossed over to mainland Mexico. Yes I’m aware I’m the outsider but it goes beyond that. They have no consideration for anyone else on the road including each other. They adhere to no laws or common sense. They’ll stop anywhere to pick up a passenger. Sometimes they’ll be blocking 4 lanes of a city street. Stopped. No hurry. No reason to go anywhere. When they want in they push you out of the way. When the decide to stop everyone has to as well. This isn’t just the urban buses. This happens everywhere. Running cars off the road on the winding mountain roads so that they can pass at less than a mph difference between the one they’re overtaking. Every country, every city, every town has these buses and there is some sense of order but it is still frustrating as hell to try and drive without the IPDE process in full effect. It’s fatiguing. Saturday morning I was heading through downtown Quito on my way to the old city. A bus pulled off the curb (I’m in the left of 2 lanes) and I honk my horn to let him know I was there as per custom. I changed my focus to the 8 buses and 47 taxis in front of me that were my next challenge when I’m struck by the front left corner of the bus in the middle of my front passenger door.

Yep Ruby Claire is no longer the bad ass truck she used to be. Red paint has scarred the beloved and adored 1B2 (Toyota paint code for Antique Pearl Sage, limited to the 40^th Anniversary Land Cruiser), half of my rear fender flare is lying broken along the side of Avenida Guayaquil. I’ll take some pics tomorrow now that I’ve accepted the fact. But the fun didn’t end with the collision as I’m sure you can imagine.

It took a minute to find a place for us to both pull over then the bedlam ensued. The driver climbed out and started telling me it was my fault. His little shouter boy that recruits passengers is yelling something at me that was totally incoherent. When the driver realized I knew what he was saying he began to berate me even worse. I told him to ‘f himself’ and to call the cops. I knew it wasn’t my fault so I was fine bringing in the cops. That freaked him out a bit. Then the passengers started piling out. Some to get on a different selfishly driven bus, some to add their opinions to the situation. I was a bit unnerved and the 250 yards of cars honking their horns behind us didn’t help. I told the driver to call the police and we would move to a better place to park. He was still contending it was my fault and was pointing to some damage on his bus that would have been impossible for my truck to cause. I kept saying call the police and let’s go up the street to a better place to park. He finally relented and off we went. As we climbed the hill it dawned on me that it might not be best for me to get the cops involved. I’m the gringo in the expensive looking vehicle. He’s the local working man that speaks the language. So when the bus took a right I kept going straight and got the hell out of dodge. Insurance in Ecuador is not mandatory so I don’t have any and my truck can be fixed when I get home. I figured it was in my best interests to let the situation be. I suffered the worst of it anyway. I’m attaching a pic of the jackass driver (well his bus at least, 2107) for reference.

The day got much better from that point on. Obviously. How could it not? Over the course of next 8 hours I would go for a nice long walk along the lunar landscape of Volcan Cotopaxi and find a gorgeous campsite. It was rainy and relatively cold but the hike was very enjoyable and a nice diversion from driving. I then not only walked but drove higher than any point in the continental US. Drove to about 14,800 feet. Walked to about 15,200 then the nausea and burning lungs forced me down. Pretty cool experience to be driving that high, lost in a cloud with zero visibility.

Then IT happened for the second time that day. This it was 11 countries and 10 weeks in the making. As I stood on a windy ridge taking pics of the sunset, which included a cloud in the shape of an Imperial Star Destroyer, it finally hit me and I uttered out loud to myself, “Ecuador, I’m in f&@#ing Ecuador.” Yep the reality finally set in that I am a LONG way from home. Yes it did take that long. I have no idea why but last night the reality hit home. And to be honest with you, I couldn’t be happier about it. I attached a pic of me shortly after the epiphany. As a matter of fact I do always look that serious. I hate self portraits.