Exiting the large city of Ambato was a nightmare. The place really is a tip with rubbish on the roads and pavements for almost every metre, including piles of gravel and rocks just piled up so pedestrians had to step onto the road in some places. Also many walls missing with 20 meter drops into someones garden. I guess drunks sober up pretty quickly here.
Further on up the highway there was a huge traffic jam.

I was told that there was a bank robbery. The robbers were in a small beat up family car. About 50 police cars and motorbikes were all over the highway. The robbers were trapped down an embankment.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT!

It was very noticeable that there were no media present, no television cameras, radio or journalists. Actually I have not even come across a journalist since southern Mexico!
Next day I hadn’t eaten a breakfast as I waited till I got to the small village I commuted from. When I got there the restaurant was closed.
So I ran on till lunchtime and arrived at what looked like a really nice restaurant on the outside, it certainly had swanky signposts directing me towards it.
Inside the tables and even chairs had white satin covers, there were patio heaters on the inside and the place was decorated with a tasteful decor. The waiter had black slacks, white shirt and a dickie bow!

I TUCKED INTO MY PACKET OF MARIA BISCUITS WHILE I WAITED FOR MY SPAGHETTI CARBORONNA!

My God! I am going to get screwed here, I thought!
Fortunately I didn’t have to make a u-turn as I settled for a spaghetti carboronna for $6, even if it was a small plate.
This place was fairly new as the painters were still painting the hallway.
While I waited for my meal I ate a few biscuits I had bought in a shop down the road. A few people were looking over at me and wondered what was going on as I had all my gear on one of the satin covered seats.
The manager, a young hot woman called Catherine came over and told me the place was only open six weeks. I had given her a business card. She asked for me to pose for photographs and the impression I had was it was for their website or facebook publicity page. I also posed in a bath they had in the front garden! Hey this not what I thought the run would come to but it’s a blast!

NO THIS IS NOT HOW I GET ACROSS THE WATER!

You not I never mentioned the name of this establishment as they didn’t even offer me a discount, so $10 with coffee and tip thrown in was a bit much for a budget traveller, even a starving one. They had plenty of opportunity to offer me one as mistake was made on the bill and Catherine just sat at the next table while I waited 10 minutes for it to be sorted. Next time management of such a place asks for photos, I promise I will ask for a discount immediately, lesson learned!
That night in Riobamba I got a discount on a really nice hotel called Rey de los Andes, or King of the Andes, indeed!
My friend and fellow journey runner, Jesper Olsen stayed here a couple of months ago on his run thru Ecuador.
That´s what the manager told me as she greeted me with… ” But where is your support vehicle? ”
” On my back I replied! ”
Then on the way to a 40km day I stopped at a school which had a shop attached to it. About ten children came over and then followed me out the gate, I  felt like a pied-piper.

 
That night I commuted from my finish just before San Martin to a place called Cuemont. I didn’t like the look of the first hotel I saw , so the bus driver told me to get back on as there was another place the far end of town.
That place was called Inti Sisa, a Belgan hostel run by some Belgians. They rent out dorm beds as part of their fundraising along with running trips to the nearby Chimborazo volcano at 6,310 it’s one of the highest volcanos in the world and the highest peak in the Andes.
I spent most of the evening talking to one of the administrator, a nice young dread-locked Belgian woman called Eva.

EVA AND ONE OF HER HELPERS LAZARO.

Eva told me she loves travelling but has been stationed here as she likes helping people.
Inti Sisa does a lot of work for the local community here. It´s teachers are well paid she told me, they get a sort of a Fair Trade wage. They teach reading, writing, sewing, cooking (about time I thought!) and other skills to the mostly indigenous community. Their website is  HERE  

Eva tells me the community is kind of locked in a time warp, about 100 years behind the rest of the world.
As luck would have it there was a market in the town tomorrow. Apparently people come from far and wide to sell their wares here every Thursday and Friday.
At the market I was taking some photos and was not minding when a man nearly ran me over as he led two ferocious looking pigs through the towns plaza!

I NEARLY GOT RUN OVER BY PIGS!

I hung about for about an hour taking some decent shots before hitting the road again.
I have been very tired a lot these days, many times a week I feel like I have hit the wall, or as my American friends would say, I bonk many times a week.
Irish readers stop sniggering!

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