Perhaps I’m a little too worried about the brakes? Maybe if it all happened while I was driving it regularly back home I wouldn’t have noticed and wouldn’t care too much about it. But now that I’ve driven more than 8000 miles on it, having gone through some crazy mountains, I am going to try and get it checked out still.
Today started out early as well. I tried to get into Mitad del Mundo “Middle of the World,” but it was closed! What? I thought it would be free! But alas, no, it costs money because they built this huge monument on the equator.
I had unknowingly stayed at a ‘love motel,’ where lovers go and sleep and do their thing. I didn’t know it until I drove out. I was wondering why the black dude running the motel was looking at me all weird. I was all alone and all I cared about was having a room to stay in. And at $15, I couldn’t really complain. They also had hot shower, which I dearly missed.
But one thing bad about those motels is that they force you to leave early. I needed to leave by 8, so I woke up at 6:30, took a shower and took off, ready to do my thing for the day. Except, nothing’s open at 8! Including Mitad del Mundo, which opens at 9!
So I go to the nearest mechanic, who actually happens to know Mercedes pretty well. Paul’s got a Houston Texans Football cap on, and drives a Hyundai. I tell him I already changed the brake pads and the brake master cylinder, and he does some tests that others haven’t done. He makes sure there are no cracks on the tubes, which he says there are none. So the problem is coming from either the Vacuum or the booster, he says, but he can’t tell for sure. I better go to a Mercedes mechanic. But at least he says it’s not dangerous to drive it as is.
So I drive down to the Mercedes mechanic he recommends, some 30 minute drive out, and what’s this, they don’t work at all on the weekends!!! Well, this sucks because I can clearly see several other older Mercedes around his garage above the hill. So I make my way back to the mechanic, and ask him to check my accelerator for me. It gets stuck fairly easily and he fixes it, which lasts for a couple hours before going bad again.
I did stop by at Mitad del Mundo, which was a sham. $1.50 just to park and $2 for entrance fee. Plus, every building in that area cost money. Planetarium cost money, and the big monument with the ball on top can be entered, all for a fee as well. Plus, my GPS tells me that we’re actually about 100 meters or so SOUTH of the equator, not on the equator itself! Disappointed, I walked out and headed to get my brunch, my only meal of the day.
I make my way out of Quito, which is just a big city of mess. Sure there are high rises and I could see the Old Quito while driving around, but I wasn’t very interested. Once you’ve seen a Latin American city and its churches and what not, you feel like you’ve seen them all. I guess I should try and see the differences, but I’m just not that interested in driving around, wondering if I’ll be able to make it out alive and in one piece. If I really want to, I’ll fly back and see it. Right now, there are other priorities for me.
I put in 10 gallons of gas for $10. Yes, that’s right. $1 a gallon of gas (in this case, diesel). I didn’t fill up because diesel is apparently notoriously dirty here. I’ll fill up when I cross Peru and change my fuel filter when I get to Lima and look for some Mercedes mechanic.
So I drove and drove and drove. I drove about 350 miles today. Woke up at 6:30, mechanic at 8, looking around for Mercedes mechanic till Mitad del Mundo at 9:30, got out of Quito at about noon, and drove and drove and drove until just now, about 8:30 PM. I checked into the nearest motel in the nearest biggest city next to Ecuador – Peru border called Motel California in Machala. At first I was optimistic, thinking this motel and where I’m from have something in common. But it’s another love motel!! At least this time there’s no poster of a naked woman on the wall next to the bed. Instead, there’s a huge mirror on the ceiling…
I forgot to mention that I saw some shop for Mercedes parts, so I walked in, feeling hopeful, thinking perhaps they have some parts that I need. But no, they point me to another mechanic around the corner, who checks all 4 wheels for air in the brake fluids. At least it was really, really cheap. He cost me $2.
I’m somewhat disappointed by Ecuador. Colombia seemed to be doing quite nicely, building its cities well and progressing along. It’s no United States, but Colombia’s kept its own flavor of culture and have started to integrate into a thriving developing economy. But Ecuador seems like it’s got no real identity, just trying to do well with what it’s got, which isn’t much to begin with, it seems like.
One thing I do find pleasantly surprising about Ecuador, though, is that it’s the first country where people are out and about at night. Usually, even in Mexico, 9PM means all the Latinos have somehow all made it back to their home and won’t be coming out till the next morning. It’s pretty scary, actually. Some cities are worse, where most people would just disappear from the city streets at 7PM, right after sunset. But this country has lots and lots of people just chilling, playing basketball or soccer, having town meetings, still selling stuff at the market, and just chilling outside next to to the police stations and such. It was like Colon, Panama in that all the houses and the general infrastructure of the bulidings here are in horrible condition. But the dirty cities and pueblos seemed almost homely with such lively people.
But that also means that there are people out and about at night, which means that all the bikers and walkers and dogs and everything that are along the highways are still out there at night, which means for one interesting drive. It’s almost impossible to see them until it’s too late.