Saturday July 21/12 update
After 3 hours of tossing and turning I just got up and managed to do a lot of uploads before this busy day commenced.
Both of us were off early this morning to join JD’s for a
trip to Parque XTremo in the Yunguilla
Valley Ecuador ,
Juan ElJuri who owns many businesses, and he is affiliated with John and James
of JD’s private Transportation.
We met our tour mates at Bocatti’s near Tres Puentes (Three
bridges) and the plan was that we would be using ElJuri’s bus that we used for
the night photo tour. I guess it was
busy somewhere else so John hired a friend’s school bus and we got there in
reasonable comfort and safety.
I bought $2 worth of pepperoni-like sausage and ate that as
well as some banana bread that we had brought from home all the way there. There was a couple of road construction
stoppages so that means the locals can sell wares to the line-up of
vehicles. I broke down and bought 4 50c
packages of peanuts to tide me over during the day.
The park is located between the rain
forest of Giron and
the Jubones Desert
The racing started on Ecuador time, two hours late and
you can literally walk almost anywhere at your own peril, including the
pits. ElJuri had two cars himself in the
competition. One of the alternating drivers
was a young Ecuadorian named Ivan and JD’s were pulling for them. James even was the co-pilot for a few
races. I sat next to an obvious gringo
and it turned out he was Ken from Invermere, a member of their Rotary Club, and
he had sponsored an Ecuadorian exchange student. You guessed it, Ivan was that lucky
kid. So I had a good chat with Ken and
his wife and I helped her with settings on her camera which was very similar to
mine.
I wandered the track and pits and got many photos and videos
of racing actions and some of the locals, especially the kids. The rally cars are all souped-up subcompacts
and they make a lot of racket, and of course, dust. They also had a demonstration race with
quads. Most of this was pretty tame
stuff, not like stock cars where everyone is really bunched up. I am sure these guys race against a clock
more than each other. Most races they
have staggered starts. Other than
swerving around corners it was pretty easy stuff. You didn’t want to be following someone or
you were literally eating his dust. I
think the motocross races next week would be a lot more interesting as they
actually jump high into the air.
There was talk that we would stop at a roadside Mexican
restaurant on the way back and I thought we had all agreed. The park really had no food service at all,
just chips, water, pop and beer, and Bella needed solid food. I was not aware of this as I was wandering
all over the track, nowhere near the high stands. Then we found out that 3 of the 7 had jumped
in John’s vehicle and had gone to a nearby town for a late lunch, so now they
didn’t want to stop on the road back.
Great!
I had gone way over to view the east end of the track and
get some shots as the cars raised dust roaring around the corners. Wouldn’t you know it, Ivan’s car died for
the second time right in front of me.
They even used my phone to call the pits for help. The main guy for the ElJuri crew was Marco,
the commando driver from our night tour.
It was oppressively hot in contrast to the very cool morning
as we left Cuenca . We were a little overdressed in dark clothes,
long pants and long sleeves, so we were suffering when we braved the
sunshine. Any shade was a welcome
respite. Trying to take photos of race
cars on a dirt track meant that we were going to continually covered in dust so
that meant taking the shot and trying to protect the camera. It is a good thing that there really aren’t
any external moving parts on my big camera so I just needed to blow it off and
dust it regularly.
John of JD’s introduced us to the park managers and we even
got to meet Tom ElJuri as we were leaving.
I tracked down Bella who was recovering from being sick and
throwing up. She did not look good as we
boarded the bus for the return trip but she coped as long as the window was almost
wide open and blowing air on her. When
we got within 20 klicks of Cuenca
it got cool so the windows were closed a lot and Bella asked me to reopen
mine. But the damage had been done and
she gave me a look of panic, so I handed her my Tilley hat and all the napkins
I had in my backpack. She quietly
retched for a long while and we put the messy hat and her jacket in a plastic
bag.
She also said that we needed to get a cab home, no bus, and
then she needed it right to the door.
She made it upstairs in time. She
wasn’t in the mood for much to eat, just a toast and cold ice water so I
arranged that and just made myself my cabbage salad for supper.
Poor girl, nothing is staying down if she gets up for more than 30 seconds. Her light is off so hopefully a good sleep will rectify her system.
I know this will be late as there is a LOT
of processing involved…. I whittled 160
shots down to 103.
Enjoy the pics at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/. That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.
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