In the end, the only danger that Quito presented, was in choking to death on the black fumes pumped out by buses and trucks as I cycled out of the city. Emissions testing is not a number one priority in Ecuador! The exit from Quito was fairly straight forwards in terms of which road to take, although there was a certain amount of uphill pedalling. I am never sure if it’s a good thing to take a week or more off from cycling, as although my legs and muscles stop aching, I feel like I lose my edge. With that in mind, today was only going to be a short one, especially as there were some nasty looking dark clouds lurking around. Just about fifty km saw me into the town of Machachi, where I was more than happy to quit whilst I was ahead.

Hotel Estadio Real was super cheap at 7 dollars for the night, and although it had a shared bathroom and no tv, the room was very big. Lovely pink blankets too !

Machachi has a beautiful main plaza, and a church right by it. The only other highlight, was a restaurant whose combo ejectivo was the closest thing I’ve had to a mixed grill in months. A fried chicken leg, dayglo red hotdog, fried beef pate, an egg and chips came to 3 dollars with a drink included. Bloody handsome !