As the hotel was on the main road, exiting Latacunga was easy. The going was flat, and I actually had to slow myself down, as I had an extremely short day in mind. A detour took me through the town of Salcedo, which had an unusually large amount of Heladarias (Ice Cream parlours). On the south side of Salcedo, a small strip of restaurants had pigs hung up outside them, which not only caught my interest, but made me feel incredibly hungry. (Vegetarians may want to stop reading and looking now).

And it was cooked up in a huge wok.

Mr. Porky tasted very nice, I must say ! With the holy temple of my body desecrated with the flesh of one of natures beautiful creatures (that’s one for the veggies!), it was time to push on again. The days cycling totalled no more than 35 km when I rolled into Ambato, where I checked into Hotel Garibaldi. The reason behind the short day was to set myself up better for accommodation prospects further down the road, and also, to conserve some energy, as I suspect that the next days cycling will be much tougher. England play football tomorrow, and I am debating whether to take the day off or not to watch them. Given their dismal performance against the USA, its probably not worth it though !