We left for Guaranda with Maritza and her parents, Francisco and Alicia, the Sunday after the shop-out in Otovalo. Guaranda (pronounced Guaranda), about 250 km south of Quito, is their home. It is the capital of the Bolivar Province and is in a very mountainous area very close to the huge volcano Chimbarazo. This volcano is snow-capped and is the highest mountain in Ecuador at 6310 meters (>20000 feet). The road we followed after leaving the Pan American highway at Ambato crosses part of the mountain, and for several miles was above 15000 feet in elevation. (Maritza's father was driving us in a new, huge, Toyota Land Rover. It was equipped with an altimeter) Unfortunately it was very overcast and raining as we drove past the mountain and so we were unable to see the snow-capped peak that afternoon. We finally arrived at Guaranda and the first thing we did was drive up to an overview park to get a look at the city.
We then headed for their home, an interesting and spread out one-floor home above the Continental General Tire dealership Maritza's father owned. He was actually the dealer for the entire province.
'Sin or Con': We had a dinner of meats cooked on the grill, cheese, and bread and continued catching up with Maritza's life after she stayed with us in 1998. Her parents did not speak English at all and so we were really pushing the envelope at times to have conversations. This led to an interesting situation later that evening when we realized that we were out of bottled water and would need some for brushing our teeth, and the drink of water sometimes needed during the evening. Sue asked Maritza's mom for some drinking water and she returned with a tall bottle after a few minutes. I was the first in the bathroom so I brushed my teeth first. (drinking bottled water or freshly boiled water is the norm as tapwater is not well treated if at all) Turns out the bottle of water was agua con gas rather than agua sin gas! Try rinsing out your mouth after brushing with seltzer water, water with gas, (agua con gas)!
The following morning we left bright and early for a very long drive. We were heading downhill to the coastal town of Manta, but sort doing the 'L.A. by way of Omaha' route as we went via Guyaquil, Salinas and the Ruta del Sol. The next few days would become sort of whirlwind of driving and seeing quite a bit of the country but at 80 km/hour out the window of the Toyota.
As we drove up and then out of the valley Guaranda was in Chimbarazo suddenly appeared in view. This time our drive was taking us away from it but we still had to cross part its southwestern flank as we began to work our way down out of the Andes.
This took us in and out of clouds for a while and then suddenly it was solid clouds and very humid as we crossed the elevation where the orographic rainfall was the greatest. At times the density of the fog was incredible and it was fortunate that there was no traffic on the road except for an occasional bus slowly grinding through the lower gears as it heads uphill.
We made a pitstop in Montalvo and then back on the road to Bobahoyo, the coastal plains and Guyaquil.