BobnRox in Ecuador

Our adventures with our car and the Andes trips seem to continue, as we punctured one of our new off road tires driving through a landslide...take a look at the edges of these rocks...

Now you will notice that these rocks have really sharp edges, now picture us trying to drive through about 100 yards of these and their much bigger brothers...we had no problem with clearance, but often we had to make a choice about which rock we were going to drive around and which ones we would just run over.  Sometimes the ones that we chose to run over were the wrong choice, obviously...one of the bigger ones punctured the side of our right front tire, causing a slow leak that was brought to our attention when we were stopped by the road crews for the new highway.

There is a whole new cottage industry arising from this wonderful concrete ribbon of road that is criss-crossing Ecuador and the Andes--it seems that many of the people in the little villages are now gathering at the points where the traffic is stopped and are selling all kinds of food and drink to waiting families in their cars.  The family that pointed out our flat, hurriedly put down their wares and volunteered to fix the flat...

Take a look at all of the food that was set aside as they all gathered to lend a hand...

 There is no doubt that this young fellow will grow up to be a fine mechanic...

 The father and oldest son did the yeoman's share of the work--and as I was giving dad a fiver and his son a couple of bucks, the two girls said that they had helped, and showed me that there was tire dirt on their hands that they got when they wheeled the old tire to the back of the car...so, naturally, I included them in the pay-off...

 Here is everyone posing with smiles on their faces...and to top it off, we got the job done, while the traffic was stopped, and resumed our place in line, just as they let us go...so how about that???