Arriving in style in Quito

Catholicism has lots of stories that go like this: Some figure of the Virgin Mary, some saint, or even Jesus is being transported between towns. At some point, the horses, oxen or whatever animal that were pulling the cart carrying the figure refuse to continue. There’s no way to make them move. In some stories the driver, possessed by who knows what scientific impetus, makes the test of taking the figure out of the cart, and with this the animals start walking. In other versions, the sole stopping of the animals is taken as the miracle. These stories are usually the justification for awkwardly placed churches and places of worship all over the world. The Virgin refused to continue on! We must build a cathedral right here! If only education and public policy were so evidence-based. But I digress.

Something of this sort happened to the Pony the other day. On our way to Quito, about two hundred meters from the line of the equator, a loud buzzing noise sounded, along with a really scary red light on the dash. It turns out that we had blown a hose, dumped all our expensive German-made coolant on the road, and overheated the engine. The Pony had refused to cross the equator.

Being the atheist that I am, instead of building a shrine right there I left Stephanie and Milo in the van, and jumped on a bus to the closest town to look for a tow. There’s already a kind of shrine in there anyway, I thought, with a line on the ground where you can take your photo for a dollar.

At first I was scared: the coolant level sensor warning light had not worked, so the engine run for a bit without water, and got really hot. This is how you kill an engine, no matter how well it was running beforehand. While looking for the tow, I posted to the Ecuador VW Club Facebook page, mentioning our troubles and asking for a mechanic recommendation. Within the hour I was on the phone, first with Diego, our new mechanic, and then with Chalo and Byron, fellow Westy owners. It is amazing: driving one of these things, it feels as if you have a family anywhere you go. All these guys offered us a place to stay. We stayed near Diego’s shop for a couple of nights. During this time, we tested the engine and Diego did a quick tune up. It runs better than before! We still needed some parts, so with the van patched, we set off for Quito to meet Chalo. The idea was to stay in his place while we look for the parts, which are easier to find near the center of the city. We have now been here for four nights, and Chalo has been driving me everywhere looking for spares, getting under the van with me to help fix things, and all around acting as if we have been friends for twenty years.

We are now all fixed (hopefully), and ready to camp again.

As for that equator line… well, we had gone there a couple of days earlier, on the 22nd. At noon. So for most practical purposes, we can say that we crossed into the southern hemisphere on the day of the equinox, going from summer to spring.