by Jack May, winner of the original Cannonball Run
in 1975,(an illegal Transcontinental road race in the
United States), hit a very deep pocket of mud and water,
destroying the universal. Today was much more
challenging than simply driving from New York to
Los Angeles in 32 hours over the Interstates. Some
locals in a truck came along with a flatbed. They
would take it back up the mountains to Loja for
$50. Only problem was, there was no way to get
the car on the flatbed except by human power.
Twenty of us lifted it six feet out of the mud.The
Mays work all night with their mechanics in order
>to be ready for 8 AM departure.Also,our Montero
spun out on mud and blew another tire. It is
>replaced with a stringy patched up spare.
As Andy always said :
"One Day Everyone Will Be Famous For 15 Minutes"
---For Us 27 days!
Sometime after dark we reach Loja, a putrid
little city in the southernmost part of Ecuador.
Local currency is completely out of whack with
the dollar . Hostal Metropolitan:700 sucres -
$1.60 a night.The room is similar to a cheap
bordello-in fact that's probably what it usually is.
I sleep on top of the bed in my sleeping bag.
Dinner - 95 c. Steak, papas fritas and beer.
At the main restaurant in town the crew gathers
for some ice cold beer. Outside, held back by soldiers,
is a screaming mob of teenyboppers, circa the Beatles
in 1963. Obviously this is the biggest thing to happen
in Loja since the Spanish conquest. We are the great
Yanqui conquerors!
