We spent most of the day on the road driving through some pretty ‘iffy’ stretches of mountain.  We stopped and had a bite to eat around lunchtime.  While Bud was driving, I saw an amazing sight…on a scooter was the driver, a woman facing away from him, a 1 year old standing up facing her and then another woman at the end facing the baby!!!  A baby sandwich…4 people on one scooter…welcome to Ecuador…lol
     I30 was completely torn up for about 3 miles.  We finally reached a road in Pinchincha that was somewhat paved and in front of us were signs and barricades blocking us from moving forward. The bridge across the river was down!  We looked at each other in total disbelief.  We pulled over to regroup.  At first, there was no one who could speak English, but a few people were trying hard to understand us.  It was getting stressful and we were in an area that we really didn’t want to have to spend the night in.  We HAD to get across the river somehow.  The thought of going back across that mountain was enough to make two grown people cry!
     A young man walked over while we were showing the map to an older gentleman and asked, “Can I help you?”  Bud and I nearly cheered.  Where we needed to be was clear to the young man.  He actually lived in the town where we wanted to go and worked in Pinchincha.  He knew exactly how to get us to Quevedo.  He was friends with the cab driver that was parked directly in front of us and spoke to him on our behalf.  For $20, the cab driver would lead us to the only other way to get to Quevedo.  Well, hallelujah!  We would have paid $50!  We ended up at a guarded crossing over a dam.   At that point, much to our surprise and confusion, the cab driver got out, went to talk to a couple in another car, then came to us motioning that we should now follow THEM!  Talk about feeling helpless and needing to trust your fellow man….!  What a ride!!!  OMG, the roads were horrendous.  We have not seen a real pothole in the United States!  Several times, we wondered if we would ever see Quevedo.  An hour later we arrived and the other couple beeped and waved.  We motioned for them to stop and Bud gave them a few bucks for saving us!
    The bare bones hotel that was shown online as quite the place to be was good enough for one night.  It was clean and at that point….  Oh, it did have a pool and a nice swim made up for the lousy service and 2 star meal!