Well, I suppose a picture is worth a thousand words, but let me add a few to the first photo below. Yes, that is our car. Yes, I rolled it on its side albeit as gently as humanly possible. And yes, everyone was/is fine. Imagine that you are driving down a muddy road in 4x4 Low Gear (i.e., very slowly) but your front tires ain't that great and some genius (likely with stuntman training) built a road with a curved shoulder, just perfect for Hollywood-style adventure. You loose control for 2 seconds (no worse than anything I have experienced driving in the snow back home) and just as the car looses traction, it moves ever so slowly to the right, hits the shoulder/earthen ramp, and has just enough forward momentum to angle up steeply. The car then basically stops its forward motion and proceeds to gently roll onto the drivers side. Meghan and I (both on the left side seats) rested comfortably on our sides with not much of a reaction. Meanwhile, Vickie is in the air and not taking her predicament too well, and Ethan is contorted a bit in the back seat while trying to deal with gravitys strong pull left/down. After a few moments, I opened the sunroof and we all exited the car without incident.
So we were on our way with friends to Las Secas, a natural lagoon alongside Mount Antisana to do some fishing. The area is quite beautiful, though the last 1/4 mile of road to the lagoon is not that hot. Coupled with the rain/muddy road .well, I think weve covered this.
Anywho, after waiting for a sufficient number of people to arrive to do some fishing, horseback riding and other family activities in the area, we had enough people to right the truck. Of course, this is a time consuming process. I have learned that no matter where you go in this world, if you get a bunch of guys together to solve a problem that involves moving heavy things, there needs to be a discussion/argument of some length before any attempt is made to actually solve the problem. After a sufficient amount of discussion, including lots of push here! no, pull here! along with the extremely useful help of a local farmer who really knew what he was doing and rigged a pole, chain and cable along the shoulder, the car was upright again. After sitting for an hour, it was as good as new, though a little cosmetic work needed to be done to get our 10 year old Pathfinder looking pretty again -- along with some new tires, ha ha!
Meanwhile we did do some fishing, but had only a bit of luck given that the seasonal timing was not the best. The trout here are delicious, though we didnt bring any home to eat that day. We do plan to go back, but I think Ill park on the main road and walk the last little bit next time.
I Blame the Equatorial Gravity
The Lagunas of Las Secas -- Good Trout Fishing
Ethan Got One
Up Close -- They're Also Very Tasty
