A "Tiny" Coincidence

"And this is where the porcelain sink will go. It will be white and the faucet will be black."

That`s Eric, talking about his tiny house design.

"That color scheme will be throughout the house in a few areas, including the entrance tile floor and bathroom."

Now, let's take a minute and imagine you are alone, by yourself. Let's say you're eating a meal - a common occurrence on this trip - and a stranger walks up to you, introduces himself, and then has a conversation with you that you have never had before, but talking about all the things you find deeply interesting. That's what Eric and I were doing on the middle bed in a large room with three beds at a residencia in San Gabriel, Ecuador.

Before we dive into more about Eric's color scheme, kitchen stove layout, or shoe compartment in his tiny home design, let's back up a few hours to when Eric and I had lunch at a small roadside stand in Huaca. It was there that I was able to pick his brain on making a soda can stove that he is using on his trip. I had heard these were the cheapest stoves out there and since I need a stove, I wanted to try one of these. Eric was the perfect person to ask. With his background in hiking the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide, and my personal favorite, the Pacific Crest Trail, he has gained over a thousand nights of sleeping and camping in the outdoors. With all this hiking experience, you might be wondering what he is doing in Ecuador.

Eric set out two years ago from his home in Tennessee to Alaska on a dirt bike, and has been traveling south ever since. His plan is to make it to Argentina before November. He introduced himself to me on the Colombian side of the Colombia-Ecuador border earlier that morning. He saw I was traveling by bike and wanted to chat. He has some extensive bike touring experience riding a Bob from Panama back to the United States, so he knows the bike touring lifestyle. We chatted for a bit at the border as we got the necessary stamps in our passports and then departed, knowing we would see each other on the road.

To be honest, tiny homes have been a fascination of mine since I first heard of them years ago. Talking about them with friends and co-workers was always fun to daydream, and it's nice to hear about the TV show that's making them more popular. But here it was, maybe 8:30 at night, and Eric was laying out the entire floor plan for his 100 square-foot house, with all the neat intricacies and design considerations thought through.

The morning I met Eric, I knew I would cross into Ecuador that day, but for some reason I was slow to get up and move. I don't know if it was my nostalgia for Colombia or just feeling too lazy to ride. Whatever it was, the timing all worked out because later that day, I ended up exploring dozens of thoughts in my mind and even discussing some innovative counter top designs for a tiny home with a new friend.

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