Waterfalls ...common as rice in China :rofl

Our plan started as heading to Chachapoyas however meeting Oliver and his girlfriend by chance at the hostel he suggested some alternate ideas, being a local we took it on.

We hit the road at 6.00am to avoid upwards of 8 hours delay on the road due to massive roadworks, again great advice from the hostel dude saying get past the roadworks prior 7.00am when they start or it will take all day to cover about 60 km.

Riding through the roadworks and being wet the base binder they use it stuck to Maya like concrete, we wanted some good rain to help wash this stuff off but that did not eventuate despite ominous looking clouds, we did have treats further on tho where the road has some cool overhangs through the gorges.



We took a wrong turn ... ooops



This boat was gonna take us across the river but we decided against it wanting to keep Maya a little longer



We hoped this went somehwere .. in Peru we have found many surprises on the road



Old bridge new bridge



Cool rock into under cut rock



So, between paper maps and Mrs.Garmin we made it however Mrs.Garmin has us in a different place to where we are ... as do the paper maps......must be the Japanese earthquake eh.:huh

There is one Hostal here in the main plaza (only plaza) so we based ourselves there, you won’t know it is there unless someone tells you ... so here it is, the GPS coords and what you are looking for.



GPS coords



Cool wee tranquil town up at 2000 meters so easy to sleep and quiet, secure and enjoyable, no wifi tho.

As far as a quiet hangout it ticks the boxes well and we thank Oliver for the local information :clap

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Ecuadawesome!!!!

So first off a massive thanks to Freedom rentals for great information, also to Julio, mum and dad of Ambato and Luis and Jeanette & family of Cuenca you guys rock and made Ecuador for us....and we had a good crack at the rest of it.

Starting back at the beginning arriving at Tulcan we bedded in getting used to new another country after leaving the comfort and fun of Colombia, let me tell you Maya nearly turned back....it was close, my enthusiasm to head to Ecuador overruled the want to stay in Colombia, was it a smart move ... who knows but the idea is to see the place so to move on.....nonetheless my heart was not in leaving Colombia.

Hitting the coast we wondered why the hell we did that, it was not anything like we thought, both of us agreed our hearts are in the mountains.

Heading to Quito was great, nice ride and accom and meeting the guys from Freedom Rentals, now if you are coming to Ecuador GO SEE THEM, these boys know the place like the back of their hand ... trust me they WILL make your trip.

Ecuador has stunning national parks worthy of world class status so we made the most of these.

Ambato, Julio,mum and dad ... outstanding, great times from great people and Julio is an inspiration doing his RTW trip on a KTM 525EXC.

Chimborazo was undoubtedly the highlight for both of us and the highest point we have ever been on land . .... if we look a bit red it is cos we were the closest to the sun we have ever been.

Over to the coast further down we enjoyed that apart from the guts ache from a dodgy food tienda, shit happens (ouwh and it it did)

Cuenca, amigos of Freedom and Julios, Luis and Jeanette put up with us and to be fair we loved staying and torturing them with sushi, again great times with local people, they really make the trip putting the icing on a great cake.

The roads were outstanding condition... even the dirt roads were great condition and despite the road from Vilacabamba to the border was difficult we really enjoyed it and the entertainment of diggers towing buses etc on the main drag was something different.

The down side, as with anywhere it is not perfect and the blemish for me was the daily dose of people “trying it on”, doubling prices, quoting prices then changing it, I have started to grow a thicker skin after being ripped a few times....and allowing it...fool on me.

Now I fight back, they think nothing of trying to take me to the cleaners so I have no bones about defending my position and standing my ground, I am sure if they came to New Zealand and we did it to them they would get tell us to get stuffed.

Much to their surprise when I say no, that is NOT what you said they are taken back, I think they must do it to white faces and other white faces just blindly go “ouwh OK”, so I raise my voice one notch and they don’t seem to like that attention.

So enough on that but I do advise any whiteyfoos to stand your ground and let them know it is not cool as it makes it more difficult for the next people if they think they can do it and get away with it all the time, some food for thought anyway.

To finish on a good note we both enjoyed and loved Ecuador and wouldn’t hesitate for a second to recommend it to other travellers, as for danger, no this is not a dangerous place and like anywhere you mind your stuff and be sensible.

http://youtu.be/3nZxixgyzTY

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Hi Andy and Ellen, Wish you a Merry Christmas and the best for New year
I,m enjoying this thread, love your photo,s keep them coming, Safe riding guys, cheers, Roger,

Heya Roger

Merry Christmas to you to, thank you so much for your props it is appreciated and thank you for coming along with us.

Cheers Andi & Ellen

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

In Cueipes there is the 10th 3rd highest waterfall in the world :rofl... they all seem to have a claim to fame however we can vouch these have a claim to grandeur, Yumbilla being a 4 tier fall it falls from the plato well above and drops four tiers to the base pond before turning into a normal creek on its way to the Amazon river.

This baby is four tiers high



With a bit of scrounging around we found the track to the base and the undercut falls ... awesome.

The base falls, me on the left



You can walk behind the falls too as it has been washed out from years of wear and tear, you can see how it floods in Brasil when you have epic rains in Peru as the catchment is enormous.



Ellen decided it was warm :eek1



That pretty much took care of the day, next up was the track to the top between the first and second tier which we did on the second day and we were not let down at all enjoying epic views of Peru from the top shelf.



And how cool is this a bit or wildlife right in front of us :clap



The top, this section was a monty, again me but on the center right being dwarfed by a Pervian ducha



Ellen decided on the way back that one of the smaller falls was worthy of a swim, I thought it was worthy of a photo, we both got our way.



On a previous track earlier we looked for another invisible waterfall and it turned into and epic climb so needless to say by the time we made it out of the bush we were beat but what a day.

Tea was early ...so was bed time. :clap

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Huge day .... woulda been a good 40 km.

After spending our one .... three nights in Cuispes we hit it and headed to Chacapoyas with the vision of going back to Luya,

The road was nothing short of spectacular with massive rock overhangs such that again they made Mrs.Garmin lose her mind.



See the vid for the rock ride

http://youtu.be/iWdBvYkhKYQ

Ellen spotted the turnoff to Luya that took us right there, the road not shown on maps or GPS so we are using human talent to get to places now. :lol3

Getting off the main road it turned to shingle and was boney and yet again another world most dangerous road, I am sure if we fell off any one of them that would be the end of it so I am not sure what makes what more dangerous. :eek1



We set up at Luya for the night and started our trip out to Karajia, we were relying on roads signs and as it would happen some wonderful Peruvian made the sign wrong and the two towns pointed out on it are opposite ways.

Eeeerh WRONG



We travelled quite some distance on an even bonier road before stopping and asking only to find out this slight anomaly ....as known by the locals.



An american lady working in a school came to the rescue and said we needed to backtrack and informed us of slight hickup with the sign so that pretty much stuffed the day and we had to return and have a crack at it the following day.

Nice outlook, ominous clouds in the distance, even when taking the wrong turn the right ting always happens.



You guessed it, next day mission accomplished with ease now on the right road.:rofl

We have to admit the sales photos etc almost overdid what we thought we were going to see, the single sales photo of the statues is pretty much it, anyway, being there is everything, it was great to see it in person and we have a cool cruise through small backyard towns.



A tomb on the other side



Nice chasm like surroundings



On our way back we turned off to the Huaylla Belen river which snakes its way down the valley, we stopped at the top which unveiled the full shape of it.:clap



This pic can only be improved in one way :rofl

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

We returned back to Luya from the statues and headed for Chachapoyas for much needed wifi, my passport is due to expire in 2014 and you need it valid for at least six months after your border crossing, buggered if i know why as to me valid is valid.:huh

So our major discovery at this point in the planet is getting wifi is hard to find then to cap it off is is very very slow so uploading photos and doing ride reports has now become a mission in itself.

Now we find ourselves clocking into big towns every few days to catch up on office work, sometimes a ride report and clocking onto FB etc turns into a chaw with the lack of speed so please be patient, this is a great excuse to ignore you guys but we aren’t doing that :rofl......promise :evil.

Chachapoyas was cool, nice setting and we had a nice pizza which is a change from chicken and rice, we did get my passport stuff done finally, we also tried to get Mayas registration sorted but from a third world country dealing with an antiquated bureaucratically bullshit system the USA/Arizona has is 4th world to deal with, unbelievable to be honest ... all we wonna do is give them money to keep the system straight :cry

Office work plus or minus done for the mo thankfully the plan was to visit kuelap ... poor mans Machu Picchu ... or is it?


Local police bike ... rural



Beautiful buildings



Here you can get Coca Cola and Inca Kola, not sure the Incas drunk this stuff tho .. both made by Coca Cola!!

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere