Quito 3/22/11
We got the package by 11am and headed out to Ecuador. Not far from Pasto. Goodbye Colombia.


Ecuador border crossing was very easy. Checking out of Colombia only took a moment, checking into Ecuador took 30 minutes and cost nothing.


We weren't sure where we would end up that night. All the Colombians we talked to said that Ecuador was cheap, but all the hotels we came across were twice the price of our Colombian hotels ($15 compared to $7), but dusk was fast approaching. The Panamerican was in such great condition that we decided to break our normal no-night-riding rule and keep going to Quito.

Stopped and tried "bizcocho", which were advertised everywhere. Little hard sticks of salt bread.


Got to quito, found a hotel ($12 per night, too expensive!) and awoke in the morning to get breakfast. At least the food is cheap here.

Egg, two "tortillas de verde" and coffee for $1.

Stayed two nights in Quito. Lovely city. Second highest capital city in the world. Very clean and cool.

Most impressive Cathedral of the trip, by far. Basilica de Voto Nacional.




African-American protest in front of the hotel. They had signs with Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr.


Quito historic district streets:




Center of Contemporary Art:

Favorite art museum of the trip.

Tons of people were selling this:

"Esponilla", means "foam" in spanish. Looks like ice-cream, is actually just some sort of whipped cream. A little too rich for me.

Last day we rode up onto the hill in the middle of the city, where an enormous angel ("El Panacillo") is perched.




Goodbye Quito:

Next, to Banos.

First crash of the trip.

Raining. Came up to these diagonal railroad tracks, didn't realize they had deep wheel-catching trenches until it was too late. Slowed down and tried to go sideways over but didn't take enough of an angle and the front wheel caught the trench. I was only going 5mph, so no damage to us or the bike. Just a few frustrating minutes of trying to clear the flooded carbs. Lucky it was very minor.

Stopped in a Salcedo, where every single shop advertised this special fruit ice-cream. Apparently it's famous all over the world

Probably the best icecream ever. Cream flavor on the right, avacado flavor on the right.

We got to Banos, but kept going to find an appropriate camp spot. Right before the first tunnel after Banos we saw a little place where I could ride the bike up into the reeds. Beyond that, there was a short hill where the tent could be hidden. This looked good:


View of the waterfalls going down the canyon.


Stealth camping at it's finest.


The bike was hidden slightly further up the hill.


Definitely the most beautiful camping spot of the trip thus far. We spent two nights here while we explored Banos.

Paid $1pp to take a hike down to "Pilion Del Diablo", a waterfall.
From a distance:

40 minutes later:

You could crawl up a little path to go behind the waterfall. Rain gear came in handy here.



Beautiful place.


Then we went to this bridge:

Climbed up on this platform:

And did this:

It's called "swing jumpin". Sort of like bungee jumping, but the line isn't elastic. You run out, jump headfirst and when you hit the end of the line you go into a big pendelum.


I planned to take a video of Michelle doing it, but 2 seconds into the footage the camera said "memory full", and I didn't have enough time to erase anything before she jumped. What a shame!

Here she is setting up:


Banos is famous for it's Melcocha, a sugar-cane based candy made by hanging the mix from a doorframe and beating it. It´s all over Banos.




These meals-in-a-bag are common in Ecuador. Normally corn, topped with meat and salad. Quite tasty.


Still have yet to try the Ecuadorian delicacy: Guinea pig


Banos Cathedral at night.


Thermal waters. Super crowded every day.


The last day in Banos we rode up to the top of the volcano road to get pictures of the active Volcano and the town. This is what we got:

Damn clouds! The road itself was interesting enough.

On the way down we took our second tumble of the trip. Going down a rocky hill the front wheel became destabalized from the large rocks in the road. Lost control and had a low-speed tip over. No damage to ourselves or the bike, just a sore knee the rest of the day. Ecuador is just bad luck. Did 9 countries with no spills and now two in 200 miles!

Our next destination was Guayaquil, the second biggest city of Ecuador. Ecuador is a gorgeous country.


The first part of the day was clear, but after 2pm the clouds and the drizzle came in. We were riding through the clouds for hours. Visibility was only 10 meters, and the road was very wet. Not having a front fender, I had dirty water shooting up into my face constantly. Visor up or down, I couldn't see anything. This, plus numerous Ecuadorian dogs running into the road and tight twisty turns was just too much for me. We turned into a little town and asked for a hotel.



We had no idea where we were at this point. We had started the day following the signs to Guayaquil, but once we hit the clouds even if there had been signs we probably wouldn't have seen them. According to the spot tracker message we were in "Suscal", some secondary route.

The only hotel in town was a strange one. 4 stories high, but completely empty. Eventually a little boy came by, and said the room was $7. We went floor to floor looking at all the rooms that were unlocked. We chose one. A few minutes later a woman approached me on the street asking what I wanted to eat. $2 a plate. Where? She would bring it up to our hotel room. Some little girls walked in an hour later asking why we were in this room. Apparently they lived on that floor and used that bathroom. Strange circumstances, but the people were friendly and we were happy to be warm and dry again.

We ended up paying $10 for the room when we finally found the owner the next day. In the morning we bundled up and hit the road. 2 hours later we at sea level. Probably 50 degree difference. We were dying with all our layers on. Not so bad when we were moving (roads were flat and straight, back to 80mph!) Walking around from hotel to hotel in Guayaquil was a very sweaty enterprise. Guayquil is where we are now, doing laundry, uploading pictures, and all the fun stuff we've been putting off.

I am a huge fan of trip threads with lots of photos! Thank you for letting us live vicariously through them.

enjoying every episode - keep them coming! great pics too.
in a world where "adventure" is a big Beemer, metal panniers and sat nav, you guys rock!
I envy you and your adventurous spirits - keep safe.

__________________
I am a traveller, not a tourist.

Fantastic trip report, you guys are real troopers.

Guayaquil, Ecuador

In Guayaquil we tried the "pinol" grain, on which the delicious icecream of Salcedo is based. Just powder in a bag. Apparently they eat it with milk or dry, and we were told was the "healthiest thing you can eat". Personally, I thought it was way, way to sweet. Michelle liked it. In any case, 1lb gave us breakfast for two days.


While we were in Cali, Colombia, Alberto the baker had given us the number of a friend of his who owns a bakery in Guayaquil. We gave him a call and were treated to even more delicious pastry on the bosses tab. Really friendly fellow, really great bread, just like Alberto. He and Alberto are both from the same little pueblo outside of Medellin. Apparently a ton of people from that pueblo (name forgotten) leave to own bakeries all over Colombia and Ecuador. Awesome.

In addition to the empanadas, he took us around the city and showed us the sites. He was riding his little 100cc 2 stroke. Sweet bike.


Juanito:


Every day in Guayaquil we ate at this restaraunt next door. It's awesome. Big drink, big soup and big plate of food for $1.30usd. Hard to finish. It was incredibly packed from 11am to 3pm all day. They will only serve one or two things all day. You don't really order, you just choose an open chair and before your butt is on the seat there's a plate of soup in front of you.


The guard who watched the bike all day.


After a few days in Guayaquil it was time to keep moving. We got a late start, so we didn't make it all the way to Peruvian border. Camping in the jungle! Really, really hot and humid.


Making the first of many campfires with the cheapo cookware we bought in Colombia. "Avena" means oatmeal, and it's a staple of our camping diet down here.


Had to do some gnarly jungle riding to get to the camping clearing.


Now for Peru...

We reached the Peruvian border in no time. Unfortunately it took several hours to actually get through correctly. We stayed on the Panamerican until we hit the Peruvian border checkin. "Where is the Ecuador checkout?" "Oh, a couple miles back. Take the left at the first town". So we head back and in a few minutes we find where to get our Ecuadorian passports checked out. Then we start searching for the customs office to turn in the bike permit. Everyone is telling us somewhere different and we spend a few hours riding around till we finally find it a few more miles up the road.

We passed this sign several times before we actually were ready to sign into Peru. Peru was free to enter, just like Colombia and Ecuador. Gotta love South America.


We stop in Tumbes to pull out the Peruvian currency, the nuevo soles (2.8soles = $1usd). We eat a mediocre lunch at an overpriced restaraunt. 7 soles per person! You must be joking! It's funny how our standards have changed over the course of the trip. Back in Mexico a meal for $2.50 was a bargain. Now it's extortion.

The Panamerican highway in this area is great. It runs between the desert and the sea. Hot, flat and fast. Nice change.


A few hours down the road we pulled off so I could put earplugs in and Michelle could put her ipod on. There we met Antonio aka El Patagonio aka El Chamaco. He was an older Mexican man riding a little honda 125cc scooter. He was just seeing if we needed any help. Then he told us his story. He had quit his job as an architect in Guadalajara and decided to travel the world. Sold everything and began his trip. He went from Mexico to Alaska, then to Tierra Del Fuego and back up to Brazil. 80,000kms on the little scooter he was riding right now. He had traveled for three years, and now he was in Peru doing some contracting jobs to save up for his next adventure (Asia).

Here's his website: INICIO - Mexicano viajando desde Alaska hasta la Patagonia en motocicleta scooter

Here is a terrible pictures of us three and the two bikes.


He said we should go stop at "Waltako", one of a thousand little cabanas on the side of the road on the beach (the north coast of Peru is apparently a big vacation spot for Peruvians). He had helped build these cabanas and he was staying there. He assured us that if we told Rodrigo the owner that we were friends of Antonio we would be well taken care of.

He wasn't lying. We spent the next four days staying for free in a beautiful cabana on the beach. Empty beach, beautiful ocean, hammocks, cable, wifi. Really peaceful place. Not much to do, just lounge around, head to the little town up the street and go to the one little store in town to buy food. Perfect.

The Cabana we stayed in:


The most delicious mangos in the world, in season. These were about 17 cents per piece at the store, which is dirt cheap compared to the US. Venessa said she had bought 45 mangos for 3 soles a few weeks before.


Lots of chess in the shade


Ahhhhh... yes.


That's not to say it was all relaxation. Rodrigo and Venessa (his girlfriend) are working on some trails, campsites and future cabanas out in the desert. Lots of work, and every morning they hike into the desert behind the cabanas to clear brush and build trails. Of course we offered to help, and we spent many hours helping them with the project.

The hike:


(Rodrigo in yellow)

Waltako trees, from which the Cabanas get their name. When we started this whole area was filled with dead brush.


Hard work, blistered hands, but very fulfilling. The daily routine was to work for 4 hours in the morning, come home, immediately change into a bathing suit and jump into the cool ocean for a minute to get the dust off, rinse off, then enjoy lunch with Rodrigo and Venessa on the porch or head a few minutes into town to have some fish in the pueblo. Then we'd buy mangos and spend the rest of the day laying in the hammocks, playing chess on the porch or watching poorly dubbed movies on TV. Man, what a life.

We were very sad to go, but Antonio had hooked us up with some motorcycle clubs along our paths, and one was waiting for our arrival in Lima on Saturday.

Venessa and Jade (her daughter):

Venessa was born in Brazil, but she moved to the US for a few years. She was a successful designer working for "hush puppies" (shoes I think), but she decided that the pace of life in the US was too stressful for her, and she didn't get to spend enough time with her daughter, so she moved to Peru and is now happy. She speaks perfect, fluent english.

If you are coming down the Panamerican through Tumbes, I highly recommend stopping at Waltako. Bienvenidos a Waltako Beach Town.......
Say you're friends of Jordan and Michelle, and you'd be happy to volunteer, and you will be taken care of. You might even meet up with El Patagonio, and you should definitely have a chat with him.

One last shot of the two motorcycles far from home: