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.