Ecuador 2022
Mark, Neil and David take on the land of volcanoes, jungles and long-legged sheep in a 3 week, 3,000km trial of determination over incompetence.
Planning for this trip can be found here.
Day 1-2: Quito: naked nuns and historical erections
David left from London while Mark and Neil travelled from New Zealand; joining forces in Houston before getting to Quito around 2:30am. We spent two days acclimatising to the 9,300ft altitude while catching up over a few bevvies and exploring Quito.
On Sunday we walked around the Old City and visited Basilica del Voto Nacional, spent the late afternoon in Parque Carolina where Ecuadorians kickback and relax on a Sunday, then had dinner at the Secret Garden rooftop restaurant where we had a few drinks with a Siberian flash-packer.
Day 3-4: Amazon: welcome to the jungle.
After picking up the bikes from Ecuador Bike Rental we headed straight up the Andes into freezing rain, driving wind and thick cloud, toping out at 10,800ft. We very quickly found ourselves out of our depth and unprepared so an emergency stop was taken to defrost and ring-out Mark before heading down the other side into the Amazon.
Finding our accommodation for the next two nights, the Suchipakari Amazon Lodge & Spa, was a bit of fun as the road turned into a trail, then a goat-track and finally a footpath through the jungle. A mixup with the accommodation meant we had to all share a hut; but this was resolved the next day.
We ventured out on a jungle walk and several boat trips to visit a wildlife sanctuary and an indigenous village where we fed the caymans and had a go at blow-darts. The Rio Napo river was running really fast due to all the heavy rain so it took three times longer to get back.
Day 5-6: Not Banos: raining mountains.
The plan for the day was to get lost in the Amazon, then ride up to Banos - Spanish for "bath"; meaning hot pools. What could possibly go wrong?
The ride in the Amazon was great, we found some dirt roads and got off the maps. We stumbled on an out of the way village of about four houses by a lovely river. As we were satisfyingly lost we stopped for a break. Some very shy kids appeared and Neil was able to give the some stationary, they were a bit confused, but got the gist of it, don't think many gringo's pass these ways.
Next plan off attack was to climb back up the Andes to the resort town of Banos. The higher we climbed the worse the weather got, back into the clouds and heavy rain. At one point we came round a corner straight into a long tunnel with no lights. Neil's headlight wasn't working and he couldn't see anything; through the intercoms Mark directed him from behind, avoiding the oncoming trucks thankfully. Not the best time for Neil to get his lefts and rights mixed up.
We didn't want another tunnel incident, so when another one approached with a goat-track bypassing it around the cliff we took it. We came out at a village and things didn't feel right. There was a woman on her hands and knees in the middle of the street wailing; then we noticed all the power lines were lying in the middle of the road. We were only 10 minutes from Banos.
We parked the bikes and Mark and David hurdled the downed power lines to see what was going on. Turning onto the main road we noticed the two cars we had been following to our right; to our left the road was gone, buried under a 20 foot high landslide. Looking up we could see a massive scar in the mountain where it must have came from, then we heard what sounded like thunder - more of the mountain was coming down. Everyone ran for it.
Being on bikes we were able to get out of there fast with only one intention, get the feck off this mountain. We road about two hours back down to better weather and made alternative plans, there was no way of getting to Banos today so we booked into a local hotel and thanked our luck stars that we weren't a couple minutes further up the road. Some might say Mark's never ending delays had saved us!
By this point Neil's bike was running very badly so we called basecamp and they recommended we swap out the bikes; problem is, with the road to Banos closed we were in for a 300km detour. Problems for another day, we needed drink and lots of it.
Next day was a 300km slog back up the and over the Andes via a southern crossing as the Banos road was still closed. We road through amazing scenery of mountains and high plains, topping out at 12,000ft.
Neil was in the wars with a very badly behaving motorbike and an even worse behaving botty. Amazon Arse has struck again, blame the salad seems to be the call.
We made it to Hotel Zeus at exactly the same time as our knight in shining 4x4 turned up with a replacement KTM 790 Adventure and took Neil's sick Suzuki back to base. Kudos to Pancho for driving all the way from Quito to Riobamba to swap out the bikes; great support from Ecuador Bike Rental.
A quiet night was had as we were all suffering from altitude sickness and other unsocial ailments.
Day 7-8: Chimborazo and Ingapirca: reaching for the sky.
A bad night was had by most due to the noise of vehicles cruising the strip our hotel was on, so we got off to an early start and climbed up to Chimborazo. The carpark was at about 15,000ft, bikes weren't allowed any higher so Mark and David hired a 4x4 to climb another thousand feet as far as the road went. Air was noticeably lacking and we didn't hang around for long, views were amazing though.
While descending Chimborazo, one of Neil's panniers decided to part ways with his motorcycle, David narrowly missing it as he was just behind.
While we sorted out the pannier with a bit of number 8 fencing wire, Mark indulged in some street-side cuisine of pork and corn; a decision he would regret for the next week.
We road through some amazing scenery as we headed south through the Valley of Volcanoes, part of the Pacific Highway - a route that starts in Alaska and finishes at the southern end of Argentina.
Accommodation for the night was the georgeous hacienda Posada Ingapirca. During our afternoon debrief we were seconded be a young lady with a broken nose in very tight jeans who managed to talk us into staying at her horse ranch and camping in some pods. Quite an impressive sales pitch as she didn't speak english and we don't speak spanish.
Unfortunately Neil was too unwell to join Mark and David for a fabulous meal; then we lost another player as Mark came down with food poisoning from the raw pig-skin he had for breakfast.
Next day Neil and David were up early to visit the Ingapirca ruins; getting there for opening time meant we practically had the place to ourselves. Quite interesting but not really up there with Machu Picchu (mind the pun). The walk back up the hill was a struggle, reminding us again that we were over 10,00ft.
No rush to get on the bikes as we only had a short ride, mostly on highways to get to Cuenca. Lucky for Mark as he was feeling very rough by this stage.
Day 9: Cuenca: sweet-talking cowgirls.
Arriving in Cuenca we b-lined it straight for the Hotel Victoria which turned out to be the best accommodation of the trip. The staff even arranged for some natural tea be delivered to Mark and Neil to help them with their food poisoning. Neil and David headed out for an explore of the old-town which centred around a lovely square.
We had a few mojitos in the hotel bar where we met an interesting yachty couple from the U.S. Dinner in the hotel was also very good.
Next day we had a late start as we only had an hour to ride before meeting our cowgirl at the ranch.
We got settled in best we could with no shared language between us and the ranch workers. Cowgirl turned up and offered to take us to a store to get food to cool on the BBQ that evening. An entertaining ride was had as she expertly threw the Ford F150 double-cap pickup around the twisting rough roads with pumping techno playing.
She left us to it at the ranch, which meant it was time to go horse riding. We thought it would be a laugh to get a photo of us fully kitted up in our bike gear on the horses, David first.... The bike gear must have spooked the horse as once David was on she bolted straight for the stables, problem was there were cords hung across the entrance at head height if you are on a horse! Good thing David had his motorcycle helmet on. After getting untangled there were a few gingerly laps of the paddock Neil did a few laps and Mark had another vomitting fit, so opted out of this one.
Day 10: To the coast: taking the high road.
Up very early after a chilly night in the dome, she was a two-hatter. Surprise of the day was the road through, up and over Parque Nacional Cajas, summiting at 13,550 feet - fantastic twisties!
Once we got down near sea level both Mark and Neil started feeling a lot better, guess the bodies needed the oxygen to recuperate.
Guayaquil is Ecuador's biggest city and a major port so it took quite some time to negotiate around it and all the trucks - not to mention the suicidal 4x4s.
The idea for the final leg of the day was to cut cross-country over some dirt roads to the coast, but things quickly turned poo-shaped when none of our GPS apps knew where we were, Mark's bike was running out of gas and the road was washed out. Mark found a track to get us round the washout and we managed to pick up some gas in a village.
Next stop was a school where Neil gave the kids and their teacher a bunch of stationary, once they figured out it was a gift, apprehension turned to appreciation.
The sun was setting when we rolled into Montanita, a world renowned surf spot. We had booked accommodation at Tiki Limbo where we also had a few drinks and dinner.
Day 11 - 15: The Coast: slippery when wet.
We decided on a short riding day as we were still recovering from yesterday, the weather wasn't great and no one slept particularly well due to the doof- doof music. We explored a bit of Montanita before riding 30km north in the rain to Ayampe, checking into the La Barquita Beach Hostel which promised much on Booking.com but delivered very little in person.
We had an enjoyable walk down the beach to the only restaurant open for lunch and played some cards in the afternoon.
A very wet walk was had in the evening to pick up some pizzas to go with our drinks and cards before calling it a night.
Slight improvement with the weather; we stopped at Puerto Lopez for breakfast and considered a whale watching or snorkeling trip but with all the rain recently the water was very murky and we didn't think we'd see anything.
We had some nice beach stops on the way north. We decided to try winging the accommodation for the first time; it took us about five places before we found somewhere in Canoa. A couple of opportunist kids were trying to sort it out for us; we ended up finding a place on our own, but they hung around expecting to get paid. They were well mannered and we couldn't fault their enthusiasm so we gave them a few dollars.
We headed down to the beach for some beers and dinner. David was suffering badly with a head cold so had to turn in early. Mark and Neil met some ex-pat yanks that provided the entertainment for the evening.
Santa is an ex-Hell's Angel and quite the character; he now lives in Ecuador and helps a lot of the kids in poverty, trying to give them the a leg-up and some decent meals. This area of Ecuador has quite a few problems.
Next day was a 220km ride up the coast to Mompiche; another surf spot a little off the beaten track.
Heading round a corner at about 50km/h, Mark's front tire suddenly deflated; he managed to get it stopped but nearly lost it twice. We got it off the road and stared at it for a few minutes but that didn't fix it. Then a young chap on a bike pulled up and we managed to ascertain that there was a tire repair place "some way back". We followed him, Mark in a very wobbly fashion, to a repair shop where an Elder set to work and fixed the tire, pointing one of many repairs patches that had given way; nothing to do with hitting all those speed bumps at speed to get air, surely.
Onwards to Mompiche where we secured some digs in an interesting hostel. We headed to the beach and a look around, very quiet place.
We had a toast to Mark and David's mum who passed away one year ago; had a meal at the hostel and retired early to be kept up most of the night with TVs playing at full volume in the house next door.
A fairly easy 100km ride through the back roads along the coast to Galera. We had some random stops exploring beaches and took in a local football match.
Accommodation for the night was a private beach resort called the Cumilinche Club where we chilled out in hammocks watching hummingbirds, had a dip in the see and unromantic walks along the beach. The seafood was good and we had a few bevvies to celebrate Mark's birthday and our last day on the coast. Tomorrow we head inland and start the climb back to 10,000ft.
Neil provided the entertainment for the night be inviting a stranger in from the dark to share his cabin with him for the night. We guessed she must have been blind and we were right; she was a proper bat.
Day 16 and 17: Cloud Forest: dive-bombing hummingbirds
A long ride through a variety of jungle, dirt roads, dead ends, kamikaze locals and empty race-track perfect roads, today had it all.
We tried to bypass the first section of main road out of Esmeraldas, but the roads on Google Maps turned out to be paper roads. We had to turn back, adding 50kms to the day, but it was worth it as the winding trails through the jungle were epic.
We then had to compete with every man and his bus for space on the main road joining the coast with Quito; stopping for a surprisingly tasty lunch at a local "pork and beans" road-side eatery.
A detour was needed to get off the crazy-busy main road; we found ourselves going cross-country on a near-perfectly surfaced, runway-wide strip of empty road. Only reason we could think of it being there was for the oil-industry, perhaps not in use yet though. Was a shame we only had 100hp between the three of us!
What seemed like a very long day in the saddle ended in the lush cloud-forest of Mindo. We had a Swiss chalet all to ourselves at Mindo Green House. A quick change and into town to organise our shenanigans for tomorrow and get some dinner. On the way back to our chalet we found an open-air bar that did desserts which become our second home during our stay in Mindo.
First call of the day was zip-lining. For just $15 we got to do eight zip lines across this beautiful valley. Some of these lines were over 300 meters long and got up to speeds of 80 km/h. We thought we were being pretty brave until a French family joined us and there six year old left us for dead. We also tried sky-biking; basically cut the tyres off a bicycle, hang it from a wire and let the tyre-less rims ride along another wire.
In the afternoon we lined up a coffee and chocolate tour which was very interesting and a lot of fun.
Day 19 and 20: Quilotoa Lake: world's biggest pothole.
Neil and David were up early to walk across town and check out a hummingbird sanctuary; by setting up some feeders on the railings you could sit very still and have them come in really close.
We saddled up the bikes and headed for the hills; the next few hours were probably the most fun roads of the trip with winding dirt through the cloud forest. We stopped at Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve & Lodge to check out more hummingbirds and have a coffee. There were dozens of hummingbirds of all different sizes. The smallest was not much bigger than a fat bumblebee and made the most incredible buzzing noise with it's wings.
We skirted the edge of Quito, heading south with the plan to ride all the way to Quilatoa Lake, but just out of Quito the pannier frame on Neil's KTM snapped. We bound it together the best we could at the toll booth and limped off the motorway and parked up at a taverna to ponder our options.
Time to call in the cavalry; an hour later Puncho turned up on a Suzuki V-Strom and we swapped bikes.
It was too late to continue on; Puncho helped us secure accommodation at the Hostería La Estación, about 5 minutes up the road. It turned out to be a gorgeous hacienda with a lot of antique furniture and interesting curios sprawled over several buildings and floors, including a chapel and outdoor kitchen. Dinner was included and against our best judgment we ordered a bottle of Ecuadorian wine to go with our meal, which finally came out with dessert. It wasn't worth the wait.
Headed off early with the idea of taking the back-roads to Quilatoa Lake.... unfortunately our maps/lack of navigation skills let us down again and we had to backtrack a bit before we found a route around the farmland we kept dead-ending in. All good fun as we weren't pressured for time.
The route got ever more interesting as we carved our way down and through a canyon, then the long climb up to 10,000ft.
Accommodation was pre-booked at Hostel Mana Hilda where we bumped into some fellow motorcycle adventurers from the USA who had hired bikes from the competition company to ours, Freedom Bike Rental. We had a few beers around the fire and traded stories.
Quilatoa Lake was visually very impressive, just don't turn around and look at the tacky shops and restaurants set back from the rim. It was also blowing a gale. The ride to and from the accommodation was fun as a massive section of the road had disappeared in a landslide and the detour was pretty hairy, especially for the road oriented Suzuki V-Strom.
Back to Quito
Final day of the trip and a hard deadline at midnight with flights leaving Quito meant we were not home to Mr. Cockup. The first stretch back to the Panamerican Highway was an amazing ride through the high planes. The Honda was very low on gas and we were fighting a bitterly cold head wind and a continuous climb for over an hour, so it was a case of grit and bear it and hope we make it.
Once back to the main road it was a case of b-lining it through Quito to drop the bikes off at base camp. We had the afternoon and evening to do a bit of shopping and prepare for our flights home. The original plan was to campout at the rental company owner's house to shower and get organised, but he was away on business so plan B was put in place: a tennis club. They wanted to charge us $18 each for towel rental, so during our shopping sojourn we bought towels for $8. We spent an hour in the barbers making ourselves respectful again, then headed to the airport for the very long trip back to our respective homes.
