Riobamba to Quito
31.1.10
Click here for link to Riobamba to Latacunga photos
Click here for link to Banos and Quilotoa photos
Click here for link to Cotopaxi to Quito photos
There is nothing more WOW as finishing up your BIG cycle tour with a BIG BANG!
Giant mushrooming clouds puffed hundreds of meters into the sky from the active Tungurahua Volcano, stealing our attention from the majestic dormant Chimborazo volcano - Ecuador’s tallest peak at 6,310m. Up until now, the sights of Chimborazo were the highlight of the day standing all mighty, shimmering and beautiful with a ring of low level clouds, when moments later, a BIG puff of volcanic ash caught my right eye. Tungurahua was going OFF! This was a very exciting surprise, as neither of us had witnessed a live volcanic eruption before. We snapped away with the camera on rapid fire, pleased that film rolls are a thing of the past. Amazed, we then continued our descent into Ambato for the night.
Although Ambato itself was a big city, there was nothing much to it. It was however, supposedly, a good departure point for Banos, a village below Tungurahua famous for its natural hot springs. From Ambato we were hoping to take a side trip away from the bikes to soak our weary muscles and get a closer peak at the volcano itself. However, our search for economical and good value hostels landed us in a dump with BYO door lock & handle, toilet seat, paper, earplugs and sleep sheets. Yep, Stuart you found us yet another beauty. The walls consisted of paper thin plywood partitioning, lacking any acoustic quality whatsoever. At one point I awoke to the sound of a man snoring next to me…..and it wasn’t my husband! Eventually nodding off to sleep myself, Stuart continued to lay awake, presumably to the sound of the same man yakking away in the toilet bowl for some 20 minutes. Probably a consequence from the typical South American Sunday boozing. Poor bugger…Stuart that is!
The hostel’s security to get in and out of the building was excessive. The room’s patheticly partitioned walls looked capable of blowing over with a sneeze. These two things had us doubting about the safe storage of our gear in the room whilst we took our side trip to Banos. So when we woke up, we decided to vacate our dump and roll on to Latacunga. We packed up and headed to the markets for some local cuisine – llapingachos (“yap-in-gachos” - fried potato and cheese pancakes), then returned back to the hostel and attempted to claim back our second nights upfront payment of accommodation. Conveniently, the old man manning the hostel door, did not have any money to reimburse us, so after half an hour of arguing and making a scene to passers-bye we left for Latacunga with the key, leaving clear directions as to where they could find us for an exchange for our nights’ accommodation. Needless to say, we never got our money back and they never came to collect their key.
All in all, it was the right move to roll directly onto Latacunga, where we stayed in a nice friendly hostel that could store our gear safely and securely. Peace of mind!
It’s a really nice feeling from time to time to wave goodbye to the bikes and say hello to the bus. The trip to Banos was a pleasant one. The men that come on board to preach and sell their wares or themselves kept us amused the whole trip. We stayed at a fabulous Hostel Plantas y Blanco (Hotel Plants and White), which had an impressive rooftop café. After splashing around the public thermal baths, we hired a motorbike to venture up the mountain to see how close we could actually get to the erupting volcano of Tungurahua. The bike turned out to be a dud, where Stuart had to rev the guts out of it just to keep it breathing, however it was the motor-freedom we were craving.
Like escapees, off we went, bunny hopping along the road, with our Hulk sized helmets, that safety-wise looked a little more token than anything else. As the bike skipped its way up the mountain, we caught eye of a gigantic puff of mushroom cloud being expelled from the volcanoe’s summit. It sounded like deep thunder rumbling, followed by distant sounds of an explosion. I could see the hot lava, which in daylight appears to be rocks flying from the crater. It was amazing to see a mountain being made right before your eyes! How lucky we were to be there while it was going OFF!
This daytime viewing was never going to be enough, so after our delicious dinner at the French-Mediterranean Café Mariane, we took a Chivas (open sided, timber seated bus/truck) up to the opposite mountain to watch the fireworks and hot red lava spill at night. Teeth chattering and standing around an open fire, we waited staring into thick fog that obscured our view. Finally, the fog dropped and there it was. The show began. Red hot fireworks and lava spilling over, magnificently contrasting with the blackness of the night. My, how beautiful!
Regretfully, we limited our stay in Banos to one night but there were more exciting adventures planned ahead and more volcanoes to see. The next being the dormant lake filled crater, Quilotoa, located in the backcountry of the province of Cotopaxi.
But a trip to Quilotoa would be incomplete, without first a visit to the Thursday morning Saquisili animal market where all the farm folks would be. It was a cacophonous affair with all the screaming pigs, baaa-ing sheep and mooing cows protesting their imminent sale. I had never seen a pig rear or backflip until this day. Interestingly we were told that a medium sized pig cost about $75US and a medium sized cow was about $210US. (The skinned guinea pigs and rabbits for sale in Riobamba were about $5US and a baby chicken $1.20.) We didn’t buy any farm animals but we did buy some small Tigua style landscape paintings, complete with farm animals and the Cotapaxi Volcano in the background.
From Saquisili, we returned to Latacunga and reduced our touring load down to four pannier bags and hitched a ride in the back of a ranchero (local pickup truck – a main form of transport for campesinos) to Quilotoa. Our two bikes and four panniers easily fitted 15 of us into the truck. No one seemed to grumble that we gringoes took up enough space for 8 little campesinos. And we certainly did not complain as we weren’t sharing the back of the truck with any Saquisili squealing pigs! Travelling in the back of these little trucks has been a great way to come into contact with Quichua speaking indigenous people that have been going about their old ways for centuries.
Reaching our destination and standing on the rim of the Laguna Quilotoa the views down to the volcanic-crater lake were quite breathtaking – and not just because we were at nearly 4000m. The volcano last erupted in 1797 and they believe that the lake that now fills the crater is some 240 meters deep. It is however salty and sulphric therefore the water of no use to fish or man, other than being a beautiful tourist attraction.
But what really made Quilotoa memorable for us was our nights stay in Hostel Cabanas Quilotoa. Our meals were cooked by local campesinos and communally served to us along with our fellow guests in the comfort of a toasty woodfire heated common room. The children who sat nearby contently playing cards, were dressed in their traditional garb. The girls wore hats and their long hair wrapped in colourful fabric ribbons. They played and undertook their chores as if there weren’t guests present. It was as if we were like a painting on the wall, watching from above - unnoticed by the preoccupied children. It really felt like living amongst the locals and I thought to myself it is wonderful to see a small community that hasn’t been ruined by the gringos who frequent the area.
We retired to the warmth of our cabana complete with another woodfire stove burning hot but we were also feeling a great deal of warmth from our experience.
It was however the next morning as we rolled out of Quilotoa that our perception of an unspoilt tourist community cracked somewhat when a grumpy old sheppard woman demanded a dollar for taking a very distant photo of her sheep being herded down the road. It seemed somewhat ridiculous as we were so far away that she couldn’t really have been able to determine whether we were taking a photo of her or the mountains beyond.
Riding along without a map, (the romantic way, as a fellow cyclist once said), after some 25km or so we reached a cute little hamlet called Tigua where the Tigua style artfom originated. These are brightly coloured paintings are on drums of skin. The story goes that during the 1970’s the original artist, Julio Toaquiza, a young indigenous got the idea of turnings skins into canvases and painting colourful scenes of Quichua legends. Other themes are countryside scenes or locals attending to their llamas, potatoe growing and the beautiful surrounding Andean scenery. He also painted a condor wooing a young girl and flying over the mountains in a red poncho and the Quilotoa lake with spirits hovering over, a sacred place that highland indigenous people call ‘Taita’ (father). Toaquiza taught all of his children and neighbours how to paint and the Galeria Tigua-Chimbachucho is full of many beautiful works by these artists. We bought two lovely paintings for ourselves.
The Galeria Tigua-Chimbachucho was run by Maria, the wife of the famous Alfredo Toaquiza, and after discovering there was nowhere for us to purchase food, she was kind enough to make us some tuna sandwiches for the road. It was silly of us to set off for the day without any lunch food but we were planning to stay at Posada de Tigua – a working dairy ranch and farmhouse. However with plenty of daylight hours left in the day, we thought we would have a crack at covering another 50km and getting back to Latacunga. Thanks to Maria, it became easy and possible.
We continued our lovely gentle climb up to 4000m, passing by farm pastures and workers all greeting us with their heartwarming smiles. The gentle rolling mountains were barren but rich in green and gold colours. So lovely! And more so lovely was the final descent over 35km of gentle cruising. We almost rolled all the way into Latacunga without peddling or rarely needing to use the brakes.
Our side trip to Quilotoa is probably the last time we will closely engage with local Quichua campesinos as we are nearing the capital city of Quito and northern Ecuador. Throughout the many months of riding at high altitude, through the altiplanos, the valleys and the mountains we have not only watched the scenery change but witnessed the simplicity of the beautiful indigenious people’s lives which vary from pueblo to pueblo.
In Latacunga, we were only 104km to Quito and our planned finished destination for cycle touring. We’ve had an amazing nine months living the South American life at honeymoon pace but in truth I am ready to spend less time in the saddle for a while.
But to ride on direct to Quito and not see one of Ecuadors most stunning landscapes would be a crime. Stuart suggested a detour through Cotapaxi National Park, brushing the base of the Volcano for which the park is named for. We took the detour, myself feeling less than enthuastic about the dirt road ahead, the absence of a map and the cable to my rear detrailer now totally defunct and limiting my ride to vitually single speed. I could stay in a fairly easy gear if I held my thumb on the shifter! Sure enough only km’s into the detour we hit the sandy corrugated ascend that continued for another 15km. We were constantly getting off our bikes and pushing them through the sandy sections and up the steeper gradients. My little bit of remaining enthausism draining out of me every step I took as I began to doubt our final detour decision.
Dusk fell upon us as we made it to Paja Blanca, a basic A-framed cabana and our refuge for the night. Exhausted and appearing alone,as Stuart was further behind, I crossed paths with Will Manners, a Scotsman, who pointed me in the direction of reception and said ‘I’m envious, I wish I was in your shoes.’…..I grumbled, hardly able to stand, ‘yeah, well I wish I was in YOUR shoes’ was my response. Freshly showered, warm and full of energy Will quickly brightened things up for us when he said the hot showers here were great. He was true to his word.
We ate dinner in the company of Will and some others that had come to Paja Blanca to acclimatize before ascending Cotopaxi Volcano.
Stuart and I were keen to further explore the park and acclimatize ourselves to have a crack at climbing Cotopaxi after Quito. We choose to climb the nearby central peak of Ruminahui Volcano, at 4643m. However without maps we were destined for trouble and Will kindly offered to join us for the day, bringing along his maps and fine company.
Unlike us, Will was visiting Cotopaxi for business rather than pleasure but as we got to know him throughout the day, it would seem that Will gets a lot of pleasure out of his business. He had a job to really admire. Will works for a UK outdoor adventure company, Outlook Adventure www.outlookadventure.co.uk which specializes in taking teenagers and school groups on adventure trips. Ultimately these are personal development and leadership courses for 16 – 18 year olds across the UK.
Will was here in Ecuador, trialing out a 4 day hike and then a follow trek up Cotopaxi Volcano as a possibility for offering future courses for his clients.
We enjoyed Wills beaming energy and enthusiasm and I truly put him to test with my grumpy attitude when Stuart led us up a nearly vertical conglomerate rock face, unharnessed when halfway up I got a rock fleck in my eye. The route was a typical solution of Stuart’s where he wanted to shortcut the main route and not necessary take the easiest route. Yeah….a short cut. The climb was a hair raising experience, with foot & hand holes being a bit of a stretch and well beyond my comfort zone. Needless to say, I cracked it at the top. Will handled himself really well around some typical teenager attitude!. Of course, the bad mood was then compounded when Stuart decided to take us on another ‘short cut’ route back to the Paja Blanca cabana…..an unmarked route. Yeah…..another short cut.
His theory, to follow the ridge lines straight down to the Cabana, may have seemed logical. He had Will and I convinced at the start. Ultimately it led to us tramping through dense waist deep tussock grass, stumbling into ditches, crossing deep, rapid flowing freezing river canals, and slowing down our pace to nearly a crawl. We were never lost, we could see our Cabana glow as night fell but it was extremely frustrating to feel like that damn scrub had you by the foot. In my anger, I forgot all about the beauty that surrounded us. The very beauty we came to see. The trekking moments you live for.
It was dark and cold by the time we made it back to the road that would lead us to the warmth of our Cabana and Stuart let out a big sigh of relief ‘ phew…..I’m so glad we’re not spending the night outside tonight.’ and under my breath, I said ‘well YOU might be!’ ;^)
After the sun rose and I let Stuart out of his ‘dog-box’, we left Will and Paja Blanca and set off in the drizzling rain through Cotopaxi National Park for Quito……our final destination!
Although the dirt road was at times a rough track with the occasional technical challenge, it did flatten out and gradually descend. The dense white fog soon began to lift, wild horses roamed and we even got the occasional glimpse of part of Cotopaxi Volcano. The ‘paramo’ and the green valleys, lush pastures with their snow capped mountain backdrops were so lovely. The detour and the hard slog up to the pass now seemed rewarding as this stunning picturesque countryside passed by our eyes. Unfortunately, our invested energy from our climb was wasted when we hit the rough cobblestone road. It was so steep and difficult to ride that it had us descending at 10km/hr down to Machachi. It was so disappointing to have to totally focus on the rubble road ahead rather than the scenery.
Arriving into Machachi, we circled the town once looking for a hotel but there was still energy within. We decided to roll on out of town to see what accommodation we could find en route. And we kept riding and riding but nothing appeared until we arrived in ….you guessed it….Quito. We would have preferred not to arrive into the middle of the capital city in the darkness of nighttime but I guess that is one of beautiful surprises you have with cycle touring…. You never quite know where you are going to end up at the end of the day.
We have now crossed 5 countries, cycled nearly 7500km and climbed god knows how many mountains, ridden the most horrendous and the most beautiful of roads, passed through the most memorable villages, been greeted with friendly smiles and waves of encouragement, put up with the most abusive and the most encouraging toots of horns, encountered numerous flat tyres and mechanical faults, accepted upset bellies and endured the most harsh environments. We’ve hiked beautiful mountains, bathed in freshwater rivers, gone days without decent showers, slept in the most serene, remote places and the worst dumps imaginable. We’ve pushed our bikes through sludge, crossed the biggest salt flat in the world, battled ferocious winds, ridden through the driest deserts and remote districts, the darkest tunnels, the craziest cities, and survived near robberies. We’ve met many other cyclists on similar journeys, keen to see the world from a different perspective. We’ve had days of loneliness, hours of contemplation. We’ve eaten at the most scrumptious restaurants and swallowed dog-grade food. We’ve learnt of other cultures, understood other ways of life and conversed in another language. We’ve missed our comforts, family and friends back home. And we have challenged each other. We have lived with each other 24/7, laughed and cried together (well, I have), gathered lifelong memories together, tested our stamina and personalities and built stronger foundations to our relationship. Our cycle tour experiences have been priceless. Unforgettable.
Of course our tour would not of been possible without the passion and determination of Stuart. He has proved not only his physical strength but a phenomenal amount of mental strength. He has set realistic (and sometimes unrealistic) goals, remained encouraging throughout the toughest times, maintained great enthusiasm, humour and patience. Setup the blogsite, written & posted blogs, documented very moment, organized and backed up all files, taken charge of the bike maintenance, changed all our flat tyres, rolled the tent, packed “Bob”, dragged “Bob”, hated “Bob”, valet-parked my bike and taken care of my/our wellbeing. He has dealt with my antics, and he has listened and mentored me. What an amazing time we have had together cycle touring and living in South America.
So here we are in Quito, officially the end of our cycling tour, where we have been totally self sufficient and attempted to ride nearly every km. What now?
A good friend of ours suggested we make the mental leap into a relaxing holiday by:
- Congratulating ourselves on a wonderful ride and great achievement – send out a congratulatory email and a photo of ourselves with the bikes and a bottle of champagne near a Quito sign
- Pack up the bikes and sea mail them home back to Australia
- Buy some bags and keep the stuff you wanted to carry. Leave everything else in Quito for collection later
- Budget for 3 taxi rides a day and some bus trips to a lakeside/beach side for a couple of weeks
- Get a flight up to Canada and visit the relatives/inlaws for a few weeks
- Then move your flights forward and come back to Australia to see new one day old babies.
We’ve taken the advice of our good friend on board and:
- Sent out this congratulory email, dined in a fabulous restaurant called Theatrum with a bottle of red and taken a finish photo at La Plaza del Teatro in Quito (outside the same restaurant)
2.& 3.Packed up some of our gear and put it in storage here in Quito
4. Taken taxi rides, booked accommodation in Barranquilla, Colombia for the Carnival on the Caribbean Coast, in addition to flights to Cuba.
5. Are in process of searching for flight deals to Canada
6. Are NOT moving our flights forward to come back to Australia. Obscene! Have you ever heard of anyone who wants to shortchange their honeymoon?
We both agree that Colombia and Cuba will be fabulous countries to ride through and have decided that the tour will continue. And, as the remainder of our time in this fabulous continent is limited, we have decided to travel with more speed – less gear and the occasional long distance bus….mainly because we are hanging to get to the beach. It has felt like one very long winter for us.
Anita (& Stuart)
Posted byStuart Kane at 12:12 PM
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Congratulations guys! A fantastic post. What an amazing adventure.