Rolling to Riobamba
16.1.10
Vilcabamba has to be one of the more unusual and possibly strangest towns we have stayed in, in South America so far. We arrived in time for Christmas with a little help from Anita's Christmas present - a taxi ride, fast tracking 21km of muddy sludge and avoiding 1300m of altitude. We stopped in a hostal for the night recommended to us by some passing travellers but soon met Bill Moss, the story teller, and changed to Le RendezVous.
Le RendezVous is run by a lovely French couple with a 14 month old daughter, Anise. After eight months on the road, you could count on one hand the number of places that had real "Honeymoon" atmosphere but this one was ranked up there before we had gone to sleep our first night. Blissfully quiet. No roosters, a peaceful garden, a firm bed, ambience, HOT HOT showers and a most delicious breakfast including homemade bread. Bill complained about the braying donkeys nearby but we certainly didn’t notice them.
Our lovely neighbours were a kiwi couple, Dave, Beck and their 1 y.o. Emelia from Wellington. They are baby backpackers in South America for 6 months. While they were somewhat impressed with our cycling, we were very impressed with their back packing with Emelia. Despite the fact that they were kiwi’s we liked them anyway and within a few days it was like hanging with the gang back home. Christmas lunch just wouldn't have rated without their delightful company.
We also met Andrea, an Italian living in Washington and working on the new America's Cup boat for BMW/Oracle. He had some time off and so was riding his motorbike from Vancouver to Santiago over 5 months. He wanted to finish in late January to watch the America's Cup race back in the Mediterranean in February.
And we spent more time with Bill Moss, our other neighbor, an American, with a great bunch of life stories. We sometimes needed a breather but we never grew tired of him or his tales. :-)
Vilcabamba is in the south of Ecuador and is nestled at about 1500m amongst some beautiful ranges on all sides with the Podocarpus National Park to the east. The village has a somewhat famous reputation due to the realisation that many people in and around Vilcabamba were living to in excess of 100 years old. This "fact" does not seem to be outlandish, especially amongst the locals.. The weather is calm, neither too hot nor too cold. The valleys are fertile and lush. Plant just about anything and it is likely that just about anything will grow. If ever there was a place to grow old it certainly seems that Vilcabamba is the place to go.
But none of these people or this geography made Vilcabamba strange. Indeed, they kept it sane!
Ecuador and more particularly Vilcabamba is a top retirement destination for North Americans. Many Americans (USA) have purchased land here and are building their retirement homes. Nestled around the plaza, a good portion of the restaurants and Cafés were run by ex-pats who have been drawn into the chilled laid back vibe.. There was even a Real Estate Agent just off the plaza selling property – all in English.
Though these factors are certainly unusual, it wasn't so strange. What was strange was our interactions with some of the grey haired hippy brigade that now make Vilcabamba home. One guy we met said that the CIA ranked Ecuador highly for retirement – strange comment number 1 – I checked the CIA World Fact Book and couldn’t find anything there indicating Ecuador was special. International Living gives Ecuador a ranking of 36 (Australia was #2!) and doesn’t even mention Vilcabamba.
We were very glad on the Thursday before Christmas to join a Yoga session. Sure many Yoga people are a bit unusual - even back in Sydney - but I quite like that Zen/Buddha/Hindu thing. All was kicking off well when just before the session one fellow in the class started raving about how nice the moon was last night. No problems until he starts talking about just how MANY UFO's are seen in Vilcabamba and then commented that the village seems to attract them. I attempted to research the web for an “official” recording/ranking of sightings worldwide but couldn’t find a reputable web site never mind a ranking for Vilcabamba – not that I expected to!!
Strange comment #2 I mean I don't disbelieve in UFO's but I do believe most sightings in Vilcabamba are under the influence of .... something....
And then down in Charlito's café we sat down for lunch. Within 20 minutes one of the lads jumped up and started pacing. "They want my passport." Eyes blood shot, hair tangled in dread locks, head twitching. "They're gonna put me in jail." said Mr Dreado. One of the four other grey haired hippy gringos with a beard down to his belly said from his husky smoker corroded voice box: "Don't worry, if they put you in the slammer, we'll get you out"
Mr Dreado ran and hid in the toilet.
5 minutes later he was out again and borrowed the bearded one's mobile phone to call his brother.
"No I don't have an original, its back in Quito. Did you find the stash? Have you ditched it?"
We left Charlie's after the 5th race to hide in the toilet. Mr Dreado's antics did grow boring after a while. Strange antics #3.
Mr Dreado was seen the next day but he had cut the dreads off! We assume it was to avoid another close shave with the Immigration Police.
The town is full of gringos. Many very lovely ones that are trying to integrate themselves into the community either through their business or by tutoring the local children. It was the gringos that we saw day after day, kicking back with their 600mL Pilseners drinking straight from the bottle that we found strange and even somewhat disturbing. It felt very much that there were a number of gringos that were just trying to import a little too much of home with not quite enough respect for the local population.
Bill Moss, on the other hand, has bought a property outside another village away from Vilcabamba. From his stories he sounds like he is not only integrating into the community but he is also providing much needed thought leadership to the local people that probably haven't been all that well educated. We look forward to hearing more from Bill, the house he plans to build and his complete integration into the community.
All in all it was the most perfect place to spend Christmas Day for 100's of kilometres. Maybe even 1000's. Small enough to get acquainted but big enough to have a couple of delicious restaurants.
But it didn't rate high enough to stay for New Years Eve so we did the Harry Holt and bolted for Cuenca 265+km to the north. We had 6 days to get there but we aimed for 5 so that we would be recovered enough to stay awake on NYE.
Holy Dooley. 5 days, 265km and more than 5500m of climbing. Ecuador is a smashing place to ride. It is in Ecuador that we have begun to question just how much we are carrying. Throughout all of our riding to date our tent, -20C sleeping bags, sleep matts, cooking gear and cold weather clothes have been a necessity to get between towns. My bicycle and load weighs in at 68-75kg depending on water carried (I only weigh 72kg or so) and Anita’s bicycle and load is about 45kg (she only weighs….. :^). In Ecuador however the towns are much closer together,and the terrain between towns means it is difficult to find wild, peaceful places to camp. The gradients in Ecuador have been vicious – often greater than 6% and sometimes greater than 10%. These gradients have further increased the perceived weight of our loads. Often we have had to walk and push the bikes as the gradients are too steep to ride. All this has then prompted quite a number of conversations about this whole "self sufficiency and riding" business.
The south and central Andes of Ecuador is without doubt some of the most beautiful riding we have done in South America but the most painful and tiring. We did get one beautiful camp spot the last night before Cuenca. No dogs, no DOOF DOOF music, no roosters, no people. Blissful. It was nice to have some need for the sleeping bags again up there at 3200m.
Cuenca is Ecuador's third largest city but at less than 1/2 a million it feels more like a quaint country town. Its "Centro Historico" is charming and also a UNESCO World Heritage recognized city. Clean, beautiful, and pleasing to the eye with lots of non-Nestle brand ice cream shops (my personal measure of sophistication).
Lined along the streets were thousands of Effigy's for sale marking the end of the year. Come midnight these are all set alight to celebrate the “Fin de Ano” (finish of the year). The effigy’s were a range of different characters ranging from political figures through to giant Bart Simpson’s and more disturbingly, small children. I'm used to seeing effigy's being burnt in political protests on the news, often to make a statement but the burning of these effigy’s are all in good humour.
We spent NYE at a gringo bar called Cafe Eucalyptus with Dave, Beck and Emelia (our Vilcabamba neighbors). Delicious food and lots of wine primed us for our 11:30 departure into the streets of Cuenca. We landed at the small plaza next to the Church of Santo Domingo and watched a few He/She's accost a procession of cars driving along Calle Gran Colombia. While there was a bit of street boozing happening; there was a happy, pleasant, familial atmosphere in the air. The wine kicked me into a participatory mood which seemed to provide a modicum amusement to the onlookers and the He/She's.
However, before we bid 2009 farewell, we spent our last hours in a nearby town, Banos, with D, B, & E. Piedra and Agua of Banos was an excellent place to relax and soak our weary muscles in underground hot pools, saunas and steam boxes.
Nearby Riobamba is one of Ecuadors natural gems - Parque Nacional Cajas. And what a perfect way to kick off the year by taking a day trip and a 4 hour walk through the paramo (Ecuador's name for the Puna). So many beautiful vistas, birds and high altitude lakes to cruise past. It was great to use our legs for walking (instead of pedaling) again.
If time wasn't starting to rear its ugly head and our Kiwi friends hadn't departed for the coast we might have stayed on a few days longer. But then again the temptation of that delicious ice cream had to be removed so it was onwards and up&downwards.
Cuenca to Riobamba didn't get any easier. Another 270 Km and 4580m of climbing - if you rode the whole thing. We did ride most of it but in the end the Andes of Ecuador crushed our spirit, smashed our legs, and destroyed our resolve. To put into perspective, we only climbed just over 24000m for the whole of Peru in 51 days. In Ecuador we have climbed over 11,000m in just 15 riding days and if we had ridden it all it would have been more than 15,000m of climbing to Riobamba.
Cuenca-Azogues-Canar-Chunchi-Alausi-Riobamba was our planned route. Nearly every day a 1000m climb was required. On Wednesday the 6th of January we rode from Canar to Chunchi. Within a few hours we were riding in Pea Soup fog. Thick and spooky but entirely appropriate as it coincided with Ecuador's version of Halloween- 6 de Enero.
Strange tongued howling bird calls emerged from the fog. Caped and masked children/teenagers attempted to stop us and demand a cash payment for safe passage. We outran most of them like Scooby dooby doo on the run but fortunately when we did get held up they accepted our soft chew Jubes as payment.
We were confidant of our abilities and strength but in Alausi some severe cracks in our resolve began to emerge. A famous train line descends some 700m below Alausi towards the Pacific coast on what is called the Devil's nose and returns via Alausi to Riobamba. The train runs from Riobamba which was our next destination. As we sipped on our soup and digested our lunch, we talked about staying the night to catch the train the next morning down the Devils Nose and then back up and onto Riobamba, saving us about 90km and another 1600m of climbing.
After much deliberation we decided against the train and started the slow, long walk/push up the hill from Alausi. It was far too steep for us to ride. With 6km and 550m of climbing it meant that some of the gradients were well over 10%. Even pushing the bike was severely exhausting and a strain on the upper body muscles. It was not until we were absolutely shattered that we found a decent camping spot amongst a stand of Eucalyptus trees next to the highway. Mmmmm…..the smell of home.
The fog once again was a thick wall limiting our vision to just 10’s of meters. In itself it was our camoflague but we could hear the surrounding sounds of life - the children in a village just below and rumbling engine brakes of the long haul trucks slowly edging their way down the steep descent. Fortunately for us, the spot was a prize; flat enough and no more noisy than the 6th of January party the night before in Chunchi. We settled in hoping for a goodnights sleep and dreamt of Riobamba.
Unfortunately our sleep was wilder than our camp spot and and we both woke stiff, and sore to a very cold, cloudy morning. This eradicated our hope in seeing the "Avenue of Volcanoes" that was to inspire our day. Not a Volcano to be seen, not a scrap of blue sky in sight and the hills were grey and drab. With a sigh, we started with another 1km of walking/pushing/climbing and rolled around the corner into a strong headwind. That was probably the last straw.
I started to visualise the clouds forming rorschach style headlines "Wife ravages husband in Ecuadorian Paramo" when I suggested that maybe we look to hitch a lift in a Ranchera (a truck for cheap campesino transport) from the next town Palimeras. Once that door opened Anita's smile returned and she nearly swerved into every car coming up from behind to see if it was our guardian angel, “Ranchera”. About 5km from Palimeras a Ranchera passed us and pulled over to let a couple of people off. Anita accelerated like Cadel Evans up the incline, racing for the stopped Ranchera like it was the yellow jersey. Desperation sometimes calls for desperate draws on the reserves!
Before I caught up to her she had negotiated our ride to Cajabamba for $2.5USD each. 50km and 600 - 700m of climbing above 3000m for $5, so cheap! The poor campesinos had to shift around to make room for the bicycles and for us. Our kit occupied a space worth the equivalent of 8 tiny Andean people.
It wasn't long however before their stop came and Anita and I had the back of the truck to ourselves. The world whirled by but there was no sadness in either of us. The paramo is not so different from the Puna in Peru and the Volcano's were clouded in so we didn't feel like we were missing anything.
After a number of traffic delays due to road construction we began to see some of the true nature of central Ecuadorian driving - more pushy and aggressive – possibly more Peruvian in style. Their antics delayed the road stop for an extra 30 minutes while the workers sorted out the mess. But soon we were on our way. We blinked once and the town of Guamote flashed by, we blinked again and we were next to Laguna de Colta so we hopped out and rode down the hill to Cajabamba and onto Riobamba.
Riobamba was to us, an oasis.We found a great little hotel on the main street, had a delicious coffee and cheese plate at Cafe Puyo, checked our clothes in to be washed, devoured excellent pizza at Di Baggio and strolled the bustling colourful Saturday markets.
Campesino's, dressed in their traditional garb, from far and wide come to Riobamba to sell their fruit and vegetables on a Saturday. It was great fun mingling with the locals, buying fresh vegies for a salad, eating strange bean fruits, and taking photos. We don't eat salad very often (no trust in the washing/hygiene) so Anita's salad was a bigger treat than ice cream!
We are nearly to Quito now and after nearly nine months our planned journey is drawing to a close. We have some ideas on where we go next but none have yet been finalised. We shall see what exciting new adventures lay in store for the future.
Happy New Year to you all.
Stuart and Anita / Anita and Stuart
Posted byStuart Kane at 11:30 PM
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