Bike About South America with Stuart and Anita

Click the link for the photos from Quito to Colombian border


Anita wrote a very nice blog for our finish to Quito but I have to say, it was somewhat premature to say we were "finished". I mean we were "officially" finished but Anita is clearly still realising that she won't be "finished" til she puts me in the ground, 6 feet under so to speak... ;-)

Indeed, I managed to squeeze another 5 days of riding out of her.  This is most certainly so that we could say we rode (most of the way) not only to Quito but also to the NORTHERN hemisphere AND to Colombia.

But she was only sold on this after I suggested we get a divorce. Yep, that's right, after 8 months of working together, suffering together and rolling together I wanted a divorce.... from BoB. I have grown to intensely dislike the miserable little b@$t@ed. Lazy, drafting, no effort BoB. We negotiated a safe haven for him at the South American Explorer's club in Quito and said goodbye. I wasn't sad to say goodbye but I'm sure we can make amends in April.

We repacked our lives into 6 pannier bags and redistributed the load so I now have four bags and Anita has two. My guess is that my bike and load has dropped from nearly 70kg to less than 50kg and Anita has dropped from about 45kg to about 25 to 30kg.

We kissed "self sufficiency" goodbye and embraced a new freedom and a new touring future albeit with some restrictions - no more camping. (But we kept the tent body Rick - just left the fly in BoB.) The tent body will now serve as an Emergency shelter, a mosquito net, a sun shade at the beach or all three over the next 2.5 months. Bring on the new cycle touring paradigm.

We left Quito on a Sunday and what a perfect day to choose. Sunday is Ciclo Paseo day in Quito where they shut down some 36km of roads from the south to the very north of Quito. It is kind of like shutting down half of ANZAC parade, Centennial Park, Oxford Street, Hyde Park, 2 lanes of the Harbour bridge, and half of the Pacific Highway to Chatswood EVERY Sunday to let cyclists of all descriptions ride up and down to their hearts content. Sound unbelievable? Well its happening in Quito, a city of nearly 3 million people. The people are happy and the motorists accepting.

What a brilliant way to exit Quito and head for Colombia. We met Alex and then met Amilcar out for their separate Sunday rides. Both were keen to know

- about our trip,

- where we were going that day

- whether we loved Ecuador - of course we love Ecuador, it is our (current) favourite country in South America!

- why we were riding - to meet people just like you!

As we rolled on though we grew more nervous. The wind was blowing the trees and we knew that the buildings were keeping the wolf from the door. Once we left the safety of Quito we hoped the wind wouldn't keep us from our next door -  La Mitad del Mundo. 

La Mitad del Mundo (The middle of the Earth) tourist center is only 20 odd kilometers due north of Quito but for the record (we have read) it isn't actually ON the Equator. So we didn't want to go there and anyway, Cayambe was the town we needed to get to to go to Colombia. But did I figure that riding towards Cayambe meant we wouldn't be much further to cross over the Equator. Hmmmm. How many times have I underestimated things on this trip! I am a lucky man to have married such a patient woman.

At about 20km from Quito I turned on the GPS and on that Longitude it was only 8km to the border. Unfortunately the fact that the wind had begun to blow like hell and to make things worse the road went as much East and South as it did North which meant that some 4 hours and 38km later we got to the real equator.

Our first crossing was marked only by an 80km/h sign. Decidely unimpressive. We were pretty buggered but we pushed on rather than hitching and we were rewarded with an official crossing of the equator near Cayambe. It was pretty cool and we got a glimpse of the southern shoulder of Volcano Cayambe - the highest point on the Equator in the WORLD.

The next few days we rode through Otavalo, Ibarra, Ambuqui and San Gabriel and finally the big bad border. Otavalo is known throughout Ecuador as a big center for their weaving and

markets. We had a nice wander through them scoping opportunities for treasures on our return to Quito in late April.

In Ibarra we detoured into town for an hour specifically to visit Rosalia Suaraz's "Helado (Ice cream) de Paila" shop. Her recipe for Ice cream is over 100 years old and actually is a type of sorbet as there is no "cream". It is made with real fruit on a bed of straw and ice in a big copper bowl. The original recipe was made with ice from the local glacier which has now melted away.  But the manufactured ice didn’t seem to affect the flavour at all.  I managed to throw down 3 bowls before Anita started to get embarrased by my gluttony. The Coconut and Mango combo was similar to an Australian "Weiss" bar but much more tasty and a quarter of the price for twice as much. Not sure we will ever go back to Ibarra but if we do it will certainly be for the Helado de Paila.  

We rolled onto Ambuqui which is an anomaly in the Ecuadorian Andes. It is down around 1600m but super dry - we felt like we had gone back to Peru! It seems to be a bit of a Quiteno (habitants of Quito) weekender. Always sunny and warm. There were a few dodgy hotels but Hotel Palmira turned life into pure Gold. A clean pool, cheap beer, excellent food, fun music and a nice cabana. All the ingredients for a great afternoon of cycle touring and honeymooning.

From Ambuqui we had 99km and nearly 2000m of altitude to get to the border. We had a crack at it but arrived into San Gabriel after 43km and 1290m of climbing. The head wind, hills and miserable wet weather stopped us from a possible personal best.

It proved to be perfect though as we ate at Buen Sabor (Good Taste) run by a Colombian German (pronounced Hair-man - he was a bit hairy actually) Tarborda. Great food at a great price. More Ecuadorian gold.

Beyond meeting Mat the Belgian-Canadian riding from Winnipeg to Ecuador in an incredible 2.5 months it was pretty non-eventful ride. The border crossing had a few dramas as Zumba, Ecuador had not entered our details into the Ecuador Immigration computer system. It was all resolved after 2 hours of queuring and a few irritating trips to the Photocopy shop.

Before we knew it we were climbing the hill to Ipiales, Colombia, dismantling our bikes packing them into a bus, unofficially finishing our ride and heading to Pasto to start our adventure in that most notorious of countries - Colombia.

On reflection of our time in Ecuador I think it would be fair to say it has been our favourite country to travel in this far. And really this shouldn't come as a surprise as the Inca's also preferred Ecuador. It seems to be well documented that the second last Inca King, Huayna Capac, preferred the northern limits of his empire - ie Ecuador. Atahualpa (born in Ecuador and the last Inca king) winning the battle over his Cusco born half brother surely indicates the historical strength of Ecuador.  Everyone thinks that the Inca's were "Peruvian" but they just started there. The last of the Inca's preferred Ecuador. Indeed Atahualpa was on his way from Ecuador to Cusco to consolidate his Ecuadorian empire when the Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizzaro caught him in northern Peru. 

When we crossed into Ecuador the Immigration officer promised us that Ecuador was "mas tranquillo" (more tranquil) and from that day forward very few Ecuadorians tried to prove him wrong.

The people have been so friendly, the food has been so healthy, the scenery has been amazing, the accommodation has generally been excellent, prices have been fair and financially responsible, and the road conditions have been excellent.

We might have wished we were stronger for the hills but what we rode we enjoyed. We might have wished for more blue skies but when we REALLY wanted them, they we're there. We might have wished to see more of the mountains but what we were shown was sensational.

Ecuador's tourist brochure says that this country has every single official climatic region in the world packed into one of the smallest countries in the world. We didn't see all of them but what we saw was a visual feast.

Quito was the first South American city that we both thought, hmmmmm, we could live here. Friendly, modern, colonial, and busy but not stressed.

We spent a Friday evening in La Ronda, a wonderfully restored curving, colonial street in the "old town". Amazingly there was hardly a tourist to be seen. It was filled with middle class Quiteno's strolling down the street with a takeaway cup of hot Canela (sugar cane drink) and alcohol, street musicians playing on every corner and stopping into the odd restaurant for choclo con queso, chorizo, papas con mayonese or maybe empanada morocho or Humitas. (Corn with cheese, sausage, potatoes with mayonnaise, mince meat empanada or steamed/mashed corn). It was a brilliant experience and typical of the relaxed, happy psyche of Quiteno's and Ecuadorian's at large.

The campesino's were by far the most friendly of anywhere in the Andes. The Ecuadorian's don't generally call tourists "gringo". They use the term "Mister" at times which is more appealling to the ear. What is most appealling however is that, unlike much of Peru, they don't seem to teach the children to request a propina around every second corner.

It is an excellent South American country to travel to especially as a first timer to the continent. An amazing number of people speak a smattering of English - and not just the touts!  The country is fairly well organised. The gringo pricing system/scheme seems to be minimal and when it occurs it is such a small markup that you need to be watching closely to notice it.  Prices are often labelled and are reasonable. From what we heard though, it did seem to be a country best visited off the proverbial "gringo trail".

The politics of the country certainly seem stable and the government seems to be pushing for foreign investment. The new Quito International Airport for example is being built and run by a Canadian led consortium.   I was being cheeky back in Vilcabamba about retirees but Ecuador does seem to be an interesting place to invest either in business or in retirement. Maybe being small has meant they have been able to better organise and regulate themselves better.

But the country isn't without its problems. While discrimination didn't feel as tangible here as Bolivia or Peru clearly there are massive wealth differences between Indigenous, Mestizo and pure Spanish descent. These differences are most certainly based on what seems to be typical South American exploitation of the masses. 

Horrendous polution in the Amazon is a prime example of corrupt government (in the past?) and multinationals abusing their power in the third world. It will be very interesting to watch the outcome of the Indigenous vs Chevron trial finalise - hopefully this year and hopefully against Chevron.  (http://chevrontoxico.com/).

But even the local people are still throwing their rubbish out the window. While the road sides are cleaner than Peru or Bolivia, it is still happening.  We see here, as we saw in Peru men spraying pesticides on the crops while wearing no protective clothing. We learned that some 1/3 of the roses sold in the USA for Valentine's day come from Ecuador but that our western pursuit and desire for that near perfect rose means that a terrible amount of pesticide and fungicide is used, damaging the water supplies. (See the Organic Consumer’s Organisation for their view or an article from the NY Times or this article on how to buy Fair Trade Roses)

And on the way to Ibarra in the north, just days from exiting the country we rode past a horse with the resigned eyes of the hopeless. We could only assume that he had been hit by a car and then just been left there with his maimed, broken front right leg. He was crouched down with that front leg out in front of him completely stuck and unable to move. It was distressing to see.  We didn't stop but the image was sadly burned into our minds. We might be in Ecuador but we are still in South America where it seems there are still many who do not like to take responsibility for there actions. 

All that said, we got the impression that generally, Ecuadorians are having a crack at it. They are smiling and trying the best they can to make their country better for themselves and for their future.

We have read and talked to other travellers that have read that Ecuador is more dangerous than Peru or Colombia. This maybe true statistically based on number of tourists and robberies but it wasn't our experience. We have found throughout the continent, the most interesting people are usually those that aren't trying to live entirely from the tourist trade. You have to work a little harder to climb out of the gringo trail but when you do you often strike gold.

Stuart and Anita