Following the Equator, an Ecuador Fly-N-Ride

Thanks for joining in! Hopefully this will get more interesting once the riding begins...

A few interesting facts about Quito, Ecuador:

1. Even though Quito lies virtually on the Equator, temperatures are cool due to the elevation of 9,350 ft. (2,800 m) above sea level. It is in fact the highest capital city in the world housing administrative, legislative and judicial functions.

2. Being on the Equator, the sun rises and sets at approximately 6:15 AM and 6:20 PM respectively, year round. So much for long summer days.

3. Rather than summer and winter, Ecuador has a dry season and a rainy season (green season for eco-tourists). We arrived in June, the official start of the dry season.

4. Quito is the only capital city in the world to be directly menaced by an active volcano.

5. Quito is home to a population of 2.24 million people, and the entire population appears to be either driving, repairing their vehicles in the road, crossing the road, selling stolen goods in the road, herding livestock across the road, soliciting customers in the road, or performing road construction!

Because dry season had officially commenced, we awoke to blue skies:


We gathered our gear and walked around the corner to Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental:


For those interested in motorcycle rental in Quito, Court Rand and Sylvain run a quality motorcycle rental and tour operation and they are highly recommended by many on AdvRider:

http://www.freedombikerental.com/

Sylvain dials in waypoints on the GPS:


The guard dog across the street wants to make friends:


The Ecuador Freedom dog:


Impressive electrical infrastructure in Quito:


KLR650s are loaded and ready to go:


We are ready to ride in Ecuador!

More to follow...

"Quito is home to a population of 2.24 million people, and the entire population appears to be either driving, repairing their vehicles in the road, crossing the road, selling stolen goods in the road, herding livestock across the road, soliciting customers in the road, or performing road construction!"


Sounds just like Los Angeles, California.

Looking forward to hearing more...
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Really? You've been at this since 04/23 and I've already caught up with you in Mindo

Actually, you have a knack for finding all the good spots and I hoped you would finish your ride report before I got to Ecuador

Leaving Quito was chaotic to say the least. We had agreed to avoid lane splitting at first, but that plan was dismissed immediately as we entered a four-lane roundabout with six lanes of traffic squeezing through.


There are only two options in this type of traffic; aggressively navigate through the mayhem or get crushed.


Riding safely can get you killed here!



We somehow managed to escape to twisty, two lane highway and began climbing through the hills. A driver patiently waited for CulinT to set up his GoPro:


Spectacular scenery:






We found our way to Palulahua, a long-dormant volcanic crater which has filled with rich sediment and now provides ideal farming conditions:






We explored some ruins (of questionable authenticity) nearby:


Leaving Palulahua, we navigated our way down into the cloud forest region on smooth, twisty tarmac. The KLRs were running great at altitude, and the brand new Conti Escape tires that were just mounted gripped well even in the rainy sections:






We stopped for a bio break and enjoyed the cloud forest views:




We encountered a few landslides, but overall the road was well maintained:




We soon picked up the "Eco Routa" to Mindo, a gorgeous, single lane dirt road that climbs through the cloud forest:

















Lots of cool waterfalls along the Eco Routa:









We entered the town of Mindo at sunset and went in search of the Hotel Caskafessu. The hostel had secure parking for the bikes, so we found our rooms (for some reason they gave us two rooms... each with three beds):


We tried to buy a couple of beers, but the owner said it is forbidden to sell alcohol on Sundays! Instead, we walked around the town and enjoyed the Festival of the Holy Spirit complete with church service, a marching band, and fireworks:


I reorganized my gear on one of my spare beds, marveling at the vast array of navigational technology I had brought along:




More to follow...

This is our route for the day according to SPOT:

The town of Mindo lies within the 35,000 acre Mindo-Nambillo Reserve. It is the most visited cloud forest in Ecuador, and local entrepreneurs have capitalized by building eco-resorts, zip lines, canopy tours, etc. We bypassed the touristic area and stayed in the original town. In fact, we did not see any other gringos while we were in Mindo.


I woke up refreshed, bought a 25 cent breakfast from the bakery next door, and walked around the town.


My room at the Hostal Caskafessu:


Secure parking for the bikes:




Secure night entrance:


The town pool was in need of repair:


Town soccer field:


Town school:



Town church:

Town chicken:



I went to see if CulinT was ready to hit the road, and noticed the Hostal dog had left a present at his door:






We geared up, thanked Luis the owner for his hospitality, and headed west toward the Pacific Ocean






Having just crossed into the Northern Hemisphere, we realized our map was now upside down:


Ready to ride to the beach!

More to follow...

Cool

Thanks Vinbowie, it is nice to see a fellow Marylander checking in!

EvilClown,

I'm concerned... please tell me this wasn't the "before" picture:


:eek1 :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 :eek1

Understandably the SPOT lost connectivity when traveling under canopy in the Mindo Cloud Forest, so here is our route to the coast minus about half of the data points:




More to follow...

It began pouring buckets as soon as we left Mindo. We assumed (incorrectly) that the skies would clear as soon as we descended from the Cloud Forest, so neither of us bothered to put on our rain gear. We later realized we had descended from Cloud Forest to Rainforest.

This was my view for the first two hours:


There was grease on the wet road and the bike got a little squirrely on a couple of turns:


We pulled in to the trailhead for the Cascada Guarumos, but didn't feel like trekking an hour each way in wet gear. CulinT commented with a smile that it was indeed raining in the Rainforest:


I had never seen a flowering banana tree before:




We continued on in the rain to Cojimies, drifting the turns on the greasy tarmac:




More to follow...

The rainfall transitioned from constant to intermittent as we emerged from the Rainforest and approached the Pacific coast. Our route consisted of tarmac and maintained gravel roads, and in all honesty the unpaved sections were smoother:






This guy didn't have much experience chasing bikes... the old "go really slow, then go really fast" trick threw him off:



When we arrived in Pedernales the rain had eased. We had officially crossed the Andes to the Pacific coast:

The guys at Ecuador Freedom used the words "chaotic" "festive" and "wild, wild west" when describing Pedernales, but when we arrived the town was calm and quiet:






We found a small cafe by the beach and had amazing lunch of arroz con camarones with plantains:




The tab for two lunches and four bottles of water was less than $7.00.


More to follow...

Following the coast south from Pedernales, we again crossed the Equator back into the Southern Hemisphere. I had expected the weather to be HOT at sea level, but surprisingly the temperature was only 65° F.







The coastal route veered inland around fish farms and inlets:




Some of the bridges were not "motorcycle friendly" (note tire-with gap in decking):


We passed through Cabuyal and Jama before continuing on to Canoa:










We pulled into the Hostal Baloo at the southernmost point of Canoa and were greeted by Phil the owner:


We booked two small cabanas and were told to fog the rooms and sleep under the mosquito nets due to malaria concerns:



More to follow...