UPDATE 13 - ECUADOR 20 JUL 06

18 - 20 Jul 06. Ecuador

18 Jul 06 (Tue). Loja – Quito: Ruta 35: 440 Miles.
One of nice things that we noticed as soon as we crossed the border from Peru to Ecuador was that there were regular road signs, which meant that as you approached a junction yon knew which way to turn. And as we arrived in Loja last night we passed the road sign for Quito which was our destination today. Back tracking this morning through Loja from the hotel to the Pan American Highway (PAH), Ruta 35 seemed quite straight forward, but as the fully paved road turned to a graded road and this was still in the city we started to have doubts! Stopping to ask a local; yes this is the way to Quito and on we continued. The graded road then reduced to stoned track; confidence not high, we asked again; oh yes you’re on the right road! Stone track deteriorate even further and now we are certain that we are not on the PAH. Stopping a car for directions we were told that we would reach the paved road in 30 minutes; and sure enough we did. It was not PAH but an alternative route that took us along a valley floor following a river with small pockets of habitation. It may not have saved us any time; it did save us 10 miles and the opportunity to ride through some very picturesque scenery.

Back on tarmac, it was now raining; only lightly, just as it had yesterday evening as we arrived in Loja. It was time to don gortex, not just for the rain but it was also a bit chilly too and the extra layer would make the ride just that bit more comfortable. The road was generally in good condition but it would, without warning open to gaping holes that were not easy to spot and on a few occasions there was an almighty bang as the front wheel hit the far side of the hole sounding as if the tyre had been completely compressed at point of impact and the wheel rim had taken the full brunt of the hit; that would be swiftly followed by the rear wheel following suit! At one of these holes Mick thought that he had caused damage to his rear wheel rim; it was such a hard hit, the wheel felt buckled. On close inspection it did look to have a flat spot; that would not be much fun to ride the next 350 miles on. But as it happens, it was an optical illusion; where tyre had flattered and spread over the side of the rim it had polished it, giving the appearance of distortion. That was a relief! At this point it probably worth giving BMW a bit of praise; these two bikes were bought for the purpose of transporting us through the Americas. They have stood-up to some very hard work; we have dropped them off there stands while stationary, thrown them the floor at speed, bounced them into and out of big holes and bottomed out the suspension on a number of occasions; and they still come back for more, with only minor cosmetic damage and thankfully no mechanical damage! They are an extremely robust machine. They are sure footed and give great confidence to the rider when things get rough.

The lunch break was at a high viewing point over looking the city of Cuenca, where there was Columbian tourist. He engaged us with the usual questions and then the one, “are you riding through Columbia?” Our stock answer has been “we’re not sure yet?” We know that we can ship or fly the bikes out of Ecuador, over Columbia and the Darien Gap; we would like to ride Columbia but what of the security issues. His advice was to visit Columbia, it is a beautiful country and providing we take reasonable and sensible precautions there is little likelihood of us bumping into problems. This type of advice has been consistent as we have ridden up through South America. Yes there are dangers in Columbia, but then there are dangers in the inner cities of the UK too; it’s just proceed with do care. Our final check and point of go-no-go will be in Quito.

As the evening sun was setting we were running up the western side of the Parque Nacional Cotopaxi and on our right, slowly turning pink as the sun set on it, was with the Cotopaxi volcano. While Mick was taking photos a local on a motorbike came alongside him and did the usual list of questions and then offered us accommodation should we require it, instead of riding the next 100 kms to Quito; nice offer.

Arriving at Quito, another city in the dark; we were heading for the centre looking for the Sheraton; we do vary our standard of accommodation, uggs, bugs and cockroaches one night and the lap of luxury another. We ended up in the Old City not sure of where we were going, so it was time to ask a policeman and this pick-up full of cops gave us an escort out of the old city; stopped at a set of light and said just follow the trolley bus lines and you’ll see it in front of you; can’t miss it. Don’t you just hate it when a local says it’s just down there and you can’t miss it? Miss it; hadn’t got a clue. Sitting at a junction just about to flip a coin to decide whether it was left or right and pedestrian asked if he could be of help; yes please. Good directions and off we went, only to be hassled within 300 metres by a pick-up trying to cut us up. No, he wasn’t, it was the pedestrian who obviously had little faith in our ability to follow his simple instructions; he had jumped into is pick-up and when he came alongside he just indicated for us to follow. Straight to the hotel; we didn’t even get the chance to thank him. Another 11 hour day!

19 Jul 06 (Wed). Quito.
The reason for the ride to Quito is two fold. Firstly it is likely to be our point for shipping the bikes to Panama if we do not ride through Columbia; and secondly we are going to meet an old friend Pete Walker who has been working there on and off of years and knows the place so it should be a very good social stop. Pete also put us in touch with Albert Crutcher, a Brit Expat who owns two bars, The Turtle’s Head and Busters. Albert is a keen biker, starting life as a London dispatch rider; good grounding for riding in this part of the world. He has been giving us good advice about places to visit, routes and hotels as we were coming up through Peru and he was hoping to be riding with us to Cali Columbia if he could get the time as he’s got a KTM Adventure, done the trip before and fancies a ride out with some else.

By the time we’d sorted ourselves out it was midday; Pete had given us address of the Turtle’s Head and thought we’d get a bit of exercise and walk there. Just around the corner parked on the pavement was a KTM; yup, Albert’s got one of those; “hey you two’ I know you two” came a jock voice from inside the door to this bar! We had not released that Albert’s other bar, Busters was so close to the hotel; how fortunate. An afternoon supping beer, swapping stories and getting advice about Columbia, how pleasant; Pete arrived at the end of the afternoon and upped the tempo, surely not to catch up? A short break was taken before we relocated to the Turtles Head to continue the motion and to be joined by Matt, Hugh and his wife Doris; all offering help and assistance where they could and more alcohol! It made a very nice change to have a social evening with others, speaking English, keeping up with the quick fire banter. And all too soon it was 1 AM, where did the day/night go?

20 Jul 06 - Quito
We had a RV with Albert this morning at 0900 to get the bikes washed and checked over by one of his staff who was very handy. Well, 0900, fine, but with a hangover, slowly, slowly. This, apart from the week with our wives in Antigua, was only the second hangover of the trip due to a social evening; the last one was with Sharon Jaffray in the Upland Goose when we did the interview for the Penguin News!

As we were preparing to leave the hotel garage we met 3Columbian couples, Matthias and Patricia, Mauricio and Maria Jose, who had ridden from Bogota on BMW 1200 GSs and Juan Carlos and his girl friend Laura from Cali on a Suzuki V-Storm. They were riding back to Columbia tomorrow and asked if we would like to ride with them and stay with them in Bogota; what a great offer! We were non committal at this stage as we were not sure that we would have completed the admin on the bikes by then; but it was an open invitation, if we did not ride with them just give them ring and come and stay if we were in Bogota.

Albert’s guy’s did a superb job getting weeks of engrained dirt off the bikes and checking nut and bolts from end to end. Sparkly bikes just needed some new rubber now; get rid of those Metzellers (knobbly tyres) that we fitted in Salta, have done 4000 miles on them and not enjoyed them at all. Right from our first ride on the Metzellers we were not confident in there ability to hold their own on tarmac. Even after 400 miles of tarmac in Argentina they did not improve. Ragging them over 200 mile of graded track to Potosi did seem to give them more traction on tarmac the next day, but they did not give us the sure footed confidence of the Continental TKC 80 (knobbly tyres) that we started with. We were still carrying a full set of TKC 80s and a front too. The set would be fitted to Mick’s bike and Albert did a lot of phoning around to try and find either a single rear knobbly or a pair of dual purpose tyres for mine. BMW Quito had tyres but at a shocking price, next one please! Albert found tyres and having stripped all the wheels of both bikes he took us to get them fitted. Instead of mixing tread types I bought a pair of Dunlop road tyres, a bit narrower than stock but I was assured by Albert that they would work fine and would make the bike turn quicker. Bikes all complete and a strong recommendation from both Alberta and Pete that we should take up the offer to ride with the Columbian group as they would be able to give us help should we need it; all we had to do was find them; that was easier said than done – couldn’t find them!!

It was a more sensible evening, dinner with Pete and a nightcap at the Turtles Head, oh and one or was it two for the road! We are going to try and catch the Columbians in the morning at breakfast and Albert would ride with us to the border too. It all hinged on finding them!

Our thanks to Albert for all his help, advice and hospitality while we were travelling up through Peru but mostly for our short stay in Quito. Our recommendation is that if you venture to Quito look up Albert at The Turtle’s Head, La Nina 626 y Ave. Amazonas or the turtleshead@hotmail.com.

We are supporting:
Charity:
Macmillan Cancer Support – http://www.justgiving.com/mickdaly-hereford

Schools:
Christ College Brecon - http://www.christcollegebrecon.com/
St Richard’s Bredenbury - http://www.st-richards.co.uk/

Our intention for the next week. Did we achieve last week’s intentions to visit Ecuador; yes, but perhaps had not thought it would be quite the whistle stop that it was. Next week it’s Columbia and aiming to ship to Panama.