Days 128 to 130: Cuenca to Catamayo, ECU

Late start at a little past noon, and we're off to Catamayo (30 km South of Loja). This is where lives Juan, a friend of mine back from the university days. I had contacted him through facebook two weeks prior, and he had agreed to host us for a day or two. The 200-something km ride to Loja (the major town in that area) was awesome: smooth twisties though the mountains.

We rolled into Catamayo around 5 pm, which is located in a beautiful valley. The directions that Juan gave me led us to a sugar cane factory, and I was a little puzzled why we would meet in such a place. It turned out that Juan's family owns the factory, as well as huge sugar cane plantations in the valley. He lives with his wife in a house on the premises of the plant.

Juan and I, and his KTM 500

Juan had arranged lodging for us, which gotta be our best accommodation on the trip so far. The hacienda we stayed belongs to his family. Right now only one of his uncles lives there, although there are several apartments. We had a 2 bedroom place to ourselves, and in the morning, the maid would make us delicious breakfast whenever we would show up. It's nice to get spoiled every once and then.

The beautiful hacienda where we stayed at in Catamayo.

In the evening, we drove to Loja for dinner, and later went for a beer and met up with some of Juan's biker friends (he also rides and owns a few motorcycles). 

The next day, Juan met us at 10 am at the hacienda on his KTM 990 SMT, and we went for a ride with a few of his friends to Villabambo, a very chill town about 70 km from Catamayo.

The bikes in Villabambo

Juan's friends have a couple of sweet bikes, including these KTM's

KTM Super Duke 990 ... drooled all over it.

Hanging out in Villabambo with Juan and his friends.

Later that night, we met up with his wife and a few of her friends, and hung out until the early hours of the morning. We had a tail gate party: beers, latin music, and salsa and merengue lessons (we white guys struggle with this part..lol). It was a lot of fun. I'm definitely taking dance classes when I return; along with Spanish lessons, salsa basics are a must when travelling through Latin America.

Tail gate party: beers, music and attempts at dancing salsa and merengue,

On Sunday, there was a motorcross race day in Catamayo, so we spent the entire day at the track. A couple of very good riders, but the most impressive was Juan's friend's son, a 9 year old boy who rides his 65cc KTM like a bat out of hell. His riding abilities are truly jaw dropping.

The little guys at the starting line. These kids can RIDE!

Juan's 9 year old friend clearing a 30 m jump on his little KTM 65 cc

Ecuador has been great; so far my favorite country, along with Colombia. I'd love to come back. Next up, Peru.

Days 126 and 127: Montanita to Cuenca, ECU

The lonely planet book guide had good words about Cuenca, so I decided to make it my next destination. The 400 km took me a long time to cover, as I hit dense fog and rain in the mountains. For a while, the visibility was so poor that I was unable to ride at more than 20-30 km/h. The highest pass was a little over 4000 m, which is the highest I've been so far on this trip. The temperature plummeted, and once again I was really glad I had my heated grips and vest, as otherwise I would have been miserable.

These fishermen were swarmed by birds, that were hoping to snatch some left overs.

Off the flat lands of the coast, and heading into the mountains again.

At 4000 m in the mountains. Cold and beautiful.

I made it to Cuenca in the late afternoon, and headed to the center to find a hotel. After riding around for a while, I spotted once place which looked like it could be within my budget. I parked the bike, and went to ask - too expensive. When I walked out of the hotel, there was a guy checking out the DR. He asked me in fluent English about where I was from, where I was going, etc.. It turned out he used to live in Toronto for several years, and was now running a small music shop right around the corner. When I mentioned that I was looking for a place to stay, he proposed me to go to his shop and we would look into it from there. 

Once in his shop, he told me to wait for a moment, jumped on his motorcycle and took off. The music shop was sharing the space with a political party's office. There was two older ladies there, and a cute twenty something year old girl. I started chatting with them, and it didn't take long before the older ladies came up with the personal questions: how old are you, are you married, have children, etc.. lol. 

About 10-15 minutes later, the guy (forgot his name) came back, and told me he found me a room nearby for 13$ a night. Sweet. As I was leaving, I asked the girl (her name is Caridad) if she would like to join me for dinner or a drink later that evening (I found out she was single, thanks to the older ladies..hehe). She was cool with it, so we agreed to meet later in the evening.

The next day, I walked the city in the morning, and hung out again with Caridad in the afternoon. Couldn't ask for a better opportunity to practice my Spanish. Mihai rolled into town in the evening, completely exhausted from the past few days of partying until the morning in Montanita. I don't think I've seen him this tired yet in the past 4 months we have been travelling together..lol.

A few pics of Cuenca:

Days 122 to 125: Puerto Lopez and Montanita, ECU

Puerto Lopez sucked; the beach was ok, but the place itself was dirty and didn't have much to offer. The day after my arrival, we left the town and checked out the nearby Machalilla national park. 

The visit included the entrance to the museum of the artifacts of the Manteno people, who were a West-Ecuadorean maritime culture flourishing between the 800's AD. The Manteño were a 'league of merchants.' In the modern day they might be called a cartel. They organized mainly for commercial gain. Their business was the highly lucrative Spondylus trade. The Spondylus conch shell could be converted into beautiful burgundy-colored ornaments, and everybody wanted it, especially the Inka. The Manteno disappeared a few years only after the arrival of the Spaniards in the early 1500's, dying from European diseases.

One of the several snake species that can be encountered in the area.

The national park also features the Aguablanca sulfur lagoon (stinky hot springs), so the boys jumped in for a mud bath. I passed, as I was too lazy to dig out my beach shorts from the bottom of my luggage.

By 2 PM, we were done with the national park, and headed down to Montanita, another coastal town 50 km south from Puerto Lopez. Now Montanita turned out to be the ultimate surf and beach party place, even more than San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua. The backpacker crowd parties on the streets and on the beach every day, until the early hours in the morning. 

Our hostel in Montanita.

Once again, the bikes attract attention as soon as we show up. 

Parking the bikes at the hotel.

Three nights of the mayhem was all that I could handle, and on day 126, I decided that it is time to go. Mihai and Josh stayed an extra night; Mihai would meet me down the road, and Josh would head back towards Colombia, where he would ship his bike to the States from Bogota. Therefore, after about 2 months of riding together, the trio was separating for good. It was a heartbreaking moment, and we promised to Skype each other every night (just joking ;) But seriously, it's been a lot of fun, and we already had talks about hooking up for another ride in the near future.

Day 121: Quito, ECU to Puerto Lopez, ECU

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A little request for you people reading the blog. I'd like to give a hand to a family member of mine.

Weronika (my cousin's daughter) and her boyfriend are participating in a contest, in which they can win a trip to Croatia.  I'd appreciate if you could take a second to open and click the ''LIKE'' button on the their facebook page. Thanks!

LINK HERE

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Long solo day in the saddle: 530 km of winding roads, some good and some terrible. A total of 10 hours on the bike, with only two quick stops for fuel (I was trying to make it to my destination before dark).

I left the hostel in Quito at 9:30 am. Navigating out of the town was not bad, as the GPS map that I am using for Ecuador (OpenStreetMaps) is fairly accurate. I drove about 80 km south on the Panamericana. Ecuador continued to impress with the quality of its roads: 2 to 3 lanes in each direction, and smooth pavement.

I then turned off west, in the direction of the pacific coast. I didn't know what to expect from that secondary road, but it turned out to be my best ride in a while. Apart from 2-3 places where there was some ongoing construction, the next 160 km were awesome: great scenery, smooth road, lots of ''curvas'' (turns), and little traffic. I had a blast. Only downside is that at above 3500 m, it got COLD. I had both my hand grips and heated vest running at their maximum, and all of my warm clothing on as well.

25 m shy of reaching 4000 m elevation. It was COLD.

This little guy was hanging out all by himself on the side of the road.

One of the few construction sites along the road.

20 000 km from home. Another 15 000 + km to ride in the next 2.5 months.

Eventually, I got passed the mountains and began descending rapidly. Within 45 minutes, I went from 3500 m to around 500 m elevation. The landscape changed drastically and it got HOT. Probably around 30 deg. C. Definitely a day of extremes, as far as temperature goes.

The scenery was nice for most of the way to the coast, but I didn't get the chance to enjoy it much. The road turned into shit. I drove 150 km over a winding road with mostly big potholes and patches of pavement. Swerving between the craters on the road required quite a bit of concentration.  On top of that, the topes (speed bumps) were back in full force: a few in each of the many villages I drove through. 

After the mountains, green hills and cacao and banana plantations.

I finally reached the coast a little after 6 pm. The last 140 km were candy again: smooth two lane highway, followed by a spectacular coast road all the way to Puerto Lopez. 

I pulled into town about 20 minutes after dark, and quickly found the hotel where the boys were staying. I was spent, but it had been one of the better days on the bike so far. The riding in Ecuador is exceeding my expectations so far.

Back on the pacific coast once again.

530 km of dirt and diesel fumes on my face.