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.