After spending a three month stint backpacking through South
East Asia, my husband Josh and I were more than ready to settle down for a bit;
have a place of our own with a steady income, a comfy bed, and a Netflix
subscription. Boringness. Normalcy. It sounded nice. We found stable jobs,
together no less, and a place to live that wasn’t a grungy Asian guesthouse.
And for a while it was nice. We ate
pizza and Mexican food (practically
unheard of in South East Asia) and re-acclimated to American life.… But then a familiar itch began again. Slowly, we
began to realize how much we missed our life in that other world, the world often
referred to by backpackers in Vietnam as “same same, but different,” and plans
of another venture began to formulate.
One of our favorite memories of our time in Asia was this
crazy trip we took while in Laos known as the “The Loop.” It was a three day
journey through Laos’s mist covered mountains riding on rickety 110cc
motorbikes that threatened to fall apart at any moment. It was a challenging
ride, at times off-roading on extremely muddy 60 degree hills. I cried because
it was so hard, I also laughed when I dropped my bike for the umpteenth time,
and I was quite proud of myself for completing it at the end. It was definitely
an adventure that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Josh and I both agreed that riding through a country was the
best way to really see it. We decided
that we wanted to recreate the experience so we started looking into renting
motorbikes in other countries. Eventually I found a company based out of
Ecuador that rented out dual sport motorcycles and had some pretty nice self-guided
tour options. The tour we decided on was the Avenue of the Volcanoes tour which
had us doing the Quilotoa Loop (we’re fond of loops), and would bring us by the
beautiful Laguna Quilotoa, which is a volcanic crater lake that sits at an
elevation of about 11,500 ft. We’d also be traveling through the touristy town
of Baños and part of the Amazon.
We made plans, and convinced our friend Lauren to join us, and after a year, finally found ourselves flying to Ecuador. We landed just before midnight at the Quito airport. By the time we slogged through the massive lines for customs, we gained entry to the country and picked up our bags. After a harrowing and apparently normal 40 km taxi drive to our hostel in the dangerous area of Quito known as La Mariscal we finally arrived and tucked in for the night.
Excited to begin. Especially Lauren. |
The next morning we found ourselves waiting outside of the rental
shop, despite the opening time on the door having already passed some time
before. The staff finally arrived, shrugging with a grin and saying something
about “Ecuadorian Time” and helped us prepare for our journey. After going over
our paperwork and packing up our saddlebags we were ready to go. And we did go,
quite slowly, through congested Thursday morning Quito traffic. After some
terrifying experiments in lane-splitting between rows of stuck cars, and almost
getting hit several times by aggressive drivers (by American standards
anyways), we made it out of Quito and were on our way.
We named these bikes Delirium's Mistress and The Happy Gringo. |
The weather the first day as we set out from Quito was pretty nice actually. Until about an hour or so in when it started to slightly drizzle and then began to rain in earnest. To escape the rain, and also because it had been recommended to us by both the rental company and a friend who had lived in Ecuador, we stopped at a small café in Machachi that was painted like a cow. True to its reputation, the food was delicious, with some of the freshest ingredients we would taste on the entire trip.
These burgers were amazing. |
After lunch it was still raining, but we had a schedule to
keep so we set out on our soggy bikes anyways. Soon enough we found our turn
off from the main road, set out on the Quilotoa Loop and began ascending into the
mountains. It was beautiful but perilous with hairpin turns, plenty of gravel,
and wandering llamas and livestock relaxing in the road around every corner. It
became even more harrowing at some point between Lasso and Sigchos, as we found
ourselves travelling these same looping roads but now with 11 km of thick,
viscous fog which reduced our visibility to about a foot in front of us. Giant
trucks heading in the opposite direction would frequently be in our lane as
they came around corners and I heard Josh honk as aggressively as he could so
we could avoid them.
There's a cow way up there. No idea how it will get down. |
Eventually we made it through the fog, but it slowed us down
measurably and by the time we reached Sigchos we were hours behind schedule and
dark was falling. We thought for a moment about staying there for the night,
but we decided against that since we had already paid for our stay in Tigua as
part of our tour. We assumed we could make it before the sun set. Little did we
realize, the sun sets around 5 pm in Ecuador. As we pressed on the paved road suddenly
ran out and we found ourselves traveling on a dicey dirt road in the dark. And
then the fog came back. This reduced our
speed yet again, and we were quickly becoming concerned about the cold, and
where we would be sleeping that night.
Freezing but still happy. |
While Josh and I debated the issue, our friend Lauren went
off to investigate a hostel she had seen when we first
entered town. After about five minutes, Josh and I decided that it would be
safest to stay in Chugchilan in any case and followed. We found Lauren, and as
we rode into the gated hostel, they closed the doors behind us and locked them.
Lucky us. They had rooms for $15 per person which included dinner and
breakfast. We took it, not that we had a lot of other options.
After a cold night huddled under dozens of blankets we set
off, excited to see the famous Laguna Quilotoa. As we left Chugchilan we were
very thankful that we had decided to stop there for the night since the dirt
roads started up again as soon as we were out of town. We pressed on slowly
through the gravel and dirt and for some reason our GPS had us veer off what
turned into a paved road and onto a sand filled path which then reconnected to
the paved road again. After a few falls in the sand, Josh generously
helped Lauren and I pick up our heavy bikes and we were off on our way to Laguna
Quilotoa. Which was beautiful.
Beautiful but windy view. Very windy. |
As much as we wanted to stay and explore the beautiful lake
and around it, we had already taken longer than we wanted and we had to get
going. Luckily the dirt roads were over and we had an easy, curvy ride to
Ambato. On the way we stopped in Latacunga and checked out the market there.
Lauren had some delicious cheesy fried bread.
After Ambato we began our ascent up to the Chimborazo
Volcano which stands at an elevation of 20,000 ft (our route would take us up
to 14,500 ft, higher than Pike’s Peak in Colorado). It began to get quite cold,
and as we rode up we saw that our route would once again take us into
impossible to see through fog, which meant that we would be unlikely to see
much of the volcano either.
Chimborazo in the distance |
After some consideration we decided to take a lower
elevation route to Baños. We ran into a whole slew of construction sites and
were so slowed down that we didn’t reach Baños until dark had almost set in.
Again. This was turning out to be a trend.
Waterfall in Banos. |
Unfortunately, since we arrived late and had to leave early
the next morning we didn’t get a chance to experience the hot springs which the
town is famous for. We did enjoy a delicious dinner at a nice restaurant across
the street from our hostel which was easily the nicest hostel we stayed at the
entire trip. We went to bed early, and slept really well that night.
The next morning we woke up well rested and tucked into an
enjoyable breakfast at our hostel. Josh oiled the bikes, and then we were off
on the third day of our adventure. The route out of Baños was beautiful and
took us through green winding roads. Shortly out of the city, we hit a traffic
jam which was caused by failing debris that had slid down the rock face.
On our way to Puyo we decided to stop and see a waterfall
Lauren had heard about called Pailon del Diablo which means “Cauldron of the
Devil”. Since we had all of our things with us Josh elected to stay behind and
watch the bikes while Lauren and I went down to check it out. The waterfall was
pretty amazing and Lauren got some great shots from above by crawling through a
small cave that climbed about 20 ft up from the viewing landing.
While Lauren and I were hiking around viewing waterfalls,
Josh was bored back at the bikes and decided this would be a great time to buy
me a gift - a small Hello Kittyesque tom tom drum, which I found elaborately strapped
to my bag for the rest of the ride. Hilarious.
After exploring for a bit we were back on track, riding
through the Amazon Basin jungle. We stopped in Puerto Misahualli to see the
local mischievous monkeys - our friend who used to live in Ecuador said that
she had her earring stolen out of her ear without even noticing, so we kept our
distance. The day had been pretty sunny up until then, but while in Misahualli
clouds began to drift in so we decided it was time to leave.
As we neared our final destination for the night,
Papallacta, we began to ascend in elevation again, and it began to get cold,
drizzly and darkness began to fall. After some close calls winding around slow
moving semi trucks on 2 lane roads, one of which we had to pass on the right
side next to a ravine, we finally made it to Papallacta, a small village only a
few hours drive from Quito that is famous for its thermal hot springs and
spas.
Unfortunately the hotel that we had planned on staying at
was presumably booked for the night, which was upsetting. As we left in the
cold dark we wondered if our drenched, muddy attire had played a factor in none
of the rooms being available for us.
Our friendly host. |
We had a delicious dinner and some kind of weird corn thing
with cheese called choclo con queso and then climbed into our swimsuits for some
thermal spa time. It was wonderful after a long, cold day of riding. After that
we went up to our freezing cold rooms and went to sleep in anticipation of our
last day of riding.
The water was great. Getting out was not. |
The next morning we woke up bright and early, or should I say misty, cold and early? It was freezing. But we had to be back in Quito by 11:30am to return our bikes so we headed out anyways. Luckily the closer we got to Quito the better the weather got so that was something. Riding back into Quito had much less traffic than riding out of it, most likely because it was Sunday morning and everyone was at Church or sleeping off hangovers.
After dropping off our bikes we wandered La Mariscal in search of a hostel, which we found out later is one of the most dangerous things you can do in Quito on a Sunday. This is because of common muggings in that area due to the lack of crowds and police presence. Somehow we managed not to get robbed. After some searching we found a nice little hostel on Juan Rodriguez St.
The next day we decided to move to the Old Town historical
district which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978. It was
lovely and quaint and we stayed there for the rest of our stay in Quito.
At some point we took a bus out to Otavalo which is about a
two hour ride from Quito. Otavalo is famous for its indigenous market known as
Plaza de los Ponchos. We went on a Tuesday which is far from its most popular
day, Saturday, but the amount of crafts and goods sold is still somewhat
overwhelming. I got talked into buying a colorful woven purse and Josh
naturally bought a shrunken head. It’s fake, we hope.
Hail Satan! |
While in Quito we visited many things, among them Mitad del
Mundo, a touristy area featuring a monument that is supposed to mark what was
once declared “The Middle of the World.” Nowadays that has been proven
inaccurate as the true 0° 0′ latitude is actually 300m north of the monument. While
there we also tried a local delicacy known as “cuy” which we in America like to
refer to as “guinea pig.” It was surprisingly good, although a little
unsettling since the animal was simply fried whole and served to us, head, paws,
teeth and all.
We had to head back to Austin far too soon and we are
already on the look out for another adventure to go on next year.
Special thanks to Lauren Bruce Lund for use of her amazing photos.