Border crossing day to Colombia

January 31, 2011

Border crossing day to Colombia. Road and scenery were great. Then a detour up and around the mountainsides up to 3900 meters. Got to the border and signing out of Ecuador was easy. Then the Colombia entry side, we got an Aduana (Customs) guard who was learning. He took forever to figure out what to do with our docs, had to ask for help numbers times and screwed up my VIN # 3 times. Lucky I checked because this could have cost much frustration trying to exit the country. Then we had to find a place to buy insurance for Colombia as it is required. Virtually nobody knew where to buy it. Found a nice couple, William and Rachel, on a bike and they had us follow them all over town to help us with our dilemma. Another guy helped all of us and finally after 2 more hours, we are able to leave with all paperwork in order. Rode to Pasto through a gorgeous valley and arrived in town. While waiting in traffic, another couple on a bike start talking to me. I ask him where a nice hotel/hostel might be and he, again, says follow me. Takes us to this great hotel, "La Maison" and the owner (Patrice) speaks english. Beautiful place, decorated in french traditional.

January 30, 2011

Rode from Banos to Otovalo through Quito. Beautiful ride. Clean roadsides. Many little towns along the way as Ecuador has the highest population per square kilometre in South America. Otovalo swell known for having a huge Saturday market which people flock to. A nice local gentleman directs us to a nice hostel.

 Tungurahua Volcano from road after leaving Banos

Stopped for gas and some police came in and talked to us. Very nice guys, needed his pic taken.

January 29, 2011

Lazy day, walked around town and checked out the hot springs and water fall. Worked on my bike because it had developed a vibration, clunk and it was worrying me. Took off the back tire to check bearing and they were OK. Found a few chain links extremely worn and changed the chain with the one we took off Michael's bike back in Buenos Aires. It is much better shape. Bike now feels good again. Arranged a 9pm bus tour to the Tungurahua Volcano after dinner with Simon and Markus. Only $3, but wasn't worth the time. They took us up to a lookout where we could see the lights of the town, but no volcano. Basically, we could buy beer and vendor fast food.

Town Center Church steeple lit up at night.

Near center of town

Washing tubs built on 1943 and still used

Waterfall supplying water to washing area and hot tub pools

Yellow hot water in yellow pools, OK, who peed?

They lied, there was no eruption, just a bunch of smoke

Town from bus ride up the hill

Riding day to Banos

January 28, 2011

Riding day to Banos, a town at the base on the active Tungurahua Volcano where we will meet a fellow HU member that I have chatted with, from Alberta. We woke up to rain. Got to Tony's shop and he was under prepared, without rain gear. We ended up riding with Tony out of Guayaquil and into the countryside.

Bagged Bananas look like body bags until you get closer

Closer look

Coco trees with the coco seeds for making Chocolate

As we gained altitude, it became wetter and colder. Tony's hands were frozen because he was riding without gloves. Finally at the 1200 meter altitude, I strongly recommended to him that he was unprepared for the 4000 meter pass. He decided to return to Guayaquil. This was too bad, but the right choice because hypothermia was a real danger for him, with the temperature plummeting. Near the pass, rain was heavy, my heavy gloves were soaked and my hands were freezing even with my electric grips on high. After the summit, the rain slowed and stopped, we dried out and got warmer. Arrived in Banos, met Markus from Germany who has been riding with Simon off and on through Central America and Colombia. Had to get a different hostel than them because there was no more room for our bikes. Lots of rooms available in town and found a nice place just around the corner. Came back and met Simon. He had been out getting a massage. Went for a great french dinner. Michael and Simon had a fondue night.

January 27, 2011

Lazy day. Walked to a nearby mall and got toiletry supplies. Arranged to meet Tony and Ana for a movie tonight. Saw "RED" (Retired and extremely Dangerous) Good movie with Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis.

January 26, 2011

Bike service day.  I woke up with bites all over me this morning. Later in the day I asked our host and she told me the look like bedbug bites and proceeded to tell me that they take about 5 days to show up after being bit. They changed my bed sheets and cleaned under my bed. I continued to be bitten and by the 3rd night has about 100 bites on me. Checked the internet and found these are nasty critters and you swell up very quickly. 3 days later the swelling and itching is nearly gone.

Tony led us down town to try to find a chain for my bike and chain oil. No luck, but Tony found a front guard for his bike. This bike ride was interesting following him, splitting lanes riding wherever we could to get past the traffic in 35º heat. Tony was gracious to let us use his shop to service our bikes. Changed oil, cleaned our K&N air filters. Found a nail in my tire, so had to plug it.

Display case of pistons

Hubbs

 Headlights and Tailights

Border crossing day to Ecuador.

January 25, 2011

2 hours to the border, got to ride past a lot of farms.

Checking out of Peru was quite painless for us, but for a couple of Columbian bikers, they were dam near strip searched. They had to unbolt their side plates and seats to remove because the Aduana wanted to check everything. They even had to unroll their tents. Us, they told us to go to the office to get stamps and we were done. Getting into Ecuador was another story, we couldn't find the border. Had to ask people and got bad directions, then got stamped in, then had to find the other Aduana office (Customs) to check the bikes in. It was 10kms down the road in the next town to check the bikes into the country. We considered just taking heat for not checking in when we checked out, but didn't. Later down the road the Columbian caught up to us and we rode as a group until our turnoff to Guayaquil. Got to Tony's shop without any problems. Found a hostel.