Since we left the highlands of Peru for its sun drenched coast, the proportion of our time spent on two wheels has definitely taken a nose dive. A combination of the good weather, hammock filled hostels, big cities and tourist towns full of the familiarities of home has kept us lingering in places longer than we had planned. We had a blast in Lima, living a life of luxury for a few days (thanks to some saved up hotel points and some liberal use of the credit card!), and enjoyed a few days being beach bums in Mancora. After exactly 93 days in Peru, we then crossed into Ecuador, revelling in the newness of our 6th country and a new chapter in our Lonely Planet guide-book. But (and apologies for the #FirstWorldProblems here!) we’ve also found a bit of a travel lethargy creeping in. Yikes!
Travelling slowly, and getting to know a region or a country well is a lovely way travel. At 10 mph from the saddle of a bicycle, you notice every subtle change in the landscape, the characteristics of the people, and how they all link together. Half a year in though, it does inevitably mean that day-to-day, we are less likely to see and experience completely new things. And what happens when things start to become familiar and routine? Time starts to pass QUICKLY!
So, we are now in Version 2.0 of our trip, the part where we try to stop it flying by without us noticing. Our plan is to keep ourselves moving and busy, to ween ourselves off the comforts of the last month, and to get back to the simplicity of back road travel and camping. And, to start planning for Colombia! A country we’ve heard nothing but amazing things about, and where we might find a place to call home for a while.
But before Colombia, there was the last few hundred miles of coastal Peru and the small matter of a whole new country to get through. Here are some of the highlights of our last 6 weeks saying a fond farewell to Peru and hello to Ecuador.
Peru – Trujillo to Tumbes
After our extravagant side trip to Lima from Truijillo (on a bus with seats more comfortable than most beds we’ve slept in on the trip), we returned to the north coast at Piura, few hundred km further up. The leapfrog allowed us to skip a region with bit of a reputation for bike muggings at gun point (nice), and to make up some days on the rapidly expiring visa. Stepping off the bus at midday the dry heat of the desert was like walking into a hair dryer, and it was an unforgiving couple of days riding along in the intense sun on the flat (woop!), tarmaced (yes!) but pretty dull (boo!) pan american highway that dragged on for miles.
Sand, sun and shadows along the Pan American.
Though the riding was pretty dull, the destinations each day were idyllic – beach villages along the coast, where the sound of the waves crashing replaced the usually chorus of dogs barking as our nightly lullaby. First there was Colan, with its gorgeous beach lined by house on stilts, where the tide literally came in under the floor of our bedroom at night. Then came the surf town of Lobitos, and then Cabo Blanco, once a place of legend amongst fishermen and where Ernest Hemingway reportedly lived whilst writing The Old Man & The Sea. Finally there was the marmite-town of Mancora, a little piece of backpacker heaven or hell, (depending on your feelings towards dreadlocked jewellery makers and music blaring until 5am every night).
Beautiful beach at Colan, lined by house on stilts
Enjoying our first beach side beers in Huanchaco, just north of Trujillo
Sunset drinks on our balcony in Colan, the tide coming in underneath us. Magical.
Where we could, we went searching for the back roads that would take us closer to the sea that was hidden out of view from the highway. Between Colan and Mancora we found them, and the views were spectacular, skirting right along the pacific coast along mining roads. Beautiful, but bloody hard work!
Scenic, but completely unridable in places with our heavy bikes. Sand is just not as fun when you’re not lounging on it with a cocktail
Mining roads carving through the desert next to the coast
Leaving the hammocks and dreams of becoming a 31 year old surfer chick behind in Mancora, we were bound for Ecuador a couple of days riding away. We enjoyed our 92nd and final evening in Peru on a balmy coastal plaza in Zorritos, amongst the locals enjoying the cool of dusk. Our last pesos were spent on a couple of cold Cusquenas beer, some delicious street food, and what we feared might be the last Sublime chocolate bar of our trip for dessert.
Just before the border, we hit the 5000 mile mark of our trip, which after 200 days of riding gives us an impressively low average mileage of 25 miles a day! Yes, we could probably be in the USA by now if it wasn’t for all the hiking/eating/hammock swinging….but where’s the fun in that!
- Hitting the 5000 mile mark just before Tumbes, the last town in Peru
And then entering our 6th country!
Ecuador
Our first target in Ecuador was the big city of Guayaquil, where we had a bed waiting for us for a few nights through the cyclists couchsurfing website Warmshowers. It was a sweaty 3 days through miles and miles of banana plantations – surprisingly green and lush, despite us only a few hours earlier being in the arid desert of Northern Peru. More uninspiring riding on the Pan Am, but it was fast, and the novelty of getting into the groove of a new country, its customs and quirks, and (of course!) what new food was on offer kept us entertained. First impressions were good, friendly people, good fresh food and MEAT! Actual meat cooking on bbq grills everywhere, not just the fried chicken and unidentifiable cuts served up with the almuerzos of Peru. Oh and really big bananas….
Having a chat with the locals at 13 mph
Getting to know the local cuisine – Fritada (piles of pork, plantain and corn), ceviche, hornada (hot suckling pig, yum), arapes (corn bread in banana leaf)and good old meat-on-stick.
Riding into Guayaquil, teh biggest city in Ecuador, was an experience in survival and self-preservation, with a comedic set of cycle ways that deposited us in the middle of a 6 lane highway every now and then. Like cycling on the M25 at rush hour, with an added dose of latino driving skills and 40 degree heat.
Riding along the cycle lanes/6 lane motorways of Guayaquil
But survive we did, and the next day we found ourselves stars of a film being made by our hosts to promote cycling in the city. Cristian and his friends are determined to set up a city bike tour for tourists, and needed to recruit some willing gringos to test their route on and film for their promo video. We spent the day on our bikes seeing the sights of Guayaquil, which in a city with so little cycling infrastructure meant lots of mounting pavements, riding the wrong way down one way traffic rammed streets, and zig zagging between buses. Their route might need a bit of tweaking to suit your average transit tourist en route to the Galapagos, but it was great to spend time with a bunch of people so motivated to enact change in their city.
Famous at last. Promo pics for Iguana Bike Tours in Guayaquil
We also got our first taste of Christmas in the city, posing for photos with santa, as well as the local Iguana population in a 99% humidity that killed us off by lunch time. The festive warm up just wasn’t the same without freezing cold and Mariah Carey crooning eveywhere we went!
Getting festive and meeting the local Iguanas
From Guayaquil, we had a choice of routes that would take us to the capital of Quito in the North East of the country. Either extend our beachy meanderings for a little longer and follow the coast (the long but flatter route, with great tanning potential!), or get starting climbing back into the hills and follow the spine of them north (the shorter but hilly, and probably grey and rainy route). We’d decided on the first, and it was only by accident that I was reminded that there was a terrible earthquake on the North Coast of Ecuador earlier this year. Many of the beach towns we’d planned to hop along had been all but destroyed, and whole communities were still living out of tents. So, the mountains it was. Which meant starting with a little 4000m climb from sea level….
It was a slog. We discovered that Ecuador doesn’t opt for the long and gentle switchbacks of Peru, instead preferring the “straight up and over” approach! It took 3 days of grinding away in our lowest gear, dodging the grey clouds, and an accidental stay in a “love motel” (only realising when we collapsed on the bed to see a ceiling wide mirror above us, honest), but we made it up and over the hills to Banos. Our biggest non stop climb of the trip, and a nice gentle reintroduction to the hills after a stretch of flat riding.
The lush green hills of southern Ecuador suddenly cloaked up grey cloud rushing up the valley
It was more time off the bikes in Banos, where our travel lethargy crisis hit its worst. Ecuador’s “outdoor capital”, which has every activity on offer you can think of – river rafting, rappelling, mountain biking, canyoning. But mostly we ate donuts and drank a lot of coffee, and took a side trip to pretty Cuenca where we ate more donuts and drank a lot of beer. We did manage to get off our arses long enough to go on a suicidal swing over “the edge of the world” though!
The swing at the edge of the world over Banos.
Colonial Cuenca
Newly motivated with our “Version 2.0” trip principles, we left Banos by the backroads towards Coatapxi national park. All set to get some big miles and big climbing done, my digestive system had other ideas and an emergency hitch hike was very necessary. Thankfully, Jesus came to our rescue. Yep, Jesus Robalino, who turned out to speak great english with a brilliant cockney/Italian accent having spent the last 15 years working in a pizza restaurant in Covent Garden, was the first guy to stop, and might be one of the nicest men we’ve ever met. He drove us past his destination to the next town 20km on, and dropped us at a hotel with promises that we’d all meet up next time he was in London for a kebab. Our hero.
Disappointed to be hitching, secretly a little bit happy as we zoom up a 1000m climb in 15 minutes rather than 4 hours!
Our hero Jesus, Ecuador’s best cockney pizza chef
A quick recovery and we were onto Coatapxi National Park. Finally, we saw some of the incredible volcanoes we had been riding alongside for the last couple of weeks, but that had been hidden behind the low clouds that had become the daily norm. Having set up camp under the usual grey skies, the next morning we woke to a clear blue sky and the beautiful snow capped peak of the smoking Coatapaxi volcano, with 6 more glistening on the distant horizon.
Smoking Coatapaxi under the first blue skie of the Ecuadorian highlands. The view from our campsite
We were incredibly lucky – others (a man who had walked there from Argentina, no less) told us theu had been there for days and seen nothing but rain and cloud hiding the volcano. We spent a day hiking around the park and enjoying the great free campsite, and set off on a gorgeous ride out of the park the next day towards Quito feeling re-energised about cycling after a bumpy couple of weeks.
Leaving the campsite for Quito
Heading past the Coatapaxi volcano with a big grin on my face
Goregous riding continues, with cobbled roads through countryside that looks like England in the summer.
Our crew of 2 become 3 for a few days, as we picked up a mascot in the form of a gorgeous little dog at the park entrance. He jogged alongside us the 15km to the campsite, kept us company for 2 days and followed us 20km more out of the park until our down hill pace finally got the better of him. Apparently she is the park pet, adopting cyclists and hikers for a few days.at a time as they pass through and living the life of Riley chasing horses, lamas and cows when her companions are cycling too slowly. She was the perfect antidote to all the chasing and barking we’ve endured on the trip so far and I must admit I felt a little betrayed when she finally left us for some hikers heading in the other direction! Hussy.
A homage to our little canine buddy
Coatapxi was definitely the highlight of our time in Ecuador so far and a wonderful last day riding before more time off the bikes for Christmas at the beach (burgers, beer, and ice cream for lunch) and New year in Quito. Which is where we are now – recovering from our New Years eve hangovers and house sitting for a week for a lovely familu we met through Warmshowers. Another example of the incredible generosity we’ve had shown to us on the trip. It’s been nice playing house for a while, having such luxurious things as a couch, a microwave, and a table to eat our meals at. We like Quito a lot, but are ready to get moving again. Next stop…..Colombia!
Fernando, Andrea and little Samuel scoffing a burrito in Quito
Grrrls On Tour 