May 18th, 9:30pm, Lima time
Latacung, Ecuador
GPS: S00 56.030, W078 36.925

So close to the equator.  And today, we froze our butts off.

Since we got in so late last night, we kinda slept in this morning.  Especially Justin.  We were worried about finding the best route across the mountains here in Ecuador.  Tiberio had given us some advice, but his directions weren't very clear, so we asked a few people at the hotel.  Anyways, we weren't on the road until 9:30am, five hours later than our start yesterday.

Ecuador, despite our bad experiences last night with the roads and checkpoints and whatnot, is a pleasure to drive through.  Drivers are less aggressive than in other South American countries, the roads are in much better condition than Peru, the scenery has a lot more to offer than any desert.

The heat, though.  Thirty degrees by 11am, and humid enough that it doesn't matter how much you sweat.  We were all going through oceans of water and were all sticking to our clothing almost as soon as we walked outside.  It's not too bad, though, once we get moving on the motorcycles.

One of the first things I noticed while driving through Ecuador in the daylight is the banana plantations.  I even saw a couple owned by Dole.  Miles and miles of banana trees stretching away as far as we could see, with cloud-wreathed mountains in the background.  All of the banana bunches on the trees are wrapped in plastic bags, which I don't quite understand.  Pest/pesticide protection?

We stopped for gas at about noon, and two SUVs full of policemen pulled up soon after, and all of them were very interested in our trip, and enthusiastic once they found out what we were doing.  Oh – before I forget, something funny – some of the police officers cruise around on little 250cc motorcycles – in pairs.  The guy on the back holds the gun.

Anyways, we got a bunch of pictures of them brandishing their assault rifles (can anyone identify the guns?), and they offered to give us an escort out of town.  Cool!  With lights flashing and sirens blaring, we ripped right out of that city, running red lights and everything.

Toll booths are free for motorcycles here in Ecuador, like Peru, and here they also have the detour lanes for bikes.  One toll booth today had a detour lane with a bump so big it might as well have been a hill, and that we couldn't get over on our bikes – we'd high-centre on 'em.  Justin and i detoured around the detour and got our motorcycles over a bit of lawn protected with some large rocks.  Sean and Rob immediately threw their bikes to the ground when they tried to go over the same terrain.

With the late start this morning, our main concern was covering enough distance today.  We didn't really show it, though – we even stopped for lunch.  We've been a couple times to one-item restaurants, and it's kinda cool – simply order by saying 'cuatro', and then food arrives.  Today it was espcially good – but that may be 'cause we didn't eat yesterday.  We got a bowl of a kind of irish stew, then lemonade, followed by fried fish with rice and for desert deep-fried banana.  Price for four meals: $6.  Anyways, Ecuador is a relatively small country, and with luck, we'd be able to at least get to the border today.

Unfortunately, we hadn't realized just how lousy the roads across the mountains were.  We'd asked one of the police officers at the gas station which was the fastest route across the mountains, and we'd followed his advice.

It didn't start out too badly, but shortly after it started raining, the paved road soon narrowed, then turned to gravel, then turned to a pitted dirt track (in some sections, the entire road surface was potholes, filled with water).  The road was so steep in places I couldn't believe it was navigable by buses and large trucks, but somehow they did it.  In some places the cliff face had eroded, leaving the road half its' normal width.  Horses, llamas (we never did see llamas in Peru), donkeys, sheep and dogs all made their appearances as mobile obstacles, while rock slides, creeks and trees helped out in their own way.

The road is so twisty that over the course of the trip over the mountains we traveled 3.5 kilometres for every actual kilometre moved forward.  It took us two and a half hours to cross just over 100 kms.  Incredible scenery, though.  I think, with this route, we saw a part of Ecuador that many people don't get to see.  Patchwork quilt farms scattered all over the mountainside, all in shades of green so bright it almost hurt to look at.

This track we were on went to the very tops of the mountains, and then stayed there for quite a while.  The temperature actually dropped down to 2 degrees C, and all of us, having dressed for 35 degrees,l were soon frozen to the core.  

Anyways, by the time we finally made it down from the mountain and back into warmer climes, the sun had long set, and we had only managed to cover just under five hundred kilometres, making this our worst day since we first started this trip.  At least we're over the mountains, and we should be well into Colombia by this time tomorrow.

Oh, yeah – as we were still climbing up the mountains over that little road thing, we crossed a wooden bridge.  I wiped out, again, going about fifteen kilometres an hour, and broke some more of my windshield off, and got mud all over my jacket.  Now I don't even have enough windshield left to support the Laminar Lip that Rob loaned me.  I really really hope Tiberio is able to find me a windshield, 'cause this is super sucky.  Oh yeah – speaking of mud.  Justin was leading over this mountain, and got quite a bit ahead of us.  I had stopped to put my gloves on, and Justin turned around to see if everything was okay.  When he turned around, a large truck that he'd passed earlier sped by him, and splattered him head-to-toe and bumper-to-bumper with mud.  Laughed by butt off when I saw how dirty he was.

Bike lay-down standings:
1st place: Ryan: 3 slides, 3 drops
2nd place: Rob: 0 slides, 8 drops
3rd place: Sean: 1 slide, 6 drops
4th place: Justin: 0 slides, 0 drops

Ryan Noble
Latacung, Ecuador

PS - Jim, yes, I sure do read your comments, and I love them.  I read them every chance I get, which unfortunately isn´t as often as I´d like.  And, no, we have not done laundry yet, but we really really need to.  Perhaps in Colombia.