Ecuador

southern Ecuador - Pan American Hwy - who needs backroads¿¿¿¿
Chimbarozzo 5:00 am time exposure
Just can´t stay away from the mountains and snow (even at the equator!)
Riobamba, Ecuador
Laguna Quilota

Parade in Riobamba

Green Parakeets

4800 meters up on Chimborrazo, highest peak in Ecuador

porker in a pan

A day at the market - Hey Joe, I´m feeling a little numb from the neck down....

we use it all

herding sheep in the country

Have been here in Otavalo, Ecuador for a few days now - nice place and a great market. Finally buyint a few things and hopefully mailing them home today. Same as usual though, the mailing costs more than the items in the package. Oh well. Ecuador is beautiful and the people are wonderful. We are just loving South America. It feels so different from Central America. Heading south tomorrow to do some more hiking. Riding is okay here - not as good as Colombia as everyone drives way faster here (could be the cheap price of gas ?), so constantly being passed and very few motos on the roads. In Columbia, everyone drove very slowly - we were the fastest things on the highway believe it or not and there were tons on motos. (Gas there was mucho expensive though)

More to come here at a later date - just lost what I had written - darn computers!!!!

Its been a while since I updated the blog and my memory is fading quickly but here goes! We did some pretty good rough road riding around Otvalo climbing Volcanoes...one piece of advice...Do NOT get a fully loaded SR650 stuck in a big mudhole (unless you have a strong woman along!)

We (or should I say I) sure learned a lesson about wandering off the main Pan American Hwy. in Ecuador! We ended up crossing the equator 4 times...don´t ask- just assume that it wasn´t our best day on the road! However we did get our pictures with one leg in the southern hemisphere the other in the northern! There are NO road signs off the main PA Hwy and way too many roads to ask locals ësta la via a...¨? We then headed out on the Quilota Loop - an awesome dirt road for the first day through some incredible mountain scenery that reminded us of a ¨green¨Copper Canyon. The rural dogs love chasing the MC´s but some geese got into the act and actually chased Lori down the road, honking with wings a flapping! We overnighted at 3800 m at the gorgeous Laguna Quilota and had a great hike happening until the fog set in and Lori (I take no respnsiblity!) got us lost!

The next day we rolled into the gorgeous city of Riobamba and spent a day exploring the town then headed out on a bus to take the famous train ride down the Diablo de Nariz (Devils Nose)...more like the Devils butt! A pretty good ride as the train tackles the switchbacks by going backwards then frontwards! At one point I opened the door and one step out of the train would have been a drop of over 100 feet! I guess it is illegal to ride on the roof (as last year two Japanese tourists were beheaded by a low wire) (unless you buy a cushion for one dollar and the money goes in the conductor´s pocket!!!)

We then headed out of Riobamba and climbed up Volcan Chimbarozzo and climbed to 4800 m on the MC´s (I just about had to push the old 650 up the last few km´s!) then climbed to over 5500 m until we got hit with a major snow storm...yes snow just a few km´s south of the Ecuator (Ecuador..ecuator...get it) We camped overnight at 4800 m and it wasn´t too bad so we are obviously pretty good at high elevation although I admit a crippled slug would have climbed faster than I at 5500m!

Instead of following the Pan American Hwy we then headed into the highlands (as if we were not high enough as it was!) and had our heaviest day of rain to date. She was more than a little cool The people were absolutely incredible and spent several hours running about town getting us some new tires. Lori also discovered broken welds all over her luggage rack (abuse, abuse and more abuse!!! she is a maniac on the rough roads) I ripped the luggage rack off (a pile of pieces, and in literally one minute a local took me to a welding shop. The welder was having a brew but cut off some bolts to use as inserts on the broken pipe and welded up the broken frame pieces perfectly...uno dollar por favor! (we gave him 5 and didn´t say anything about the darn rack costing us 250 dollars in Canada!!!)

The last few days in Ecuador really gave us a taste of some of the untouched jungle that we never got to see when travelling on or close to the Pan Am Hwy. Some pretty impressive thick jungle forests full of birds, a few snakes, lots of corners and clouds and fog. A great time for sure and we were actually sad to see the border! Crossing into Peru was absolutely painless! (as usual in SA..those rip off artists in Central America sure could learn a thing or two about greeting people into their country!!!) The border crossing was slow to say the least! The officials were way more interested in trying (!) to talk to us about our trip, bikes etc. than complete paperwork but they ended up filling out all the required MC forms in triplicate...by HAND (no photocopy machine) which took over 2 hrs. (and there were only a few lines to fill out!) in which time not a single vehicle crossed the border!

Into Peru!!!!!!

Northern Ecuador countryside

Desert Flower

Carved gourds - Otavalo market

Otavalo market color

Otavalo elder

Colombia

Cathedral Los Lajas near the Ecudaor border - Neo Gothic architecture constructed between 1928 - 1944

Nothing exists north of the USA - what happened to us?

Colombian Flag overlooking Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena

Boa - roadkill

Colombian city nestled in the mountains

Southern Colombia along the Pan American Hwy

Patchwork landscape

getting the bikes loaded on to the sailboat - carefully....

getting strapped down and ready to go

San Blas Island paradise

more of the same....

could almost run away and become a sailor......

We made it to Colombia!!! Spent 6 days sailing on the ´Melody´from Portobelo, Panama to Cartegena, Colombia. Spent 4 glorious days on the San Blas Islands. Just amazing - 350 or so small islands scattered about with white sand beaches, blue Caribean water, and coconut palms - the stuff dreams are made of. Spent time visiting the Kuna villages on one of the islands, snorkelling (saw 4 sand sharks, a huge devil ray, barracuda, and the usual assortment of beautiful colored fish), swimming and just soaking up the sun and getting a glimpse into the life of sailing the world from the other sailboats moored near us. Anyway, was an amazing time - glad we held out for this option and didn´t just fly the bikes and us into Bogata. Lori did spend some of the time at sea sick, but oh well... So now we are in Cartegena Columbia - just a beautiful city. Staying near the old historic walled city part which is amazing to see. Have spent three days here, and are leaving to head south tomorrow. Riding in the city is a bit manic, but just taking it slow and easy. (Good thing Lori is along to slow Chris down....)

Two more days to the Ecuador border and over 1200 km on Colombian roads...fantastic people, scenery (especially in the mountains north of Medellin) and some good riding. We have traded in the hot sunny, humid weather for the liquid type and we are starting to pile the clothes on when we climb the huge mountains. Lots of flood damage sure slows down the road trip and its no wonder they have problems with flooding when one looks at the massive deforestation in the mountains! None the less we have never seen a country so green (other than Cambodia) and in the high mountains this country bears some resemblence to Nepal. (except the deforestation is just for cattle grazing not growing crops) The army and police are everywhere (literally spread out every .5 km!) but are super friendly (conscription into the army is mandatory so for the most part they are literally kids) and love the bikes. Talking of which Colombia is MC territory...and no wonder with the price of fuel! Unfortunately there really isn´t much to do because it is unsafe to venture off the main roads and there is no tourist infrastructure because there are no tourists! Cartangena was absolutely wonderful...we loved it and the old city is very beautiful with a long and colorful history. So...we love Colombia! (except we are hating deisel trucks more and more everyday...definitely a major health hazard (might as well be smoking a case of butts a day!) We rode through Medellin, Colombia!!!! Felt surreal to be doing it - very cool.....

Panama

Portobelo forts at sunset

bonding with the animals

gives new meaning to the term ´riding shotgun´

Panama Canal

Panama City church

Colon waterfront

Spanish fort at San Lorenzo

another spider in the garden

campsite at playa Lajas

Playa Lajas

green tree snake

Panama City

Chris spins to the top of Volcan Baru, highest point (3475 m) in Panama

Ye ha...into Panama (our 8th country if you count Canada) and its an easy crossing and better yet cheap! Our first stop is the mountain town of Boquette which is home to more Americans than Panamanians (or it seems that way!) City size lots go for around 150,000 US! Our first trip is a run up Volcan Baru...basically 14 km of rolly rocks! She was a bit of a work out (took the 250) but I made it to the top which happens to be the tallest point in Panama. Lots of fun and I think that the 250 Hondog has forgiven me after I gave it a oil change!

The next day we headed back into the mtns on the 650 and did a fantastic hike called the Quetzel Trail. Most folks do a one way trip on the trail and use a taxi ride to return to Boquette. We decided to hike it both ways (the trail guide says 12 km each way) and it truly is a fantastic cloud forest experience. We also got to find out why they call it a rain forest! After making it to the far end of the trail we got hit with a most incredible storm...the bad news being we had to return to Boquette. In less than five minutes we were totally soaked to the skin...dry creek beds were running bank to bank etc. and we had over two hours of hiking then a 16 km MC ride back to town! We froze our butts off and even the hot shower then into sleeping bags with long johns etc. couldn't warm us up! However it was great even if I still have not found one of those darn elusive Quetzels!

Back to the beach! Next stop is Playa Lajas where we found a huge white sand beach (that we can ride the bikes down) and a neat campsite under the coconut trees. All is good until a group of young residents set up camp within 20 feet of us (and there is close to 1km of camp area) and proceeded to party, scream and basically carry on all night...sleep equals zero. I spent the night thinking of how great it was going to be to fire up the old Hondog at 6 in the morning and let er rip at 1o grand for a while. So here comes the sunrise...turkey vultures are sitting all over the coconut trees scrounging on the mass of garbage our party animals have left laying around, a dog comes over and pisses on one of their tents (good doggie!!!) then...they get up!!!! Tough dudes but I did have some revenge watching them puke!!!

The coast is just to hot for us so its back into the mountains and Parque Torres where we bounce over some rough roads to get into the park and set up camp way up in the mountains where cloud and rain cool us off. The trails are a leg surgeons dream...slippery roots and rocks everywhere and straight up and down...no wonder there are no tracks! On top of that the park rangers do not have maps and the area is covered with old trails etc. Some fun finding your way back out but I did see some neat birds including my first Trogan.

So today we crossed the Panama Canal at 11...feels fantastic to look over this piece of history that cost so many lives and is considered by some to be the 8th man made wonder in the world. We have always dreamed of visiting the canal and what better way to do it than by riding over it on MC's! Spent the day exploring Panama City.. a surprisingly small place that appears to be somewhat run down with some real sketchy looking Ghetto areas. We feel real comfortable around here and will be spending some time getting our bikes to Colombia and checking out the Panama canal and the old city of Panama Veijo.