Ok, it really is a awesome. A country of beautiful green mountains and nothing but curvy roads often climbing to over 10,000 feet into clouds and misty rain then back down into sunshine and warm temperatures. Totally enjoyable riding with roads alternating between new four lane blacktop to pitted out gravel and mud. A little of everything I suppose. But wait, how did we get in?

Exiting Peru was pretty straightforward, a quick stamp on our passports then a stop at Aduana to get the motorcycles exported. From there we crossed a bridge into Ecuador and were waved over to the Immigration/Aduana office. From what we were hearing it would be Immigration who would give us problems if we didn’t have an official document proving we weren’t criminals. We didn’t even know how to get that or if I could… I mean, I still have the library book from 1969 on my shelf. Fortunately we connected via WhatsApp with a German expat named Hans who runs a small campground with cabanas just over the border in Ecuador. We messaged back and forth a few times and he put me on a special list for tourists.

Ok, list of the ministerio de turismo. Works for me. We walked right up to the immigration window with no one in line and presented our passports. In my best Spanish I said we were on the tourismo list. It was like she didn’t seem to care and looked bored as she was typing a bunch of stuff in her computer. I had been advised to only ask for 10 days which would make the process easier. After only about 2 minutes the stamp came out and punched our passports and we were done. It couldn’t have been easier. Did being on the list help? Maybe? Probably, but it’s hard to know for sure.

Next was Aduana to get the bikes entered into the country. Not as easy…. There were a few people ahead of us in line and it seemed to take about a half hour for each person. When it was my turn the not very happy woman looked at my paperwork and said in Spanish that I was missing something. What? I’m sure I had everything but she said I needed to go somewhere else first. I wasn’t buying it, I asked where and she couldn’t tell me and just rattled something off in fast Spanish. Nobody was behind us in line so I looked around and didn’t see anything or anywhere to go. I went back and started arguing in Spanish and she was getting a little upset and started arguing back in even faster Spanish. I have no idea what either of us were saying. Finally she said something and grabbed my stack of papers and started processing everything. It was a complicated back and forth and at one point she wanted my phone, what? I reluctantly gave it to her but she couldn’t figure out how to find what she was looking for. I found out she wanted to know my e-mail address and wanted to see it on my phone. Weird, but eventually we got it worked out and then the authorization for my motorcycle arrived a minute later via e-mail. After a while she came out to take pictures of my VIN and license plate and soon the stamps came out and a bunch of stamped and approved forms were shoved back through the window. Total time, nearly 2 hours.

In the mean time another window opened and Deby went to that one. The person helping her was much nicer and didn’t want to leave the building to take pictures of Deby’s bike so she gave Deby her phone and asked Deby to do it for her. Easy. Deby’s process was much quicker and before long we were officially entered into Ecuador!

During this process another motorcycle pulled up next to us. It was Paul and Francoise from England, riding a Harley PanAmerican. Ok, these guys are total motorcycle rockstars. On this trip they are riding from the tip of South America to Alaska. This is after they have already made an around-the-world trip on a Harley Electraglide! Here is the link to their blog: https://pandfgoingup.blogspot.com/?m=1

Of course, we invited them to visit us when they got near Seattle, I hope they do.

Francoise took a picture of us.

I would have loved to stay and chat but we were cleared to travel south so we suited up to begin our Ecuador journey. I took one more picture of Deby before we left, you can hear her saying – put down that camera, let’s go already!

It was about an hour ride to Finca Sommerwind, the establishment run by Hans who helped us across the border. Here is the picture from their website. You can catch onto the theme.

They have camping that is mostly catered towards Overlanders in big camping rigs as well as some cabanas and tiny houses. We pulled in and Hans was at the gate welcoming us and helped us get settled in. I had picked a cabin online that was one of the smaller ones with one bed. Hans pointed up the hill, way up the hill and said, “see that top cabin?, it’s above that.” Wow, ok, he directed us up a long, steep two track road. One of the camp dogs was showing us the way.

We kept climbing and climbing until we reached the Uvilla cabin. Ha, this place was awesome!

Nice view from our deck of the volcano across the valley.

Beautiful sunsets looking towards the town of Ibarra.

We had our own wifi hotspot in the cabin and this was my perch where I posted the last blog post.

It was a steep switchback foot path all the way down to the restaurant so we managed to get our exercise going back and forth. We were still getting acclimated to the 7,300 foot elevation so it was some huffing and puffing making the climb up. We stayed for two nights and got caught up on a few things. They had a washing machine we could use and clothes lines at our cabin for old fashioned air drying.

In the lower elevations, at the campground, we met another couple travelling from Alaska to Argentina on a BMW 1200 with a sidecar. Berenden and Jeannette. They were packed up and ready to go when we arrived so we didn’t really have much time to chat. They are going our general direction so maybe we’ll see them again.

Back at the cabin we were settled in and had time to play cards, read books, do some trip planning and general relaxation. The cabin interior was basic but comfortable, I don’t know why I like these pictures… everything we need is in the jumble shown here.

We were especially thankful for the Insta-pot hot water maker for morning coffee which is nowadays of the instant variety. It saved me about a hundred steps up and down the mountain for our daily caffeine fix. Another thing, this was our first “suicide shower” setup of the trip.

One knob controls the flow and then the twisted together wires heat the water at the shower head. It’s best not to think about the interaction of voltage and water in close proximity while getting clean. It was warm and we were both glad for it.

On our second day a group of almost 20 Overland vehicles arrived. They were on a 200 day guided tour through South America all the way to Alaska. Here is a link to the tour company that runs these tours every year.  https://panamericanatour.de/panamericana/

You can get an idea how big some of these rigs are.

As is typical with large groups, they were mostly busy socializing among themselves. They had a big party at night and graciously invited us to join them but we decided to have a quiet evening at our perch (oooh, a good Wordle word) with a bottle of wine on the patio and a rousing game of crazy 8’s.

Valentines Day…..

We packed up our clean clothes, clean bodies and clutched our way down the steep hill to settle our tab with Hans. We had a great stay and enjoyed the imported German beer, the onsite German bakery (yummmmm), German menu and homemade bread for breakfast. Of course I ordered the bratwurst and sauerkraut for dinner. We didn’t pay a dime the whole time and with true German efficiency Hans had the tab totaled and ready to go at checkout. It was a great stay and I would highly recommend Finca Sommerwind in Ibarra, Ecuador. Thanks Hans!

We sort of have a plan. We have 10 days to get through Ecuador which should be plenty. We also have a firm date to be in La Paz Bolivia on March 21st. That gives us about 5 weeks to finish with Ecuador and all of Peru. A little tight, maybe but we should be able to do it. We  were advised to steer clear of Quito, the capital city which worked for me. We choose a Valentines destination hotel in Banos, a small mountain town we had visited before. I found what looked like a nice place online that was only available on hotels.com. Not my favorite site because something usually goes wrong when I use them. Sure enough it was a problem.

The route took us through high elevations all day. We started at about 7,000 feet and climbed from there.

Nearly 200 miles of high elevations peaking out at over 11,000 feet. The roads were a mix of nice pavement and dirt detours at construction sites, some as long as 10 miles. At the high elevations we climbed right into the cloud layer that hovered around 9,500 feet resulting in fog, rain and cool temps. Traffic was heavy most of the way and we were constantly passing slow trucks in the mountains and riding on the shoulders at all of the construction stops. At the higher elevations I was definitely feeling a little light headed in the thin air. Then it started raining. It rained for about the last two hours before our romantic Valentines Day stop in the tourist town of Banos.

Along the way we crossed the equator which was a cool thing. We almost missed it except I had the coordinates on my phone navigation app.  We started looking when the top number got close to zero.

It’s a good thing we were paying attention because it wasn’t really marked along the road. This is the non-touristy spot for people on the Pan-American highway. The big tourist park with the huge monument is outside of Quite. Here there was just a small globe and a line. I tried to line up the bikes with the globe and “equator” line but didn’t really get it right for a good shot.

Actually the line looked a little crooked, I think I’ve heard the equator moves around a little bit, maybe that is why. This is the same spot we visited in 2013.

We arrived in Banos searching for Casa Augusto Hospedaje. We arrived at the GPS location in the rain and there was nothing there. Just a vacant city street a block off the main drag. Arrrg, I checked hotel.com on my phone for an address… nothing, no signal. Deby and I both started searching for Casa Augusto on our GPS units…. nothing. The rain was getting heavier, the day was getting later and we were stuck. We decided to ride a little further until hey, we found a sign for Casa Augusto down a back road up a hill. We followed the sign, rode past a really nice looking hotel called El Refugio. Yea, that’s what we needed, why didn’t we book there? We were on a two track road and saw a low slung four unit hotel looking thing with a sign for Casa Augusto. Nobody was around, no cars, no reception office, nothing. We were not very happy at this point so we turned around and rode back to El Refugio, screw it. I’ll loose my money at hotel.com and just try to get a nice Valentines day room at the nice place.

It was hilarious. Deby and I walked into the lobby of what was obviously a high end spa/hotel with people in robes and workers in medical looking spa clothing. I didn’t take my helmet off and we walked in leaving a steady trail of water running off our riding gear and boots. All in Spanish I asked if they had a room, yes. They asked do I want an upgrade to a nicer room, yes. We negotiated the rate a little and they took my ID and started typing into a computer. Then they called someone else over who spoke English. “Do you have Expedia.com?” Yes, but why? After some back and forth she said we had an existing reservation on Expedia. What? Arrrg, Hotels.com and Expedia.com are the same outfit and that is what came up on their computer. But wait, is this Casa Augusto? The sign says El Refugio. I just got blank looks and I really didn’t care. Someone came out and said we would need to follow them in a car to our room. Ok, now what, we didn’t really want to put on our helmets on in the rain and ride some more but we did. We followed a little silver Toyota back down the two track road up a hill past the sign I saw for Casa Augusto. I was glad we just rode past the motel style building. Finally we stopped at the end of the road and there was a wall and a steep stairway. Two people in the car jumped out and offered to help us up the stairs with our stuff….. now what.

Oh, I forgot that because it was Valentines day I booked an upgraded room with a view. We started climbing and climbing and climbing. Deby commented, when I said upgrade she didn’t think it would literally mean UP.

I went back later and took a few pictures…. that is it UP on the steep rock outcropping.

Lots’ of stairs. Once again we were up high which was great for the views but lots of steps and a long walk to the restaurant.

I must say it was a nice modern room with a huge window overlooking the valley.

The room was really nice and after we were cleaned up we needed to search for the restaurant. We were thinking nice Valentines day meal…. ha. There wasn’t really a restaurant, only a snack bar. We could have walked a mile into town in the rain or maybe got a cab but we were too tired and decided “snacks” would be ok with us. Pork chops (aka beer), chips and a flat cheese sandwich. Romantic….

It was fine. We got our exercise up the hill and watched the view, played cards and read books in the comfy bed wondering what the hey we were doing.

The day after Valentines was a much better day. Well rested and showered but still with wet riding gear we got an early start and headed out into threatening skies. I found a ‘shout cut” on Google maps to take us back south without having to go back to the main city of Ambato. It might not be paved, it wasn’t. Again we were at high elevations all day long, Anytime we approached 9,000 feet we were in the clouds and it was cool and drippy. Below that we had sun breaks but high winds. We didn’t care. The scenery was beyond spectacular riding through the high Andes.

I remembered to take a few helmet cam shots. The non-paved sections were wet but not too muddy so we had good traction.

Closer to the cities we were often behind trucks spewing the blackest of black smoke out of their exhaust pipes. I tried to get a picture a few times and this is the best I could do.

At least he had high pipes, the busses spew black soot out of a low pipe on the left side just behind the driver. When we’re passing a bus and the black soot starts shooting out into our faces it is an indicator that the bus is accelerating and will soon be cutting into our lane with us there or not. A not so clear signal to accelerate and get out of his way.

We stopped at a small village to get some water and supplies at a Supermercado.

While I went in Deby walked around and took a few pictures.

These little piggies were going to market…

This little piggy was there….

No little piggies were spared…

Ok, no more poetry. But, this was not an uncommon site in the area. We saw more dead pigs hanging up in front of shops that you could imagine. I’m not sure what this truck was hauling.

I was standing on the side of the road with my helmet on and I snuck a picture with the helmet cam of one of the indigenous locals. We saw a lot of these women in traditional dress and the ubiquitous black bolo hats. 

Of course, I don’t know what they think when they see us walking around.

Nobody really seems to care.

A much better day riding at high elevations, feeling slightly hypoxic and enjoying the day.

After about 200 miles of riding we found a place online that looked nice. Hosteria Santa Ana near the town of Azogues. We found this one on booking.com and true to form the location on the booking app was not correct. I had just enough signal to find it on Google and we pulled in for the night. We were close to the bigger city of Cuenca which is a fantastic place but we decided to stay out of town and all the traffic since it was just an overnight stay. The hotel was modern but we were the only guests there. It was just ok with very mediocre food. The next day would be the real treat.

Vilcabamba

Our goal was to get to the city of Vilcabamba which would be our last stop in Ecuador. In particular to Hostal Izhcayluna a place we visited in 2017. Ok, well it used to be called a Hostal now its a fancy Eco-resort Izhcayluna. We didn’t care, this place was one of our all time favorite places to stay anywhere in the world and we were excited to have the chance to return.

It was a good days ride. We planned it to be a short day so we could enjoy the resort arriving around two in the afternoon. The ride was another typical Ecuadoran riding day. Cool, misty in high elevations, beautiful scenery and nice curvy roads. We didn’t take many pictures. Here is a stop along the way for a gas station lunch.

Oh, I meant to mention how inexpensive gasoline is in Ecuador. Evidently it’s heavily subsidized by the government.

Those are prices in US Dollars per gallon. It’s a big jump to go from Extra to Super though.

In the early afternoon we were dropping down from the higher elevations into the valley city of Vilcabamba. The city is at about 5,000 feet in a valley surrounded by tall mountains. Because of the elevation the temperatures are warmer and nearly perfect all year. While we could see rain clouds hugging the mountains it only occasionally made it down were we were. The hostel, um, I mean Eco-lodge is run by a German guy who caters to many European visitors. Many of the signs are in Spanish, English and German. When we arrived I had reserved one of their cabins for two nights. Upon further thought, that would have us crossing the border into Peru on a Sunday. That wouldn’t work so we booked another night. Three nights in a place that is as close to my version of paradise anywhere.

I did take a few pictures. They have these giant caterpillars on some of the trees.

It’s a Frangipani Caterpillar and yes it’s poisonous. I found that out after I was sticking my finger close to it’s mouth. Is that his mouth?? In the outdoor restaurant one was crawling on the floor towards Deby’s bare feet in sandals when someone at a neighboring table called over to warn us of the danger. She said she found out the hard way.

Funny thing about the restaurant, they had a “jug” of wine on the menu. What is that? We found out it’s more like a pitcher of wine. That’s something new for us….

Ok, maybe not the most healthy of meals. Caprice salad and papas fritas but yummm.

The restaurant is open walled on the side of a cliff with a good vibe, good food and a casual nice vibe.

Once again we were in a cabana perched on the side of a cliff with a nice porch.

An excellent place for morning coffee and my online newspaper. Why are we only here three nights?

We went for a morning hike in the surround hills and took this picture looking back towards the resort. It’s a stunning setting.

So tomorrow we move on into Peru. I know we have some challenges ahead. We want to try to travel through the mountains in northern Peru. There is a small border crossing just south of us that is on a dirt road. Dirt and gravel are ok but if there is mud, that is different and not safe at all. Oh, and all that rain we’ve been having? Oh yea, it’s the rainy season here. Below is from my snarky Carrot weather app. You can see that yes, February is one of the wettest months.

Yes, average rain is 10.57 inches in February.

The border crossing is tiny. According to online reports we need to purchase motorcycle insurance for Peru but there is nowhere to buy it at the border so they give you special permission to ride to the next town to try to buy some. The mountain villages are small so there is probably not much advance booking online, we’ll just have to pull into a town and look around for a place to stay. And…. both bikes have crossed the 6,000 mile threshold for needing oil changes. It looks like we’ll be diverting to the huge crazy city of Lima to get that taken care of. All kinds of adventure ahead.

Oh, a few things… thanks for the comments! Barb, yes, after I posted the last post I saw the big picture of Jesus watching over me on the forklift. Always glad for that!.

You can watch our real time location by clicking HERE. Your can see even more of our pictures from Ecuador HERE.

Thanks for following….. Donn and Deby