Quite a number of people wished me well on my birthday and expressed the hope that I could take a day out of the saddle. No chance! Often the best part of the is trip is the time on the bike, riding on, enjoying the landscapes and being disconnected from social media for a few hours at least. 
So on my birthday I treated myself to a 70 mile ride to the capital, Quito with some spectacular views along the way. This is Imbabura. 
The first 60 miles flew by and I was in high spirits. The last 10 miles into Quito were tough and I had to take a few breaks to ease the pain. 
I stayed with a lawyer, Diego, in Quito and he left a birthday message for me on my bedroom door. In truth there weren't any big celebrationons but I was grateful to have a roof over my head and the freedom to come and go as I pleased during my stay in Quito. Good enough reason for some kind of do when I get back!
The apartment complex where I stayed, a few miles north of the city centre. 
View over part of the city centre. I'd visited Quito as a backpacker a few years ago so I had an idea of what to expect. Nevertheless it was interesting to see the city with a new perspective and, having now visited a glut of colonial towns in the Americas, I was even more impressed than first time around. 
The colonial architecture is very attractive and the centre doesn't have the gentrified feel of many other cities I've recently visited. 
Diego, my host on the left, and his sister's family. I visited their home and we tried some top notch Ecuadorian coffee. 
In the end, honestly, my time in Quito wasn't that restful. I had to spend a fair bit of time tracking down some tyres I'd ordered from the UK, finally found them in a suburban post office. Recurring stomach problems knocked me out for a day and then another day was a complete washout with heavy rain confining me to the apartment. So, on Saturday, I cut my losses and cycled on. 
(Non)views of Cotopaxi. Shrouded in cloud. I'm not going to get to see it this time, I'll have to console myself with memories from 5 years ago. 
Latacunga. 
I enjoyed a short but really interesting stay with Javier and his family in Latacunga. We stayed up late chatting and putting the world to rights. Politics was the hot topic of conversation as the second round of the Ecuadorean presidential election was held on Sunday. 
Moving on from Latacunga it was a short hop to Ambato with views of Tunguruhua. I stayed with Luis in Ambato and there were five other cyclists in his home when I arrived. 
Luis is super-active, a keen runner, mountaineer and cyclist so today he took us for a hike some of the way up Tunguruhua. This is not Luis, it's a horse.
A Brit, an Argentinian, a French and three Canadians. 
Starting at 6:30 in the morning (after a painful 4am get-up) we climbed just over 2000m to this point at 3983m (according to my phone). It was pretty chilly and, with the cloud closing in, 
we made our way back down. How my knees ached by the time we got back to the bottom! 
View of Banos during the hike.
And this is where I'm up to with the ride. I'm hoping to make Peru in the next 10 days and will be proceeding with some caution. The region from Colombia through to Peru has suffered a lot of flood damage recently and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the roads remain rideable.
No comments:
Post a Comment