Ecuadorean Andes

for more pictures of volcanos, markets and highlands of the Andes click here ....

Leaving Quito
After a few days of rest in Quito – we really rested most of the time there, sleeping, cooking, eating and interneting lots, only making the occasional small trip into the city center or to a museum – we headed south on the Panamericana once more. But getting out of town in the first place was quite a challenge: Quito expands very long in a north-south direction, so after 2 ½ hours on a road in the hills above town we still had the city below and to the right of us and the traffic didn't ease down a bit for a long time. Climbing to over 3000m/9,000ft with heavy exhaust was difficult, a flat tire didn't help much either.

Finally we reached the top of the hills above Quito at 3100m and rolled down to Machachi, a small town with a big market – it seemed a wholesale market – where we got great veggie and fruit supplies for the night and next day. All the hotels in town seemed overpriced and crappy though, so we decided to camp out of town. A few more kilometers of riding took us into nice mountain scenery to “The Spotted Cow Cafe,” a beautiful little place built in an old farm where we were allowed to camp in the backyard to the side of the cute little playground (that had a small zip-line!) and in front of the horses. We had views of some beautiful volcanoes and could use the free Wifi while sipping a tasty coffee... it was one of these rare places on this side of the planet: a European-feeling coffee shop with nice ambiance, good music, great coffee, friendly staff and clean bathrooms!

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The Quilotoa Loop
The next morning took us, after a loooong climb and a short hang-on to another slow truck, past one of the highest peaks of Ecuador: Volcano Cotopaxi, snow capped and a favorite among climbing tourists. Unfortunately we didn't see any of it, as clouds, fog, rain and wind kept the views obscured and our heads down – literally. Kat resembled a frozen mummy after the roll back down from the mountain pass, so we warmed up at lunch in a small restaurant in a small town to consider our further moves.

We decided to brave the probable bad weather and make the 2-3 day circuit into the mountains to Lago Quilotoa crater lake, a deviation from the Panamericana and it's traffic, but agreed to take a bus at least over the part that wasn't on paved road. And it was a good choice: the dirt road didn't look as bad as some we had been on, but in most parts it was very steep and the weather not very great. We crossed over a ridge, deep down into a spectacular canyon and back up the other side to a small town, then changed buses to get to the town of Chugchilan with hopes of making it the last 15km (~9 miles) to the crater lake village. However, the 20km (12 miles) to Chugchilan took the bus nearly 2 hours and there was no continuing bus to Quilotoa until the morning.

So we stayed and enjoyed another quaint mountain town with several European-style hostels. Chatting with other travelers, taking the best hot shower in about a 100km radius, dinner in the wood-stove heated dining room and a comfy bed made it a nice place to stay. We arranged with the other tourists to share a pick-up ride to the crater in the morning after a great breakfast.

The crater lake was beautiful – surrounded by mountains and other volcanoes, nestled deep in the huge crater without any in- or outflow. We had good luck in cloudy-rainy Ecuador and had a few hours of no rain to hike down the crater to the lake. Hiking back up the 300m (900ft) was a little slower, but we managed well and were able to chat with other tourists visiting the park, some of whom included several other bike travelers, and also a couple from near to Kat's hometown with some common friends! Small world!

The ride back towards the Panamericana took us through unbelievable beautiful nature to our then peak height of 4010m (12,030ft) which we achieved with less effort than Kat expected. From there we rolled down hill through another market town (this one dirtier and colder than the others!) and finally into the city of Latacunga.

The Ugly Cities
Latacunga was the most disgusting place we had been in months. It topped the previous ugly cities we had passed since leaving Quito. It had an enormous, filthy market that was surprisingly open until 8pm, giving the “cleaners,” if there were any, only a few hours to sweep up before opening again in the early morning. The disgusting choice of overpriced hotels was poor, we found the least disgusting (what's another word for disgusting?) and the room we got was filled with a horrible stink, the bed felt like sleeping on bricks, the shared bathroom was filthy and we had to beg for toilet paper, and we heard noises that made us think this could have been a pay-by-the-hour hotel. We ran out of there as early as we could in the morning.

We hoped to get far from the ugly cities but unfortunately came upon another for lunch. It took us about an hour to get from the highway turn off into the center of Ambato because of the switchbacks and long road down the valley into the city below. Although not as physically ugly as Latacunga, Ambato was twice as creepy; we had bad feelings all through our miserable stay of 3 hours to find a decent place to eat, write a few emails, get supplies at a grocery store, and fix another flat tire. And then the climb back out of town took another lifetime! Uuugggghhh!

The Chimborazo Loop
Another deviation from the Panamericana was waiting for us after these ugly city experiences: the loop around Volcano Chimborazo, the highest peak of Ecuador (6310m – 18,930ft) and in the same time the point furthest from the center of the earth, due to the equatorial bulge, which is why it was believed to be the highest mountain of our planet for a long time. We only made it a few kilometers out and above of town, still within sight of Ambato, when we decided to hitchhike a little to get farther away faster. Ending up in the small indigenous community of Pilahuin, we found out that the police of the last village had been wrong and there was no hotel here, so we asked to camp behind the church.

It rained whole night, and we had to pack a soaking-wet tent and moist sleeping bags to continue our climb towards Chimborazo. But luckily the morning sky cleared up a bit soon and gave way to the amazing views onto Andean farmlands, deep valleys, distant snow-covered Volcano Cotopaxi, and finally the high-elevation wind-swept grasslands around Chimborazo, and the peak itself with its massive glaciers, icy waterfalls and rocky cliffs. The winds up here were fiercely strong, blowing us across the pavement whenever a bus or truck passed due to its “wind shadow”, and the few drops of rain we got felt like tiny icy needles piercing our faces. But the views made up for the struggle, and we reached the highest point of the loop near the climbers refuge at 4385m (13,150ft) a little out of breath but well.

The way back down into the central Andean valley was no less spectacular than the climb up. We saw lots of wild Vicuňas (look like tiny llamas) grazing on the national park grasslands, had better-than-ever views back onto Volcano Chimborazo, rolled through beautiful fertile highland valleys, some narrow canyons, small mountain villages and agricultural indigenous communities. By evening we reached Riobamba, a town in the central valley which is a major base for mountaineers of the Ecuadorian Andes and a nice place to chill out for a day after all these cold days in the mountains.

Now ahead of us is our final 10 days in Ecuador, taking us through the hip student town of Cuenca, where we will stay for a final rest, and then head towards the Peruvian border... More soon from further south!