In the last blog we left you in the mountain town of Riobamba, on the foot of the highest peak of Ecuador, Chimborazo, that we had just gone around. We had planned to take a famous train ride from Riobamba for a few hours - actually a cargo train where you can ride sitting on the roof - but unfortunately the train tracks were broken and so we continued by bike as usual.
The small town of Alausi that we reached later that day lies at the start of a great canyon called “Nariz del Diablo” - “The Devil's Nose” (where we would have gone on the train). It was a fantastic ride climbing out of Alausi over a big crest into that canyon, circling through narrow switchbacks down and down and down, and then back up again on the other side with the Devil's Nose, a so-shaped mountain range protruding into the canyon, all the time in view. By nightfall we spotted a little grassy meadow, flat in all this steep terrain just above the road, and there we camped with great views over the gorge and the mountains on the other side.
The next day we reached Cuenca – with a little help of a bus after a few hours of cycling in more and more rain. The weather in Ecuador has been very bad, nearly every day for the 3 weeks we have spent here it has been cloudy and rainy and overcast! We've had more rain here than we have had in the last 8 months all together... But... Cuenca: a really nice colonial town with beautiful plazas and churches, some interesting - if slightly odd - museums (especially the shrunken heads, real human heads shrunk to fist-size in some shamanic warrior ceremony... freaky!), and most of all our friends Diego and Beta who we met through Couchsurfing and who took us into their house: we played board-games together, went to hot springs, ate pizza, watched movies, and had lots of fun for the few days we were there. They even introduced us to the local bike club, cycled us out of town for a few hours with a friend, and surprised us with chocolates and chillies as a farewell present!! What a great combination - Kat was sooo happy!
The ride south was up and down, mostly above 3000m (9,000 ft) elevation. Fortunately, Ecuador has provided us with some major training in climbing and now every hill that we have done in the past 8 months seems easy.
However, we were still in Ecuador, so true to form it began to rain and get cold. Kat got sick with a cough and cold and was feeling bad and the riding was miserable in the cold rain so we decided to hitchhike some parts to Loja, close to the border. Once there the sky was even darker than before and the rain got more intense, so we decided to board a night bus all the way to Peru – desert, coast, sun, dryness calling for us from there. Thus our Ecuador adventure ended rather abruptly – we thought we would have a few more days in the country, but oh well, we were on the bus and out of the rain; glad to be heading towards warmer climates.
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