The life after Quito

- Hey! We're back!!

- Ow!? Hey, hi...?!

After such hard work doing so much, we needed a break. Therefore, with the agreement of both our managers, we went for long holidays within our holidays. That was nice!

Now, time to backtrack and bring you with us, down the roads from where we left the blog until today. No worries, we will split these grrrrrrreat and ammmmmmaaaazing adventures in 2 or 3 posts. So you won't have to spend a full night reading all of it - or pretend that you did.

Bye Bye Quito!!

Yep, there we were, in Quito!! Visiting the city and the stunning nature around, thanks to our two guests, Esteban and Nancy.

After two weeks, the good days in their company were at an end. To bike 2/3 of Ecuador and leave the country on time, before our tourism visas expiration, we 'only' had a bit more than one month. Esteban laughed at us when we seriously explained him that 'well, you know, by bike, and depending on the amount of steep slopes, and the wind, and-and-and...'. He then told us that a friend of him biked from Quito to the South of Ecuador within ten days. 'Wow!' That's when we remembered how much smaller Ecuador is than Colombia.

Still, we were relieved when Esteban and Nancy offered to drive us out from Quito and to bring us to Latacunga. That's why, for the second time, we stuffed their car with our bags and attached our two bikes on the roof. And let's go!

The last meal...

We arrived at Latacunga for lunch and quickly found a place, on the side of the road, with a couple of tiendas full of typical Ecuadorian dishes. Esteban parked the car, we opened the doors when suddenly, as soon as our feet touched the ground, a crow of women assaulted us with their 'venga venga venga!' and an incredible soup of words that Arthur and I were able to grab. And since each of them would yell in the exact same time, that's about what we understood:

Surrounded by yelling chickens, we decided to beat a hasty retreat and ran back into the car. In the end, we went to a huge mall! Over there, we could look at the type of restaurant available, take our time to read the menu cards and decide after all what to chose. Relieving!

That was our last meal with Esteban and Nancy. They then headed back to Quito, when we got on our our bikes and headed on the direction of the center of Latacunga.

Latacunga: the rest before a very, very - very! - long ride to the Chimborazo mountain

Latacunga is a pleasant touristic city. The center itself is very nice, with well maintained colonial buildings, enhanced at night with nice displays of light (the 2 pics below are not from us. We didn't stay long there and just didn't take time to take pictures).

View of the Cotopaxi from the car

But something else attracts tourists here: the proximity of the volcano Cotopaxi. Still active, this volcano is so high (5 900 meters) in comparison to the other mountains around, that you can see it from very far and from many different points. As for Quito's suburbs, Latacunga's location, so close to the Cotopaxi, poses a high risk because of potential volcanic eruptions, that already destroyed the city in the 18th century.

Many tourists attempt to climb the Cotopaxi. It's quite a challenge but feasible. You need 2 days. And of course, you need a special equipment since most of the climb is on ice. The first day: you train and check if you can manage the altitude. Then you leave at night and reach the summit for the early morning. And then you come back!

We didn't climb it but met a couple who did it. They suffered quite a lot but loved the experience! For us, we didn't know it yet, but we would have our share of climb a couple of days later...

Climbing (and climbing, and climbing...!!!) till the feet of the Chimborazo mountain

Well. We in fact first went a bit down, just to make the following days more difficult - 'love it!!
Let's look at our path on a map - including altitudes, if you please.

From Latacunga, we biked until a nice village - we never understood the name of it... We liked the small church so hop! Here it is! And who knows... if anyone finds his way over there, maybe we'll finally have the name of this town!



On the other side of the church's street, we found a restaurant with a menu del dia. In other words, a cheap way to eat enough for the rest of the day!

Refilled, we left the village and some children, happily playing with the wind from the roofs of their houses.

From there, we started a climb, entering more and more this other world so specific to the high Andes and discovering its beauties.


The higher you go, the rougher the lands are, eroded by the wind and the rain - but still so green, thanks to the amount of rain, pouring all the way at a certain period of the year - thankfully not when we traveled there!


In this area, it is quite usual to sea the kind of houses on the picture below. You can barely distinguish them from the rest of the fields.

The landscapes we biked through were, once again, beautiful. The light over there - and maybe at this time of the year - gives a great touch to the predominant nature.

After a couple of hours of climb we started going down, following the road to reach Ambato.

AMBATO

We Arrived in Ambato quite early. Which was perfect, since we had then the time - as if we never had it before...- to clean the chains of our bikes...
We found a hostel with enough place to fit our bikes in, took our clothes off to start working on our bikes. This can sound very hot and porny but believe us, it's just super dirty!!!

A big bottle of fuel, some plastic bags to cover your hands, an old tooth brush and here you go! One by one, we parked our bikes in the bath, detached the chains, put them in the fuel, and in the same time, we brushed the front and back sprockets. A huge mess!! And a very strong smell.

Our sprockets cleaned and our chains hanging to dry, we opened the windows and left the room to inhale some fresh air, visit the city and grab a bite.


Busy, noisy and a huge mix of citizens and indigenous people: that's how we would describe Ambato.


The great thing though, is that the indigenous people sell a lot of fruits, vegetables and snacks for nothing. Therefore my favorite Dutch cracked heavily...


For this amount of mandarines, you would pay between 1 and 2 dollars.






The following day, we decided to leave the Panamericana. Biking on side roads is so much nicer!

So we left the busy city, its busy streets, said goodbye to the Panam' and entered the wild world...!! From there, we biked one of our hardest climb since the beginning of our trip - it reminded us some parts of Columbia and our legs confirmed this feeling... (editor note: Anaelle forgot to mention the small detail that we took this road by accident, and got ourselves in the hardest climb we ever did with our bikes!)

ONE NIGHT IN A INDIGENOUS VILLAGE

So we biked up, and up, and up, and up, and - ok you got it.

And the more up you bike, the colder you feel - yep!

Freezing chica - but it was nothing in comparison to 'more up'!!

Thankfully, life is good and always puts on your path some small restaurant where you can eat a warm soup - well, this one stayed warm 5 minutes but hey, at least that was something!

What? Because it's freezing here you think they have a chimney or any kind of heater in the rooms?? NADA! You sweet dreamer... They are just over-über-covered with warm clothes. And they eat soups. Fast.


Anyway, we were all happy to warm up a bit before biking again, knowing that we guessed that we would have to camp somewhere, hopefully protected enough from the wind - and the cold that goes with it...

The last part before we found a place to camp was tough because of the increasing force of the wind. And, believe it or not, because of the effect of the altitude on our pace!! There has been a moment when I (Anaëlle) have observed my speed. I couldn't help thinking that I was paddling in slow motion. I was sooooo slooooooooooow!!!!

Around 5 o'clock, when we were looking for a sweet spot to set up our tent, a village popped up from nowhere, in the middle of an empty space... We biked down the path to reach it and... and the fun started. This village was an indigenous village. Lost in the high mountains of Ecuador. We first asked for a possible place to set up our tent but these people first needed to check our soul... So they looked at us, talked to us, weighted who we were - built trust.




After 20 minutes of talking about nothing and everything, one family suggested to set up the tent... in their house! We first doubted a bit about the necessity of being that much inside, until we felt a thick blanket of cold and wet falling slowly on the village.



As always in these countries, people are so welcoming that they invited us for diner. And as always since we travel, we shared something with them. Included a magazine in Spanish about the world economy. The woman of the couple dived so much in it and went through all the pages so we decided to give it to her. We are so good to mankind...

The night has been cold. We both slept in the house, in our tent, in our sleeping bags and... in our ski outfits. And that was not too much!! Ow and of course, we have to tell this one: Arthur had the weirdest experience ever when, as walking to the toilets, he saw one of the indigenous girls sitting on the throne, her butt thankfully hidden with the amount of layers of skirts she was wearing. A bit surprised in action, she slammed the door. It took Arthur quite some days to get rid of this image...! And I guess this woman learned now to close the toilets' door of the toilets... (Arthur: brrrrrr...)

Early awaken and all packed, we left the indigenous village, with great souvenirs - one apart :-)

After some hard work and quite some kilometers, the type of landscape changed from green to 'above the tree line' area.

Very up... Very windy...

Very much in construction too!

So yes, once again, it was hard work but quite worth!!

Beautiful environment to work in! Cold though...!

ET hop! Un p'tit panorama!!

A pause - is there Internet here?? Aha. So much humor. I'm rolling on the floor... Mega LOL.

FROM A BIG DOUBT AT CHIMBORAZO TO GUARANDA

I guess we'll never forget this.

We were paddling around the Chimborazo mountain, looking for the road to Riobamba, the next stop we had in mind. At a cross road, we saw two signs, pointing the same direction, about 20 meters from each other. One says 'Riobamba - 45 km' the other one 'Riobamba - 72 km'... Find the difference...! Annoyed by the recurrent lack of accuracy since we travel, we decided to change plan and to take the other path.

We had no clue where this would end.
This has been one of our best decision!!

GUARANDA!!

Que liiiiindaaaaaa!!!!!

Guaranda is not beautiful for its buildings. You can't compare it to the center of Quito or to Cuenca. But Guaranda has a very nice soul. And the kindness of the hostel's owner we chose to spend some days in may also have helped...!

The first terrace - laundry area.

As always, we look for a cheap hostal with a terrace - which they often have on the roof. Up there, we bring a coffee, a fresh juice or a nice fresh beer when it's too warm, some snacks to go with it and we contemplate the scenery...

Guaranda surrounded by mountains

One of the street down our hostel

View from our hostel - Zoom on one house

One characteristic of Guranda, due to its location on the side of a mountain, are its very steep streets. Believe us, when you went down the streets by bike, even if you may find a cheaper hostel back up, you stay where you are...!

During these days in Guranda, we finished to clean our bikes and check the gears and we took time to discover the city.
Walking around, we found a very special and colorful restaurant and coffee place: Los 7 Santos.

To be honest, the coffee is gross. You'd better eat there or take a juice. But the kindness of the owner and the charms of the place are worth it!

After understanding where we were on the map - yeepee!! - with the help of the hostel owner, we decided to leave for the next village, both of us so sexy on our super-clean bikes!!

Chimborazo

The top of the Chimborazo watching us, we started a new sunny and sporty day. On that aspect, we have been quite lucky with the weather. Except a couple of hours in Columbia, where it's so warm anyway that's you don't really care, we've never have been stuck in the middle of nowhere, freezing under a pouring rain.

So, anyway, here we were, biking up and down through the beauty of the Ecuadorian Andes.

At some point, we passed by a village. The time to admire the place and my sweet Dutchy has been attacked by an indigenous woman, strongly determined to sell him some kilos of oranges.


From here, I thought they were just chatting. But when I came closer, I understood Arthur was close to explode!

What ever he would say, she was sticking to him, trying everything to sell her 'naranjas muy baratas'!! Then she saw me and I was her new friend.


That's when you are happy you are not walking but you have a bike. Hop! We quickly left. And dived into nature for the best...

THE BIG DOWN-HILL RACING above the clouds :-)

Yeaaaaaaah... Very nice moment.

For two reasons.

First, the road suddenly went down hill, non stop! Kind of a holiday feeling for your legs!

Then, since we were in fact on the other side of a mountain pass, we have been both flabbergasted by the stunning view above the clouds, stretching above the lands for kilometers! You know the milky way in the sky: that was the milky blanket on earth. The one that never ends.

A pure beauty!

Two happy eggs above the clouds :-)

So we took a couple of pictures, had a chat with two girls who also stopped for the view, and finally thought that, by the way, we now had to dive into those clouds... Outch.

In the clouds

Yep. That visibility, this jacket that you put back on, those too long hair that grasp each particle of humidity!!!


We went down a long time on that road and in these clouds. Not easy when you have to avoid the cars going up and down without their lights - ow please, come one, don't tell me you still think that they will avoid you...!


After all, we entered a small town at the foot of the mountain: Montalvo.


And yes the picture below has been taken the day after, when the clouds finally let the sun go through.

Below the clouds - a night in Montalvo

Colorful, nice and small, inhabited by friendly people and enjoying a comfortable sub-tropical climate

Montalvo is located quite low on the mountain side. With or without clouds, you can feel it by the warmth you live in. This village is known for the amount of rios that flow down close to it and give to the area a huge amount of humidity - ow really??!!

We first found a nice hostel where unfortunately there was no place anymore. But - remember? - people are the sweetest hearts ever (as long as they don't drive, right). So the owner of the hostel brought us by car to another one. Yes, by car. Which was great, because if the downhill part was fun, going back uphill would have been quite tough!!

By by Lapin Crétin

Please now a moment of attention. During this short car trip, our mascot, Le Lapin Crétin, decided to jump from Anaëlle's bike and to leave us. We guess he appreciated the place... And even if we grieve, we hope he is happy and found another rabbit as idiot as he was! Loooooove youuuuuu!!!!!!

Next to come: the life after Montalvo.

Kisses and love from
Arturo y Anaaaaa eeeelle