COLOMBING DOWN THROUGH THE ECUADOOR

Caucasia Colombia

to

Cuenca Ecuador

Listening to Runnin Down a Dream Tom Petty

Sixty six years old and gone. We're all runnin down a dream it's 

just that we get off track...time to get back on!

Passing to the left of me... 

Passing to the Right...

Here I am stuck behind trucks again!

I flick the KLR to the far right of the bus to get a look through the rain up the  road through the next right hand curve...hmm another semi in front stuck behind a cattle truck who can't seem to pass a moto.  "F!@#!"  The bastard bus brakes as I flip up my wet visor for the zillionth time while braking while flicking while trying to avoid the Renault Duster that's just driven up beside me to fill the non existent gap I've just not left. "Shit." I lock the back wheel letting the mongrel Duster into my space then flick back behind him to the left, gun the KLR  and pass both Duster and Bus through blinding spray on the next left hand hairpin and wedge myself in between the semi and the bus just in time to miss decorating the chrome grille on the International semi coming the other way...and this is...all day every day!

Yep just another day on Colombian roads.

Colombian Fact File.

Fact...

Colombia is absolutely beautiful.

Fact...

Colombia has fantastic winding roads.

Fact...

Colombia has a huge motorcycle culture.

Fact...

Colombians love tourists.

Spoiler Facts...

Colombia has the slowest trucks  in I've seen with the worst attitude...

It's rained every day I've been here...

...both which mess with the first four  facts! 

How to have it all...in one day!
The hotel in Caucasia is pretty good...and I'm feelin kinda sluggish...hmm gotta go. I head down highway 25 which drops down and follows a winding river. It's a picture book of Colombian country life as I pass through village after village. Seems almost the whole road is populated with shanties along the river on one side and others butted up to jungle cliffs on the other. Weirdly all along the road hoses spurt water high up in the air advertising vehicle washing and people work away scrubbing trucks and cars beside the road. I can only think the water must be free as there is literally hundreds of hoses wasting water along the whole way.  The road turns over a bridge and I wind my way upwards into the mountains. I get my first dose of Colombian truck culture as multiple diesel belching trucks become walking pace chicanes. It's hard work as I slog my way past several kilometre long lines of semis banked up behind landslides and breakdowns. As I climb towards three thousand metres it buckets with freezing rain and I'm cold for the first time in ages but the landscape is gobsmacking. I give in to the elements and grab a coffee at a roadside hovel next to a servo and watch all the trucks repass me. The weather brightens back into steaming humidity as I ride over the top and down towards Medellin. The KLR becomes a spitfire diving through squadrons of crawling trucks the exhaust spraying them with staccatoed racket as I pass.The mountainous landscape is nuts stunning on the way down but I'm kept busy constantly rounding up trucks on the all sides of the road.  I scoot onto highway 60 past Medellin with lovely dual lanes ignoring the ridiculous speed limits and then turn onto an ultra winding misty wet jungle road. It's getting late and I shun the trendy eco hotels and hostels and grab a cheapy motel after playing guess the price with the owner. That night we have a truly monster thunderstorm with the loudest thunder I've ever heard. The river next to the hotel rises over it's banks and floods out the restaurant over the road.  The storm causes landslides all along the highway blocking traffic and thankfully holding back the trucks for a hassle free blast the next morning!
Winner!
Rivers, Mountains, Freezing rain, Humidity, Jungles, floods...Sensory Overload!

These villages dot he river almost the whole way. You can see every
aspect of life on the river just riding by.  

Into the mountains we go.

Yep I've showed so many pictures of mountains cloaked in cloud .
What I really want is no clouds.

Yep might wait a sec before pulling out...

Time for a coffee so the trucks can repass. Love the saloon doors
on the toilet...no hold ups when you're in a hurry. Might 
get them fitted when I get home.

 Unfortunately you have to stop to take these shots...not big on stopping.
Looks like my camera is wet again!

Si Wifi...Si air conditioner...$80000 NO NO Si!
Aaaar Si $40000 ($16)

Uuuum I think I'll give the shower a miss...and perhaps bottled water
to brush my teeth...

Right, you lot hold the trucks back and I'll do a runner!

My private race track for a day!
I follow the highway 45 down through Espinal staying at a truckstop near Neiva for only $12au. The landscape has transformed from jungle into an endless dry barren valley with mountains on both sides. It's kinda odd after all the green for the last month although my arrival invites another big storm overnight! The next bit bothers me as I'm on course to have to travel what is known as the Trampoline of Death or the Mocoa to Pasto road. It's a destination for many riders and has recorded many deaths over the years. To be honest I'm here at the wrong time of the year and riding through rain and sludge on the side of mountainous cliffs dodging trucks doesn't really interest me. I stop for breaky at a roadside restaurant and the owner speaks English. We have a chat and he recommends what he thinks is a better ride through the mountains over some dirt roads to Popayan and then I can go straight down to Ecuador.

Space station style truck stop. Drawing trucks in with it's tractor beam...
...or more likely only $12 a night with air con or $8 without!

Hmm...haven't woken up to one of those for a while!

Sunshine, empty roads, mountains...oh yes.

This is why you gotta keep a little  bit of a margin in reserve, phew!

Aaaand into the dirt we go.

This is weird but I have a shot from Mongolia that curiously
looks just like this.

Ok the road ends at the river...now where...look up Deano...
...oh Ok 

It's so quiet along here the roadworks guys blocked the road
for 45 minutes loading up their semi. Who knew a pesky KLR
rider from Australia would roll up?

Oi Dobbin get off my track...no er Ok maybe Trigger Blaze
  Flicka Silver, Beauty perhaps...Old Mate?
Ok I'm out I'll wait.

Ah what the hell I'll cross the border.
The next day I set off thinking I'll head towards the border, maybe grab a hotel and work out the in and outs of crossing into Ecuador and what I'm gonna do then. It's a lovely ride with OK cooler weather, scenery and twisty roads to die for, and best of all not too many trucks. I hum along enjoying myself and as I'm a planless dolt I figure this is going well, why stop  now, let's hit the border and see what happens...
Two hours later and no hassles what so ever I'm in Ecuador...huh...awesome!

Oops...not sure how you'd manage this.

I Love Ecuador.
Have you ever seen one of those topographical models builders and planners use. You know where you look down onto a slice of the world looking at green mountains and towns and roads and you feel like some sort of giant? When you enter Ecuador you zip straight up to around three thousand metres and this immense 360 degree panorama stretches around you. You can't photograph it, you just gotta be here, or at least I can't photograph it. You could sit for hours just enjoying the tiny detail of it all. It's beautiful. Towering mountains, deep green zigzagging valleys with seemingly tiny rivers at the bottom, red and white dotted colours of towns and villages that cling to and run over impossible slopes, roads that wind around one side of bottomless gaping valleys and around the other side a half hour later...as I said beautiful. Straight away both road and road manners improve and it's a relief and a joy to relax,  fang the curves and put away some kilometres. 
This is it. This is the place. 
The best place I've visited so far on the trip!

Listening to 
Night On Bald Mountain  
Modest Mussorgsky/Fantasia Version
When was the last time you pulled out Disney's Fantasia, plugged it into some serious amplification, grabbed a bag of Fantales and sat back totally beguiled by one of the best animated films and music scores ever released. Released around 1940 it is still absolutely kickass entertainment. Zooming through the immense Ecuadorian landscape listening to Night on Bald Mountain is a natural fit...might be even better at night!

First fuel stop in Ecuador...check out the scenery!

Now that it's cold one has stop to relieve ones self more often...
nothing like a wee with a view.

You can see the road on the other side of the valley I'll be zooming
along in about half an hour.

Taken over my shoulder on a crazy slopey road.
Gotta take care not to roll back and squish the
lady behind.

Nothing like a good sit and maybe a snooze of an afternoon.
(Pardon the grammar but that's how my dad would have put it!)

One wrong step means almost trip over for Deano!
The first night I spend in Ecuador is the weirdest and almost the last night of the trip. I stop outside what looks like a walled hotel and the owner comes out and we parley over the price. He opens the gate and I ride into...an enormous empty theme park...hmm OK. He leads me past rows of weird cabins to my own weird cabin right at the back of the park next to an enormous water slide. Right...hmm I'm the only one here. Ok. I dump my gear and cheer out load when I notice the shower has two taps, yes folks, hot water water at last! First time since I can't remember! I head to the enormous restaurant for dinner and eat...all alone. 
Now this is the scary bit.
Later back in the cabin I head into the bathroom with the lights off and find there's a big step down to the floor. I miss the step and free fall headfirst smashing the side of my head into the basin before spinning around and mashing my shoulder into the wall. I sit there a while with blood running down my neck and shoulder fully disorientated. I can't find my glasses, my ear is totally mashed, my head's blowing up like a balloon and I can't work my jaw...shit this isn't good. F!@k! I grab a towel stick it under the tap and stem the bleeding from my ear. I stagger about for a while not knowing what to do. I have this weird picture of being found dead in the back of a lonesome theme park somewhere in Ecuador...aarm yeh naaah I'll be Ok. For some reason I try to watch the X factor in Spanish for a while with my head throbbing like crazy and my back killing me before downing some panadols and dropping into a really deep sleep. The next morning I feel like I've done a round with Mike Tyson (cue chewed up ear). I Face Time Marianne and tell her I'm Okish so as not to upset her before hitting the road. Getting the helmet on over my head and ear is murder but once I get going I'm better on the bike than on my feet...winner. Halfway through the day I really feel like a snooze (yeh yeh I know my body's telling me something) so I smash down some coffee and find a hotel straight away in Riobamba. Two days later I'm on the mend with my swollen head going down slowly and my ear's still a bit off a mess. My back and shoulder are Okish although my jaw's still pretty stiff.  
What's Spanish for "with a straw please?"

Um Wally World perhaps? 

Riobamber and Cuenca
After sorting my luggage and parking I go for a wander around Riobamber. I'm staying at the Apart Humboltd Hostal which is quirky as and pretty cool. It's fully kitted with 60's furniture giving it a genuine Faulty Towers feel and is spotless. The people running it were lovely and all spoke pretty good English. Riobamber turns out to be have a pumping nightlife with a huge restaurant and bar strip. It's a big night in town with Ecuador playing Chile and every bar has a huge telly covering the match. I bump up my diminishing cholesterol level at Kentucky fried and return to bed feeling more contented than in a long time despite my injuries.The next morning I head down highway 35 for another magnificent ride with very little traffic to Cuenca. I get knocked back at La Gardenia Hotel which is a stroke of luck as the Hostal Ines Maria round the corner is a winner. It's priced Ok, the staff are super polite, the room is great and it has a good free breakfast. I'm here for a couple of nights so I head out for a look around. This is one place I would have no probs bringing Marianne to or any of the family really. It's like a little part of Spain. There are streets and streets of small quality shops selling everything from shoes to motorcycles. Yep the motorcycles seem to be sold in the  white goods shops next to washing machines and fridges. Hope that doesn't catch on at home or I'll be knocking out Fisher and Paykel  and Kelvinater parts alongside shiny Harley stuff! There are multiple churches and museums to peruse as you wander about dodging well dressed younger families and traditionally dressed older Ecuadorians on the narrow footpaths. It's a genuinely friendly interesting place, put it on your must see list!
 Curiously the first day in South America that I don't ride the bike and it doesn't rain...is it me?

Hmm pity it' won't fit in the pannier...tasty.

Riobamber was pumping with Ecuador playing Chile...which Ecuador lost.
Hey mate I think something's burning there.

The mighty Humboltd...might be where Manuel from
Faulty Towers trained...
...oh no that's right  "He's from Barcelona"

If I could describe travelling on your own on you're own in a word it would be motivation. Every day every minute you've got to plan and keep on top of eating, washing. route planing etc etc. Lose motivation and it all grinds to a stop. Sometimes you have more motivation than others though...best wash your socks out on that day.

Anywhere with Spanish influence you'll find an abundance of churches.

The Hostal Ines Maria. A great place to stay although I had to park
my moto in a garage just down the street which actually worked out well.

This church looked better from a distance and after walking
half a K downhill to it I decided the long shot was better!

There was  a thriving flower market a block or so from my hotel.
 Allergy sufferers beware!

There seem to be a large number of Ecuadorians still wearing
 traditional dress. Whether this is for tourism or what I dunno
but it works with the old city and surroundings.

I headed inside this huge church which has mass several times a day.
I've seen a few of churches round the globe and this one was pretty good
with pink marble floors with lots of gold around the alter.
 Ah those crazy Christians.

Listening to 
Because I Love You
Masters Apprentices
For Marianne's birthday.
 Thirty six years married...how lucky am I!

Reality Check No.12
As expected I'm a bit secondhand. I've just done seven days straight on the bike from Cartagena and banged myself around a bit so fair enough. I like moving though. It completely envelopes me and keep thoughts of loneliness and home at bay. It's Marianne's birthday today and with a day off I'm struggling. Tomorrow I'll pack my gear and head off towards Peru and more stuff to see. It's hard striking a balance between being a traveller and a tourist. There's an expectation that you should stop and see everything but really, I'm just riding past soaking up what the road offers with the final destination being, well, home.  
Yep gotta keep moving and seeing!

Reality Check Update
Well the bang on the head or something finally caught up with me. After getting seriously ill for a couple of days in Cuenca I finally had to head to a doctor. Lots of Google translate and emails to travel insurance and some Xrays later seems all is wellish. After four days hopefully back on the road tomorrow and can't wait to get moving again!

Next Blog 
Back on the bike and  heading off the main highway to a hippy village in  Ecuador and then hopefully pass the border into Peru! 
Cheers Dean