Bloody brilliant!

Rather than head south and catch up with the few other bikers I have met I have decided to go to the coast as I have been told that the whales are jumping out of the water and really wanted to see it. It was a hard decision as I would really like to ride with someone else for a while.

When I asked Oisin (an Irish bloke I met in Anchorage who rode from Alaska to Argentina) how his trip was going he said it was all ups and downs. Then I had one of those days. I slept in, my laptop wasn’t working and I couldn’t find my bike keys. I finally got on the road and I was stopped by the police and for the second time on my trip they asked to search my panniers (which meant taking all my bags off). The police told me that my intended route had bad roads and was unsafe. So I had to go almost back to Quito which was annoying. Then I did probably my best of riding along a beautiful road winding through these huge hills. But overall it took me 13 hours to ride to the coast including almost running out of petrol as the two petrol stations I passed had no gas so I ended up buying some off this young boy. I hope those whales are worth it!

If you are going to take the long way around,check the weather first. I rode for 7 hours to Baños and five of it was in the rain and fog. The last bit made it worthwhile except for going through pitch black tunnel of waterfalls with my sunglasses on so couldn’t see anything and couldn’t stop to take them off as a bus was right behind me. They call the road the Avenue of Waterfalls.

I put off leaving Quito to go and see Ricardo Rocco who is a famous South American motorbiker who biked around the world for peace. Thanks Ricardo. I got a few tips for the rest of my trip and he helped fit my handguard back on. Then David and Brian accompanied me around town looking for brakes and spare oil filters. David very sweetly fitted them for me – thanks and all the best.

Today was Ecuador’s bicentennial. But due to excessive crowds I didn’t go to any of the celebrations and instead spent the evening with my hosts the Rota family. An excellent night with a lovely family.

Today I did my oil change and installed a new headlight. Then I walked over to meet up with Nico, an Ecuadorian who has just come back from riding around South America. He confirmed that the cops are crooked in Peru. Recommended if I was going to be traveling with my sister that maybe do Bolivia via buses and trains (I think this is a good idea). That the road I wanted to do in Paraguay is unsafe (they say that about a lot of places) but also has a lot of sand which I can’t ride through on a loaded bike. We went through a few alternative routes and he gave me some good information about the roads so I feel better about everything now.

I haven’t had that many big nights out on this trip. Drinking and riding definitely do not mix. But the few I have had with locals drinking the local specialty I definitely have felt. Here in Ecuador it is canelazo, made from brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves, orange and lime juice, and aguardiente though not the aniseed flavoured version of Colombia.

So today instead of doing the oil change and installing a new bulb I am spending the day reading a book called ‘Two Wheels Through Terror’ about an American guy who motorcycled around South American in 2001/2 and was captured by ELN. Even the non terrorists bits scared me and I am already nervous about Peru (crooked cops) and Bolivia (crooked roads).

Managed to rip my trousers zip at the airport. Luckily have a long enough shirt to hide the evidence. I made a little video of my snorkeling and diving in the Galapagos.

Turns out my boat tour is actually just three days finishing at 9am in the morning visiting the Darwin centre in the main town where we saw giant turtles and land iguanas. I finally saw a finch with a different beak.

Went to a volcanic island and saw some cool lava flows. Between stops on the islands we go snorkeling. At the end of the first snorkel a couple of sealions swam around me and on the secnd I saw a shark which I followed until I was surprised by a sea lion swimming by with a fish in isn’t mouth and a couple of penguins in the water.