OK, so I posted the pictures before I wrote any content this time - seemed like the thing to do at the time :)
Last posting was from Popayan in Colombia. It then took us two more days riding South before we got to Ecuador. According to the Lonely Planet book and several Colombian and traveler sources, the section of road south of Popayan was a dangerous one! We were repeatedly advised to only travel in the day, leave very early in the morning and to basically "not stop for anything". Having now ridden through without incident I think I can safely say that it was a load of bunk! There was no feeling of insecurity at all (for me), The people we saw were all going about their lives as normal, and while there was some military presence on the road, it was actually far less than in most other parts of Columbia where we have been. - Its hard to tell up front if these types of stories have validity but it'd be unwise to ignore them all completely too. You just have to head into things with your eyes open.
The scenery on this section of road was very nice and the highway was also good. On the flip side though, while the countryside looked lovely, it was all farm land... It was beautiful rolling green hills again that we have seen all through the Colombian highlands. The mountains were completely cleared of trees but the land is too steep for machines to work and crop planting is also limited - Which just leaves grazing. This makes the place look quite like some areas in New Zealand to my eye. The sad part is that there is virtually no natural habitat left in the highlands here. Apparently lots of the Colombian jungle down in the Amazon is intact (although also being cleared at a terrible rate). The mountains however are already lost to the native species. This is particularly sad since there was undoubtedly a huge diversity of fauna and flora here that must now be more or less extinct.
After the "dangerous" section of road was completed, another hotel was selected in a small city for the night. It was selected based on price and cleanliness but this time it was a poor choice since it turned out that many rooms got rented out on an "hourly" basis! It was also a Friday evening and as you can imagine, it was a noisy night... Oh well.
South again the next day. The road was again excellent and the scenery got even nicer. It took only a couple of hours to get to the boarder with Ecuador and the formalities here were quite casual and straight forward. The boarder is a large and very modern crossing unlike all the ones in Central America. It took us about an hour to get the customs and immigrations stuff done and then we headed into Ecuador with the aim of getting to Quito the capital by days end.
Ecuador seemed to be slightly poorer than Colombia but the roads were still excellent. The first thing to note of significant difference to Colombia was that the gasoline costs only about half as much - great! Again, the countryside was beautiful farm land and again I feel bad at the thought of all the native plants and animals that must have been lost here. The climate seems to be drier here (probably dependent on how far east or west of the mountain peaks we are. The road has been climbing and falling quite a bit today and we have also had direct sun and drizzling rain at various times. Over the course of the day we have had to add and remove layers of clothing at least four times - More than on any other day of riding I have had. Even the chickens here in the mountains have extra protection from the cold. ..They are incredibly fluffy and look like over grown chicks.
About an hour from Quito, the GPS on Marie's bike indicated 00 00.0000 on the latitude and switched from North readings to South. We stoped the bikes on the highway and took a picture at this random point on the road where apparently the equator runs.
Not much else to see here so we get back on the bikes and continue toward the city. As we get closer, the traffic gets congested due to the big trucks and buses on the highway and the very steep and windy road. We have both become very good at negotiating this stuff and are happy to thread our way through any available gap. This means plenty of passing on the inside (between the curb and the trucks) or on the yellow lines that divide traffic while equally dense traffic comes the other way, or any other gap that opens. Its "every man for them self" here and the locals do it too. The trick is to be absolutely fully attentive to whats going on around you and to take full responsibility for what you choose to do. I haven't felt in any significant danger doing this stuff at all but I might be getting some bad habits for driving when I get back to civilization in Vancouver :)
Not much else to see here so we get back on the bikes and continue toward the city. As we get closer, the traffic gets congested due to the big trucks and buses on the highway and the very steep and windy road. We have both become very good at negotiating this stuff and are happy to thread our way through any available gap. This means plenty of passing on the inside (between the curb and the trucks) or on the yellow lines that divide traffic while equally dense traffic comes the other way, or any other gap that opens. Its "every man for them self" here and the locals do it too. The trick is to be absolutely fully attentive to whats going on around you and to take full responsibility for what you choose to do. I haven't felt in any significant danger doing this stuff at all but I might be getting some bad habits for driving when I get back to civilization in Vancouver :)
We make it into the city at around 5pm and start the search for another hotel in another big city in another new country with minimal idea of where we are or where we want to be - Normal stuff really :)
