we all headed out of Quito rather late in the morning. Some of the guys were not feeling too well in the morning and it seemed to take forever for everyone to get their shit together and packed on their bikes. Sacha decided to go for a ride with us too but has to come back to have his 12,000mile service done on his bike on Monday. We headed over to the Marriott Hotel and picked up Caesar who is from Mexico. It was really sort of neat to see the bellboys, men actually, bring down all his gear in little bags on a little cart and all he had to do was put them in his saddlebags. This is the high-end way of motorcycle traveling. He is really a nice guy and is taking a run at South America, as he has good partners in his businesses of construction and auto-repair.
Quito is a big city and it seemed like it took about two hours to finally find our way out of the damn city and out on the Pan American Highway. It was really too big of a group. There were the five Colombians, Sacha, Mike from South Africa on a 950KTM, Caesar, Jim and I. There seemed to be constant stopping and regrouping for gas or snacks or directions, or ????.
I finally asked Jim if he would mind breaking away from the group and just us head south and get some miles on our bikes for the day. He thought that would be ok and when everyone stopped at the Bienvenidos turnoff we finally said our good byes to the bunch.
Rex Bienvenidos X
Those Colombians were really hard to leave. I really feel a kinship with them. I was talking with them and they said that if I wanted to come back to Colombia I wouldn’t have to bring a bike, I could just use one of theirs. That is the kind of guys they are. I offered them one of my bikes if they got a chance to come up my way. It is so darn hard for Colombians to get visas I don’t know if they will be able to come, but with five bikes I think I can find something for them to ride.
Jim and I put a few miles on before it started getting late. We pulled into a fairly large town called Riobamba and we went down town to he central area. It was really weird. As I said it was a fairly big town with large building, but the town was almost deserted. The shops were mostly closed and there just weren’t any restaurants open and very few people around. Usually on a Sunday there are lots of people around. The streets were dirty too and it just had a weird feel to it. On our way out I spotted a fairly nice looking hotel next to a chicken place and we stopped and got a room. The rooms were small so we each got a room for ourselves. After a rest we went down the street to a Chinese restaurant and I ordered what was supposed to be ham and rice but turned out to be a thin little tough steak and rice with sort of a vegetable sauce. It didn’t taste very good but I ate it anyway. After getting back I started getting a headache and I had a bad one all night. In the middle of the night I went down stairs to get a aspirin out of my tank bag and found the main door to the hotel locked with a padlock. It was not a good night and when I got up in the morning and saw Jim he recommended snorking down a gator-aid or two, to get rid of the headache. Well, I had a gator-aid I had been packing since Montana and popped the seal and knocked back a big mouthful. It didn’t take long to realize I had to barf and I went over to some bushes and almost tossed my damn guts out. It is a good thing they are attached well or I would have tossed them all over the bushes.
We basted on out of there a little after seven and hit the road. Jeez, I wished I had put on more clothes, as it was chilly as could be. I think Jim said that his thermometer said 42 which doesn’t sound that cold but I have been used to warmer temps. We are at high elevation down here. the hotel in Quito was 9,200 feet and the trip today was mostly around that elevation. Jim said that he had never been riding at that elevation before when we stopped and I read over 10 thousand on the GPS.
It was a good days ride and we didn’t see any straight stretches of road today. It is hard to make much time when the roads are so curvy but I think we both liked the ride today, or at least I really did. The road for the most part was very good shape except for a short section that went in a canyon and was hard packed rough dirt. I bet that is a real bitch when it rains. There is always the rogue pothole to deal with but nothing terrible.
We made a good ride today but with the curvy roads we didn’t really make a lot of miles. Jim wants to make some miles now as he thinks that he is up against the clock on getting to the end and riding back.
1-3-06
we made a good early start this morning and headed over to the coast. The road was terribly foggy and wet.
Foggy road X
We didn’t make very good time at first since we had to be in first or second gear. We got into a really bad wet muddy stretch but fortunately it wasn’t that long a stretch. After we went over the hill we started down and finally got below the clouds. The country really opened up and it got just like Nevada. It was wonderful to not have to look at green!!!!!
Jim death valley X
When we got lower it started getting green again and finally we made it to the border. oh, yuck!! This border crossing was I guess better than most as it didn’t take us more than a couple of hours. We didn’t have to pay anything either so that was nice. We were at the Ecuador customs office getting the bikes stamped in when I decided to change my American money for some Peruvian money. I was in the middle of the transaction when Jim came out from across the street and yelled at me to get over there. I had been watching the bikes and was doing the money thing on the side. Well I was in the middle of the transaction when he yelled so I quick hurried up and changed the money. Well, it turned out that he was yelling at me because one of the cops that he was dealing with told him that there were people selling counterfeit money.
Peru border X
I don’t know if I got bad money or not but when we stopped at a little restaurant in Peru they wouldn’t take my money. We went on a little further and I was able to use one to buy water and tonight I bought the hotel room. If you change money be sure to get well-used money and not the new looking bills. Ah, the lessons to be learned the hard way.
We pulled into a little town and started looking for a place to stay. This is really different country than any I have been in. The little towns are strung along the beach and we finally found one little hotel next to the beach. I tried to talk the guy down but Jim was not doing well at all. The meal we had at noon was not good and I guess he was getting a reaction to it. I had the shits all day and needed a room to so I finally forked over my questionable money and got a room at full price of twenty bucks or seventy pesos. I immediately went in and took a good squirt and then Jim came in and threw up everything but his socks. Dang this traveling in a foreign land is a lot of fun sometimes.
Jim was not doing well, so he and I went up and sat in the shade and a little breeze. The guy that sold us the room brought the bar keep up with a bottle of something and gave Jim a shot of it to help his stomach. Well, soon he was down throwing up again but maybe that was a good thing. He finally went in the room and took a little half hour nap. We then made a run into town to check email. Gee, this is the first time no one emailed me. I guess that motorcycle dog log didn’t go over very well.
I left Jim at the Internet store and made a run back to the hotel. I stopped at a little restaurant and picked a nice table outside so I could watch the waves breaking on the shore. There were quite a few, maybe thirty or so, fishing boats anchored off shore. As I was sitting there enjoying the view a couple came out looking for a table and I motioned them over to sit with me. It turns out he is a German engineer on vacation and he had a nice looking young lady with him that he met last time he was here. Older guy, young chick syndrome…
He has been all over as most of these German guys have. He said that this year he finagled it so he had seven weeks off for vacation. Not bad. Soon, Jim came along and came to the table too. We got into a discussion of the country to the south and the German was a wealth of information. His main point was that we should stay along the coast, as the mountains are rainy this time of year. He recommended that I not even try to get up into Bolivia, as it will be rain for sure. Even the big salt lake that I sure wanted to go see is under water now. Not a good plan to ride in a salt-water puddle, eh? He says it is really cool to come down and see it during our summer. It seems like I remember guys heading to Chile in the summer to go skiing when I was in Jackson, WY. I guess I will have to miss some things this trip.
We had a pretty scary thing happen on the road today. We were down near the coast going through a little town when I started into a ninety-degree corner. As I approached a truck coming the other way started around the corner. He had a huge load of maybe cardboard boxes all flattened down. I noticed that the load shifted and was leaning way over my head as I went by. Jim thought he was a goner for sure but somehow that load stayed on. The trucker only had limbs for uprights on that truck bed but I guess they must have been out of good wood. That was the only close call today, so we figure it was an easy day.
When we got down in elevation we started seeing motorcycles again. There really were not very many motorcycles in Ecuador but we are seeing a lot of them now we are at sea level and in Peru. There are quite a few of the motorcycle three wheelers here too that they use for cabs and general transportation.
Honda-hack X
1-4-06
wow, what a day. We rode through over a hundred miles of desert. Some of it was like Arizona and some like Nevada and some sort of like the Great Salt Lake. We started out on a regular size road but it finally got smaller and smaller until it got to be a little dirt and sand trail out through a lightly forested with a sort of mesquite tree.
Dirt road X
Same big nasty thorns on it anyway. We made it back to a paved highway but it ran through a dune area and some of the dunes came across the road.
Sand highway X
Jim had never seen anything like it before but I felt right at home.
Sand ride X
We made it to a little town called Lambayeque and found a really nice hotel that would let us bring our bikes in the hotel. They didn’t seem to mind that Jim rode his bike down this twisty hall and parked it outside our room door. I left mine in the lobby as it will be locked all night as well as a person that stays there as night man. Jim just wanted to ride down the hall for the hell of it. He is really having a good time today. We made a lot of miles and saw some country that he has never seen the likes of. We went looking for a place to eat and I asked a guy where a restaurant was. He pointed down the street and when we went there, they were closed but a boy just walking out went back in and soon the mother came out and invited us in. she said she would cook us a special meal of veal and vegetables with potatoes. It was really a nice meal and we were the only ones in the room. The waiter thought he would be nice and turned on the tv to bbc and we watched a news clip over and over of the Isreal prime minister being hauled to the hospital. Then heard about how he and his family are all mixed up in a graft corruption of 3 million dollars. Same old shit for news so Jim went over and put it on mute which was very nice not to have to hear it.
We hit a little internet store and checked emails but we were both beat and needed to get back to the hotel and sleep. I have stayed up for an hour or more writing this as well as going through the photos and seeing what would be appropriate to post. I gotta go to bed now……..
1-5-06
So far about 8,500 miles. The gas in Ecuador was $2.10 gal for the super or good stuff and the regular was about a buck and a half. I used the good stuff if I could get it which was not always available. In Peru we are paying about four dollars a gallon. Wow, a twenty dollar bill got me about three bucks back in change. They use Soles down here and I am still trying to figure it out. I used the wrong pin number at a bank atm and had to call my buddy Charlie up and get the bank to reset the number. What a great friend and help mate Charlie has been. I got the warm cash the next time I tried a machine. Thanks again Charlie!!!
a few more photos
