Day 61 - Lasso, Ecuador
We have spent way longer in Ecuador than we intended. The country is out of this world. The scenery is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Snow-covered volcanoes seem to reach towards the moon. In a few hours you can go from hot jungle to cool pine forests to cold snow covered rocks.
Last night we stayed in Lasso, which is at the foot of Volcan Cotopaxi, the site of Ecuador´s most popular national park (but they don´t let motorcycles in - bah). The previous two nights we spent in the home of Jose Luis Rodriguez in Quito. We met Jose Friday evening at our hotel in Otalavo. He is a guide, and had just finished taking a group of French tourists on a 10-day horseback riding trek through the Andes (http://www.equateurtourisme.com/). He has a passion for motorcycles, and competes in Enduro competitions.
He was fascinated by our journey, and was soon giving us advice on where to go and what roads were the best for motorcycles (certainly not the pan-American highway). He told us that he was competing in an Enduro competition on Saturday and Sunday, but that we would be welcome to come stay in his home in Quito on Sunday night. He said he would take us up to Volcan Guagua Pichinta, elevation 4781 metres.
He recommended that we go to Volcan Cayambe on Saturday, and then ride to Quito on Sunday. We took his advice, and as I've already written, our experience on Volcan Cayambe was a fantastic adventure. If not for Jose, we would have ridden right by and probably been halfway through Peru by now.
As planned we stayed in the home of Jose and his sister Lili on Sunday night. On Monday, despite having crashed his bike and injured his leg in the Euduro competition (he still finished the race), Jose took us out for fantastic day of riding. He showed us the sights in Quito, which is a beautiful city set in a high mountain valley surrounded by Volcanoes and endless opportunities for adventure. Within minutes we were riding up the side of a mountain, stopping to take pictures of the city below and the surrounding volcanoes.
Soon we left the asphalt and started our ascent of Guagua Pichinta. The road was challenging because there were steep switchbacks covered in loose dirt. I am happy to say that two of us made it to the top without going rubber side up (and I was one of them). The higher we got, the worse our motorcycles performed. By the time we were approaching the refuge at about 4500 metres, my engine was lugging even in first gear with the throttle all the way open. Stalling in the middle of steep sandy tight corners can have disastrous consequences, and could even require roadside repairs of handguards and the like.
Ted and I left our motorcycles at the refuge, and hiked the rest of the way up to the rim of the Volcano and the summit at 4781 m (I could feel the effects of the altitude, breathing was more difficult). Jose, riding a much lighter and nimbler Honda CRF450X (and having much greater skill), managed to get his bike up a seemingly impossibly steep and rocky slope beyond the refuge. He got his bike all the way to the rim of the Volcano for a priceless photo opportunity. How many places in the world can you get a motorcycle perched on the rim of a 4781 m high Volcano? In the background, you could see steam rising from a crater in the caldera hundreds of metres below.
From the summit of Guagua Pichinta, it is possible to see the Pacific ocean on a clear day, as well as the the peaks of about a dozen other volcanoes. We couldn´t see the Pacific because there were clouds (way beneath us) stretching to the west. But we had spectacular views of Cayambe and Cotopaxi. We were lucky to have Jose as a guide. He had a wealth of information. For example, we learned that where we had camped on Cayambe was right at "the middle of the world". The glacier on Cayambe is the world´s only glacier on the equator. So the headline would have read "Two Canadians die of Hypothermia on the Equator". We also learned that the Indians had known where the middle of the world was 500 years before the arrival of the Conquistadors.
On the way down, Jose and I switched bikes. I liked the feel of the lighter Honda, once I got used to it. Later, when Ted was riding Jose's Honda and Jose was riding Ted's Suzuki, the Honda's rear tire went flat. We witnessed Jose's roadside tire repair skill. It was a lot more impressive that Ted and my feeble effort (without tire irons mind) way back in the mountains of Mexico (which seems like another lifetime already).
That night there was a party at Jose and Lili´s house. A group of friends came over to celebrate Lili´s birthday (Feliz compli anos Lili). We cooked up a big barbecue and drank Pilsener (Ecuadorian beer) and pina coladas. I broke out a bottle of good sipping rum that I had been saving since Panama. We partied into the night.
The owner of the adventure company where Jose works as a guide was there with his wife, who was originally from France. As a consequence, I was able to converse with them in French. Who would have thought that my French would come in handy in Ecuador? It was good, because only Jose and one other woman spoke English. Everyone else spoke only Spanish. Although we tried, the conversations Ted and I had with the others were pretty limited by language barriers.
We ended the night and the bottle of rum playing a card game called 40. It took me awhile to figure it out. Was it the language barrier or the Abuelo Viejo?
In the morning, Jose took us to his mechanic so we could tune-up our bikes. Both Ted and I had our fork oil changed. We also had our air filters cleaned, and Ted had his engine oil changed. We had two guys working for about 4 hours each on our bikes. I was impressed by how careful and meticulous they were. They cleaned every part they worked on, and replaced missing screws. The master mechanic even noticed that my Trail Tech computer wasn´t hooked up and took it upon himself to get it working. This proved challenging because the oversized aftermarket rotar that I had installed prevented the installation of the sensor in the normal place on the caliper mount. Instead, the mechanic had to mount it on the front of my left fork using epoxy. He even painted the whole thing silver to match the fork. Impressive.
The total bill, for both bikes including parts, oil, and labour, came to $117. I couldn´t believe it. I felt like we were stealing from them. The total cost of the labour was $60. This was for two guys working 4 hours each. Incredible.
Last night we stayed in Lasso, which is at the foot of Volcan Cotopaxi, the site of Ecuador´s most popular national park (but they don´t let motorcycles in - bah). The previous two nights we spent in the home of Jose Luis Rodriguez in Quito. We met Jose Friday evening at our hotel in Otalavo. He is a guide, and had just finished taking a group of French tourists on a 10-day horseback riding trek through the Andes (http://www.equateurtourisme.com/). He has a passion for motorcycles, and competes in Enduro competitions.
He was fascinated by our journey, and was soon giving us advice on where to go and what roads were the best for motorcycles (certainly not the pan-American highway). He told us that he was competing in an Enduro competition on Saturday and Sunday, but that we would be welcome to come stay in his home in Quito on Sunday night. He said he would take us up to Volcan Guagua Pichinta, elevation 4781 metres.
He recommended that we go to Volcan Cayambe on Saturday, and then ride to Quito on Sunday. We took his advice, and as I've already written, our experience on Volcan Cayambe was a fantastic adventure. If not for Jose, we would have ridden right by and probably been halfway through Peru by now.
As planned we stayed in the home of Jose and his sister Lili on Sunday night. On Monday, despite having crashed his bike and injured his leg in the Euduro competition (he still finished the race), Jose took us out for fantastic day of riding. He showed us the sights in Quito, which is a beautiful city set in a high mountain valley surrounded by Volcanoes and endless opportunities for adventure. Within minutes we were riding up the side of a mountain, stopping to take pictures of the city below and the surrounding volcanoes.
Soon we left the asphalt and started our ascent of Guagua Pichinta. The road was challenging because there were steep switchbacks covered in loose dirt. I am happy to say that two of us made it to the top without going rubber side up (and I was one of them). The higher we got, the worse our motorcycles performed. By the time we were approaching the refuge at about 4500 metres, my engine was lugging even in first gear with the throttle all the way open. Stalling in the middle of steep sandy tight corners can have disastrous consequences, and could even require roadside repairs of handguards and the like.
Ted and I left our motorcycles at the refuge, and hiked the rest of the way up to the rim of the Volcano and the summit at 4781 m (I could feel the effects of the altitude, breathing was more difficult). Jose, riding a much lighter and nimbler Honda CRF450X (and having much greater skill), managed to get his bike up a seemingly impossibly steep and rocky slope beyond the refuge. He got his bike all the way to the rim of the Volcano for a priceless photo opportunity. How many places in the world can you get a motorcycle perched on the rim of a 4781 m high Volcano? In the background, you could see steam rising from a crater in the caldera hundreds of metres below.
From the summit of Guagua Pichinta, it is possible to see the Pacific ocean on a clear day, as well as the the peaks of about a dozen other volcanoes. We couldn´t see the Pacific because there were clouds (way beneath us) stretching to the west. But we had spectacular views of Cayambe and Cotopaxi. We were lucky to have Jose as a guide. He had a wealth of information. For example, we learned that where we had camped on Cayambe was right at "the middle of the world". The glacier on Cayambe is the world´s only glacier on the equator. So the headline would have read "Two Canadians die of Hypothermia on the Equator". We also learned that the Indians had known where the middle of the world was 500 years before the arrival of the Conquistadors.
On the way down, Jose and I switched bikes. I liked the feel of the lighter Honda, once I got used to it. Later, when Ted was riding Jose's Honda and Jose was riding Ted's Suzuki, the Honda's rear tire went flat. We witnessed Jose's roadside tire repair skill. It was a lot more impressive that Ted and my feeble effort (without tire irons mind) way back in the mountains of Mexico (which seems like another lifetime already).
That night there was a party at Jose and Lili´s house. A group of friends came over to celebrate Lili´s birthday (Feliz compli anos Lili). We cooked up a big barbecue and drank Pilsener (Ecuadorian beer) and pina coladas. I broke out a bottle of good sipping rum that I had been saving since Panama. We partied into the night.
The owner of the adventure company where Jose works as a guide was there with his wife, who was originally from France. As a consequence, I was able to converse with them in French. Who would have thought that my French would come in handy in Ecuador? It was good, because only Jose and one other woman spoke English. Everyone else spoke only Spanish. Although we tried, the conversations Ted and I had with the others were pretty limited by language barriers.
We ended the night and the bottle of rum playing a card game called 40. It took me awhile to figure it out. Was it the language barrier or the Abuelo Viejo?
In the morning, Jose took us to his mechanic so we could tune-up our bikes. Both Ted and I had our fork oil changed. We also had our air filters cleaned, and Ted had his engine oil changed. We had two guys working for about 4 hours each on our bikes. I was impressed by how careful and meticulous they were. They cleaned every part they worked on, and replaced missing screws. The master mechanic even noticed that my Trail Tech computer wasn´t hooked up and took it upon himself to get it working. This proved challenging because the oversized aftermarket rotar that I had installed prevented the installation of the sensor in the normal place on the caliper mount. Instead, the mechanic had to mount it on the front of my left fork using epoxy. He even painted the whole thing silver to match the fork. Impressive.
The total bill, for both bikes including parts, oil, and labour, came to $117. I couldn´t believe it. I felt like we were stealing from them. The total cost of the labour was $60. This was for two guys working 4 hours each. Incredible.
Friend,
This is amazing!!! I would love to see all that you are seeing. Continue being safe. Love you dearly! Heidi
Reply to this
Tyson, I enjoy reading about your adventures,I rode the leg from Wheatley to Leamington with you and Ted.
Reply to this
hello My friends
I enyod yours coments about your visite in our country and my house It is so nice to know I could help you and to show you that in Ecuador we have a lot of site to visite, thanks so much I hope to see you again
Muchas gracias AMIGOS
sALUT
Jose Luis
Reply to this
Ecuador is a great place to visit
Reply to this
hi there, I used to follow your trip a while ago. Now, finally I got to Ecuador. Wondering, if you could give us a contact to Jose in quito? Just want to ask him some advices on off-road riding..you can send it to mail emial. cheeers guys,
Reply to this