Cali
 

Starting out in the rain from the Hacienda we were sad to leave, but the rain did not last long. The drive is scenic and the only 4- lane road we have been on so far.

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Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 7.39.27 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Arriving in Cali we headed for the famous Casa Blanca Hostel and Moto shop Motolombia run by Mike and Diana.

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IMG_2348 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07579 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Fellow rider from Alabama and Casa Blanca guest Armando welcomed us. It’s not every day you meet a rider who was born in Ushuaia.

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to pasto 3 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The hostel is in a great location for travelers and bikers especially. Mike at Motolombia can help you out for sure. Just up the street Sammy at Motoluxury has all you lubricantes and for us good quality chain lube for cheaper than home.

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IMG_2354 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


We settled in and relaxed.

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cali 6 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr



The next day was moto maintenance. Bold tightening, power washing, and inspection. Daniel had planned to change our tires from Huston in Santiago, but looking at his they will not make it.


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cali 27 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Ok look up tires on the internet and get the address from the GPS. Then drive all the way across town to the address, but no shop. Heading back in traffic we luckily made a wrong turn, because when we were coming around the block Gabriel drove up beside us on his 1150R and said “do you speak Spanish?” I said no English, and he switched to English and said “ do you know where to go in town for BMW?” Long story short he suggested the exact place we were looking for Astrias motoroservico, and stopped to give us direction and several other contacts and connections. Thank you so much!


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DSC07587 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Funny story in the end the Asturias shop is 3 blocks from the hostel. This is where all the BMW work in town is done by Jorge and not at the BMW dealership. They were very helpful and called the Heidinau distributor in Bogota and had the tires shipped the same day.

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DSC07590 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07592 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 32 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Another great contact that Gabriel gave us was Alain, who just happen to come by the shop when we were there. He has been up and down South America many times.

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cali 26 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

I decided that I was sick of restaurant food so we whipped up a good home cooked meal.

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cali 36 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Since we are stuck on this side of the protestors we have to find something to do and North of Cali. Today we headed out towards Darien and around the lake. Following the GPS initially we detoured for a bit off road, and then we did it the old fashioned way and asked directions and had to back track to the route around the mountains to the lake.

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Screen Shot 2013-10-19 at 7.02.37 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 45 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 47 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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cali 48 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 50 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We took a side trip to the town of Restrepo for a snack and a cold drink. There is a nice church here.

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cali 65 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 52 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 54 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 53 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 57 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 55 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The route around the lake is very windy and scenic. We waited out a short rainstorm at the postre stand on the side of the road.

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Screen Shot 2013-10-19 at 7.02.54 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 58 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 59 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 61 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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cali 63 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Don't go to Beunaventura
 

Well the road is still closed so we decided we were up for an adventure. We headed north to Beunoventura.

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Screen Shot 2013-10-25 at 5.21.00 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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buenaventura 8 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Half way there is started to pour rain and we had a brake under an overpass with the military guys.

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buenaventura 11 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Arriving we stopped at the police station and they advised we “ go to the islands”. We parked the bikes inside at the station and the officer drove us to the docks.

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buenaventura 12 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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Image 4 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Its not often you get to ride in the back of a police car.

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buenaventura 18 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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buenaventura 19 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Here is where it falls apart. This is the first bad experience like this we have had in a year. The boat is 28 per person, but we get charged 40. We are in the front of the launch and get soaked in the rain and salt spray for 25 min. We are taken to a “beach” with no dock and very big waves and are expected to wade to shore. We do and then arrive at the “hotel” where we were told it was 30,000P a room, but now he wants 90,000 per person. This place is a S*^t hole.

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buenaventura 22 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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buenaventura 24 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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buenaventura 26 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Now we are all mad so we insist on returning to town. Arriving back in town a very nice cabby drives us to a few hotels until we find a nice one with secure parking for 40,000 per room including breakfast. Then he takes us to the police to get the bikes and then drives us back to the hotel.

It was raining so hard here that the streets filled with water and the kids were actually swimming in the street.

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Image 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We had heard from the police that the road was going to open Monday afternoon, so we got up early and headed back to Cali.

Finally the road to Pasto is open
 

We decided to dry out and go the next day all the way to Pasto.

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Screen Shot 2013-10-25 at 3.50.48 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07642 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

What was interesting is that there was no news or Internet coverage of the road closure at all. We initially heard of it from an Argentinean newspaper. Also the super nice people at Hacienda Guayabal in Chinchina emailed us to warn us that the road was closed. The first coverage in Colombia was the day after the road opened.

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to pasto 1 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to pasto 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Leaving town the highway 25 heads right thru the market area. You can imagine how the meat cart smells in the heat.

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to pasto 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We were stopped by police on the road to Popayan and were told the road was open now, but that the local planned to block it again in the next few hours. Here the police are checking our “Dian papers” (see below).

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to pasto 7 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


On this very windy steep pass we ran into Daniel and Fabien who are hard-core dudes.

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to pasto 9 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to pasto 10 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


We passed this couple on an overland trip of their own.

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to pasto 18 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


After a few more stops for police checks and quite a bit of construction we arrived in Pasto after 385 km and 7 hours in the rain. We found a good hotel with a great kebab place two blocks away.

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FILE2704 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to pasto 26 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

South toward Ecuador
 

We got ourselves slowly packed up for the 84 km to Ipiales at the border of Ecuador, since we expected a quick drive to Tulcan just across on the Ecuador side.

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Screen Shot 2013-10-25 at 3.53.22 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Our first issue was when we passed a long line of cars and trucks and then a police van, which we found out, was following a group of bike riders. What he said on the loudspeaker to us we did not get.

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to tulcan 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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to tulcan 3 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


The road was eerily empty this should have been a sign. About 5 km later we were stopped and told we needed to wait tunill we were told the road was open. It was a power trip since 5 min later we were “free to go”. Next the road was blocked because of an accident and we needed to wait for it to be cleared.

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to tulcan 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 4 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Then we ran into the last of the Fondo bikers for which they were blocking the Pan-American Highway in both directions. The rest had already reached Ipiales. He was going about 8 km an hour. We gave up and stopped at a house and asked to buy water.

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to tulcan 6 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

One of the things we wanted to see since we left home was the Santuario de Las Lajas, which is just outside of Ipiales. It is a Dominican church built over a canyon.

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to tulcan 10 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 60 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr



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to tulcan 11 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 55 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 25 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 21 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 54 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 23 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 34 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 38 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 50 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 41 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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to tulcan 57 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 58 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The church is built right on the wall of the canyon and the back of the alter is the rock of the cliff.

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to tulcan 33 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 28 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 27 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Country number 12 Ecuador
 

Then we headed the short distance to the border. Arriving at Rumichaca the first thing you see is the huge Dian sign. Don’t stop there keep driving around the back to the big parking lot.

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to tulcan 62 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Head up the stairs to get your passport exit stamp.

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to tulcan 75 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Next you head out back to the Dian Office. Here is where it gets funny. We had been given a carbon copy of “our permits” in Bogota, which we had been handing out to the police. Armando pulled out this huge stack of papers to had in and Dan said “ what is all that”? Long story short we were never given the papers, but because it was the Dian officers fault they just sorted it out for us right there.

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to tulcan 76 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


There will be several people changing dollars there so now is a good time to get rid of your Pesos at a good rate.


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to tulcan 78 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Leaving the parking lot merge into the line of cars go right and past the aduana and around the back where there is a parking lot.

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to tulcan 63 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 65 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


There was a large group of bikes on a tour heading north.

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to tulcan 67 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 69 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 70 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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to tulcan 71 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Go into the Migration and fill in your tourist paper and then get a passport stamp. “ Welcome to Ecuador for 90 days”.

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to tulcan 80 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 85 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Leaving the migration turn right and cross the street to the small office on the left corner of the building to buy your SOAT for 5$. You will need a copy of your driver’s license and a copy of the title. This coverage is for accidents, but will cover your medical costs too………

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to tulcan 81 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 82 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Then head a few shops over to the copy place where they will copy your license, you SOAT, and your passport with the entry stamp for .85$.


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to tulcan 72 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Then go back and get the bike and bring it around to the aduana again to get your import permit. They want to see your stack of copies.

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to tulcan 87 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 83 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to tulcan 86 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


This nice guy gave Daniel a Jesus card for his tank bag to keep him safe.

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to tulcan 89 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

After 2 hours 30 min at the borders we finally made it to Tulcan at dusk.

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to tulcan 88 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr



The last problem of the day was that not only was there a convention in town, but the ^&%$# Fondo people had taken every hotel room in town. We pulled into the large Imperial hotel and parked. Daniel and Armando went into 7 hotel before he found rooms, which were clean, not rented by the hour, had on demand hot water, thick blankets and all this for 10$. The Imperial was nice enough to let us park there for free.

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rescue missions 9 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Quito
 

Armando was smart to ask the Bike Official about the road for then next day. Of course they are going to block the Pan American Highway in both directions from 8 am till noon so the bikers can go a 120 km. That said we left Tulcan at 1130 so we would be unlikely to run into them in the 285 km to Quito. We stopped for lunch beside a small lake and 3 of us ate for 5$.

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Screen Shot 2013-10-25 at 4.50.09 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Setting out south all of the gas stations within about 5 km of the border were closed, as they had no gas. We finally found a station that had gas, but in this entire state there is a purchase limit if you do not have an Ecuadorian plate. For bikes it is 3$. Gas is 1.48$ per gallon for regular, which is the reason for the limit to prevent people crossing from Colombia where they are paying 4.50/ gallon. They did agree to break the rules and let us fill up since we were heading south.

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FILE3310 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


The scenery here is also stunning, and I don’t even mind paying the tolls since the roads are like silk and motos only cost .20$.

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FILE3461 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE3485 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE3529 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE3553 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE3579 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Arriving just at 5 pm to Ecuador Freedom Bike Rentals and were glad to see they were still there. Sylvain and Court are great guys and they came out to great us with New Freedom T shirts! Looks like we found Freedom after all. They were kind enough to give us some advice on off road routes thru the country.

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quito 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito%206 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito%209 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr



They had recommended a great place to stay near by too at Casa Helbling. They have super comfy beds and so much hot water it’s insane. Claus makes his own charcuterie meats, which we had both nights for dinner.

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quito%2010 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We met fellow KTM riders from Switzerland Claudia and Thomas. We set out walking from the hotel to the Old town. First we visited the Cathedral, where if you go around back you can buy an entry ticket to climb to the spires for 2$.


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quito 18 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 20 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 22 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 25 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 26 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 50 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 30 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 27 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 28 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 32 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 38 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 39 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 40 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 41 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 44 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 46 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 49 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The old town has a very European feel. There are a lot of tourists here, which is not something we have seen for a while.

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quito 55 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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quito 56 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 68 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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quito 62 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The Convent of San Francisco is simple on the outside, but amazingly ornate inside.

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quito 64 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 65 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 61 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 60 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 57 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

This guy was running downhill with this load.

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quito 70 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


We finished off the day with a trip up the teleferico cable car to 4100 m.

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quito 89 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 72 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 75 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 73 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 82 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 74 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 83 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 84 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 78 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 86 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

A not so happy birthday
 

Well today is Daniel’s midway birthday so we though we should go to the middle of the earth monument before we headed south. A year ago today we were fixing Daniel’s dead stator at Garry Dymond’s house in Mexico city…….

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3696/1...b48719e5_z.jpg
Screen Shot 2013-10-27 at 4.31.05 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


The monument is only 25 km from central Quito, but that take over 90 minutes in traffic. According to our GPS the monument is 60 m off the true equator.

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quito 94 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 93 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 96 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 106 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 101 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 102 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 100 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Several people wanted pictures with our bikes, like this Ecuadorian family.

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quito 109 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

You have got to get ice cream at the middle of the world.

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quito 108 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Heading back thru the heavy traffic it was 4 hours since we left the hotel and we were only 10 km south of the center. We were in a barrio trying to get a short cut to the Pan Americana to get out of town a bit quicker. Sara was driving and suddenly a yellow warning light came on then off. About 5 seconds later there was a VERY VERY steep cobble road with a speed bump at the top, because of cross traffic. For those of you who have been to Garry’s Steeper than that hill to his house. As soon as she reached the tope and put some gas on to get over the bump and around the turn at the top the bike died. Long story short bike died and fell over landing on her right foot. Several guys near by helped to pick it up and push Dan over the bump and up around the corner, because it would not restart. Pulling out the computer and the GS 911 we found the stator was dead!! We got a taxi to give us a jump, but that lasted less than 5 min. The locals came out to help with cell phones and water and food. These ladies stayed with me for more than two hours while Daniel drove the 10 km back to Ecuador Freedom Motorbikes to get Diego the mechanic from Mariscal Motors and he and arranged for a truck for Lulu.

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quito 111 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 110 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Luckily we had the rewound stator from the F800 and a spare gasket. Daniel and Diego had her fixed up in no time. He is a great mechanic and a super nice guy.

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quito 113 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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quito 112 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Also luckily for Sara Armando was still around to translate for her at the hospital. I went to the local hospital recommended by Claus at Casa Helbing. I got amazing care. In Canada for your super painful hurt toe you would likely wait many hours to be seen and many more to be treated. Here they apologized that I might have to wait 45 minutes. In the end I was in a trauma bay in ten minutes, I had seen the orthopedic med student and then the resident in less than 30. I had xrays showing thankfully no fractures, but a dislocated big toe. Now a miracle I saw the staff Ortho surgeon in less than an hour. He froze my toe and painfully realigned it. I will need to rest with a splint for 2 days, and then should be able walk/ride.

This is not my xray, but this was what mine looked like.

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Image by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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quito 115 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Hi,

Sorry to read about your bad luck with the bike and your dislocated big toe on the same day.
Get better soon and keep the nice stories and great pictures coming :thumbup1:

Thank you
 

Thanks for the sympathy!


Well I have been waiting for it to happen really. 50,000 plus km seems to be it. Dan's died at 52,000 mine at 53,000. After this I will just want mine swapped out at the next 50.

On the good side we got a really swank hotel for 50% off for me to laze about.

Split is off tonight and then we will see if I can get my boot on.


Sara

laid up in Quito
 

Well the last 2 days have been pretty boring. Lying around reading my book with my foot up on a stack of pillows. Daniel has been my butler and ladies maid, but that can’t last too long. The F 800 had a nice parking spot in the courtyard of the hotel and we could look at it during breakfast.

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DSC07827 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07830 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


We will stay 2 more days to be on the safe side so I’m able to ride the off road route we planned to the cheese making town of Salinas.

Daniel decided to do an oil change here at Mariscal Motors because we will not be able to get full synthetic oil in Peru. Again thanks to Court and Sylvain at Ecuador Freedom Motorbike Rentals we got a deal on the oil.


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DSC07839 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07840 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07841 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The 4 guys decided to ride along and each took a scooter from the shop to run the errands. Even the dog joined the scooter gang and rode with Daniel the 20 km to the Yamaha dealership. Hey Sylvain looks like you have found freedom too.

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DSC07838 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Then I got taxi service to lunch.

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DSC07837 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Even the Firemen here ride motos!

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DSC07832 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

South to Chugchilan
 

We headed out south of Quito again and were entertained sort of at the light. I’m not sure it’s juggling if there are only 2 items.

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FILE0085 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Riding on the silky smooth Pan American Highway you see some strange vehicles.


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FILE0095 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Turning off the highway south of Lasso on to the initially cobbled road towards Chugchilan, then we headed off road.

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FILE0115 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0138 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0155 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

There were a few small patches of pavement that came out of nowhere.


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FILE0189 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We then began rising into the mountains.

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FILE0214 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0236 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0250 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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FILE0313 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0402 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0468 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Here there were some very steep and hairpin switchbacks.


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FILE0338 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0638 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

There were lots of indigenous women herding sheep and goats.

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FILE0495 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


The views were stunning.

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DSC07844 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07842 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0926 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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FILE0544 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0580 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0701 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0783 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0859 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC07847 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr



What is crazy is that about every 45 minutes you will come across a bus on this crazy road and so you need to be extra careful on the corners.

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FILE0818 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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DSC07846 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We arrived in the village and to the Mama Hilda hotel. This place is a common stopping point for the people walking the Quilotoa Loop. There was a fire burning in the lounge wood stove, up to, which we all gathered to warm up.


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DSC02115 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC02116 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC02118 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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DSC02122 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

To El Corazon
 

Now we continued on the planned route to El Corazon. The road was pretty good dirt and thankfully it was not wet.

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Screen Shot 2013-11-08 at 8.05.57 AM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0064 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0095 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


There were a few areas with landslides.

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FILE0149 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0214 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Suddenly there was this silky smooth pavement. This was just a few km before the Laguna Quilotoa.

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FILE0241 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0253 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

At the Laguna a kid representing the tourism board checks us in. We really wanted to take the bikes up the path to the crater, but the guard said no. We learned from Court that he just drives up and lets the guy yell at him.

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FILE0350 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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el corazon 12 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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el corazon 11 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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el corazon 19 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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el corazon 13 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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el corazon 15 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr



The pavement of the Pan Americana lasted about 12 km until we headed off road again and over the mountains to El Corazon.

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el corazon 21 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0537 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

To El Corazon
 

At higher elevations you are in the clouds, and apparently in January and February it is totally fogged in on these roads.

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FILE0707 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0747 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Today there are some switchbacks, but none as steep as yesterday.

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FILE0945 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0982 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We stopped in the village of Apagua for a snack of sweet manderinas and a drink.

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el corazon 51 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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FILE0064_2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Further on the route we had amazing views of Cotopaxi volcano in the distance to the north.

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el corazon 42 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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el corazon 41 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


Riding along some of these ridges we felt like we were looking down thousands of feet.

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FILE0124_2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0212_2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0380_2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We were so lucky it was dry mostly and not foggy.

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el corazon 50 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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FILE0307_2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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el corazon 53 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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el corazon 44 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Next we happened upon a festival in the town of Angamarca. One of the local ladies came over and said hello and explained what was going on in the dance. The people were dancing the entire day to the band playing. Stopping here created a crowd around the bikes and especially the GPS.

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el corazon 58 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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el corazon 54 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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FILE0372_2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Now we were on the final stretch to El Corazon about 35 km or an hour away.

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el corazon 46 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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el corazon 48 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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el corazon 49 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Dead bike part 2
 

About 900 meters before the town of El Corazon there was a sign for the town and a small church. We stopped to ask for directions, and dah dah my bike would not start. Luckily for us it was an all down hill coast to the central square and then to the only hotel in town. It is incredibly lucky for us that this did not happen 25 plus km from town on this narrow mountain road with nowhere to set up a tent or get immediate help. Again we set up the GS 911 and found the stator was dead. It seems the job done in Mexico to rewind this stator was not good.

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rescue missions 1 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The next day we managed to get one of the hotel owner’s sons to agree to drive the bike the 4 ½ hours back to Quito. No one else in town would do it before Monday, which was in 2 days away.

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rescue missions 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 6 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 11 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The first 50 km of this was off road to get to the Pan American highway. Dan rode his bike and I had all day to practice Spanish. We stopped here on the road where the trees roots are actually keeping the rock wall stable.

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Screen Shot 2013-11-10 at 1.43.51 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 12 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Part of the route we took out of the town was different than the one we took in. It was about 15 km shorter, and a much steeper route thru the mountains. Arriving back at Ecuador Freedom Motors Court and Diego were there to help us out.

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rescue missions 14 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Another lucky break was that we met another client of Ecuador Freedom, Tim, who offered to let us ship our parts to his office so that his wife can bring them when she comes down next week to meet him. Court was kind enough to host us at his place. We may trade in the bikes for scooters. Since Dan had the luggage, Court got the dog and me as pillions.

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salinas 1 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 16 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 17 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 18 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

The next morning we were going to head off on Dan’s bike and book it down the Pan American towards Riobamba and then back track to our original route to Salinas. Court got a call from Sylvain that one of their tour clients had burnt the clutch on a brand new bike about 3 hours away from Quito. We decided to help out and loaded a replacement bike up and headed north past Minto.

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Screen Shot 2013-11-10 at 1.52.09 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 19 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 21 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

A few km farther up the road was a hike to the cascades. We did the 30 min hike to swim in the pool, and then enjoy some fresh squeezed sugar cane juice as a reward. Might gave been a bad idea on the toe.

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rescue missions 24 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 26 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 29 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 31 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 37 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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rescue missions 23 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Chimborazo
 

Finally we headed out again more than a week later than planned.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5540/1...b0d04ec0_z.jpg
Screen Shot 2013-11-08 at 8.07.36 AM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

We booked it down the highway to Ambato and then on the secondary roads including this one thru and amazing 60 km slot canyon.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5506/1...7b31396a_c.jpg
salinas 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

Then we headed up to 14500 feet on the north side of Chimborazo. This is the highest peak in Ecuador and since the earth is elliptical it is the farthest point on earth from the center of the earth.

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salinas 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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salinas 6 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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salinas 7 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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salinas 8 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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salinas 12 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

From here we rode the 23 km off road to the cheese making village of Salinas at just over 11,000 ft.


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salinas 22 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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salinas 28 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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salinas 9 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


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salinas 13 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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salinas 18 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr


The next day we rode on the highway farthest from the earth’s core along the south side of Chimborazo and then off road the 8 km up to it’s base at 15894 feet.

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to macas 23 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to macas 4 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to macas 14 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to macas 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to macas 7 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to macas 17 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr

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to macas 19 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr