Day 7-Febr 9 2017-Banos Equador

After a delicious omelette breakfast....a short snooze...Ken knocks on the door......he says he has info on 2 GEO Caches.....lets go but it is our REST DAY.

Breakfast Room

Front of Hotel

Court Yard

Entry to Court Yard....where is Ken....I have both bikes ready

Ride up the mountain

Taken from the hotel....we need to get the top at over 8000 ft....2 GEOS UP THERE

View at 7600 ft of Banos. Our hotel is at the base of this spot which is straight down..

Banos

Road near top

.

Ken busy waY DOWN A TRAIL FROM THE LOOKOUT 

1 of many blocks of stores catering to TOURIST

kEN FINDS A cache behind this truck in that wall,,,,,,he hides a medallion in it

KEN EXHAUSTED AS HE CLIMBS THE TRAIL AND DISAPPOINTED AS HE FAILS TO FIND THIS CACHE

kEN GETTING UP THE NERVE TO SWING INTO THE OBIS OF THE VOLCANIC CRATER

kEN ADMIRING THIS HAMMOCK FOR CAROL MADE ON THAT OLD LOOM BEHIND

kEN SWING ITS ONLY 300 FEET IF YOU SLIDE OFF...i THINK i SEE FLAMES THROUGH THE FOG

NEARING THE TOP OF MOUNTAIN AT OVER 8000 FT

MANY  COMPANIES IN BANOS SELLING EXCURSIONS

tomorrow WE HEAD UP OVER THE MOUNTAIN INTO THE AMAZON BASIN. KEN HAS JUST INFORMED ME THAT WE WILL BE IN HUTS WITH NO ELECTRICITY.

THE BLOG MAY GO SILENT FOR A DAY.....WE END THE BIKE TRIP ON THE 11TH BACK IN QUITO AND COLLECT OUR BELONGINGS AND HEAD TO AIRPORT FOR A MIDNIGHT FLIGHT.....THIS WILL BE A VERY LONG DAY AS WE HAVE TO BUST OUR *****TO MAKE IT TO FREEDOM BEFORE 6PM....THEN SPEND 6 HOURS WAITING FOR OUR FLIGHT...  

Ecuador-Pics from Ken-Febr 9th 2017

Lunch 1st day at  sreet vendor....rice is served with most meals....the locals eat it 3 times a day with HOT SAUCE

Stopped and believe warned about Banditos in area.....would help if Ken had learned spanish.....

On the beach in Canoa in front of our Hotel Resort

Day 6-Continued-Ecuador-Part 2

Again, we are stopped in a Police check......they want to search the bikes luggage but end on settling for a look at my bag with my rain suit. Ken talks them into a photo with sign language. Our route takes us through the city of Ambato, Ecuador's 4th largest city,

Again, we are find ourselves enjoying the twisty tarmac with the smaller bikes handling the corners like track racers, though I come within inches of hitting a bridge abutment on 1 Sharp turn.

Along the way, we pass a thermal mineral hot spring..

We will climb to 14476 feet as we ride to the back side of this snow capped mountain....the terrain here reminds me of Patagonia in Argentina. It is cold and windy....

more views

TunQurahua Volcano overlooking Banos

Banos in the distance 

Ride Along Canyon

Twisty gorge and zip line

volcano in background....in the above pic a zip line crosses the gorge above a river......Ken would not try it......

IF YOU WISH TO FOLLOW OUR TRACK GOOGLE....ROBIN MILLER CONSTRUCTION....KEN HAS HIS SPOT TRACKER MOUNTED ON HIS BIKE...GOT TO THE FOLLOW ME LINK ON HIS WEB SITE.....IT POSTS OUR POSITION EVERY 10 MINUTES..

We will be in Banos until tomorrow as this is a rest stop.....

IF YOU CLICK ON THE PICTURES THEY WILL ENLARGE

  

Day 6-Febr 8 2017 Ecuador-Chugchila toBanos-315k Part 1

We were on the road by 8am as our itinery warned us of a long ride. When we started this trip, I laughed at these suggestions....the whole trip was only 1000 miles...I have ridden that in 2 days, NOT IN ECUADOR. The ride today was so spectacular with most of the 7 1/2 hours spent on twisties that had you continually reversing directions in hairpin turns.....what a day......I will post mostly the pics...they tell the story.

School with 200 drop plus....no protection in playground..

long way down children

Ken and miss piggy

Dirt coming up

Stunning views

I will post more pics tomorrow. The upload is slow tonight...so Part 2 tomorrow

Febr 07-2017 Ecuador Day 5

Ken is up early.....his bike is loaded and parked ready to head out as I just start loading mine. He meanders over for breakfast as I pack. A typical breakfast is Eggs, cheese, juice and bread ( toast is not normal ) with some kind of re fried beans. Dinner last night was beans, rice and chicken....a little to well done for my liking but perfect for Ken....dessert was 2 slices of bread with what looked like brown sugar on the bottom piece and a dob of maybe honey on the top slice. I mistook this as bread being served with the meal and dove into it....my bad. Ken was slower and observed the table next to us eating the slices with a fork.

We leave with a slight drizzle and for most of the morning it is overcast.....we are back tracking to Vinces.....Vinces claims the best chocolate in the World. Our route takes us to Quevedo a rather large city in which we are learning to ride like the locals and it is hairy as you get squeezed between buses and passing taxis. We survive. The city is known for its food processing industry....making ketchup and hot sauces. The city was largely established by Chinese immigrants in the 1920's....so it has many oriental Restaurants.....the finest is said to be the Chifa Jade but we arrive early and it is closed...no Chinese for Ken today as we get an ice cream bar next door and press on.

Steep mountain passes

We journey through large Palm Plantations.........odd we think but learn that this is a cash crop. Palm oil is a non trans fat oil and is found in most things on our shelves like cereals,french fries, sweets, baked goods, to soaps, washing powders and cosmetics. It is rarely listed on products as processors simply list it in Vegetable oil.......It can also be used in animal feed and as a bio fuel.

We stop at a Cantina on the edge of Pilalo which is in the mountains at an elevation of  12000 feet....here we have lunch .....though we ordered pollo we get stringy beef with a potatoe, beans and plenty of rice which is served with just about every meal....drink is a coke $ 2.50. we give out some gum to the Chicas before leaving to climb higher passing 13000 feet.........Ken is feeling light headed.

We make a left at The outskirts of Zumbahua a picturesque town built on a steep mountainside. Continuing on, we are on twisty roads, as we have been for the past 3 hours even going into the clouds at 12000 to 13000 feet....not being able to see more than 20 feet.....and this is all switch back riding on great tarmack....It is along the route to the Quiltoa Crater Lake...a water filled caldera and the most western volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes.....the lake is 3 k wide and was caused by the collapse of the rim of a VE1-6 eruption 800 years ago. It must have been very catastrophic as we see volcanic ash 4 to 6 feet deep where the road has been carved into the mountain sides. Along this road we hand out most of our remaining gum to the local kids....they seem overjoyed with this as the gum is in small colorful plastic heart shaped with various pics depicting Christmas.

It cost us a dollar to enter the park and we ride up, near the rim.....it is awesome....hoping we can escape before it blows.

We then ride a few more miles to Mama Hilda's Hostel in Chugchilan another quaint mountain village

Many more pics...will post when I have high speed internet.........

The stop from yesterday warning us of banditos