Enter Ecuador | When is bike pushing worth it?

Local kids watch me cook.

Welcome to Ecuador

I am always nervous at border crossings. 

But the crossing goes smoothly. Despite all the vehicle traffic, the immigration offices are mostly empty and I get my passport stamped easily. I guess the cars don't need passport stamps.

At the immigration office, they gave me 90 days in Ecuador. I don't need that long to cross the country, but if I don't find another cyclist to travel with, I might try and stay in Ecuador for an extra month through the platform WorkAway. I've been feeling lonely recently and would like to have a friend for more than a few days. 

It's 3:30 pm and I decide to take a rural road to Tulcán, the first medium-sized town in Ecuador. This way, I can find camping more easily than on the highway. If I can't find camping, I'll still have time to reach Tulcán, where I can buy accomodations. I don't usually make a backup plan like this, but I like to me more cautious when I enter a new country. 

Luckily camping is no problem. Local people show me where I can use my tent in a grassy area near their house.

My first meal in Ecuador is actually something I carried from the Colombian side of the border - pork and potatoes to go. 

3 December 2023 Day 387

First full day in Ecuador. In Tulcán, I use USD (official currency of Ecuador) to buy some vegetables, fruits, bread, and a meal.

View of Tulcán

The meal is delicious:

Picado. It's a dish I've had in Colombia too. Fries with meat and cheese and a bunch of sauces. 

The chairs in the restaurant are incredibly uncomfortable, though. I think they were designed for someone with a Lego figurine body type. 

Time to follow a bikepacking route again. There is a route that goes almost all the way to the Peru border, but I'll make some detours to avoid a reported robbery location, go to Quito, and visit my mother in Baños de Agua. 

The route begins by climbing through a nature reserve:

At the nature reserve guard station, the guard Erwin lets me sleep in an empty building:

Erwin has worked for the nature reserve for 13 years and enjoys it. 

The old guard station building was damaged in an earthquake. 

And they finished constructing a new one two weeks ago. 

4 December 2023 Day 388

The first few hours are all downhill, from 4000 meters (13,300 feet) to 1200 meters (4,000 feet). In the valley, it's suddenly hot with biting flies. 

Despite the heat and bugs, I hang out for a while because there are some other touring cyclists. 

They are from Chile (left) and Russia (right).

The Chilean has been travelling South America for 20 years on his rickety old bicycle, painting as he goes to pay for food. He doesn't have a passport, but he still rides through international borders.

The Russian left Russia before the war with Ukraine. His plan is to ride towards, Alaska, and by the time he gets to Alaska, hopefully Putin will have died, and then he'll go home (because Alaska is close to Russia). 

Ecuadorian road cyclists.

Here is a video I made about these few days:

I think I might delete the video because I don't think it's very good. But you can watch it, at least for now.

I took a rest day at the 'Casa Ciclista' in Tumbaco before entering Quito. 

Santiago and his wife, who operate the Casa Ciclista, have hosted over 3000 travelers (not just cyclists) over the past 30 years. 

Thier dog didn't bark at me. 

In the morning, Santiago, explained some political history to me. Apparently Ecuador doesn't really produce drugs. Apparently 20 years ago there were US military bases in Ecuador, which were strategic for the US, but also benefited Ecuador. The bases prevented drugs from Colombia and Peru from being smuggled through Ecuador to the rest of the world, partially because the US military personnel were not corrupt. That is, US military personnel weren't also cartel members. But then a corrupt president of Ecuador got rid of the US military bases on a pretext of sovereignty, when really it was in order to benefit the cartel, which he was essentially part of, by removing that barrier to drug trade. After that, Ecuador became an exportation hub for Peruvian and Colombian drugs. In the future, the US might help Ecuador again. Perhaps not only with military forces but also with intelligence technology, such as radar. Apparently Ecuador lacks the radar technology to adequately monitor it's airspace. So it's easier for clandestine drug-smiggling planes to fly under the radar, literally. 

Then I biked to Quito. 

At first I went to a bit of a party hostel in Quito. All the staff spoke great English and there were no self-catering facilities at all, so they must have made a lot of income from their restaurant and bar. I hung out with some other travelers for a while, but they wanted to go to some party in an area that was 'less touristy' and I wanted to go to bed. I often hear hostel travellers talk about find the 'less touristy' places. But if they Uber to a hostel, taxi to a tourist destination from Lonely Planet, then take a tour, what are they really seeing? Not that there's a problem with that, genuinely, but chances are, someone travelling like that will mostly have experiences prepared specifically for tourists.

Cathedral in Quito. It's a tourist attraction. I'm glad I went, it was impressive. 

Street food in Quito. It was OK. I think the sausage was only partially meat, and lots of some other filler that I couldn't identify.

Urban Quito

Time to leave Quito now. 

Big statue of some virgin. 

It's already late in the day, so I changed my mind and decided to stay in Quito for a bit longer. 

I enter a different hostel and see another touring bicycle!

It belongs to the Chilean cyclist taking this selfie. In the background are travelers from Norway, Belgium, and Germany.

I only chat with the cyclist for one evening before he leaves. His long term plan is to get to Europe, find his distant French relatives, and get EU citizenship.

The other travelers in his selfie and I get along well.

Dimitry (Russia/Germany), Alessia (Belgium), Ottar (Norway).

McDonald's costs about the same here as the USA. This is Dimitry, who moved from Russia to Germany when he was 12(?). 

McDonalds was too expensive, so we just bought ice cream for $1. 

Now it's actually time to leave Quito.

I said goodbye to my new friends and thought about how it's cool but also kind of sad to have friends who all live in distant corners of the world.

Good bye Quito. 

After a long cobblestone descent, I ended up on the wrong side of a locked gate:

Luckily there was a little hatch for people to go through. 

But I had to take off my front wheel to fit the bicycle through. 

I found camping in the neighborhood field:

But then my tent pole broke:

I think it broke because of saltwater damage during my kayak crossing from Panama. 

I fixed it with a stick and duct tape. Now I'll have to pack it differently, because I can't collapse this section. 

14 December 2023 Day 398

Today I thought I'd try a different bikepacking route. This one is rated 10/10 difficulty and they say you'll be walking/carrying your bike 10% of the time. I still have plenty of time to meet my mom in Baños de Agua Santa, so I tried it. 

Hello donkey. It needs a pedicure. 

Hello cow. 

Cows are nice company while I'm taking a break.

I wait for them to corral the horses before I pass. 

The road peters out into just grass. But it's nice to ride on, still. 

Then, there is no road at all.

And I have to move my bike across this huge ditch. 

I carry/push my bike for about 4 hours, up to 4400 meters (14,300 feet). All downhill from here!

Unfortunately the downhill is somehow even worse and I still have to carry/push my bike. I need to lift my bike through thick grass that's as tall as me, wade through streams and wetlands, and navigate loose boulder fields. Frankly I think I would have to walk down even if was on a full suspension mountain bike with no equipment. Even when there is a trail, my pedals constantly get caught on the sides because it is deeply rutted. So it's hard to even walk the bike down. 

If I was on an ultralight bikepacking setup and I could at least enjoy parts of the downhill, maybe it would be worth it. 

The tent was not as slanted as it looks. 

It's pretty cold and it rain a lot this evening, so everything is wet and cold! Managing wild camping in wet cold conditions is difficult, but I kind of enjoy the challenge.

15 December 2023 Day 399

The next morning there is still more bike pushing. This picture is right along the trail. 

Finally I get to a real trail.

Now I am in Cotopaxi National Park. But I can't see the mountain through the driving rain. 

I want to try this road/trail between Cotopaxi and another big mountain:

I spend all day getting to the beginning of the road, but I eventually encounter something that stops me more than a day of bike pushing:

A locked gate. 

I don't find anyone to ask for permission, so I decide to turn around. 

At least there's a beautiful rainbow. 

16 December 2023 Day 400

While backtracking, I encountered a locked gate - it had been locked beind me!

So I unloaded my bags and precariously lifted the bike over it. 

Right when I was finished, a truck came along and opened the gate so they could pass - it was only dummy-locked!!

Trucks passing.

Cyclists on a guided day-tour.

My broken tent poles found another use - car key retrieval. 

In the afternoon I leave Cotopaxi National Park and re-enter civilization. 

She gave me chicken and french fries. The man on the right couldn't hear or speak, but the locals could mostly understand his sign language. 

17 December 2023 Day 401

Finally I get a view of Cotopaxi, but I am far away now.

Typical clothing of high-elevation Ecuatorians.  

Crops looking like a quilt. 

I get permission to camp at this sports pitch. There is electricity, wifi, running water, a roof, and a toilet which flushes!

Local kids come and play in the evening and this one kid is very curious about my recorder playing. I share my dinner with him and he eats a lot.

18 December 2023 Day 402

I started the day bright and early when this big beetle crawled down my legs inside the sleeping bag. I don't think it was trying to pinch me, but all it's feet are like itty bitty pinchers.

After 30 minutes riding uphill, I'm still quite close to the blue roof where I camped. 

Most of the dogs in Ecuador are loud and obnoxious, barking all the time. When there's a chill dog, I like to share my snacks:

But it wasn't quite ready to eat out of my hand, and I didn't want to litter the peanut butter jar. 

Scenery

This kid was running to his friend's house. I was go up a hill and he kept up with me. He kept asking me questions and asking me to speak say something in English. But it was a steep hill at 4000 meters (13,300 feet) above sea level, so talking wasn't so easy. Maybe he could tell I was struggling, because he offered to give me a push:

Scarecrow

Nice campsite

19 December 2023 Day 403

There are many trout farms around here. 

Trout farm.

Fried fish on the side of the road. I just ate breakfast but it seems like a good place to stop. 

It's served on a mountain of Yuka, and costs 1.5USD. 

Many buildings are made from natural materials. 

Today I ride through thick fog.

In the afternoon, I realize that I am running out of food. Not in a dangerous way, but it would be nice to have some more calories for dinner tonight. 

Perhaps I could buy a few potatoes from one of the local people. They seem to be producing quite a few potatoes. 

I chat with some local kids. 

They ask how many siblings I have. Only one. She has seven. They ask how many sheep I have. None. She has five sheep. 

A 10 year old boy crosses the road and hands me three potatoes, a gift. Like he read my mind. Perhaps I looked very hungry. 

I get permission to set up my tent near some community building, and I share some popcorn with the local kids. 

Sharing popcorn.

Local kids. 

Turns out, potatoes aren't all they're giving away. I soon learn that the local kids give free ass-whoopings on the soccer pitch. 

Soccer with the local kids. 

Playing soccer at 12,000 feet (3600 meters) makes me gasp for air very quickly. The local kids are perfectly aclimitized and are also much better at soccer than me. My only advantage against these 5-10 year olds is my longer legs. 

I reached Baños de Agua Santa in two more days where I my mother came to visit for the holidays.

My mom (right), and other cycle tourists.