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Posted by: perry on 05/07/2009 12:03 PM
Updated by: perry on 11/26/2009 03:13 AM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM
Ecuador: Ruta del Sol
So I left Quito on my own and headed towards the coast. My route took me, first up and up to some high elevations, then down down down into the heat and humidity. Once on the coast I followed theRuta del Sel (the route of the sun). Austin stayed behind in Quito and said he was going to leave on the following Tuesday. I didn't want to wait for him and I expected that Tuesday surely wouldn't come true. So I had a bit of time to travel on my own, which added a nice bit of variety to my travels.
I left early on a cold Saturday morning. First thing I had to do was to go through a tunnel which is forbidden to cyclists. So as I was going through the tunnel a motorcycle security guy came and rode in front of me. At the other end of the tunnel he waved me down and told me it wasn't permitted. But I just told him that I was sorry, which I wasn't. He also said not to do it again but I just told him that it's fine since I wasn't coming back. After the tunnel I had to climb for 25km's before being able to leave the great big city of Quito. Then there was a nice smooth downhill on a wide and almost empty highway toAloag . I stopped and took a break and drank a liter of fresh yogurt before heading back uphill for another 10 km or so against the wind. But this time it was much harder and my knee started to hurt (and it kept hurting for a the next two weeks or so). But after the climb I found myself completely exhausted. The sun was shining and warm, it was about noon, and I had already covered about 60km for the day. So I took a nap at the pay booth in the soft grass. After about an hour I started going down down down and managed to get to the warmer lowlands before dark. The downhill ride was truly amazing and loads of fun. I didn't push myself to go too fast and enjoyed the panoramic view in all directions. It was also a lot of fun because a couple days before I left Austin bought me an air horn (like they use on boats) for my bike. This time when I would come upon a semi truck, I would honk the horn and the semi would slow down and move to the right. I just wonder what they were thinking while a tiny little bicycle when whizzing by them.
I ended up spending the night in a town called Alluriquin. I took a bath in a cold mountain river and found a 1 dollar dinner. The people in the village were really quite cool and also quite concerned about where I was going to sleep. I planned on camping in the park along the river where I took my bath but they said that's where all the drunks go to hang out on Saturday night and that I would probably not be able to get a good sleep with all the noise they would be making. Fortunately I was able to camp in a small garden nearby. I went to sleep shortly after it got dark.
The next day I got started early again. My knee was hurting an weak. But I though that I would still be going downhill or on flat land. WRONG! It was a tough day. I took a start break here and there. In El Carmen I chopped off my beard, which was quite a relief from the heat. Also a little bit after El Carmen I remembered that my parents had bought me cycling sandals for meSPD pedals, so I quickly changed into those. The sandals rock. It was so much more comfortable than having socks and shoes on. I kept going and going and eventually I came to a little shop and got myself a bottle of ice coldmalta. The offered the nearby hammock to relax in while I drank the malta and I quickly fell asleep. I had already covered 93 km for the day and it was only 2pm or something like that. When I woke up the family that runs the little shop invited me to stay the night at their place. They also gave me dinner and were a lot of fun to talk to. We even did a little karaoke (I hate karaoke, but they had a song from Grease, so I sang it).
I also realized that it was time to throw out my cycling shirt. I got it months and months ago in Cartegena and have been using it daily while cycling. But now it had a great big hole on the back and at the end of the day, which wasn't all that bright, I had a great big sunburn. It's too bad too since I really liked that shirt. It was the only sleeveless shirt I had.
I got another early start after breakfast with the family. The road was still going up quite a bit. Eventually I got to the downhill and bombed it. There wasn't much beautiful scenery around there so I went for speed especially since the road was new and smooth. I took a short lunch break inFlabio . The road until here was just great, but after it was loose rubble with a small strip of mostly broken road down the center. I stuck to cycling on the center of the road and sometimes had to ride on the far left of the road just so I could have some traction. And it was hills hills hills. My right knee was killing me now. Unfortunately I left my knee brace with Austin since he was the last one to have knee problem. Everywhere I went I couldn't find a knee brace. Oh well. Anyhow I eventually made itChone. On the outskirts of town I stopped to get a malta and ended up talking with a few guys who ended up giving me some free oranges. Then I headed into the center of town and went to theBomberos. They were a really cool bunch and I had a nice free place to stay with air conditioning.
The Bomberos there were a bit crazy or stupid or both. They were clearing out some old dead grass from the next door lot so they could play volleyball there. They made a small pile of grass and a big pile of grass. Then they poured gallons of gasoline on the grass. OneBombero asked to borrow my lighter and he was just about the light the gas when I told him to do it from the other side since he was facing the wind. He tried for a second and then went back to the side facing the wind. The gas took and he got a fireball in his face and burnt off all the hair on his right arm. Everybody was laughing at him and insulting him for ignoring me (everyone heard me warm him) and for being so stupid. Then it was time to light the big grass pile. The poured gallon after gallon on the dry and brittle grass (I would never use gas to burn dry grass). Then they made a line on the ground with gas and lit it. The fire quickly made it's way to the mound which went off with a big boom making theBomberos cover their faces with their arms and take a few steps back quickly. Come on, you guys are trained to work with and against fire. You sure did prove to me your skills.
That night I tried to go to sleep early. But I couldn't sleep because of all the political campaigning going on in Chone's main square. So I went to go see what was going on and quickly found myself surrounded by a small crowd asking the same old twenty questions. But the questions were coming from everywhere so I focused my attention on one girl who cute but more importantly spoke clearly. We were all having a fun time until someone, who I guess felt ignored because I was mostly answering that one girl's questions while trying to ignore the dozens of other questions coming at me from all angles, threw a water balloon at me. I was a bit pissed off, said goodbye, and just walked away. Then I went back to theBomberos and went to sleep finally.
Chone was an interesting town. Marcela had warned me that it was a dangerous place to go because all of the girls are so beautiful. If I were to talk for too long with any one girl, her father would show up with a shot gut and drag us to a church to get married. I asked a few people in town if it were true but they all said no. But I thought that it was funny. But I left the place still single.
The next morning I got a few gifts from the Bomberos (a patch and a name tag) and was escorted out of town because the route was a bit confusing. On the edge of town my bungee cord got unhooked and wrapped itself up in my gears. I came to a skidding stop and had to get the cord carefully out of the read cassette. By bungee cord was broken so I went to the next gas station and got myself a little bit of rope after I washed all the grease off my hands. From there I headed straight towards Bahiade Caraquez . The road was quite small and unused and in some places in a dismal state of disrepair. I had to do a bit more climbing with my now constantly painful and weak knee. But eventually I turned a corner and I could see the sea. The great big expanse of water just beyond the small resort town that I was heading to. So I took a break and took in the view for a while. It was still another 15 km before I got to town. I headed to theBomberos but they were doing remodeling and couldn't take me in. Then I went to the oceanfront to take a good look. I rode my bike up onto the sidewalk and was there for just a few seconds when a great big wave broke over the sidewalk and drenched me and my bike. Oh fuck! That salt water is like death to my bike. So I decided it would probably be best to go find a cheap hostel, which I quickly did. I even managed to talk down the price. I was the only person staying there. There was also a kitchen to use.
In the evening I was ate dinner with a couple who were about to leave the hostel and take a bus to somewhere. Then I ended up drinking lots of beer with this guy named Nick who helps out at the hostel. He was a complete and utter womanizing bastard, but his friends were really cool. Nick owns a boat, and like all the other boat owners I've ever met is trying to sell his. I hope that cat-calling prick never gets to sell his boat. hehehe.
The next couple of days I spent basically chilling out at the hostel and reading "Something Happened" by Joseph Heller (who wrote "Catch 22"). I tried my best not to get too involved in conversations with Nick and went in the sea a few times. I was trying my best to let my knee relax and to take in a bit of sun. I also couldn't swim as much as I wanted to because I got an ear infection (I think from cycling against the wind and down a mountain the last 4 days). But quickly the resort town started to get to me. There were tourists there, but they were all families with small kids. Nobody close to my age around in all directions which wasn't chasing after arugrat . On my third and final night the hostel finally got a couple of gusts. There was one Italian girl that I ended up talking to from the moment we met until we finally passed out drunk and stoned. She was really cool and it was nice to talk to someone from Europe again.
The next morning I headed out of Bahia to get away from the weekend crowds of more and more families (it was Easter weekend and the entire country was heading to the coast). Everyone suggested that I go north to the nearby party village Canoa, but instead I headed south along the Ruta Del Sol. Just out of Bahia I came across one of the hardest hills I've ever had to fight. It reminded me of a hill back in Mexico that both Ariel and Austin fell off their bikes. I managed to make it to the top of the hill in Mexico but once I reached the top the wind forced me to stop. This hill was just as big and just as steep with the added bonus of potholes and sinkholes. It was too steep to walk the bike up so I ended upzig-zagging back and forth on the road up the hill. I went about 75km's that day and ended up in a town called Crucita.
When I finally entered town, I saw the Bomberos and went to ask if I could stay there a couple nights. While I was asking a nice Italian man, Fiori, offered to let me stay at his place and to camp in his garden. How cool. It was a great experience staying with him and his family. The first night I was there he was planning a dinner party and he invited me to it. He made pizza with sauce made from fresh tomatoes. The pizza was really great, the wine was flowing, and the company that he invited was really quite cool. I had a great time talking with all of them.
Durring my first day in Crucita I met an artisan who just a couple days before had put rastas in his hair. He asked me if I could help him work on tightening them, so I went and got my crochet needle and got to work. He kept us both supplied with cold beer all day long while I worked. He also bought me a nice fried fish lunch along with more and more beer. Eventually my fingers were totally mauled from all the work and my head was spinning, so we called it quits for the day. I think I got about a third of his dread locks looking nice and tight.
The next morning I said my thanks and goodbye to Fiori and his wife Janeth (who gave me one of those cheesy tourist shirts that say "my friend went to Crucita and gave me this awesome shirt"). Then I headed out and got on the road to Manta. It was a short ride, which was good because my knee was still bothering me. Also, my air horn ran out of air, so I figured that since Manta is a big port town that I could get another one there. But it was Easter Sunday. The city was barren. I ended up going to theBomberos , who were in the street playing soccer. They accepted me right away, fed me, asked me the twenty questions, and showed me to my bed. It was a busy night with thebomberos, they had lots of calls. The atmosphere at a Bomberos really changes when a call comes it. Everyone goes silent and there is a worried look in their eyes. They are all there to help in case of an emergency, but nobody ever wants there to be an emergency.
In the morning I made a few rounds looking for a new airhorn. No luck. Then when I decided it was time for me to leave, all the bomberos were in a meeting. It's too bad too because one of the Bomberos said he had a knee brace that he was going to give me. On the way out of town I finally found a great big pharmacy (like CVS or Wallgreens) which had knee braces. But they were fucking expensive. The last one I bought (back in Guatemala) cost me no more than 3 dollars. Their cheapest cost 25. But then I noticed that there were nylon stockings nearby and I bought a pair, cut off the toes, and put them on my knee. That worked perfectly. I had a lot more strength and a lot less pain, and all for 75 cents. :)
I took the coastal road, which went up and down and up and down and up and down yet again. I went and went against the sand filled wind (now with my mp3 player on for the first time cycling ever and my ear protected from the wind) along the coast until finally the windburn, heat, and tiredness took over. On one of the downhills I was going along the road which suddenly took a big dip and completely disappeared from my view and all I could see above the horizon of the road was the distant ocean far below me. It was an amazing view. Eventually I found myself on the outskirts ofPuerto Cayo . I took a right and went between a couple houses to the beach and took a look around. The caretaker of the house came over to talk to me and he offered to let me camp in the house's garden. His wife also made me a nice dinner. In exchange for all of this I helped his translate some messages he wanted to give to the house owner (who lives in California) and I called and talked to him. I went swimming and had a shower and went to sleep quite early.
In the morning I had breakfast with the family then headed out again up another big hill. It took a few hours to get to the top, then there was a great big downhill which fucking rocked! The road was only mine and it was wide and in decent shape. At the bottom of the hill I came to LaEntrada , which is the first village of many closely spaced villages along the coast. I was famished and stopped for a cheap fried fish lunch. There were some surfers there which got me stoned after lunch and then I got on my way and blasted through the various towns on my way toMantañita. Mantañita is a famous party village which I first heard about back in Panama. I quickly found a campground to stay and made friends with the two other people who were staying there, Jose (from Chile) and Tamar (from Israel) who have been traveling together for quite some time.
The next few days were spent doing a very simple routine of going to the beach, going back to the campground, eating some food (I ate lots of food which surprised Tamar because she thought that Jose ate a lot), going back to the beach to watch the sunset, drink beer, smoke joints, more beer, more joints, and so on. I decided to stay for a while here and ended up spending 6 nights in the little village. I met a few other people and ran into some people that I met in Colombia and Venezuela too. It was a cool place to hang out, especially because Austin finally left Quito and got on his way to the coast. We planned on meeting inMantañita . Despite my better judgement I went swimming again, playing in the huge waves and swimming up them with so much force that I actually went airborne before diving back into the ocean. My ear was really fucked up after that. I also went with Jose and Tamar on a walk to a really cool outcropping of rocks nearby where the water churned and turned and worked it's was through ancient channels it eroded in the rock/coral. That was bad ass!
Austin actually showed up around midnight on Saturday, my fifth night (he hitchhiked probably more than half the way, but I'm not sure). So we were back together again. We spent the next day hanging out then on Monday got on our way. Mantañita was a nice palce to spend a few days. It's expensive since it's a major tourist destination, but at the same time it was quite nice. It wasn't too crowded while I was there, mostly because it was totally overcrowded during Easter weekend. I met some cool people and not all of the bars were playing salsa orranchero music. There was even some live music too. And the Thai Massage place has a revolving door where everyone goes to get a small bag of grass.
Our plan after Mantañita was to go to Guayaquil and meet up with Marcela in her home town and to also go to her beach house in nearby Playas. But that is another story and I'll write about it some other time.
Riding by myself was really quite refreshing. It was nice to not have to wait. I felt free. I had my own schedule. But at the same time I missed having companionship. But it was only for a few days and I quickly realized that I could surely continue traveling on my own. I'm glad I left Quito when I did. I didn't have anything really to do in the city and if I had waited for Austin to be ready to leave I would have been there for another twelve days (he said originally that he was going to leave two days after me). Also, traveling on my own I got to have a few adventures of my own, which I think I really needed. Plus I had more time on the coast, which was definitely important.
The coast in Ecuador is really quite beautiful. Probably the most amazing part was when I went through the dry forest. It's a region which gets very little rain yet has these great big trees which grow really slowly and have small leaves at the ends of their branches. And I always have to laugh when I pass a sign that says "we are watching the environment" printed on a sign which is rusting and falling to pieces and poisoning the soil all around it. Nice job guys. And it's always nice to go to the beach, right? I just wish I didn't have that fucking ear infection.
Peace,
Perry
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