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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Adios Ecuador...Bienvenidos Peru!

“I really like Peru”, Amy says after 7 hours in the new country. Since crossing the border three things have happened: the food has improved, the beer has improved, and, most of all, the sun is shining! The sun is obviously the overwhelming factor in Amy’s reflowering. Yes, the sun is shining, and, we are settled into a rather interesting “eco-hostel” right on the beach and just outside the town of Zorritos, about 60 kms south of the Ecuadorian border.  Watching the sunset over the ocean last evening while sipping on a rather decent cabernet sauvignon was a treat we had all but forgotten about. It’s nice to be back!

Getting to the border was a bit of a slog. In fact, it could be the low point in our trip so far. Leaving Guayaquil was a seriously nerve-rattling mission. We were wedged into peak morning traffic along major freeways that all converged onto one huge bridge we had to negotiate before hitting the freedom of the open roads beyond. City drivers here do NOT give cyclists any slack. More than once we both had to stop and just let our nerves calm down a bit. Once past the bridge things were looking OK until the patchy cloud cover turned to full cloud which turned to drizzle which then stayed with us for the next few days – at times, just plain rainy.

Now, ordinarily, a bit of rain is no big deal. Two things make rain a bigger deal here. (1) the roads are one part pavement, two parts shit and grime. When dry, you just roll over it all. When wet, it’s a big sloppy mess that flies up into the bikes and everywhere else. At the end of the day, you would be forgiven if you thought we were downhill mountain biking on a bad day. (2) the 20 cm or so of shoulder that we normally claim to the right of the white line becomes a greasy muddy mess, making it virtually useable. We therefore have to ride on the left side of the white line and close to the death zone (which is what it feels like when two buses go flying by). Anyway, not the most enjoyable riding we have ever experienced, and often downright scary.

On the flip side, crossing the border was a breeze. We had been dreading it a bit because of the on-line hype and label as the “worst border crossing in South America”. Apparently, until very recently, it was a heinous chaos of unmarked buildings, scamming taxi-drivers and illegal money changers that left novice travellers scarred for life. It would seem all of that has changed with a rerouted highway that simply takes you under a Bienvenidos a Peru sign, then to a brand new and well-organized immigration office to get the passports stamped, and then back onto the highway. With no more than a 15-minute pullover, we were out of Ecuador and into Peru. Nice!

Another nice surprise was that the border also seems to be where the mangroves of coastal Ecuador meet the deserts of northern Peru, and, sunny dry weather. Along with a much wider road shoulder and the ocean now visible and beside us, the riding improved dramatically. The first town on the Peru side is a place called Tumbes, which turned out to have a rather nice and easily accessible central plaza where we stopped for a rather pleasant lunch. We needed to stop to find an ATM so we could load up on Peruvian Soles (the currency). Our lunch of seafood soup with a huge crab in it (Amy’s fav) and the fish (which Amy thought was perfectly prepared) was the tastiest food we had eaten in months. It might have been the sun and the seafood, but we also thought the new brand of beer, Cristal, was a much better brew than the Pilsener of Ecuador. So ya, Peru is looking good!

As for Ecuador, we ended up spending 47 nights in all. Our hard-line synopsis on Ecuador is: mountains = good, coast = not as good. OK, we know what you’re thinking...it was only because of the bad weather we had on the coast. No, it’s more than that. No offence to the coastal inhabitants, who are lovely and friendly, but it just wasn’t our favourite place. The mountain areas (basically the whole strip in the middle from Otovalo to Cuenca), however, are wonderful, and highly recommended.

Ecuador trip stats:

kms on bikes: 1399 (trip total = 3505 kms)
Number of riding days: 19
Average kms per riding day: 74
Number of flats: 2 (Amy)
Number of front tire blowouts: 2 (Rob)
Number of high-speed wipe outs: 1 (Rob)
Number of collisions with vehicles: 1 (Amy)
Cheapest accom*: $14
Most expensive accom*: $60
Average cost per night accom*: $25
Highlight: Quilotoa Traverse

(*accom = private room)

Amy’s top pros/cons on Ecuador:

         +                                                            
the highlands                               gray grimy coast
good beds                                     aggressive dogs
batidos (fruity milkshakes)          erratic drivers

Rob’s top pros/cons on Ecuador:

         +                                                                
the mountains                             the coast
good sleeps                                 lack of good street food
even cheaper beer                     flea-bitten half-starved stray dogs            

So Peru: from Tumbes a few more kms of sunny coastal riding brought us to the town of Zorritos and an interesting “eco-hostel” on the beach that we were targeting. Relatively cheap rooms on the beach, very cold beer, and amazing sunset views over the ocean, made it a fantastic place to land after the dirt and grime of the past few days. It’s a funky place that would be right at home in the Slocan Valley. Along with the owner’s 20 or so hairless dogs (the question is: why?), it’s quite the place. The plan is to take a day or three off here to regroup, enjoy the sun and the beach, and plan our attack on Peru. Our first mission will be the surf town of Mancora, an easy day of riding from here. Then...we’re not sure. Peru is a big place!! More on that when we figure it all out.
 
 
 
 
 
Aren't there laws against this kind of stuff inside showers?

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