Equador Trip Day 5

 Day 5

This morning we woke to chilly temps but a clear sky. Bob was out first turning all the bikes around for an easier exit from the driveway. Then we walked up to the panadería (bakery) which advertised Cafe (coffee) on the window but alas no coffee was found. We did get 2 baked goods for 40 cents!! They were bread with chocolate (kind of a cross between a croissant and a donut! Yum). When we got back we had breakfast. A plate with a round slice of meat (looked like bologna) and 2 slices of cheese, scrambled egg and more of the bakery bread with jam. She also served us peach juice, steamed hot milk and coffee. When you get juice in ecuador, its usually thick and frothy and amazing!! Most mornings of this trip breakfast was included and you don’t order, you just get served whats for breakfast. So its been Juice Roulette each day. Peach is amazing! Anyway, we packed up the bikes, assessed the GPS to figure out how we could easily get out of town without going up the crazy steep road we struggled with to get in. We determined ww indeed needed to continue up the insane road. Sigh!! I asked Bob to ride my bike up. Just getting out of the driveway was going to be a challenge, never mind getting up the dirt incline. My little BMW 310 was struggling in the high elevation. So I hiked up the hill in the 11k elevation in all my gear, which was a chore in itself while Bob figured a way to get my bike up to the top. Bob was a rockstar bringing mine, then Minna’s bike up and then his own. Off we went leaving Salinas behind and heading for even higher elevations near Mount Chimborazu which is over 20k elevation and the highest point on Earth due to the bulge at equator. (Everest is only tallest above sea level). The mountain was so impressive when we could peek through the swirling clouds briefly. The road through the preserve gets to 14,500 feet, the temps dropped steadily and the wind blew. We got to see many groups of Vicuna, which are a cross between a llama and a camel and we were told they run across in front of you like deer. They were very cool to sew. Other than that, at those elevations its mostly tundras. Dry, not a lot of vegetation, kinda desert-y. We left the preserve and headed down toward RioBamba which was a big bustling city. We did stop along the way for another funny gas stop on the Pan American Highway (Runs from Alaska to the tip of Argentina) I think we have the gas figured out finally!! This gas station had a coffee shop, bathrooms and lots of dogs hanging out waiting for scraps. They had Minna in the palm of their hands, they know a dog whisperer when they see one. She shared her bread and chips with them. We continued on through the city and then back into the countryside. We went up over another big mountain pass and on to this crazy narrow mostly paved road with a yellow line in the middle but no way for 2 cars to pass. There were multiple past mudslides that left the road under repair. Some parts were dirt and on section, a more recent, bigger landslide had a huge section of mud that did have tracks from others who went through and from the big excavator that had been working there. My good luck in the mud over the last few days ran out and as I tried to buzz through, gravity won and traction lost. They say people pay good money for mud baths, I got mine for free. I was totally fine, as was the bike, we were both just a little messy. Bob helped to pick up my bike and ride it out, he then went back and rode Minna’s and then his through the mud (can you see a theme of today?) poor bob! We made it into they city of Banos which is literally in the bottom of a valley surrounded by mountains, one of them being the Tungurahua Volcano. Its one of South America’s most active volcanos at 16,475 feet, it most recently spewed ash in August 2020. Hopefully it will stay quiet while we are here. We poked around town and grabbed dinner. Our Hostel is La Posada del Arte, its such a pretty place! The bikes are locked in the courtyard and the owners are super nice. Karl is British and Priscilla is from Ecuador. Banos is a cool little city.