Latitude 0... (Ecuador)

Peak of Chimborazo Vulcan, the highest mountain in Ecuador.
Viewed from our camping spot.


It filled me with comfort to pass the passport trough the small glass window and to hear the sound of the stamp. I was back to the legal border formalities. "Welcome to Ecuador", I expected to hear from the costumes officer. But of its mouth came only the sound of something incomprehensible that it seemed to reflect the many years behind the secretary stamping passports.
It did not matter. The 3 months visa was free.

I continue my journey.
I don't have a map or a guide for Ecuador (Joana has them in Quito), and although I fell a little naked without them, it was irrelevant. After all there was only one main road between the border and the capital, the pan-American highway.
I`ve been cycling for 10 days without a day rest, trying to arrive in Quito on time to receive Joana at the airport.

In Manizales I even thought of jumping on a bus, but after the efficiency of Dr. Fernando, and my inefficiency in making distance calculations, I convinced myself that I would arrive in Quito before the 4th of December. I enter in Ecuador on the 6th and still have something between 200 and 300 km ahead before I reach the capital. Numbers that vary in accordance with the local information and my abstract calculations, because the signalling on the roads is little and erratic.

The Ipiales-Tulcan border is about 3000 meters of altitude. Quito is 2850m. Good signal. But as I am starting to discover in my Andean cycling strokes, the road can climb up to 4000m or drop to 2000m without much warning. I penetrate into Ecuador finishing the day in the pleasant city of San Gabriel, where I spent my first night in the country.

Ecuador. The name alone is inspiring. An imaginary line to whom an entire nation dedicates the name to. Many times I thought about this moment, of as how it would be.... And here I am in the Equator with the bike computer nearing the 25,000 mark. But wasn't I supposed to be already in Patagonia?

I fell asleep with the sounds of the church bell and with my mind floating thought imaginary lines.Day 5, Dempster highway Canada, Arctic circle. Day 171, Mazatlan Mexico, Tropic Cancer, tomorrow Day 498, somewhere on the Pan American highway: Equator line.

I leave San Gabriel early in the morning and manage to have a short glimpse at the majestic Vulcan cayambe to my right, the road undulates amongst rolling hills, climbing slowly to 3350m. Then it falls deep into a canyon, zigzags thought the Valle de Chotra, at 1600 metres of altitude - a very poor area of the country, where inhabits a good part of the 4% Afro-Ecuadorian. After some good 20 kms the road starts to climb steadily on the other side of the canyon until the city of Otovalo (2540m), where I finished the day exhausted with 114 kms and almost 2000 meters of accumulated climb.




I was only a day away from Quito, but took the following day off to visit the Saturday market and to rest my legs from the over 1000km cycled without a days rest. The handcrafts market at Otovalo may be very colorful and interesting, but because buying "recuerdos" is not a priority to me, I found it a bit of a touristic circus, with dozens of tourists, half buying souvenirs and other half shooting away with their digital cameras. After 3 months of "rest" in Colombia, I was back on the Gringo trail.

At 2850 meters of altitude, Quito is the second highest capital in south America after La Paz in Bolivia, situated in a high valley and encircled by volcanoes, it extends for miles like a gigantic rectangular Lego of cement. The Pan-American highway enters trough its northern side, crossing the city through 23 long kms until its historical heart, where I look for a hotel to stay.


Yet another Spanish colonial city. A colonial labyrinth of architectural splendor with pretty churches and buildings. Except for its historical center, a UNESCO heritage site, Quito is just another big Latin metropolis, polluted and with a very chaotic traffic, where the smoke from the urban buses involves the cyclist in a black cloud and makes it difficult to breath.

In fact, the highlight of Quito was meeting up with Joana Oliveira from Leiria (my home town). Friend, and travel companion in different parts of the globe, including on the pan-American (see blogs of march 2007). Together we will cycle south for an indeterminate time.

I spent 4 days in the capital, more to found new spare parts for my bike, then to explore the city. It was time to give up the "quick repairs" and to give a new look to my old travel companion. In 2 days I managed to obtain the necessary parts (imported from Colombia!). Peddler Shimano Alivio (second on the trip, the first one was changed in km 13,610, Cancun). Chain and cassette Shimano 11-30, with 2 teeth less than the previous one, that it will be felt in the ascents (third on the trip. The first one changed in km 4167 and second in the km 13.610). Two pairs of V-Brakes Shimano Deore. The springs of the previous ones already only functioned with Zip-Ties and wire, and finally, two new supports.


The ones that I had (both with 25.000 kms) after innumerable welds, were fixed with loads of Zip-ties, tape, chain pieces, tent pegs and everything what my imagination, or of the local mechanics, managed to fix. Joana brought a new back support, and for the front panniers, I placed a Tubus, offered by Bruno Huber, my cycling companion in Canada ( see blogs of August and September 2006), and that I had the pleasure of seen again in Quito.

We leave Quito and start our first cycling strokes on the southern hemisphere. Leaving Quito was as chaotic as entering, with intense and disordered traffic. The pan-American highway zigzags amongst the two mountain ranges crossing enormous valleys on its way south. Its probably on of the busiest stretches of road in Ecuador. Locals call this high mountain region just by the simple name of "la sierra". But tourists and travellers prefer to call it by a more romantic name: The avenue of the volcanoes. A name given by the German explorer Alexander Von Humbeldt when he travelled in the central valleys of the Andes in 1802.

It would have been a very nice ride if it was not for the intense traffic (and hair-raising conduction of the drivers) and for the sky constantly cloudy that did not allow the anticipated sights of the volcanoes. We arrive in Ambato on time to visit the weekly Monday market, one of the biggest in the region.

The Andean markets, like the markets of Chiapas and Guatemala, are a event full of life and color. "El dia del mercado" is part of the cultural manifesto of the Andean traditions. Neighboring people of mountain hamlets and nearby villages, came down to the city in its traditional costumes to sell, exchange, buy something, anything, keeping its identity and ancestral culture.







South of Ambato , the Pan-American is no longer the only alternative route, and the choice of options increases, also increasing route indecisions. Directly south, the pan-Americana takes most of the traffic with it. Heading east another road drops down to the more temperate lands around Baños, one of the most touristic spots in the country. A third road climbs up above 4000 metres, skirting the Chimborazo Vulcan before dropping down to the coastal flat lands. At the top of the pass, a secondary road continues to Riobamba, our next destination.

The hardest option but also the more appealing, and also the first Andean challenge for Joana. The initial 10 kms were the hardest, with grades well above 10%. After Santa Rosa (3000m) the grades diminish to 5%-7% with some easier parts at 3%-4%. We climb up to 3500 meters and call it a day by mid afternoon. We camped on top of a mountain with views to a gorge with culture fields clinging at impossible angles, and already near the Pàramo.




The Pàramo is a high mountain ecosystem, extremely specialized, characterized by a hostile climate, high levels of ultraviolet light and very low vegetation. Small plants and grass that have adapted to the hostile environment. the following morning we continued our climb, entering the Pàramo, and making a short day of 32 kms, and setting up camp at 4040 meters on the western side of Chimborazo Vulcan.
Here at 4000m, encircled by the vast landscape, I feel myself reduced to my insignificance. Just another animal at the mercy of the elements of this powerful and inhospitable landscape. Its moments like this on the trip, that sublime all the pleasures of bicycle travel.
I can not imagine another way of travel where one has such a close contact with the land and the people who live in this hostile environment. Each stoke is expressed in an immediate consciencialization.Here in the Andes, distances between destinations are reduced to more human proportions. 50 km is not half an hour by car. 50 km are 50 kms! Its hours. It can even be a day or two. Time has a different definition and importance, and the bicycle promotes a series of physical and mental emotions that are evolved slowly in sensual experiences.
The Chimborazo awakes at dawn, moving away the clouds, and disclosing for brief moments, all its splendor, to became shortly afterwards involved in a mantle of fog. at 6310 meters above sea level, its peak is the highest in Ecuador. And for the disillusion of the K2 aficionados, and due to its equatorial localization, its also the peak furthest away from the center of the earth and closer to the sun.


We continue our journey. The chicken legs of last night supper, bought to an ambulant pickup seller, had not supplied enough hydrates, and despite the soft inclination of the road, the altitude compelled with more gasping stokes. At 4250m a junction with an abandoned house, indicated the highest point of the highway 50.

In the pass, another road heading east surrounds Chimborazo volcano before going down to San Juan and later to Riobamba. We took that road, and anticipated a downhill. But the road refused to go down, and continues climbing for another 8 kms heading to another pass.

On this side of the Vulcan, the landscape is more like scrub land. Volcanic sand dunes with some grass and low vegetation, and the occasional flock of "Vicuñas". Distant cousins of the sheep with a long and elegant neck, and that make strange noises similar to a falcon.
At 4200 meters we entered the snow line and just before the junction to the Chimborazo base camp we reached the highest point on this beautiful stretch of road, at 4390 meters of altitude. Then, it was the deserved 50 kms downhill to Riobamba.







We will continue cycling through the holiday season through unknown roads, following the south, pursuing the sun.
A big Andean hug to all of you, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. Thank you for all your support on this trip, and also to the Special children of the APPC-Leiria.

From now on, and through an indefinite time, you can follow my journey also on Joana`s website at constant movements

Nuno Brilhante Pedrosa.
In Riobamba, Equador.