After six weeks in Colombia we were dreading the border crossing into Ecuador. The crossing is renowned to take for ages. The current unstable situation in Venezuela has lead to many fleeing their country and trying to cross into Ecuador. We were lucky tough – we checked out within minutes and only had to queue for an hour to get registered into Ecuador. Riding along some stunning mountain passes our first stop was at Otovalo – renowned for its lovely textile market. The food improved tremendously compared to South Colombia, after weeks of eating rice, chicken and lukewarm potatoes. To celebrate New Years Eve we decided to head into Quito! The traditional way to celebrate NYE in Ecuador is to burn a puppet resembling someone who was important to you throughout the year, good or bad, to start of into the new year. After a few drinks at the lovely hostel Casa Hebling, run by a German, the plan was to head out into the city. Rain started to pour down though, so we ended up staying in the hostel and burning the face of “Karl” with the receptions – Karl was his boss. At least a small glimpse into the Ecuadorian tradition 🙂
Quito is wrapped around the eastern slopes of the majestic Volcano Pinchincha at an elevation of 4’784 m. So the luggage was removed from our bikes and we set out to reach a road which runs along the rim of the volcano. After whizzing through the chaos of Quito, leaving the city the snowy peak of Pichincha came into view. The road turned into a trail and soon turned into heavy mud and then changed to snow! At over 4’000 meters our bikes struggled at low speeds (and slow was the only speed we could do in these conditions) and we kept getting stuck in the mud, having to push the bikes out – puffing and panting. After skidding and spinning around in the snow/mud and giving the clutch a hard workout the mission was aborted just a kilometer before the peak at 4’700 m and we rolled back down into town.
