March 15, 2022
Winter is my favorite time to travel. After a few months of snow and cold in the mountains, it’s nice to head somewhere warm for a while. With that in mind, I booked a last minute trip to Ecuador to ride Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental’s Guided High Andes Deep Amazon Motorcycle Tour in January/February 2022. This was a 10 day/9 night ride covering about 1,000 miles of 70% offroad/30% pavement through the Andes Mountains and Amazon Basin. Highlights of the trip included volcanoes, cathedrals, chocolate, coffee, mudslides, alpacas, waterfalls, ziplining, shrunken heads, traditional markets and even loading motorcycles into canoes for a 100 mile river journey. Carnage on the trip included broken bones, broken motorcycles and bruised egos.
The trip started and ended in Quito, a friendly city with a mix of European and indigenous influences. Since I had never been before, I opted to stay in a hostel in the old part of the city for a few days before the ride. I enjoyed walking around the city, trying the local food, visiting the cathedrals and museums and meeting fellow travelers. The hostel I stayed at was in a great, central location with amazing rooftop views, but it was really geared toward younger travelers, and I think if I were to go back, I would opt for a hotel.
One thing not to be missed in Quito is a gondola ride up the mountain. From the top of the mountain, you can see the entire city in the valley below. I wish I had known there were several miles of trails above the city, and with a little prior planning I would have really enjoyed making at day of trekking there.
Like many other cities, there are “free” guided walking tours available in Quito, and these are a great way to familiarize yourself with the city. The cathedrals are a highlight, and you can even climb all the way to the top of the belltowers of the Basilica del Voto via some rickety metal stairs. On the way down the tower, don’t miss the small café where you can sample the beer or canelazo, a traditional liquor that was made by monks while admiring a view of the city from above.
On the first day of the ride, I took a taxi from the old part of town to Ecuador Freedom. The large shop/garage is located in the La Carolina district of the city, which is the newer, more cosmopolitan part of town. Here, we met with our 2 guides, support truck driver and fellow riders, loaded our bikes, and had a thorough briefing on riding in Ecuador and the route that we would be taking. Generally, the process seemed very organized. Freedom Ecuador runs many guided tours, in addition to renting bikes for self-guided tours, and the flow seemed very smooth. Although the Suzuki DR650 that they set me up on had just been serviced, it started smoking when I started it, so they switched me to different DR650.
Off like a herd of turtles!… The gates opened, the motorcycles started, and we began our ride. Day one consisted of navigating our way out of Quito. Once out of the city, we rode up the “Avenue of Volcanoes”. Unfortunately, clouds blocked most of our volcano views, but we had lunch at a beautiful, historic hacienda and then toured a rose plantation, where roses are grown, cultivated, packaged and shipped to all parts of the world. They even made a rose liquor that we sampled.
One thing I have not mentioned to this point is that Ecuador lies on the equator. Go figure! Therefore, it is a very wet, tropical climate. The end of January when we left is still part of the rainy season. And it was wet! And cloudy! And muddy! You will definitely make good use of your rain gear on a trip like this, and if you are not used to riding in mud, you will be by the end of the trip.
And then…tragedy strikes!
As we made our way through the rain over some muddy roads in the late afternoon, one of our group slid into a ditch on his BMW F700GS and twisted the front end, making it unrideable. This is where a support vehicle comes in very handy. We were able to load his bike in the truck and continue on our way to the hotel booked for the first night, with a stop at a local garage to try and fix the bike, but with no success.
In the morning, another support vehicle had arrived to drop off a replacement bike and pick up the damaged BMW. We headed out through the town of Chugchilan and into the mountains around Quilotoa to the Quilotoa Crater, a scenic mountain lake created by the collapse of a volcano to form a caldera, which then filled with water. Then, as we headed back into the town of Quilotoa, tragedy strikes again… One of our riders washed out in a turn on a paved road and slid his bike through a guardrail, ripping the subframe and making it unrideable. Luckily, the rider was OK…just a little shaken and bruised. Once again, we loaded the damaged bike and rider into the truck and continued on our way.
One of the things I really admire about Ecuador Freedom is their dedication to giving back by promoting their Pack for a Purpose program, which encourages clients to purchase and pack school supplies and toys needed by children in remote schools. Before the trip, the company provides a list of items needed, as well as Amazon.com links to purchase them. I filled extra room in my luggage with chalk, playground balls, whistles, and musical recorders, which were packed at the shop in Quito with what everyone else brought from home and loaded into our support truck so we could personally deliver them to the schools.
On the afternoon of our second day, we visited a girls’ school high in the Andes Mountains and dropped off a load of supplies. This was a really rewarding experience. We were able to meet some of the students and staff, and see the school. We all introduced ourselves to the group in Spanish and told where we came from. The girls thanked us with a song.
After leaving the school, the roads started getting worse with thick, greasy mud and washed out ruts. A fews hours later, tragedy struck yet again! One of our riders went down in the mud and landed on his hand, which we would later find out was broken. Load up the bike and rider again! Unfortunately, he had to cut the trip short and fly home for surgery.
Luckily, day three was lacking in tragedy. We toured a cheese factory in the mountains and made our way through an incredibly beautiful valley, where we had to wait an hour or so as the entire road was blocked by a parade of locals celebrating Day of the Epiphany, carrying statues of the three wise men from town to the church. Sometime that day, the clutch started going out on my bike. We were close to our destination, and Ecuador Freedom ended up sending out a different bike for my during our rest day. Unfortunately, the bike was a lowered DR650, which had almost zero suspension travel. After riding that for a couple of days, our rock star guide, Andy, traded bikes with me. That afternoon, we arrived in Banos, where we stayed for day four.
Banos is one of the adventure capitals of Ecuador. It is know for its waterfalls and thermal springs, and offers opportunities to go ziplining, bungee jumping, rafting, canyoning, rock climbing as well as other activities. Pailon del Diablo is definitely worth the visit and features trails cut into the rock under the waterfalls, as well as suspension bridges and great photo opps.
The morning of day five started with a short ride out of Banos to a zipline over the river valley. After an adrenaline-filled morning, we rode to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, where we hiked through the jungle in our riding gear to another waterfall. That afternoon we started descending into the Amazon Basin, where we hiked around some ayahuasca caves and climbed a hill to get our first view of the river. That afternoon, we left our motorcycles and boarded canoe ferries to a very nice hotel on the other side of the river.
Day six was a memorable day, spent mostly on the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon. We loaded the bikes into large, motorized canoes and made our way down the river. Our pilot manned an outboard motor at the back of the canoe, while his partner stood in the front with a large stick to check the water depth as we headed downstream. We were able to get 5-6 bikes and riders on each canoe. We stopped for lunch at an organic farm that trains local youth to work in the food and service industries. It was an interesting stop. Re-boarding our canoes, we continued by river to our destination at Rio Coca. The spot where we had to unload the bikes was a deep mud bank, which made for an interesting process. Luckily, a local shop owner had a hose that we were able to borrow for a few dollars to hose ourselves and our bikes down after trudging through the mud to get them off the boats.
Day seven was a scenic ride back up into the mountains to the town of Tulcan along the Colombian border. The plan was to take a van from Tulcan across the border into Ipiales, Colombia that evening, but due to Covid restrictions, they would not let us across the border, so we returned to Tulcan to sample some local cuisine.
Day eight started with a tour of a beautiful cemetery in Tulcan. All of the hedges throughout the cemetery were sculpted into animals, figures and tunnels. After leaving the cemetery, we rode to a small town where we toured a family-run brick making factory. We stopped at a local hot spring for a soak and changed a flat tire on one of the bikes in the parking lot. Riding higher into the mountains, the scenery changed again as we entered El Angel Biological Reserve, with its unique “frailejon” plants and alpacas. Descending a little from the mountains, we arrived into a coffee region where we were able to tour a coffee plantation across the river from Colombia. The views here were fantastic. We made our way to the Hacienda Primavera Wilderness Lodge, with its swimming pool and infinity hot tub overlooking a lush valley. This was without a doubt the best night stay of the trip.
Day nine took us back through winding mountain roads blanketed in clouds and fog. This is the day where tragedy struck again…on a personal note. Riding up a thick muddy hill through deep ruts, my bike slipped and I went down on my left side. Normally, not a big deal, but somehow my foot stuck in the mud as the bike fell on it and my body twisted around it, producing an audible snapping sound. I immediately knew I had screwed up. I could not put any weight on my left foot. Luckily, a couple of my companions rolled up behind me and helped me get my bike up. I jumped on it as quickly as I could to keep going before the pain set it. I found that I could shift gears with my heel, as I could not move my ankle. I rode with my left foot off the peg for 2 days, keeping it compressed in my riding boot and trying not to move it. We stopped at a tannery to see how a local craftsman made leather products and then on to a factory where indigenous instruments were handmade. We stopped in the market town of Otavalo before stopping for the night at a beautiful hotel on Lake San Pablo with individual cabins for everyone, each one with its own fireplace that was lit by staff before bedtime. My ankle was pretty sore and swollen. I spend most of the evening icing it.
The last day of the ride started with a still-swollen ankle. One of my companions had packed an ankle brace, which he let me have. I cinched it tight under my riding boot and mounted up. Another tripmate had ibuprofen tablets that I started eating like candy. Despite my injury, we had a nice ride (unfortunately over miles and miles of cobblestones) to a small town weekend market and then on to the Intinan Solar Museum, located on the equator. There, we tried balancing eggs on the head of a nail and trying to determine which direction water swirled going down a drain. We even saw actual shrunken heads and learned how they were made by the cannibals that used to live in the region.
From there, we finished the ride back in Quito where I hobbled around for another day and a half checking out more museums and restaurants. Back in Denver, I finally decided to go get my ankle checked out. Sure enough…broken. Oh well. I’m sure it will heal in time for more adventures!
All in all, this was a great trip. There were a ton of experiences packed into 10 days. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I would love to see the Andes again in clearer weather. What else did I learn?…
1. On an offroad ride like this, I would probably upgrade bikes next time. The DR650 is a solid bike, but the Husky 701 Enduro with its taller ride and more suspension travel would have made the ride much more comfortable.
2. Do not try to filter local water. Only after getting sick did I discover that LifeStraw water bottles are not made to filter municipal water. Just stick with bottled water.
3. Wear motocross boots, not adventure boots. I didn’t really think this ride would be that challenging, so I wore my Sidi Adventure boots. If I had been wearing my motocross boots, I might not have broken my ankle.
4. Along with #3 above, I would have preferred more offroad gear, like my dirt helmet and goggles vs the Shoei road helmet I wore. I also would have liked to have brought a backpack with water bladder or my riding vest with bladder.
5. As always, pack light. I think one pair of light travel pants and one pair of shorts is plenty. I was glad I took a light merino wool sweater which I wore when it was cool in the evenings or occasionally under my riding jacket. Leave room for a few souvenirs.
6. It rains a lot in Ecuador. Definitely bring a light rain jacket. I had a light rain jacket for when I wasn’t riding, and a Frogg Toggs rain suit for on the bike. I think I could get by with one nice quality rain jacket like this RevIt jacket I now own.
7. The market in Otavalo was a great place to buy some souvenirs. I got a nice alpaca zip up sweater for around $25 and some gifts for friends. I also bought a small painting on canvas from a local artist in Banos that I was able to stash in the support vehicle for most of the trip.
8. Definitely take over the counter drugs including diarrhea medicine and pain relievers. These were not readily available throughout the trip, so good to bring them along.
9. Ecuadorians are a friendly, welcoming people. There was no time on this trip that I felt unsafe or unwelcome.
10. Try the cuy! Tastes like chicken!