RTW North to South: Parting ways

MS - Tuesday January 2nd. We woke up in Tena, in the Amazon, to the sounds of the jungle, literally. The sounds kicked off about 4:30 AM. The birds, lots of them.

Monkeys? Something that sounded like an owl? The hostel had some screens and some just open windows, no AC. Surreal to lay in bed and hear all that noise. We went to the back patio in t-shirts and bare feet to have breakfast around 7:30 AM and watched a number of hummingbirds in the gardens and surrounding trees. It was already 70 degrees.

We packed up for our last day of riding together, fueled up, and headed for Quito. The map indicated two highways 45E to 20N, about 200k. The symbols look the same as what you would see in the States used for an interstate. The road went from a cement two lane road with a middle line to a narrow strip of asphalt with no markings. Occasionally crossing bridges made of metal plates spanning rushing muddy waters. S-turn after switchback after curve we wound around the mountains. The riding wasn't particularly fast but definitely fun without rain. At one point we passed a lengthy red sign in Spanish which had a number of exclamation points. Ken said from behind that he thought that meant the road was about get bad. Chip confirmed from the front that was true. Just mud and rocks and gullies and potholes. Good thing we were on dirtbikes! We passed a semi delivering bottled water with completely open sides coming the other way slowly picking his way through the holes and cracks. In less than 10 minutes we were back on tarmack.

The views were impressive. We dropped to 1000 feet and were deep in tropical jungle. Then we rode all the way up to over 13000 where we were snowed on! We stopped at the top to close vents and gear up for maximum warmth. We passed dozens of impressive waterfalls on both sides of us and would take a curve to see giant snow covered peaks in the distance.There were various signs indicating llamas, armadillos and maybe an anteater? At the top of the pass, there were multiple signs telling us to look out for bears crossing but we didn't see any. We rode arounds lots of rocks that had fallen in the road and several mudslides. Chip said he felt Ecuador had the most dramatic landscape yet on the trip.

Getting close to Quito we could see the smog over the city socked in by clouds hanging out at nine and ten thousand feet. We hit the city traffic just right about two o'clock. It turns to gridlock with police on every corner directing the chaos by four. Within a few kilometers of our hotel I chickened out on crossing in front of a moving bus to make a right hand turn and lost Chip. Ken and I caught up with him at Freedom Bike Rental in 15 minutes. We turned in my rental and the guys looked over Chip's bike that was running rough from all the change in altitude and potentially suspect fuel. Hopefully some carb cleaning and adjustment will do the trick.

300 miles. Andes to the Amazon region with lots of volcanos thrown in for good measure. Two days of mostly rain and two days of mostly dry with some flurries to make it interesting. We finished the same way we started. Sushi for dinner a few blocks from the hotel.

Headed to the airport at 5 AM this morning and the guys we're going to hit the bricks early too. I'm back in the States now, flying through Miami. I hear its single digits at home. Boo! 👎

A big thanks to my amazing husband and our tolerant friend Chip for letting me crash their adventure. It.Was.Awesome. Guest blogger, signing off.