Poor woman's travels

Dear future me,

Never ever start bragging about your lucky charms when you are still travelling. As soon as I posted my last story, I had to conquer an unexpected tough road in Parque Nacional Natural de Purace to get to Popayán. Unexpected because it is a regular highway full of buses and trucks, but they forgot to actually put a road there. Too much stones, potholes and deep tracks to go fast, but I actually had to pass all those trucks, buses, cars and bicycles as I was ‘fast’ with 15 km per hour. And it was a two-way road. Did I mention the rain yet? It’s supposed to be gorgeous up there, but I couldn’t tell as I was too busy trying to navigate and clean my visor at the same time. But guess what? I survived.

I could only briefly walk through Popayán (the white-faced city) the next morning, because I was heading south for the border. First, I enjoyed way better weather and views from the mountains and I actually saw some sun, still too shy to show her full face. Yet enough for me to gasp at white clouds rolling over the highest mountain tops surrounding me. Colombia threw me a spectacular farewell party in those last days as Ecuador was drawing nearer. And the country let me cross the border without any problems whatsoever. Te amo Colombia!

I guess my strong relationship with Colombia bothered its neighbor. It threw a tantrum at me by making sure I was really aware that I was entering a new country. What could have been 30 minutes turned out to be 2,5 hours, to import myself and my preciouszzz bikey. But I am a stone hard patient person, so I just waited and meanwhile got to know Cristian. He’s finishing his original tour through the Americas after a huge distraction of meeting an American woman in Guatemala, marrying her and having kids. We rode up together to Otavalo and then to Quito before our paths had to part, because my travel enjoyment time is way slower (or bigger?) than his. When we left the border, I made him go first to look for a lunch place. In Colombia I was really lousy in recognizing anything that could serve a meal, making me skip the whole lunch thing. But I soon discovered that Ecuador is completely different than Colombia. Okay, they speak Spanish too, but that is it. Road restaurants are very easy to spot, even for me. Look for a lot of cars and there it is! Also easy to find because you don’t get distracted by all the motorcycles around you. In Ecuador there is hardly any traffic and surely just a few motorcycles. Real motorcycles by the way.

Ecuador feels so much more organized. The roads are really good, you can actually follow signs (yes, they have signs with real names) and the stores are very straightforward. Okay, this description works for Otavalo and Quito so far, but it gets less organized if you move away from the main roads. But still, they use dollars so you know right away how cheap or expensive everything is. Cheap in comparison to Europe, more expensive than Colombia though. O yeah, and the dogs are really different here. They go after you on the bike or if you walk by and somehow, they leave their poo on the road. I think there are 10 times more dogs in Colombia, but I can’t remember seeing poo on the streets. I did see a dog run into a bush to do his thing, so well behaved in Colombia ha-ha. People are different too. On one hand you see more distinct native features in the majority of people, but there is also a huge part that looks more international. Really confusing….. I already love Ecuador. But different to Colombia, so to all the Colombians: no worries,, I still adore your country!

I stayed in Quito for 4 nights, just to be off the bike for a while. Being a tourist, visiting Casa Museo Guayasamín which is the actual house and art gallery of a very famous Ecuadorian artist. Really impressive. Also impressive: the steep hills I had to climb to get there. Being on an elevation of 2850 meters does make you very slow. The same happened when I was climbing the stairs to see the Virgen of El Panecillo, although the barking dogs helped me to fasten my pace. I also needed the time to get my bike a small service. It is my trusty partner so I need to be really sweet and pamper him once in a while. The mechanic pampered him too much sadly by giving him another bath and that’s a thing my parttime dirt bike doesn’t like. So the next morning when I tried to leave Quito it started bucking. Water in the electrical circuit is not something I recommend. But with the help of friends (a newly made friend of Cristian knew a good mechanic in Quito) I got to continue my journey the next day. It is running smoother than before now, so I was enjoying my ride to Mindo. Not because I could actually enjoy the environment as it was getting dark and very misty in this cloud forested area, but because my bike was singing in a happy vibe.

In Mindo, famous for the wide variety of hummingbirds, I stayed in a beautiful hostel with a garden full of chittering birds (no, humming birds don’t humm or sing) to accompany me at breakfast. Eduardo, the newly made friend of Cristian and now a newly made friend of mine, showed me the beauties of the town. They have a spectacular cable car ride over the tops of the rainforest. He is a motorcycle fanatic too and gladly repays all the hospitality he found on his tour through South America. That is the spirit of the biker community: helping each other wherever you can. From Mindo I moved to the coastline of Ecuador and that is where I still am. Surrounded by again a beautiful garden and wooden huts, I am relishing in the blissful memories of my visit to Isla de la Plata. Blissful because this poor woman traveled to poor man’s Galapagos (because I only paid 45 dollars for a magnificent Galapagos look-a-like island), but also blissful that there are still ways to enjoy a beautiful, by birds, whales, tropical fish and turtles invested, area on a backpacker’s budget. Welcome to paradise!

See ya later,

Annemieke