What a day

I snuk out of Cuenca in the dusk of day, and headed for the Peruvian border. I was slower than planned with morning routines, drove through the city and was sent in the wrong direction at one point(of course. 10 minutes gone). I realized at that point that "damn, I´m in a hurry". I didn´t want Victor to wait, as he stayed an extra night for me to meet up with him.
In the beginning, the roads were brilliant. Up in the highlands, there would be the "usual" rolling hills, farms with cows and colourful clothes hanging to dry on the wooden fences, and lots of children waiting for the schoolbus along the roads. I was also enjoying the sight of the traditional outfits that women wear here in Ecuador. Then I hit the descening roads that lead me to a big valley of morning sun, lighting up mountains curved and decorated no more logically than a little kids doodling. Still the roads were great.

Suddenly that changed as I rode upwards towards the rocky mountains. It turned to gravel. I mean Offroad gravel! In the beginning, I thought it would be short and good training for me to see how Tornado will perform on such terrain, which he is good for. Unfortunatly his chain is not good for it, and it fell of twice. There were roadworkers that helped me out in the terrible heat to put it back on and tighten it. I was so late. Reaching real roads again was divine, but I was Late, and it took me a long time to reach civilization with a phone so that I could call and tell Victor that I was late and that he should go ahead. He decided to wait. I rode fast on good roads. South of Machala, the roads are all flat and long, framed in mangrove palms. I made it before 11, and we went to Peru.. Oh, wait. The first time wasn´t legal!
The border is rediculously set up, and we had to go back to search for the different departments. I smiled to myself the third time I entered Ecuador, a country I know I´ll never go back too, even though it´s a great one. There was hardly traffic, but it all took us 1,5hour, before we could continue on along the desert(my first), and suddenly come across ocean after not seeing the ocean for 3 months!
Gorgeous! The little towns are very rural in the north. Always interesting to enter a new country. We were in Peru! Again.

Riding solo

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

Latacunga

I was lucky enough to have a mechanic at the site where my bike was parked, so I didn't have to ride through the town. He showed me how to tighten the chain, which unfortunatly needs to be changed soon, how to clean the airfilter and we shortened the kickstand, and made the plattform larger and more durable. After that, I was gonna go shopping to get other pants than my running pants. I was so happy to finally have a credit card, and Pow, it doesnt work! So frustrating, but I got money from the Western Union this morning. It did remind me of how it was when I was in Sydney, living in one of the most luxurious hotels in the city, without money for food the next day. But the receptionist of the hostel lent me money in exchange for my passport as security, so I went out with some fun australians.
The next morning, I did some chores and I tried to leave at the same time as Ray and Victor, but I ended up leaving on my own for Banos: first taking a wrong turn that forced me to go a looong way around, and it was raining and eventually freezing. Luckily the roads were wide open without traffic. I decided to stop in Latacunga instead, and I'm so glad for that! Its an amazing little town with surrounding mountains. I found a great hostel: hostel cafe tienda, met some nice people. Walked around the town looking at beautiful churches, the nice market thats every day, got to know some locals while trying out some new food. They give samples here too, and it makes me feel a bit bad when I really don't want to buy it!
I don't mind staying one more day. Banos is only two hours away, and there's a lake to see from the back of my bike. Happy that I left Quito!!

For some reason, I was exhausted this morning, and didn`t feel like rushing around town to see it before hopping on the bike to Banos. I decided to rest my leg and wait till tomororw, when there`s also less traffic. Was gonna go really early, but I don`t know anymore as I met a guy who`s driving up Cotopaxi after an artisan market. It means I`ll be going to Banos late, and I`ll probably get wet n cold, but I`ll go if the weather`s good.
I walked around a bit to take photos, and took Tornado out for a little spin to make sure that everythings alright, as he was a bit shaky when we arrived here. It was only the altitude though, and he`s good now. Rode up to the top of the city to look around, and also go to some areas where I wouldn`t really walk. Went to the market twice today for some fruit and later ceviche. I bought a big bad of strawberries, blackberries, a banana and a mango for 1,5usd in total! After fussing a lot about which movie to choose, we ended up with "the visitor", which was really good!
But yeah.. Really looking forward to Banos tomorrow! Feel bad for Victor, who`s in the hospital with food poisining. That`s one of the things I have to be really careful about. Miss being able to drink the tapwater, as one does in Colombia. Also miss a bit of heat.. brr.. Travelling South America and I`m both freezing and pale(w one blue foot though). What is this? Gotta get down to the coast soon.



Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Baños!

God damn! I like it.
I turned down the offer of a roadtrip up Cotopaxi, as I was more keen on getting to Baños, one of the places that have been very high on my list. It´s the place for thermal baths, adventuresports, trekking, horsebackriding, eating and being a true gringo. It´s very touristy, but I have been so far off the gringo trail for a while that I don´t mind too much. I only mind the "short trip- lonely planet travelling slaves", that doesn´t get to know the country nor the people, at all.
Riding to Baños was great. The sun was shining, I had my mp3 and it was a surprisingly short trip. Unfortunatly, as I stopped to take a photo, my camera appeared to strike! It´s the focus, so I had to accept that I couldn´t take any photos of this beautiful place, just yet. Baños is in a green valley of steep mountains. One which is a volcano that you can ride or hike far up on. Coming in to the town, I saw loads of foreigners, quadbikes, restaurants and hotels. I checked in to Plantas y Blancos, which is a great hostel for 6,50, met a guy from Salento, almost passed out in one of the sunbeds, walked around, had a really good lunch and afterwards a great full body massage with great aromas, hotstones and an included facial: total 70minutes for 15usd...! I had been craving that. I got pampered some more in the hot thermal baths by the waterfall: three pools with different temperatures: 2usd entry. We also went to a good restaurant with great international food and movies showing, called club house. Tomorrow morning are we going to do a kind of "swing" from a 90m high bridge: 15usd. Unfortunatly there is no bungee jump. I can´t do too much with my knee either. Frustrating.. But should heal soon.







Wednesday, November 24th, 2010


I went to the bridge to bungee with a group of Aussies. I was set on making it as scary as possible, so I went last. Actually jumping from the edge is terrifying, but there was hardly any free fall. When I went with Victor later in the day, he got the second jump cheaper and with a longer freefall(recommend just showing up on the bridge and haggling, as the equipment is already there).
I considered riding my bike up the hills when the others were renting quadbikes, but I had never ridden one before, so I went for it, luckily, as it was great fun! The scenery is beautiful and the roads were swingy and loco. We saw the tip of the volcano through the clouds at one point. After that amount of adrenaline, we needed some time on the sunbeds. Later, I decided to get another massage from another parlour, just so that I could say who to recommend. It was just me being really nice! Unfortunatly, the Chakra massose wasn´t there, and since I had already tried Prana(which is really good as for sents, the bed, hotstones, massage, oils, music and price), I decided to try a recommended chinese place. After a nice conversation with a woman from Urugay, I practiced some of my mandarin words with my massose! I haggled the price a bit, and got one of the worst massages I´ve had... I´ve had quite a few in Bali. It was a depressing waste of money, which you do spend a lot of here.
For dinner, we were disappointingly aware that Casa Hood was closed that day and the next. They have great international dishes! We went to Cafe Good instead. Yes, their names are similar. There´s also a Cafe Hood, to make it even more complicated. I don´t know if its on purpose, because Plantas Y Blanco is a popular hostel here, and there is another hostel with almost the same name, for people that make that mistake.
After checking out a few bars, among one a karaoke bar where I got to sing some, we shut our eyes after a good day. The next one would be rather boring..
I´ve been restless as everyone is doing activities that I can´t. I tried to locate somewhere to buy a new tyre, but I´ll have to do that in Riobamba tomorrow morning. I tried to figure out wether or not to go to Cuenca, as not doing that could save me several hours on the road. But the road down between the mountains are supposed to be spectacular, and I don´t really have anything else to do down south. I´ve been waiting all day for a mail from my modelling agent, as I got word that Exito needed me urgently.
I sent a mail saying that it would be good to know when, as I need to get to an airport in that case. Once again, it´s taking them forever to reply. I´m just struggling with myself a little bit today. I feel really restless, which I didn´t expect at all. Would´ve been different if I could trek, climb and horsebackride. At least I had a good big lunch at my favorite spot: the second floor restaurant at the right corner before arriving at the supermarket from my hostel, which is near the beautiful church.

Hola, Ecuador!

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

We left Popayan earlier than planned for Ipiales, which nearly gave me a heart attack, or at least it gave me an alsure, because I wasn't informed of the change of plan. But oh my God, the landscape! Wow.. The roads were really great too. I`ve improved my riding a lot as for taking turns and standing up whenever its bumpy or there`s gravel. I haggled us into a nice hotel in Ipiales, had a nice shower and POW! It struck me that I had left my passport in Popayan, too stressed to remember that it was in the safe. Our room hadn`t been possible to lock, so I had done that to keep it safe. Should've kept it on me, and learned from it! I did that the day before the border crossing, leaving behind a rather dangerous stretch to do by nightbus! So problem-solving was needed. The amazing hotel owner of our Popayan hotel, Pass home, who had already gone out of his way to be a great host, sent his employee on the bus there. So I had to pay for the bustickets and 100 pesos extra. It worked out, but it was another lesson learned.
We went to Ipiales in the morning. The church is very touristy, very beautiful. We didn`t stay long, but went straight for the border crossing, though I would've liked to stay longer. I was nervous about crossing without a licence(I have a police report saying that I have lost it), but I charmed my way through! The guys were really nice and one of them actually said: its just one girl.
We did encounter some drama in leaving Colombia, however, because they couldn`t find their temporary importation papers for their bikes. So for a moment, it looked like they couldn`t leave with their bikes, and that I would be crossing alone. After a while, they found the papers and we could breathe again. We said our goodbyes to Colombia, welcoming Ecuador and its cheap gasoline.

We spent the night in Ibarra, after a delicious meal: lasagna and strawberry milkshake, to great old hits. Finally something tasty!
The landscape in Ecuador has changed drasticly, and its so interesting now that we`ve had enough of the same green scenery. And the mountains.. We went up to lake Cotocatchi in the morning. There`s a beautiful village and the lake is stunning! After that, we had lunch and went to Quito. There was a scary moment where we were following the taxi that was supposed to take us to their spanish school, and the dad, Mike, tried to position himself on the side of the car, when the car was taking a left turn, and he bumped into the son, Sean. The bump caused him to fall on his bike, and he almost got hit by a taxi. He instead slid across the side of the taxi before getting back up again. If the taxi had been a Little bit slower...

The family had arranged a weeks spanish lesson with home stay, in Quito. That`s where my bike is at right now. I`m staying at the Secret garden, where my stuff has been waiting for me for quite some time. It was great travelling with the family. I learned a lot from them. Also a bit of mechanical stuff and mandarin. At least I tought them a little bit of spanish in return. I`m forever thankful for their kindness.
But its also very wonderful to be free and independent again. I can now go where I want to, and they said that I was ready to fly off on my own, skillwise. However slow I`ll probably be driving down to Banos. (That they didn`t say)
I`ve had dinner and met some new people. I`ve been missing the hostel/gringo lifestyle a bit. Its good to relax and heal my knee. Tomorrow I`m taking my bike to the dealer to tighten my chain and chop off 1,5cm of the kickstand to make up for the lowering and extra luggage. Don`t know quite yet what time I`ll be off to Banos. I want to go to Cotopaxi, but not with this knee. I! can decide that now. Victor and Ray are staying in the hostel across the street, actually. We`ve said goodbye quite a few times.

Little trip to Ecuador

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Silly airlines...

I had breakfast with the medstudent, Victor, from the night before. After talking for a while about travelling by motorcycle and volunteering I truly realized that I wanted to stay longer than three months. My exam could wait. I decided to work a lot on my spanish, and I had my first spanishlesson through the black sheep hostal, here in Medellin. What really made up my mind was the fact that he invited me to come along on the back of his bike. He also suggested me buying one, and him teaching me, if I rememer correctly. He told me to think about it, but I was sold from that moment. I didn't tell my parents until it was all set, but in my head, it was. I was doing it!

I took a bus, after chilling out in the pool for a long time in La Media Luna, together with a belgian girl from the hostal. I got on the crammed metro to the Pit Stop hostal, and was sent to all different directions by locals, genuinly trying to help me out. People are very friendly here. They don`t stare and they`re much wealthier, so it feels very safe. It`s a beautiful city and the people are very proud of it, and themselves. It`s the rival city of Bogota, but it`s kind of obvious that it`s going to outgrow the colombian capitol, as long as safety issues don`t reoccur.

The Pit Stop hostal is actually a big party hostal with a pool, gym, basketball court, ping pong table, bar, etc. I`m sleeping in a 14person dorm for 17000cop a night, but I actually got it all for myself because for some reason, there is hardly anyone here! Therefore, we`ve been hanging out down at the Black Sheep, cooking and watching a movie, etc. I ran into a french guy here, that I`ve bumped into in three different hostals in three different cities, now. I went with him and some other people to take the metro and cable carts up to the top of the city and to the national park up there. We met some very young colombian New Yorkers(15 and 17), rode in the back of a truck and tried to help out two dogs that had been having sex, and got stuck to each other! It took them five minutes to pull apart from each other.
After that, me and a english girl went for a spanish lesson. Then we bought groceries to cook, had a shower and watched Salt. We were all going for karaoke, but they charged a cover, so we went to play pool instead. A great night, still!
We also went by the airlines office to talk to them about cancelling my flight to Ecuador, but they`d charge me 200usd if I did! Thus, me and the britih girl are going for a weekend trip to Quito and Otavalo, that has a famous market. Silly airlines..


Monday, September 6th, 2010
Getting to the airport took us 45min in a taxi. The trip was painless. The security even let me bring my big water bottle. The Secret Garden hostel had sent a driver to pick us up and take us there for 5usd. I have to borrow money from her for the moment, because the ATMs in the airport couldn’t read my credit card. It was beautiful to see the afternoon lit city from the air. It was massive! The hostel was very tight but tall. On the 5th floor, there is a outdoor restaurant with a fireplace and the most spectacular view! Me and Emma, the 28 year old teacher I’m travelling with, met some cool guys from Australia, got 2nd place in a trivia quiz, and went out for a bite. Trying to eat more healthy now, but it’s not easy. We’re gonna find a gym today, when we’re going on a free city tour. Unfortunately, there is no kitchen here!

The tour was very cultural for an uncultural being like myself. Went to Otavalo early and had libanese dinner with some guys from the secret garden hostel. We stayed in a private room at hostel Maria. The first thing we encountered was a guy that tried to grab Emma`s lonely planet book. She was carrying a backpack and a camera, but no. He went for the lonely planet! The streets were packed of people, eateries and a concert area, with a band that just began playing the radio hit that had been haunting my head all day long. It was fun, but I had no party in me, so I made sure the guys met up with some other gringos, that immediatly shouted out to us as we came near. It was the first night of a festival of love, and the night before the big saturday market; largest indogenious market in SA. I´m a terrible shopper, so it was more looking and trying out funny instruments for my part. The market is huge and colorful. On sunday we went to el mitad del mundo, the center of the world, first to the monument at the fake site, then to the museum 200m away, where the GPS really is 00.00. That was definately my best museum experience so far! We could see the different effects from being on different sides of the line, and on it. We were told a lot about the indogenious, history, etc. European schools teach us about the world, but hardly anyone knows south american history.

I was extremely psyched to get back to warm, green and lush, Colombia. I´m so glad I went on that short trip, since I now know just how amazing this country is, after being in Quito: the city of eternal autumn.
Ecuador was cheaper, had more international goods and europeans, but far less colour and caribbean spirit.I had a two hour spanish lesson in the morning, where we mostly had a conversation, as that is what I need to practice, took a taxi to the airport and discovered that I needed to pay a departure fee of 41usd. Jenny found herself in trouble as she had borrowed all the money she had used in Ecuador, from Emma, because the credit card she brought doesn´t work anymore. Had to change the colombian pesos I had and receive charity from a man from Texas who just handed me some money. Truly great people out there! The alternative would have been calling my bank for them to give me a code I could use in the ATM to pay, which would have been a lot more hassle.
The busride from the airport holds some gorgeous views, and I was just tripping of happiness from being back to this great city, where I can walk the streets around the hostel, almost like back home.
I fancy settling down for a bit, and went crazy with the grocery shopping, before we all just chilled out with a few episodes of the "in betweeners". Now I´m going to bed in a 14 person dorm, where I`m not alone like last time. But yeah, I´m happyy!




Traditional dance performance at 

Mitad del Mundo

Animal market in Otavalo