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MIDDLE EARTH

Setting foot in Ecuador

By K-load Pictures

Offroad Adventure in Ecuador on a 6 day Self-Guided Expedition

«This tour is reserved for the truly adventurous -those who love to ride off-road - way, way off the beaten track. The tour aims to avoid pavement as much as possible and will take the rider immediately out of Quito and onto some spectacular off-road riding and to parts of Ecuador that most people don't ever get the opportunity to see.»

-Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental in Quito

Hell yeah, that’s what we’re taking!

Chilling in Quito

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970's for having the best preserved and least altered historic centre in all of Latin America.

It is located on the equator line in the Andes Mountains at nearly 3000 M.

Our good friends René & Véro who accompagnied us on this ride!

The path of the sun

Its the first day, we are very excited because today we pick our motorcycles and we start riding to the museum in the middle of the world. The new few days are going to be a combination of asphalt, dry gravel, cobblestone and unimproved dirt roads.

North and South. We’re in the middle of the world.

The Ecuadorian andes

Ecuador’s stunning landscapes marvels everyone who has the opportunity to come to visit it. Cuicocha is one of their beauty, a beautiful crater lake located right beside Cotacachi mountain. The lake, which is 200 m deep at its deepest point, is highly alkaline and contains little life and has no known outlet.

MAD Detour

The second day of our has been the most challenging and the one we will remember years to come. We decided to take the roughest track and left Véro & René taking the scenic route with the idea of meet in a coffee joint in the town of Apuela. At the beginning the dirt road was beautiful and the weather as well. But it turned out that the road had major gutter repairs and started slowly (but surely) to be impracticcable. The rain started to destroy the roads and make them slippery as hell. We were lucky enough to encounter some farmers who help us to clim the 6 km of roads we needed to do in 6 hours…

Claudia and I learned 2 lessons that day: 1- Never separate from the group 2- When conditions become more difficult, they will not improve and you have to turn back.

When we are in a distant country, there is no chance to take!

looking for mindo

Once in Apuebla, we were to late to catch our friends. So we changed clothes outside because the coffee was closed and we got back on our bikes to get to Mindo, which was a long stretch to do in the dark crossing fireroads in mountains.

We stopped in a very small village to ask for fuel. One local took us with his Yamaha 250 to a bakery where a woman who got out from the side door with a 4L and a nylon stocking as a filter on the cap, help us to fill our tanks.

Then, one man tried to give us some advices to get to Mindo and drew this road map... i'm not convinced that it helped us but the intention was good!

We finally got to the Caskafessu Hotel in the cloudforest town of Mindo around 11 PM. Véro and René were happy to see us arrive but were so worried about our absence. A few tears fell, of joy and anger, before hitting back the road the next day with a good dose of additional experience...

The quilotoa loop

The Quilotoa Loop is a remote, bumpy, mountainous road linking several high andean villiages and towns with the city of Latacunga. Simply amazing!

gravel, dirt, mud, Repeat.

These words translate to a good time

The quest for dry clothes

February is the beginning of rain season. Add to that the humidity in the rooms and the lack of electricity, the challenge of riding with dry clothes is quite interesting!

Locals

We got the chance of staying in a lot of different places on that trip. On of them was in a family where they had a couple of rooms for visitors because the hostel they planned for us was overbooked. The rooms were very humid but the firestove in the «lobby» was the perfect place for drying everything from clothes to money and having our happy hour!

The joy of riding

Simply put.

casual obstacle

The mountain slumped on one of the roads on our course.

Reboot

This story ends where it began, in Quito. We took the time to visit it again, having a great meal and get a view from the top hoping on the Teleferico.