Part 14 Quito to Lima, Peru, early Jul 17

Part 14 Quito to Lima, Peru

Trip videos available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPasfEADtrFeaD21vyg4Huw

Days 93-104

Isabelle’s ankle improved greatly with time. We went on day trips, short ones at first, to places of interest in and around the city. Quito had been our home while Isabelle recovered from a fractured ankle. Daily physiotherapy and increasing activity slowly brought back her strength.

The Equator

We rode the teleferico up past 4000m to Volcan Pichincha, the mountain that towered over our rented apartment. It was Isabelle’s first time above 4000m but of course 5 weeks of living near 3,000m meant that she experienced no ill effects from the extra altitude. The views of the city from there were breathtaking. We also visited Panecillo, a high, steep hill in the south of the city. The hill is topped by a huge statue of the Virgin Mary and affords spectacular views of the northern part of the “Avenue of the Volcanos”. We counted nine volcanos that rose out of the 2800m valley, three of them had peaks above 6000m and were capped by snow.

 Looking Down on Quito from Over 13,000 ft

A bus tour, the Changing of the Guard ceremony and several shopping trips filled the days and provided even more gentle exercise. Isabelle was strong enough to ride and we were able to leave Quito on schedule on the 13^th of July. We had a 2000 km journey to complete before meeting our daughter, Gabi in Lima.

 Atop Panecillo, Snow Capped Cotopaxi Behind

 Volcan Pululahua Crater with Our Driver

 View from Panecillo

 Statue of the Virgin Atop Panecillo

View of South Quito

On the road day 1

Today was filled with excitement. I rolled Isa’s moto onto the street and she gingerly climbed on it. This was the first time she had put a leg over it in five weeks. She had declined my invitation in the days before departure for a test ride with no luggage. It seems her aversion to riding in city traffic won over prudence and the possibility of practice. I reminded her that she has already ridden more mileage on a motorcycle than many people ride in a lifetime. She was still nervous until she let out the clutch for the first time. Body memory returned instantly and her balance was sure. Everything felt natural.

The views along the “Avenue of the Volcanos” were exhilarating because of the lack of clouds. Snow capped giants stabbed their pointed peaks at the azure sky. It was everything I had hoped Isabelle would see on her first time outside the city in weeks. I enjoyed hearing her reactions over the intercom. She was thrilled.

In the next two hours, we witnessed two shocking events, first a pick-up truck burning wildly right beside a gasoline pump and second the immediate aftermath of a tragic pedestrian death in the mountain curves.

We had lunch in Ambato and carried on to the route we had planned that would skirt around the base of Volcan Chimborazo. This mountain is the highest point in Ecuador and, because of proximity to the equator, the closest point on earth to the sun. Again, we enjoyed terrific views in the clear cool air at 4400m, the base of the sporadically active giant. The ash and debris fields spread out for many kilometers around the volcano. The paved highway that runs over the plains on the leeward side of the mountain is pock marked with the repairs of countless reminders of falling debris.

Volcan Chimborazo 

That night we stayed in a private home (Airbnb) in Riobamba. The owner, Diana works in the tourism industry and studied English in Vancouver.

On the road day 2

A fun ride through the mountains brought us to a very nice hostel in Cuenca called Mi Casa.

Mountain Riding

On the road day 3

It was a long tiring day today. The road was rough in places with some long gravel sections through construction sites in the dramatic canyons. Isabelle handled the conditions reluctantly but well. She is understandably reticent about having to put down her injured foot to maintain balance in a rough spot. We made it to the Peruvian border without upset.

Camping Again!

But the border was upsetting! We had been looking forward to an easy crossing. At least, that was what we had read and heard, that border crossings in South America were much more straight forward than those in Central America. We arrived at the worst time, one o’clock. Lineups and inefficiencies caused the dreary process to last for three and a half hours until finally, our nerves a little frayed, we were on our way again.

Beach Scene at Swiss Wassi Campground

Our introduction to Peruvian drivers was immediate. They really do live up to their reputation but we made it safely to Swiss Wassi, a campground on the Pacific coast. We camped for the first time in months, beside a pristine beach. Our hosts were French Swiss and invited us to a BBQ dinner. Swimming, great food and lively French conversation cheered us right up. We had forgotten all the stresses of the day as the sounds of the ocean filled our heads and eased us into sleep. We were in Peru!

On the road day 4

The road to Piura was in bad shape. Flooding, landslides and human misery caused by the recent rainy season were international news. We had read and watched about the disasters on television back in Canada. Flood damage was particularly bad in these coastal regions. Road and bridge washouts had isolated communities whose municipal utility systems (water, sewage, electricity) had shut down. In the city of Piura and the smaller villages there still is a layer of powdery grey silt that covers everything that was submerged. Our hostel was just up the street from the high-water mark in the road and on the buildings. Clean up is slow but continuing. Many buildings have been either gutted or completely torn down as recovery and rebuilding progress.

Lunch on the Road

On the road day 5

We continued south through the undulating desert landscape in one of the driest places on earth. The headwind was strong and constant and caused us to refuel often. Fuel is back up to international prices, double that of Ecuador. The same wind has sculpted and rounded the landscape. The only angular elements of any kind exist on the edges of the crescent shaped lee sides of the dunes. Dune sizes vary from a few meters to hundreds of meters in height. The wind coming off the cool ocean keeps temperatures in the coastal desert between 15 and 25 degrees, even though we are only a few meters above sea level and are so close to the equator.

Prairie-like Plain but Sand Covered

Culture shock is fading as we spend more time here.  People in coastal Peru, especially with the recent flooding, experience harsh living conditions. There is a sunny resilience to everyone we meet. People are still curious about our bikes and our story. They still react with, “Canada? Esta muy lejos! Hace mucho frio?”. At the same time, they display a pride for their land, “Te gustas Peru? Es muy lindo, no?”. Restaurant meals are more expensive but the food rivals that of Mexico in quality. We are getting better at remembering to negotiate price before receiving a service of any kind. We tried our first Inca-Cola. It looks and tastes like Mountain Dew. Maybe it would be different if we closed our eyes.

 Desert Scene

Happy Traveler

On the road day 6

A full day of desert riding brought us to “Motel Sahara Suites” (really), owned by Adriana. She is Peruvian and her husband is a retired American pilot. She greeted us warmly at the gate and immediately invited us in for tea. She was so kind and helpful, offering advice on local places of interest. We enjoyed a hot shower (our first in three days) and a super clean room with private parking for $15 US.

No Life in this Place, One of the Driest on the Planet

On the road day 7

The road towards Lima was good and fast yesterday. Today’s travel was just as quick.. It wasn’t until the outskirts of Lima that we encountered traffic. The final 23 kilometers took almost three hours. Protests had caused near grid-lock in parts of the city. Extremely pushy drivers and a cacophony of beeping ensured that we arrived at our Airbnb with torn nerves. The neighborhood was described as a “small oasis of calm in a busy city” and that is exactly correct. We are in a beautiful colonial home with high ceilings and large rooms that are decorated with large furniture. Roberto, our host, is a warm and inviting young film maker.

Day 111, day 1 in Lima

Panning Plaza Mayor, right to left 

We got settled in, stripped down the motos and walked through the neighborhood while shopping for groceries. We will stay here for almost two weeks while we visit the city and wait for Gabi to arrive. We enjoyed a long, slow walk north in the city (Isabelle is doing so much better now) and visited Plaza Mayor where we saw the President arrive at his residence accompanied by a large motorcade. Other buildings on the large plaza included the Cathedral of Peru and attached Archbishop’s residence. We spent the remainder of the morning touring these two magnificent buildings.

The Cathedral was constructed over two hundred years and was begun in the early 16^th century.  Relics in the Cathedral include a finger of Saint Toribio of Mogrovejo, a phalanx of Saint Rose of Lima and a fragment of Saint Francis Solano's skeleton. 

Ceiling Detail

Francisco Pizarro is also buried in the Cathedral. He was the Spanish conquistador credited with the subduing the Inca by executing their King Atahuelpa at Cajamarca, but not before extracting a room full of gold and two rooms full of silver as ransom for him from the Inca. Pizzaro also is credited with founding Lima as the centre of Spanish power. We will visit Cajamarca, in northern Peru, in a few weeks.

The grave of Francisco Pizarro

The cathedral had a display of some of the old books of chant that had been painstakingly drawn by hand. One book of chant might have been a lifetime of work for a monk.

 Manuscript Music Books of  Liturgical Scores

Works Written for One to Four Voices

The Archbishop's Residence

After a nice lunch that included ceviche (of course) we walked to the Church and Sanctuary of Santa Rosa de Lima. Santa Rosa is celebrated each year on August 30^th. This feast is one of the most important religious celebrations in Lima. The relic of Santa Rosa in this church is her arm bone. Her hermitage in the yard of her birthplace is also preserved, between the church and the house.

  Church and Sanctuary of Saint Rosa of Lima

The Relic of Santa Rosa 

Santa Rosa's Hermitage

Lima day 3

Today is Saturday and is the beginning of nine days of celebrations marking the Peruvian Declaration of Independence in 1821. Today we visited and sampled many excellent foods at Lima’s Culinary Fair. We were entertained by numerous traditional music and dancing groups. Next came a visit to the new Nazca exhibit at the Museum of Art. It displays a detailed investigation by a Swiss/Peruvian group of the “Nazca Lines” and examples of restored clay and textile artifacts of the Nazca people. We plan to bring Gabi to see the exhibit after she arrives and before visiting the actual geoglyphs.

Lima days 4 and 5

We walked for an hour and a half to the Miraflores Market with our  housemate, Rowina. She is in Lima doing research at some of the convents for her PhD thesis. Her topic involves the mystical writings of nuns in the 17^th century.

The Miraflores Market

We also took a cab all the way to the other end of the city to visit Touratech, Lima. We liked and trusted the driver and negotiated a price for him to wait thirty minutes then drive us home again. I bought a set of Heidenau K60 tires for my moto. The price was good and included mounting. Touratech will keep the tires for me until I return in five weeks to have them mounted.

Roberto has kindly agreed to let us leave our camping gear at the house for a couple of months while we tour Peru. Lighter bikes are essential while Gabi is here. Our evenings are spent on internet research aimed at developing a thrilling itinerary for her visit to Peru. We are filled with anticipation as the final days pass before her arrival.

Part 13 Mompiche and back to Quito, Ecuador, late Jun 17

Trip videos available for viewing at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPasfEADtrFeaD21vyg4Huw

Part 13 Mompiche and back to Quito, Ecuador

Beach Babe in Mompiche

Day 86 Mompiche, Ecuador

George and Claire met us in a rented car on the Pan-Am highway and we drove to the coast at Mompiche. The road brought us down quickly from the dizzying height at which Quito lies. Highlands gave way to pastures, formal crops and finally jungle on the lowlands. The heat was surprisingly comfortable and we didn’t even use the air conditioning. We encountered a bovine traffic jam.  See the attached video.

Mompiche is a fishing village/hippie surf hang out. We are in a log and bamboo hostal. If we look hard enough we can find someone who speaks a little English but we don’t look. This is a place where Ecuadorians come to holiday. We arrived at dusk and were keen to see the place in daylight. The beach is supposed to be clean and beautiful. We hope to swim tomorrow, it will be the first time we actually swim in the Pacific.

Typical Bamboo and Thatch Hotel in Mompiche

Day 87 Mompiche

The roosters began to crow outside our window at 4 am as the overnight rains began to diminish. We slept past 8am in the wonderful sea air and spent a slow day at the beach. The tide was out revealing a pristine expanse of fine sand. Remarkably, there is no garbage, seaweed or any other imperfection in either direction on the beautiful beach. The water temperature was perfect for swimming, not too warm. The slightly cool water must be what is maintaining such a perfect climate here. The days are warm and the evenings cool off enough to tempt one to put on a sweater. It is hard to believe we are so near the equator.

Naturally Beach Clean at Low Tide

Tonight, we had our best meal so far on this trip. There is a little Mexican restaurant across the sand road from our hotel, called Retaurante El Rincon De Mexico. Claire, George, Isabelle and I were the only clients this evening. The chef is shy but clearly enjoys the pleasure his work brings to others. The food really was spectacular. We started by sharing a large prawn ceviche and the main course was fish tacos in large, hard shells. Everything was presented elegantly.  We left a good tip and the promise of a glowing review on Trip Advisor. We followed that with a slow walk through the quiet little fishing village before bed.

Claire, George and Isabelle

Day 88 On the Road to Quito

The drive home began well but we hit our first delay looking for a bank machine. Each of us was out of cash. We have come to realize that a pocket full of cash is essential in Latin America. Gas stations will often but not always accept a credit card as payment but everywhere else won’t. The exceptions to the cash-only economy exist in large urban centres and even then, only in the most modern businesses.

Mompiche Beach

Once cash was acquired and food found we set off again but soon made a wrong turn, adding close to an hour to the trip.

The village of La Union on highway 20 was where the real trouble began. It is at this point that the long climb begins toward the high sierra along which “Volcano Alley”, the Pan-American highway south of Quito, runs. George and I had encountered a landslide clean-up and traffic jam here the previous week when returning from our rural tour. We had managed to filter past traffic on the motos and the police had waved us through the obstruction. This often happens here with motos.

Today we hit traffic that was stopped dead at about the same place. It ended up being a five-hour delay that caused us to pull into Quito after 11 pm. There was no filtering past traffic in our rented car. The landslide area was much larger this time. We saw it through the rain while finally inching past the lengthy, cleaned-up site. Huge mounds of mud and massive boulders had either been pushed off where the tarmac should have been or skirted entirely by a temporary road. The spectacle of natural force caused us all to hope that no one had been killed by the “derrumbe” (landslide).

Day 89 Quito

We slept late after yesterday’s excitement. Despite the road troubles Isabelle really enjoyed the three-day excursion. She is becoming more and more mobile as her injury heals. We will take on more activities in the coming days to help prevent further “cabin fever”. She hopes that soon she will be ready for her first test ride.

Home Life, Just Killing Time

George came over mid-morning and we went for a ride into the “hills” surrounding Quito. Quito sits at 2850m and the hills rise past 4,000m. Our route brought us “only” to 3600m before we crossed over the western range and began to descend. The dirt track brought us right down into the steamy jungle. We caught the paved highway near Mindo and rode it back into Quito. It was a fun ride on a twisty, well surfaced road. The ride was easily as much fun as the three hours we had spent off-road. We rode past “Mitad del Mundo” on the way back into the city and I made a mental note where it was.

Otavalo Roses Still Going Strong

Day 90 Quito

Today was a day of chores. I spent an hour cleaning and oiling the chain on Princess Leah. I use liberal amounts of kerosene as a solvent and it makes a pretty good mess. It’s best to do this before washing the bikes. Then I took both motos to an auto detailing place just up the road. Andreas did a great job in the almost three hours he spent working on them. I tipped him personally after his boss left with the pre-agreed $14 fee I paid.

Dirty Bikes

Isabelle and I went for a “stroll” to one of the numerous small restaurants in our barrio (neighborhood). We each had today’s “Menu del Dia” or fixed menu for the day of a hearty soup followed by a plate of chicken breast in sauce (seco de pollo) that was accompanied by rice, a small salad and a slice of fried plantain. Almuerzo (lunch) like this can be found everywhere and costs $2.50. Today’s was the best we’ve had in our little barrio. We passed on our compliments and a nice tip. After lunch, we hailed a cab and rode to the grocery store to do some shopping. We finished the day by cleaning up some of our mess around the apartment.

Clean Bikes

It was a mundane sort of a day but it had been gently active for Isabelle. Painless, low level activity is useful in maintaining her strength at this point in her recovery.

Going Out for Lunch, Fun and Low Stress Excercise

Day 91 Quito

There is a segregated bus route that runs along the middle of Av. 10 de Agosto, near us. We took it north to the end of the line, then stayed on it for the ride to the south end of the city. We had enjoyed this little stunt in Medellin, along the above ground metro. The views gleaned had been our introduction to the geography of the city and had helped us plan the rest of the week’s activities. Today’s ride through Quito was anything but fun.

Nuestra Casa en Quito

The first two buses had been jammed full of passengers. The doors closed too quickly, after a few passengers exploded onto the platform, for us to even attempt boarding. We moved up the platform to the placed marked as a priority boarding point for people with ambulatory challenges. We got on the third bus and were immediately compressed (literally and firmly!) by our fellow passengers to allow the doors to slam shut. During the whole ride to the north end of the city we couldn’t budge, never making it past the crowded front entrance.

Everyone except us got off at the end of the line. The next stop had a mass of people waiting at it. When the bus doors opened they ran like school children to get a seat. The ride south was as unpleasant as the ride north had been. We took a cab home from the south end and promised each other we would avoid the bus in the future. We spent the rest of the day on our computers or watching Netflix. We looked at each other at some point and acknowledged our shared boredom. It will be good to get on the road again.

Day 92 Quito

“Ecuador” is derived from the word “equator”. Our taxi driver, Santiago took us north for about an hour, out of town to the lookout point atop Volcan Pululahua. It is an extinct volcano with a deep, flat and fertile crater. This is rare, the farmland within represents one of only two inhabited volcano craters in the world.

Agriculture in the Crater

We got back into Santiago’s taxi and rode to the “Mitad del Mundo” site. This is a plaza built at the end of the nineteen-seventies that “divides the world in half”. It was built to commemorate the 18^th-century French expedition to help determine the exact circumference of the earth. It turns out that the actual location of the equator is in flux. It constantly drifts within 5 km on either side of the line that runs through the plaza. We straddled the line for a photo anyway, feeling light on our feet knowing that due to centrifugal forces caused by earth’s rotation we weighed about 1 kg less that at home.

With Santiago, Our Driver

Mitad del Mundo

(L to R) North and South

Part of the Monument at Mitad del Mundo

Some of the Traditional Music and Dance Performances

The accompanying photos show my moto-mounted GPS reading full zeros for latitude. It was taken on a solo trip on the dirt road up Volcan Cayambe a few weeks ago. It shows the true location of the equator, at that moment, as determined by the combined signals from at least 10 active satellites, no French expedition required!

Approaching the Equator on Road to Volcan Cayambe

Almost There

All Zeros Across the Top!

A couple of hours passed as we visited the site thoroughly, enjoying the traditional music and dancing shows performed throughout the complex. Santiago was waiting for us back at the taxi stand and we appreciated a scenic and different route home in his spacious cab. We gave Santiago $35 today and that included a good tip. We enjoyed his company, photos of his family, descriptions of his beloved city and didn’t miss the bus one little bit.