Yesterday we rode from Azogues in the morning to Catamayo in the evening, via Loja. It rained alot of the day,  and we were high up in the clouds. It was pretty chilly, but once again the scenery and surroundings did not fail to disappoint.  I was tucked in under the cover of the sidecar most of the day, so we were pretty pleased that once we’d left the mountains and dropped down to Catamayo that the temperature rose to 20 degrees again. We were both wiped out by tiredness last night, so had a really good night’s sleep.

Today, we set off early, and rode through the remaining mountains, the 2 ½ hour journey to the border for Peru at Macara.  Along the way the temperature was good, with a warmer wind, and we eased our way around the corners smoothly, and not being held up too much, as traffic was quiet.

About 40 km before the border, there was a military checkpoint, where we were pulled to the side and asked for the bike documents and passports.  There were three military guys and a customs officer. The customs officer had a brief look at our papers, and then the military guys had some real fun with us, asking all the normal questions- how much does it cost? Where are you from? Where are you going? How long is the trip? Do you like our country? Do you have children? - when we answer ‘no’ to that one they cannot believe it- ‘but why not?’ How long have you been married? The list goes on………. The best part though was that the leader of the military guys was not really the slightest bit interested in our passports, he just wanted to jump on the bike and have his photo taken. So he did, and a very enjoyable 10 minutes that all was too.

Once we reached the border, we breezed quickly through the Ecuadorian exit (alot quicker than the entry on Sunday, thank you very much), and were off in to Peru. When I stood in the Ecuadorian queue for my passport stamp, the young girl in front of me turned round, and unbelievably it was the Chinese girl that I had been in the exit queue for Colombia with on Sunday.  We had a quick catch up, and she told me she wanted to get the bus to Lima tonight (a 700 mile journey).  

On reaching the Peruvian side, we were once again behind this girl, and her fellow bus passengers, a few Germans, and an Ecuadorian couple.  Paul obtained the forms we needed to complete, and we stood filling them in whilst the others were seen to. Once the young Chinese girl’s turn came though, everything ground to a halt.  It turned out the poor girl had the same name as a man who had previoudly passed through this border, and this fact alone was enough to send up an alert on the Peruvian Immigration system, that the staff in the office did not know how to deal with.  We managed to get stamped in, and Paul had done a bit of translating between Immigration staff and the girl, then spent his obligatory 30 minutes trying to get the bike imported before the poor girl was sorted.  The other passengers of the bus and the bus driver were agitated and wanting to leave, and the girl had not helped herself by getting angry and shouting, but they eventually rang and spoke to the right person, and gave her a stamp in her passport.

Entering Peru was like flicking a switch, gone were the tidy streets of Ecuador, the signs for order and care for the countryside. The rubbish is back lining the streets, and within minutes we had encountered, donkeys, goats, pigs, horses, chickens running across the road.  Oh, and the TukTuk has made a return with a vengeance.

The people though are once again, beaming from their full moon faces, and we rode along to a constant tooting, waving, grinning and shouting. This is a real joy.

Another encounter at a customs checkpoint was a pleasure (despite having just put all our papers away), and we feel welcome in this country.

We have stopped for tonight in beautiful Piura, a busy city with some grand buildings.  The little yellow taxis here drive constantly around the town square tooting at people to get fares.  Paul had no sooner got off the bike than a woman was asking to have her photo with him and the bike (never mind about me still sitting in it!).  Oh, and Santa’s TukTuk is on his way!

After saying our goodbyes to Troy and Tracy this morning, as they headed off in a different direction to us, we set off. Not two minutes out of the gate a small pickup truck overtook us and started shedding buckets from the back of his pickup at us!  They were fleeing along at a rate of knots all over the carriageway!

The route today took us along a lot of the PanAmerican highway, which we have been travelling on intermittently all the way from Guatemala.  The first part of the route was fairly similar to yesterday, just a road to get us from A to B, nothing special.  That is until we turned into the mountains again, they rose higher and higher above us, until we were nothing but a tiny blot on the landscape. On a stop, we both turned to each other and agreed ‘this is it, the perfect ride, through the ultimate scenery’ it was a quiet road, just the odd truck to pass as we ascended and descended with the twists and turns.

The people have begun to look very different, we were heading into Inca trail territory, and the majority of people we saw looked Indigenous.  The clothes worn by the women are just beautiful.  There is always a hat, a pink or purple cardigan, maybe pink ribbon, or silks braided around the hair, black skirt, a white blouse with colourful embroidery. These colours dot the landscape everywhere and draw the eye.  The older gentlemen may wear a neckerchief, a hat, and a combination of smart brown and beiges.  The younger men wear the uniform of most young men around the world, jeans and a sweatshirt.

On a toilet break, I had no sooner stepped out of the sidecar to go to the loo, than men  started descending on Paul.  By the time I returned there were perhaps 20 people surrounding Paul and the bike, chattering excitedly.  There were also two women, one in particular was very interested in me, and shyly asked me a few questions. These people were warm, and excited by everything.  Their eyes shone, and their faces beamed.  What a treat.

With only an hour and a half to go on this dreamlike day, our dreams were a little tested by the fact that it began to pour with rain, as we were high enough to ride through the clouds. With about ½ an hour to go the rain dried up, the temperature doubled to 22 degrees celsius, and our damp clothes began to dry off again.

Tonight we feel tired, but happy.

For the last two days we have been lucky enough to share our time with Troy and Tracy, the guys we met at the Guatemala/Honduras border.

They have been just a few days behind us for a while now, and we are all very pleased to catch up with each other.

Troy & Tracy had a much smoother border crossing than us from Colombia to Ecuador, taking only 2 ½ hours, so they arrived at where we were already staying yesterday around 3pm, bringing along another guy, Martin, a German guy they had met at the border.

The quinta (old farm) we were staying at was just lovely.  It was run by a family, who were super friendly and could not do enough for us. There were also extensive views over the lake and the volcano Imbabura. The volcano is dormant, and has been for 14,000 years, but not extinct.

The gardens were full of avocados, passion fruits, bananas, beautiful bougainvillea of many colours, and plenty of colourful birds visiting. The property was situated at the bottom of some hills, that were apparently peppered with arrowheads and pottery from days gone by.

The evening was spent swapping stories of the road, plus hopes, dreams and aspirations, although being that we’re such hardened bikers we were all off to bed by 9pm.

The chatting and banter continued this morning at breakfast, before we all made a rather late start at 10.30 ish and headed off separately, but each making for the equatorial line at Cayambe.

It was exciting to be midway between the South and North pole, particularly when Troy and Tracy turned up, as they have both visited the South Pole, and Troy has also been to the North pole. We are now in the Southern hemisphere for the first time in our lives, and the most exciting thing about that is that the toilet water runs the other way wound in the bowl!

After that we took the E35 highway which cut us across and back to the Pan American highway.  At one point we rode up extremely high, and the temperature dropped to a chilling 8 degrees centigrade thanks to a glorious snow capped mountain that dominated the skyline.

Tonight we had a Churrasco (a huge steak, eggs, chips, avocado and salad) supper each, and a tasty meringue for pud.

We are in Ecuador! We had a plan yesterday, it was a two hour ride to the border crossing at Ipiales in Colombia, and another two hour ride to our destination, Ibarra in Ecuador.

We chose the Ipiales crossing, as it is on the main route, and there is only one other crossing into Ecuador, which we had been warned may take you into an area that is a bit unsavoury. The crossing was to be the first major customs border we had used apart from those at the airport.

The plan was a good one, because the most a border has ever taken us is about 2 ½ hours, so it would work perfectly………

This border had other ideas for us. Exiting Colombia was fairly painless, despite having to queue for a while, we both obtained our exit stamps quickly, and Paul handed in the Temporary permit for the bike.

We could see the Ecuadorian border from where we stood, it looked much newer, larger and more efficient. Great.  As usual, when we drove down the parking area was extremely small, and as soon as we had squeezed into a spot, the guys descended trying to help us, and sell us ice cream, drinks etc.

It was at this point I noticed the queue snaking it’s way around the car park. The guy in front of us was pointing excitedly, and saying that is the queue for immigration, and the vehicle permit office is around the corner. Paul turned to me and said, ‘you go first’- we don’t ever leave the bike without someone with it, because we can’t lock everything away. I took my place in line, hoping that it went down quickly, as I needed the loo.  One hour later, I spotted a toilet, and nipped out of my place in the queue, returning a few minutes later, for the lady behind to reluctantly let me back in.  Every space in this queue counted! It’s extremely difficult for Latin Americans to queue nicely.  There were a few Americans, English and Australians dotted around. Every time I turned another corner in the queue I thought ‘nearly there’, just to be disappointed as I realised the queue went off in another hidden direction.  Even when I got to the door of the building and looked inside there were probably still another 40 people queuing ahead of me. Eventually, I was called forward, my turn, after two hours of waiting, and had a very brief conversation with the customs officer before she allowed me my stamp of entry. I returned to Paul, and it was his turn to take his place. Luckily the queues had gone down, and the whole procedure of entry stamp and vehicle permit only took him 1 ¾ hours.

It was 3.30pm by now, we had been at this border crossing for 5 hours, ha ha, so much for ‘it’s always quiet on a Sunday’. We hadn’t realised that the whole of Ecuador would have been visiting Colombia to buy cheap tv’s in time for Christmas!

Anyway, we headed off, the ride away from the border was good, but we were racing against the clock to avoid darkness. We were held up only by a few roadworks, and at the toll booth where we scrabbled to find 20 cents  (after trying to pay with a $20 note) for the toll.  We are relieved that we are expected to pay for the toll in Ecuador.  We found it difficult in Colombia, where the motorcycle toll was free. There was a designated roadway at the right hand side, the width of a motorcycle which motorcyclists are meant to go through. To the left of it was a thin but high kerb. Sometimes Paul could get the bikes wheel in the narrow part, and me in the sidecar the other side of the kerb.  Sometimes we would not even try, and go to the booth, where as you know, the attendants would become flustered by us, never having seen a contraption like ours before. On Saturday, we went for the narrow route, and became wedged on the kerb immediately, having to push the whole thing backwards.  So yes, for now, we are happy to pay 20 cents toll, thank you.

We arrived 15 minutes before darkness around 5.55pm. We are extremely near to the equatorial line, so there is 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness every day, all year round.

The place we are staying is called a Quinta, and overlooks Lake Yahuarcocha, it’s stunning, similar to being at the Italian Lakes, but surrounded by the Andes.

We were up early this morning, as the plan was to ride to Pasto. The ride was going to be 155 miles, but with a projected travel time of 5 hours, so we knew it was likely to be twisty and slow roads.

We were on the road by 8.20 am, and when leaving town, Paul spotted a motorbike with Northern Irish number plates, so he stopped and had a quick chat with the guy packing the panniers. The guy told Paul that he and his wife were headed for the border to Ecuador today, and hoping to get across early tomorrow morning.

We rode away, and about half an hour later, the couple caught and overtook us on the road. We were pleased to see that at the couple were then stopped at a petrol station,  half an hour further down the road. We had a lovely chat, and introduced ourselves properly.  They were Donald and Ann McCarthy, from Northern Ireland, and had begun their motorcycle trip on 28th November, after flying themselves and their bike into Bogota airport.  Donald had visited South America before, and was now hoping to share the experiences he enjoyed with Ann.

During the day, we stopped and shared soft drinks, and a bite to eat with them, and it made a nice change for us to do so. We have swapped details, and hope to stay in touch, maybe meeting up again further down the road somewhere.

The only word to describe the scenery of the route we rode today is ‘stunning’, the undulating mountains of shiny, smooth looking green, so bright it almost hurt our eyes.  These mountains rise so high, and yet we were riding on the road above them for much of the day. The temperature alternated between hot and dry, hot and humid, and cool (the most comfortable).

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, where once again I experienced the feeling of being ‘in my own dream’, the countryside is that which I had been imagining since we first decided to come to South America. Our journey through the Andes has truly begun.