Quito to Cuenca, Equador

Tonight we are in a rather pretty city in Ecuador called Cuenca.  We left Quito 275km  behind us early this morning.  The first hundred or so km of the journey were a delight.  Not only was the road new, smooth and very impressive, it paled into insignificance beside the scenery.  We have been running virtually due south through the central highlands of Ecuador.  In fact, it is more or less the only north-south route as the road follows a valley-type fissure in the hills.  Most of the time we're up around 8-10,000ft, yet surrounded by ranges of huge hills - small mountains several thousand feet higher still.  When the road climbs up the side of the valley you get the most incredible views below. From the bottom of the valley to the top of the surrounding hills is one enormous vista so tall that it will not fit into the viewfinder of either camera.  The colouring of the hills is mostly browns, yellows and golds.  The gold is from the dried stems of cultivated maize and the Indians farm this stuff right up to the very top of the hills.  Every acre or so they build a stone wall, presumably to hold the soil, so the effect from a distance is a patchwork of golds, reflecting the sun.  Magical.

After 100km the road changed.  From lovely sweeping tarmac it became a rutted, bumpy, broken surface (where there was a surface) interrupted by longish stretches of dirt and mud. I guess the EU funding stopped or the local Governor is of the wrong political stripe.  It sure messed up the roads.  Clearly they are trying to improve it but I cannot fathom their strategy.  They appear to take a section of road, say 2km long, and resurface it - all except the bends which they leave as broken up stones and dirt.  It's possible that they keep`the unsurfaced sections to slow down the traffic, but that would be at odds with the previous 100km.  Every now and then, they are attempting to rebuild a long, 10km, stretch.  Which means they dig up the road for the entire length of the intended improvement and then direct the traffic through a sea of heaving dirt, a lot of which has turned to mud because they constantly wet it to keep the dust down. Not much fun.

Don't Look Down !!!
When the really bad road started it was just dirt, stones, rock and gravel for 15-20km. It slowed us down to second and first gear for that distance. The reason that the road had not been improved, I guess, is simply because it is the most inaccessible - thus difficult and expensive - bit of road.  Yes, it goes up and down a bloody great mountain.  So you have double jeopardy in play: twisting, dangerous, steep inclines and drops coupled with a slippery, bumpy dirt surface. And some of the drops to the side of the road, completely unprotected, of course, were so spectacular that I rode on the rock side.  It was the longest way down I have ever seen on any mountain road and the side of the road was the edge of the drop. Oy vay!  Even a brave man looked away.

Of course, the fact that we're on a narrow mountain road with an atrocious surface and a drop so far that they wouldn't even hear you scream if you launched into mid air, didn't stop maniac traffic belting towards us.  Buses, normal.  Pickups, everyday.  But a giant Mac truck with articulated trailer? Hurtling at you around a bend, dirt and stones flying, a complete white-out of dust following it?  Even I was impressed. And we passed three of the buggers on that stretch of road.

We also passed much more serene scenes of Indian herders with their sheep, cows, goats and pigs.  All colourfully dressed with ponchos and hats.  Even the tiny children had miniature ponchos and hats.  The colour and hat design appears to be an identification of, presumably, tribe. When we left Quito the hats were brown or black trilby-type hats with narrow brims.  As we progressed south they became a  scarlet red but the same design, worn with a red poncho.  Then they suddenly changed to became white bowler style, again with a narrow brim, made of fine weave like a Panama hat. (Incidentally, Ecuador claims the Panama hat as its own, it being invented here not in Panama.) The final hat manifestation is a narrow-brimmed white trilby which is worn around Cuenca, although only by the older generation.  The youngsters here look, as Graham remarked, like the kids in Kingston upon Thames.  I wonder if they realise what a condemnation that might turn out to be?

We found a nice hotel where we rode the bikes through reception to park them in a lovely central courtyard dripping with plants and flowers. I just love that.  It feels so naughty, as if only Marlon Brando would do something like that sort of thing.

Jeff 12.09.04