Tropical Ecuador

9 May 2006
Santo Domingo del las Colorados
8) Ecuador
Day 52

Yesterday was gripe day so I will try and make amends today.

The terrain in Ecuador is a big change from riding through the Atacama desert. Here it is tropical and lush green. The desert has the advantage of predictable rain patterns. As I am writing it is raining outside. I have been very lucky with the weather. Only had one day of about 1 hour rain so far. Hold thumbs it continues like that.

Today I left Machala and rode slowly most of the day amongst banana plantations and palm trees. A pleasant change. The road was generally good but every town seems to have the characteristic donkey size potholes.
Other motor cyclists have warned that progress is slow through these parts and Central America but it is not a problem if the riding is amongst such tranquil scenery. Plantations and jungle covered mountains and judging by my visor there are lots of flying gogges around.

The plan is to ride to Quito (the capital of Ecuador) tomorrow which is trough beautiful mountains passes and takes about three hours to ride 200 km. The mountains usually get clouded in, in the afternoons so I chose to wait until tomorrow morning to get the full view of the scenery. Ecuador is renowned for it´s major eco-biodiversity (hope those are the right words).

I am 29 km south of the equator and will cross it tomorrow which traditionally means it is down hill for the rest of the way.

Adios
Ricky