Day 336 Sunday 11th August Cuenca to Vilcabamba 285km

When I booked our hotel on line yesterday I was expecting much more than what we got, I have fancy friends and family who stays at castles and forts and Boutique Hotels, well, last night was my 1st stay at a boutique Hotels, the Castillo de Leon Boutique hotel, and let me tell you, it was as bad as the “fancy” hotel we stayed at in Bangkok, this could not have been a 3 Star anywhere in the world. but the low price compared to the others should have been a give-away. I guess any hotel which  is in an old historical part of a city had to work with the structure they got. No air-con, no fan and a window that opens onto the inside passage only. You also needed a Degree to work the tap and the shower head, I gave up as I dont have a degree, and this morning, Millsy confirmed our room did not have hot water, he tried and he has a Degree.

Last night we went for a walk to soak-up the “Feel” of the city and its people and their culture and way of life. I was very excited as I was suspecting to sample the local cuisine and try the indigenous dishes I have not yet sampled.

There were lots of different Market areas around the “Church Square”, like this Flower Market:

Like in any big city there were enough Ghosts scaring the kids:

There was some wedding photos being taken in the square, note the blue dress:

And the Wedding Car:

Millsy and our room was close to the loud local girls who kept making noise up to 1h00. Rocky was below and opposite us and I thought he was going to have a bad night being on the road, but with his luck everything shut down and the hawkers left and the street went quiet, he slept like a baby up to 4h00 when the Street Cleaning Crew arrived and started clean the street and trading area, high-pressure hosing the pavement, and then just when they moved away from his window the Traffic lights Beep Beep beep (we dont have this beep beep on our Robots as we call them for our  blind people where we come from,) started at 5h30.

The huge spread at breakfast consisting of Viennas, banana, yoghurts and fruit only started at 8h30, so we were restless and walking the streets early, looking for coffee, but all we could find was the vendors in the fruit market getting ready:

We headed out before the big Sunday Rush in the city started and headed South West (like the last 2 days) on the Pan America Highway, yes, I got it wrong in yesterday’s blog, its not the Trans American Highway but Pan American. In my defence, I have ridden on the Trans Siberian Highway in Russia and the Trans Alaskan Highway, so the “Trans” got stuck.

What a surprise, the road was quiet, hardly saw cars, and even though it is only a single Carriage-Way, the road condition was in a good state. It was difficult to stop for photos as there was no Shoulder of more than 500mm, not wide enough to stop there. Slowly as we hit the twisties the landscape changed further, (yesterday by lunch we had left the Amazon Jungle behind and today the tropical plants disappeared and it became dry and only grass for the farmers remained with patches of Pine Forrests.

We stopped at a little road-side-eatery and thought we would just have a coffee, but to our surprise the one lady behind the stove was fluent in English and  studied Pharmacy and was helping at the Family Business. I think her name was Daniella.

One the Menu was some “Fat-Cake” filled with a spread of cheese, and “flap-jacks” onto which cheese it spread and grilled again so that the cheese becomes crisp, like when cheese drips out from you Cheese griller. And of course some Krom Mielies:

Next to the little Restaurant was the local Jeweller busy with his new collection of jewellery.

They had this Poster on the wall, of an event in this village a few weeks ago, and I noticed how important role Horses play in their lives here in Ecuador.

Opposite our brunch-spot were two Pigs in various stages of being cut-up and cooked:

We asked Daniella if the pig-thing was for celebrating Independence Day, but she informed us that it was not for Independence Day, the Pig-Thing is a Weekend-Thing, it happens every weekend, but not during the week.

We continued with our lovely ride and soon we were up to 3000m and we were stopping and adding layers. We swent down and up again a few times today, but towards the end we went below 1500m and it was time to stop and strip those layers as the temperature climbed from a nice 15-20 degrees to 30 degrees as we dropped.

We stopped a few times if we could and it was during one of these stops that Pie asked me to help him adjust his “belt.” This is usually a “one-man-job” from the age of 6 years old, so naturally I was a bit worried about my role in this. But soon I discovered he forgot his belt at home, and as he is know for “tightening the belt” and the reason our bike trip is under the Oros Label (cheapest colouring in South Africa he used to feed us before we went out at night in Europe so we did not waste money on expensive beer and wine,) but he has used two Cable Ties which needed to be adjusted as his pants was falling down:

The going was good and the road was opening up, I even got up to 125km\hr once, and it was a wonderful feeling to get the bike all the way up to 6th gear. My fuel consumption shot up to 22km\lt and the sky was blue and the road twisting, but not too much, and the other cars were missing from the road.

We went through a little town with 48km to go at 13h00, the going was good indeed, so, lets stop at a traditional restaurant next to the road, and order a “traditional dish” which we did, but the type of “Carne” (meat” was lost in translation, and even Rocky who is now fluent in Spanish, (like Peens) could not understand what we ordered, but we ordered the Small Portion so we were happy to keep the calories down as we would after the meal order large ice-creams to balance the calories. What do you think this is:

The little “claw” is the give-away. I hear they eat a delicacy here and in Peru which is from an animal they people high-up in the Andes Mountains keep in the ceiling of their huts, it keeps the house warm and is important source of protein when they are snowed in during some harsh winter storms. Its Guinea Pig and it tastes like chicken.

We found this lovely little place 2km before the town we are sleeping in tonight. Once again they have swimming pool and 2 bubble baths on the side and once again there is a Sauna. The restaurant looks great and breakfast in included, plus they have taken our dirty laundry (and yes, mine does smell the worst from my socks as I am still nursing Vrot Vet Sickness from my wet boots, which I am now drying in the sun and not burning-out any hotel hair driers.

Tomorrow we ride to the Border and cross over into Peru, I am sad to Leave Ecuador as it has been one of my biggest surprises on our journey. The people are friendly, the food great, fruit everywhere, the countryside very diverse, but most of all, the country is SPOTLESS !!! And the dogs are even happy with smiling faces, no fat dogs but also no hungry dogs, I have a theory that they eat bananas.

This is my one photo that will make me love Ecuador, the day we crossed out of the Northern Hemisphere, after traveling more than 100 000km through 39 countries we finally made it to the Southern Hemisphere.

OK, if all goes well I will be back with another Blog tomorrow, from Peru.

Signing Off

Fleisch