In search of Canon del Pato

Dec 29, 2013 Lambayeque to Ancos 400km.


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We started off early, nothing but flat desert!

Next we made a quite stop for gas and oil. We ended up changing the oil in the parking lot. We are running Repsol 15W - 40 turbo diesel oil. 

 

 This ones for you Deaner

 

We have snow fences, they have sand fences along highways.

 

Instructions from the internet told us to turn left at approx 81km from town a sign says "Bocatoma".  There will be a locked gate but the security guard will let you through. What can possibly go wrong?  (S 08 38.895 W078 37.156).  We drove on it approx 22km until Tanguche.  We kept following the road east, eventually there will be a bridge with a gate.  The security guard waved us through.  

 

We turned east onto pavement and drove to a town called Chuquicara.  

 

The correct way to Canon del Pato is to continue south out of town and take the dirt road.  We took the bridge and followed the paved road to Ancos (approx 40km).  There is one right turn at S08 30 00.58 W078 10 11.02.

The road to Ancos is pretty sick. 

We passed an abandoned coal mining town. 

 

We found a place above Ancos to camp.  While clearing a space for the tents we came across this little guy.

 

We went for a little hike after we got set up and discovered these guys set up everywhere.

We were a little confused when we started seeing snail shells...

 

Its great to be camping in the Andes!

Into Peru!!

Dec 27, 2013 Guayaquil to Huaquillas, Ecuador. 250km


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We spent most of the morning on the phone.  Kyle had to cancel his debit and a MasterCard due to card skimming. We also both changed our flights.  Now we are leaving from Buenos Aires in February.

We motored down the road stopping for lunch and some fresh fruit from a roadside vendor.

Road was a little crazy to the border. Loads of big trucks driving in the middle of the road which meant lots of passing on the shoulder if there was any. 

Dec 28, 2013 Huaquillas, Ecuador to Lambayeque, Peru 500km

The border was very straight forward and organized.  It was the main crossing on the Panamerican Highway. Kyle got whistled at by one of the policeman for Jwalking... since when.   Border cost was: insurance... $35 each! Ouch.  Just as we were leaving Edwin and Mirjam pull up.  They are a dutch couple that took the boat with us in Panama/ Columbia.

We couldn't believe they all fit.  As they drove off they said "welcome to Peru" with big smiles.

We took off and stopped in the first town to pull out some of the Peruvian currecny (soles).  It took us about 1.5hrs to find a bank that would work. Oh well.  We are set for awhile now.

We continue on the Panamerican highway.  We want to make some miles.  We recently realized that we only have 7 weeks left.  The highway followed the ocean closely for the first 100 or so kms.

Away from the coast poverty is more prevalent and the land is harsh and dry.  We motored on, dodging various farm animals (sheep, pigs and donkeys) all of who think they own the road!   We drove through a particular uninhabited section and hit reserve just as we pulled into the next town.

Long day but it feels good to get some miles under our belts.

Boxing Day...

Dec 26, 2013 Boxing Day Canoa to Guayaquil, Ecuador 300km
We woke up early but not to go shopping.  Around 6 am and hit the water, first we had to break out of our hostel as nobody was awake yet.

Unfortunately, it was still really messy.  We had fun though.  It was a increased challenge for Kyle as the waves were moving much faster than Mompiche but he was still able to get up on some.

We left our flip flops on the beach while surfing and somebody stole them!

We stopped a little early in Guayaquil (large city, second to Quito) to get some banking stuff sorted out.  We will head to a border town tomorrow.

A really nice guy that was in love with our bikes and trip helped us find a hotel. 

Banks open again tomorrow so hopefully we can get some stuff sorted.

Christmas Time

Dec 22, 2013 Quito to Mompiche, Ecuador. 350km.
Pulled out the next morning (Just Trevor and Kyle as Zach wanted to find the equator monument) and drove some incredible roads down to the coast where we ended up in Mompiche.

We had breakfast at a little local restaurant that was quite full and when we got up to leave a middle aged woman timidly asked for a picture which we smilingly agreed to. As we posed for the photo the entire restaurant started scrambling for cameras and mobbed us wanting pictures.

Fresh crab soup for lunch

Mompiche is small fishing village with a few hotels and hostels and a bunch of local restaurants.  Mompiche offers one of the biggest left point breaks in South America (for surfing) which attracts surfers from all over.  We were still a little early in the season so there wasn't much for English speaking tourists.

 People are always requesting photos, we have started giving our camera to them as well. 

One of the buildings in our complex.  The thatched roofs and lack of screens made for mosquito filled nights.

 

Unfortunately, there wasn't much surf 
We managed to get a little surfing in on the small waves.   It was great for Kyle as it was basically his first time surfing.

Dec 23, 2013
Zach joined us in Mompiche
More surfing and riding the bikes on the beach.

Dec 24, 2013
AJ joined us in Mompiche.  We went surfing some more.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at a small restaurant owned by an Italian man.  Legit burgers!

Dec 25, 2013 Christmas Day Mompiche to Canoa, Ecuador 200km.
We both called home, it was great to talk to our families.  Since the surf wasn't great we decided to head south down the road to another beach, Canoa.  This town was much larger and more developed. 

Huge beach

Surf reports list tomorrow at 4 stars so we rented some boards and plan on going out first thing tomorrow morning.

Into Ecuador

Dec 19, 2013
Medellin to Salento, Columbia 250km
Salento is roughly the halfway point to the border.  Its a small town off the beaten path. It's a staging area for treking in the area.  It's also famous for having the tallest palm trees in the world.

Stayed at Tralala hostel, we were thankful to be out of the big city.  We could hear horses walk by our room on the cobblestone streets.

Since it was a short day of riding we explored the small town and came across a cross looking lady with  a gun in her lap licking a big lollpop.

We played Tejo that evening which was tons of fun!  Small packets of gun powder stuck ontop of a steel ring surrounded by clay. The discs get stuck in the clay if you throw it correctly which is good for one point. If the disc hits the gunpowder its worth three points and an explosion!  Tons of fun

The bar owner played a few rounds with us until some other travelers showed up.

Dec 20, 2013 580km.
Left Salento and made some miles down to Pasto for the border into Ecuador tomorrow.

We passed km's of parked cars and trucks, often for construction but in this case there was a dump truck in the ditch.  We just went around.

 We always went to the front of the line for the construction stops.  They were only for a few minutes then we would have several miles of traffic free roads. 

Beautiful views.

 We saw a number of these dummies.  Some locals told us they burn them on new years.

Found a hotel downtown Pasto and ended up meeting the owner later that night and had a round or two with him and his friends.

Dec 21, 2013 Pasto, Columbia to Quito, Ecuador.  350km.

Down to the border and met Zach again and a polish man that was on his way around the world. Took about 4 to 5 hours to get through.  Everything was quick except for the vehicle import line. There was one lady doing it and it took about 1/2hr per person.   Only costs here were the $5/ bike for insurance.

Another country... another kind of beer.

 

Spent a good while looking for the equator monument as well but to no avail.  We took some random dirt road up to a park off the Panamerican.  The sign said latitude 0.   Still pretty cool milestone to cross the equator.
Pulled into Quito and stayed at a place for 6 dollars a person

Medellin Columbia

Dec 15, 2013
We moved to the Blacksheep Hostel down the road. Aj and Zach got a private room while Trevor and Kyle were in separate dorms. We were able to keep all of our stuff in the private room which was nice.

Medellin is large city of over 2 million people. Medellin was once known as the most violent city in the world.   In the 1980's it housed the headquarters for Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel.   At the height of power, Pablo was worth 3 billion and offered to pay all of Colombia's debts.  He was also in control of 80% of the global cocaine market. It all came to a end in the early 1990's.

The pride of Medellin is the above ground train system.  It is an impressive development which brings cheap transportation all over the city. 

We took one of the trams up and then took a second one further out to a national park.

We were at over 6,000 ft, both the climate and scenery reminded us of summer in the rockies. 

We wern't always sure where to go.... good thing there were arrows.

Later that evening we took in one of the biggest soccer games of the year, Medellin vs Cali.   The city was alive with energy.  Most people were wearing soccer jerseys.  Medellin ended up winning 3-1.

Dec 16, 2013 Bike Repairs.
We were told Medellin is one of the best places to get bikes fixed in all of South America.  We still wanted to get our rims trued and balanced.
Three shops and two days later all four rims are perfect.  Total cost about $50.

Not made for tall people

Dec 17, 2013
We wandered around the bikes shops again today.  While hanging out at the shops we have met some cool people who also ride big bikes (not scooters).  We met a fighter pilot with the Colombian army as well as a guy from Canada running a geological survey company for minerals.

Vitamin P

We took in the lights along the river with some new friends from the hostel and as always getting photos with heaps of people.

Dec 18, 2013
Final bike repair day.  Kyle had a lead on a muffler repair shop.  Kyle's muffler has been getting louder and louder.  Because its and after market muffler it uses a fiberglass baffle system which eventually burns out.  We had a shop spend the day removing the core and adding the new baffle.  We stopped in a few times to check on the progress.  Unfortunately at the end of the day the bike isn't much quieter.  Oh well.