Quito, Ecuador via Peru to Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, a little cycle, simple. Except, we have no support vehicle, we have to carry all our equipment on the bikes, there is the small issue of the Andes in the way, the majority of the route is at an altitude of 3000m + with passes over 4500m, temperatures below -15, wild rabid dogs, living off only guinea pigs, 3 day stints without water or food, off-road, waist deep rivers, no nail polish for Amanda and only 3 weeks to plan due to Will's inability to decide on which adventure would be 'challenging enough'. If you would like to support us, please visit the fundraising page on this blog. We are supporting a fantastic charity called SOS childrens villages which helps children all over the world to be brought up in a family environment which we have been lucky enough to take for granted.







Friday, May 28, 2010

Day 4 - Ambato to Banos - Finally we get going


With the horror of the previous day still hanging over us, we struck lucky with the embassy. Will needed to go back to Quito with a police report to apply for an emergency passport, which was easily doable from our next planned stop of Banos - a nice spa town in the jungle where I could be left alone quite nicely. Then they could issue it 5 days later from Cuenca to coincide almost perfectly with our route plan. We would lose one day but not ruin the trip and boy were we desperate just to get out of Ambato....


So our first proper day in the saddle - big thanks to Brooks Saddles of England, they are truly the comfiest ones ever! But comfy saddles don't help pedal up hills and there were plenty of those ahead even though we dropped in altitude from 2,600 to 1,900. We cycled 60km in total stopping in the pretty village of Patate for lunch after a huge uphill but was worth it for the best pizza outside of Italy.


Our hostel (La posada del arte) in Banos was the best yet, great view overlooking the famous waterfall which feeds the thermal baths and our own whirlpool bath in the room - completely opposite our previous nights experience :))
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