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.







Monday, June 14, 2010

Day 17 - Vilcabamba to Catacocha -

Distance Cycled: 36km
Total Cycled to date: 578km

Because of the detour to Vilcabamba, we were justified in taking a pick-up back to Loja to get us back on track. I was so enjoying the ride and a bit of dance music that didn't realise until we got there that we'd left our bike helmets behind on the table...aghhh. But the taxi driver assured us that the next town was famous for biking and we could get new ones. So we cycled carefully down a gorgeous road - in and out the clouds - until we got to Catamayo. There we fuelled up at the panedaria on juices & pastries but unfortunately after trailing round to half a dozen shops selling the odd bike, we turned up zero on the casco bicicletta, though could have bought many a motorbike helmet.

So no choice but to carry on and we set off across a gorgeous valley suddenly filled with holiday resorts and water parks - this is clearly where ecuadorians come for their holidays and it was certainly the weather for it - we were frying in factor 30!

Then we hit a hill and Will hit a wall (metaphorically with a dodgy tummy), we carried on slowly and eventually made it to our lunch destination only by 3:30pm. It was very limited but they scraped us together some rice & chicken ...for a change ;) but there was nowhere to stay and nowhere to camp so we had no choice but to take the next bus out of there. We travelled for an hour or so over some very high mountains as the rain set in and boy were we grateful to be on the inside - despite a very dodgy film showing extreme domestic violence.

We finally emerged into a foggy dusk in a hilltown called Catacocha, which was loaded with atmosphere. It felt like bonfire night and they were indeed letting off fireworks for no obvious reason and we rode around and around chatting to hat sellers, manicurists and random street people trying to find a hotel. We eventually ended up wuth a room opposite the church in the main square where classic ecuadorian music was being pumped out of speakers all over town - this clearly happens for a few hours every day - weird sort of brainwashing.


Dinner was a feast of crisp sandwiches and croissants and we fell asleep humming dodgy mariachi music,

Ax
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