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.







Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Day 18 - Catacocha to Macara - Last day in Ecuador!

Distance Cycled: 72km
Total Cycled to date: 650km

So after 18 days and 650km we have managed to get from Quito to the border with Peru on schedule! Ok, we have cheated a bit but the distances involved and the timescales have meant we haven't been able to cycle everything we wanted to. The terrain, roads and hills have been tough tough tough, I admit it, tougher than I expected! There have been many tears and lots of "im not going any further"s from both of us but we've got there. In total, we have cycled 75% of the distance from Quito to the border which I think is a good effort.
So today's cycle took us right down to nearly sea level. You can feel the difference on your lungs, feels like u've got a booster behind you. But what you make on altitude you lose on temperature. The valley fllow was pretty damn hot and we got through a lot of liquid.After about 60km we reached what we expected to be our lunch stop. Unfortunately, the town on the map consisted of about 3 houses and one little corner shop. So after a lovely nutritious lunch of tuna, crisps and ice cream we didnt feel like much cycling in the afternoon and we had a big hill ahead of us. A little lift in the back of a pick-up helped us up the hill and we rolled down into Macara by sunset.
A big day despite the little cheat and we were happy to find a nice enough hotel with a friendly manager. We wandered into town for dinner and true to Ecuador form, there was only chicken and rice....
Luckily, this was THE BEST chicken and rice of the trip so far!
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