Ecuador with Bikes part 3

The next morning we woke up well rested and tucked into an enjoyable breakfast at our hostel. Josh oiled the bikes, and then we were off on the third day of our adventure. The route out of Baños was beautiful and took us through green winding roads. Shortly out of the city, we hit a traffic jam which was caused by failing debris that had slid down the rock face.

On our way to Puyo we decided to stop and see a waterfall Lauren had heard about called Pailon del Diablo which means “Cauldron of the Devil”. Since we had all of our things with us Josh elected to stay behind and watch the bikes while Lauren and I went down to check it out. The waterfall was pretty amazing and Lauren got some great shots from above by crawling through a small cave that climbed about 20 ft up from the viewing landing.

While Lauren and I were hiking around viewing waterfalls, Josh was bored back at the bikes and decided this would be a great time to buy me a gift - a small Hello Kittyesque tom tom drum, which I found elaborately strapped to my bag for the rest of the ride. Hilarious.

After exploring for a bit we were back on track, riding through the Amazon Basin jungle. We stopped in Puerto Misahualli to see the local mischievous monkeys - our friend who used to live in Ecuador said that she had her earring stolen out of her ear without even noticing, so we kept our distance. The day had been pretty sunny up until then, but while in Misahualli clouds began to drift in so we decided it was time to leave.

As we neared our final destination for the night, Papallacta, we began to ascend in elevation again, and it began to get cold, drizzly and darkness began to fall. After some close calls winding around slow moving semi trucks on 2 lane roads, one of which we had to pass on the right side next to a ravine, we finally made it to Papallacta, a small village only a few hours drive from Quito that is famous for its thermal hot springs and spas.

Unfortunately the hotel that we had planned on staying at was presumably booked for the night, which was upsetting. As we left in the cold dark we wondered if our drenched, muddy attire had played a factor in none of the rooms being available for us.

Fortunately we found a cute little hostel with a restaurant inside almost immediately and went in and asked about rooms for the night. Through our broken Spanish and the innkeeper’s non-existent English we determined prices and also we came to understand that she wanted us to bring our bikes in for the night and park them in her little restaurant so they wouldn’t be stolen. The rates were fairly reasonable and there was also a hot spring swimming pool in the back. It was a great deal and we agreed to take the rooms.

We had a delicious dinner and some kind of weird corn thing with cheese called Choclo con queso and then climbed into our swimsuits for some thermal spa time. It was wonderful after a long, cold day of riding. After that we went up to our freezing cold rooms and went to sleep in anticipation of our last day of riding.

Ecuador 2013 - Bikes Day 3 from adventuresofjb2 on Vimeo.

tomorrow part4