Day 24 Rest day in Huaraz

Well another rest day nearly over!  The weather this morning was good, breakfast in the sunshine.  Later it was coffee in the sunshine, we know how to live on this trip!!  Bike cleaning duties followed and most of our bikes looked almost new again, but the clouds were gathering as we had our lunch.  A few spots of rain turned to showers later and by dinner tonight it was full on rain.  We are all just hoping it passes through overnight as the thought of climbing up to a bushcamp at 4200 metres tomorrow is not pleasing us!  The day after we leave bushcamp for the biggest climb of the trip at 4800 metres.  The temperature overnight at bushcamp is likely to be below zero, so climbing another 600 metres after that is not a great prospect.  Anyway, we all signed up for this but the reality is not always what you expected from the holiday brochure you looked at before, why do they always have sunny pictures??
So apart from catching up with computer stuff the day was spent relaxing, and we shall see what the morning brings - watch this space for news in a couple of days!

Day 23 Caraz to Huaraz

Back on paved roads again for the journey up to Huaraz and the eve of another rest day.  It is Saturday 28th August and we travelled through scenery which was in its own way good but we had been spoilt by yesterday.  Shortly after leaving Caraz there was a fantastic double peaked mountain on our left which was just too difficult to photograph as the sun was still rising above it and making a photo to bright.  Lunch was around 35K on a concrete slab that was also used for games like basketball.  The young kids gathered around and some had their tyres pumped up so they could ride around on "non-flat" tyres!
After lunch there was an opportunity to catch another snow capped peak on camera, but otherwise it was just riding gently uphill to reach our destination.  A by now familiar habit of stopping for a beer near to the end was indulged in, but we eventually got to the hotel after 70K, another total of 1180 metres of climbing which took us back up to an altitude of 3060 metres.  After the rest day we go to a bushcamp at around 4200 metres before the next day takes us over the highest pass of the trip at around 4800 metres!

Just look in the distance not the foreground!

Day 22 Bushcamp to Caraz

This was only a short day of around 66K, but with only about 33% paved and a lot of climbing it was going to take us a long time.  There was one other reason for the day to be long - it was by far the most stunning scenery we had seen on the trip so far!  We left bushcamp at 8am and continued to travel up the Canon del Pato, gently climbing all day.  The sun came out quite early on, the wind was behind us again and the scenery just got better & better.  I was certainly in no rush to get to lunch which was around 30K and just by one of the early tunnels of the day, there were more than 30 today!.
After lunch we travelled through most of the tunnels for the day, and in one of the longest I got off my bike and pressed myself with my bike close to the wall as at least 3 pick-ups came through.  They all saw me, thank goodness, but the air was now thick with the talcum powder type dust they threw up!  I could not get my orientation again and ended up walking the remainder of the tunnel to the exit, it was the safest thing to do.
Eventually the Canon del Pato ended and the valley widened as the last 15K to Caraz was mainly on smooth tarmac.  With the winds assistance it was weird as you felt like you should be going down hill as you looked at the road ahead, but slowly the altitude was getting higher!  We had seen some amazing scenery, only travelled just over 67K, climbed a total of 1780 metres and were now at an altitude of just under 2300 metres - a really fantastic day that we all talked about through the evening.

Stunning scenery!

1225 metres up and more to come!

More stunning scenery and big cactus above!

Another tunnel on the route!

Day 21 Bushcamp to Bushcamp

Today we left one bushcamp to go to another.  We continued along the same track as we had come along.  It was much the same type of surface, except there was to be about 90% un-paved today.  Lunch was at around 50K and we were beside a river which was about 30 metres below us.  The weather had brightened up since the start of the day and now it was bright sunshine as we enjoyed our lunch break.
After lunch we started to come across some of the un-lit tunnels that we were told to expect in Peru.  These varied in length between 10 and 200 metres, with the same un-paved surface within them.  Luckily I managed to get through them without meeting any traffic in either direction which was a relief.
The scenery was variable but there was too much to concentrate on with the road beneath our wheels.  Eventually we came into a small village where I heard my name being called out from a little bar!  Only about 500 metres to go to the bushcamp on the other side of the river, but a number of riders had already got a beer so I decided to join them.  We managed between about 12 of us to empty the owners fridge, I think he was pleased we dropped in!  We then carried on to bushcamp which was better than the night before.  Two reasons, the ground was flatter and not so stony, also there was a river near to us where we could have a quick wash and not feel so un-clean when we went to bed!  We had travelled just over 84K, climbed over 1140 metres and we were now just over 1000 metres above sea level.

Typical surface for the day!

Almost ghost town status.

Reward for another dusty day in the saddle!

Bushcamp in the Canon del Pato.

Day 20 Huanchaco to Bushcamp

We left the coast, until South Argentina, on Wednesday 25th August and travelled inland towards the high mountains.  The day started cool, but soon started to warm up, and as a bonus the wind was in our favour after all the headwinds down to the coast.  Police escort still with us as we cleared Trujillo and various roadworks.  The road was mainly paved and slowly we started to gain some altitude.  Not a lot happened until we turned off the main road after lunch and took to the un-paved stuff.  It seemed okay to start with as it was quite hard packed and reasonably smooth as as surface.  After about 10K it got more like what was to follow over the next 2 days, bumpy, mixture of rocks, gravel and worst of all dust like talcum powder, which if you drift into it can stop you dead depending upon how deep it is. Eventually the bushcamp site was reached and we set up our tents for the night.  Unfortunately as I arrived I must have run over one of the thorns from the bushes and later noticed my front tyre was flat!  It was in fact worse because I must have hit some glass somewhere and this had slashed the tyre as well, new tyre and inner tube required!!!  The tent pitching was also a bit hard because of the ground and the sleep that followed after dinner was a bit lumpy.  In summary we had travelled 113K and gained 900 metres into the foothills.

Bushcamp near Chavimochic

Day 19 Rest day in Huanchaco

Well it is good to be sitting on normal chairs for the day instead of a saddle, the backside is enjoying the luxury!  The sun is not shining yet but maybe it will come out a bit later this afternoon, it is nice and warm though.  Our hostal is about 100 metres from the Pacific and the waves are crashing in onto the beach, there is something so relaxing about that sound.  We are all just taking things easy and getting ready for the next 4 hard days ahead as we go back into the mountains and eventually back up to the dizzy heights between 2000 and 4800 metres.  We have days of 118, 80, 66 & 70K to look forward to.  Doesn't sound to bad but these days involve 83, 10, 34 & 100% paved roads, along with 662, 861, 1600 & 1223 metres climbing respectively.  These last figures make the prospect look a little harder, offroad & climbing too, as well as bushcamp for the next 2 days.  The Andes Trail now starts for real, there are days with 0% paved roads to come in the remaining weeks to the end.  We have only had the prologue over the past 1500K, now the real work starts, so keep watching this space!
Thanks to all of you who have put comments on my blog, you are really helping to keep me going, I cannot thank you enough, please keep going with them.  I hope I can keep you informed & provide you with a few funny anecdotes along the way.  The more we move into camping, especially bushcamps, the less frequently I will be able to keep you up to date, but I will get the stories up as soon as I can when wifi is available.  Thanks again to you all for looking in & commenting too!

Day 18 Pacasmayo to Huanchaco

This was another day of barren landscape with the wind gaining strength as the day went on.  We left the coast to go back inland onto the Pan American Highway again and continue south to our rest day stop of Huanchaco.  The wind from the Pacific just grew in strength and continued to batter our tired bodies until the end of the day.  The police were still checking our progress and paid a bit more attention as we went through a place called Paijan which is a bit of a dodgy area for travellers, especially cyclists.  There were a few shady looking characters with masks on who looked a bit menacing, but we went through in a group and came out the other side intact!
The landscape for the day, as well as the last couple of days, was of desert and rubble.  It was not even nice clean yellow sand, but dusty gritty stuff and loads of dumped rubbish from plastic bottles to old building materials.  It looked a bit like some of the desert war places around the globe!  We all realise how lucky we are that we have lives that are so privileged compared to so many of the friendly people we pass by each day.  The kids come rushing to the roadside and wave and cheer at us as do a lot of the grown ups, it is really great  and so humbling as we go past on our very expensive bikes!
The day was 111K long with 410 metres of climbing and at the end we were all pleased to have a rest day in front of us, minds, legs and rear ends that needed a day off!

This was as good stretch!

How better to relax at the end of 7 hard days!!

Day 17 Lambayeque to Pacasmayo

This was another day where the scenery was not too special as we headed towards the Pacific Ocean.  We were going through very sandy areas, sometimes flat and sometimes very large dunes, with a few low hills interspersed.  The pace was quite high soon after we started and it soon increased until there were only 9 of us left in a group heading towards lunch at just over 60K.  The weather was quite dull and the wind was blowing hard from the ocean!  After lunch we set off again at a reasonable pace and so it continued until about 5K from the end 3 of us got blown off the back on the last rise before the end.  The wind was so strong that it was almost impossible to get back with the others, and that is how the day finished with 5 in a group followed by 2 others and one solo rider completing the original 9.  Just after we arrived at the hotel on the seafront the sun came out for the first time and so we could enjoy sitting in the sun after our showers following the 118K and just over 320 metres of climbing.  We have one more day along the coast before another Rest Day and then it's back up into the serious mountains of The Andes!

Day 16 Bushcamp near Motupe to Lambayeque

Short flat day to Lambayeque and it was sort of decided that we get there as quick as possible without anyone actually saying anything!  We all stayed together for about 30K then the race guys broke away and the rest of us just kept up an even pace through to lunch, with police guidance through the towns still!  Lunch was at 50K and that only left about 25K to go, which we soon got under our wheels.  It took us just about 3 Hours to cover the 75K of the day.  Very nice hostal awaited us at Lambayeque after a quick morning of riding.  A number of us visited a museum about the Sipan people who pre-date the Incas, which was very interesting.  The rest of the day we just relaxed, and some of us tried to catch up on our blogs etc.

Day 15 Chulucanas to Bushcamp near Motupe

So before the days story more about the Police in Peru.  It seems that Bike Dreams had sent details of our trip through Peru to the Peruvian Embassy, mainly because there are some small areas of Peru that it is useful for the police to be aware of our prescence.  So there is often a police car along the road whose occupants wave and check us through as we pass.  Then in many of the smaller towns they blow their whistles and stop traffic, or if there are a number of us in a group we are often treated to a police car escort with lights on, siren blazing, and all the vehicles kept to one side as we "race" through!  It has been really great so far, makes you feel that your in the Tour de France!!  They also count us all in to make sure we are all safely home at the end of a day, it will be interesting to see if it does last all the way through Peru.
So, this day started a bit cooler than the last ones but as we are dropping slowly down towards the coast the terrain was still fairly flat and boring.  There were two small climbs today, and we did pass through a few foothills just to break it up, but here was still the nagging headwind!  So nothing really interesting happened on the journey to our first bushcamp.  We should have been in  an hotel but it was found out that it was full, so a bushcamp was found, only about 7K short of Motupe, on a less than green or flat football pitch about 500 metres from the road.  We had ridden 147K with just over 500 metres of climbing.  We all had our dinner at about 6 pm which was really good for the first wild cooking experience of the trip.  A few chats and bed about 9 pm, after keeping my diary up to date.

Mine is the Green Tent!

Day 14 Macara to Chulucanas

We were about to leave Ecuador and enter Peru, but that was not going to be as quick as you may think!  We arrived at the border about 8:20 am and the plan was to let the trucks go ahead of us and the riders follow once the trucks had been cleared.  Well, first surprise, the border guards on the Ecuadorian side were not exactly sober shall we say.  It was quite a while before we got our passports stamped and we could progress the 100 metres to the Peruvian border.  Another slow process getting through, but the sobriety seemed to be better here!  During our wait the Peruvian Police were chatting to us and explaining that they would be "escorting" us all the way through Peru, around 5 weeks!  We did not really understand what they meant at the time, but after over 2 hours we were all cleared and on our way with a police car, lights flashing, leading us into Peru.  The police escort continued all day.  More about that later.
Unfortunately by now the sun was really getting hot after our long delay and I soon dropped off the group.  I was finding the terrain very boring, rolling roads with a nagging head wind.  We did not have lunch until around 60K by which time I was really feeling low.
After lunch we carried on until nearer the finish we had our first serious stretch of unpaved flat road for about 14K including riding through a couple of rivers for good measure!  By the time we reached the end I was in quite a bad way, really suffering from dehydration and when I arrived at the hotel Didier, our nurse, took my bike from me and got me sat down and drinking straight away.  He took my bags to my room and I just sat drinking anything that was put in front of me and trying to enjoy the soup that we always get at the end of each day.  Slowly I got better and went off for my shower and washing out my kit before going out to get some Peruvian money from an ATM.  I bumped into some of the guys in a bar/restaurant and stopped by for a beer or two along with some food.  There were some Peruvians playing a guitar and the spoons as well as singing.  It was a really good night and it turned out that the first day of 124K into Peru was not that bad after all!

Welcome to Peru!

Day 13 Catacocha to Macara

This was to be our last full day in Ecuador, and it was another hot one!  The start was a 20K drop down from Catacocha on a road similar to the one that bought us into town the day before, lots of pot-holes and unpaved sections to negotiate.  once the descent was over we proceeded onto lunch over rolling roads until we came to the place Didier had chosen for lunch, right beside a river!  It was a beautiful spot with the river running past us as we ate our lunch.  Some of the riders had a paddle or were brave enough to go in for a complete dip.
Soon after lunch we had the major climb of the day which took us up another 500 metres with gradients varying between 7 & 12%.  The sun was now above us as it was around mid-day, and my legs were really feeling like lead!  Eventually the top was reached and with a few more ups & downs we came to the refreshingly long descent of 700 metres to Macara and an altitude of under 500 metres above sea level.  94K of cloudless sky had bought us to within 3K of Peru, but that was to wait until tomorrow!

Lunch stop from the bridge on the road afterwards!

Day 12 Loja to Catacocha

Today we were to experience our first serious unpaved sections of the trip.  We left Loja and the weather was good as we started to climb up to just over 2600 metres which had a few small unpaved sections.  However, once we started to descend the other side we soon came across our first stretch of downhill unpaved for about 5K, made more scary by a very strong wind behind us!  Soon after this we re-joined the Pan American Highway and descended for another 10K or so which dropped us down to around 1300 metres.
It was not long before we started another serious climb which was interrupted by the lunch truck at around the 50K mark.  After lunch we continued to climb for another 10K with an average gradient of 10% and taking us back up to 2350 metres.  Once the summit was reached it was a series of ups and downs until the last climb of about 8K of pot-holed road up to Catacocha, an interesting village perched high up on a hill.  The weather was a vast contrast from the cold at the top of the climb a few days ago, today had reached 40C with 2100 metres of climbing spread over the 94K.

Relief after the scary unpaved downhill section!

Day 11 Rest Day in Loja

Sorry to all those trying to follow my progress but wifi has been hard to come by since arriving in Loja!  So I will try to catch up on the news:-
The second rest day within a couple of days on the road since the first one was simply because of the hardness of those two days.  A lot of us did such things as clean our bikes, visit supermarkets for a few food treats, have a look around the town and generally renew our batteries ready for the next 7 days during which we would end our riding in Ecuador and more into country number 2 - Peru.
Just to add another touch of amusement to my blog here is a small example of pavement design in Loja!

Just remember to look where your going!

Day 10 Ona to Loja

After the hard day yesterday the 15th of August started better - no rain and warm.  This was to be a harder day with more climbing in a similar numbers of K's.  We were immediately back on the PA Highway and dropping down to cross a river prior to the first climb of the day, this process was repeated 2 more times this day.  We crossed the river at 2200 metres and then climbed up to 3007 metres to reach the first summit.  Today at this height the weather was kinder and although cooler than below it was at least dry.  We then dropped down to around 2230 metres over another bridge and started the next climb up to 2916 metres which was soon followed by the lunch stop at around 45K.  Today I felt good and had ridden quite hard over these two climbs reaching the lunch stop in 3 hours 45 minutes.  Each day, unless there is a specific reason like traffic problems etc., we are timed so that there can be a rider who can say they road the day, or whole event, the quickest.  I am never going to be the fastest, there are too many younger riders than me, but it is still interesting to see how you can do on a day when you feel good.  The timing for this day was only until lunch and I came in 8th which I was really pleased with, even if it was 70 minutes after the fastest riders!
Lunch was spent in a nice clearing with good views and a little sunshine before continuing the remaining 62K to the finish.  We dropped down to 2370 metres and climbed up again to 2732 metres as well as quite a few other ups and downs on the way to the finish.  The only annoying part of the day being that when we had a good long descent there always seemed to be a strong headwind in our faces!!
The hotel is good, very good  hot showers - sad reflection on what we all consider to be a major luxury - and after a good meal in a local grill and a nice cold beer it was time to hit the sack after another hard day of 107K riding with 2416 metres climbing.

Day 9 Cuenca to Ona

Saturday August 14th dawned with dull skies and drizzle, not a bright prospect for a hard day in the saddle.  It took us almost 1 hour to clear the town negotiating road works that bikes could get though as well as general traffic.
Soon we started climbing up to the highest point of the day, at 3279 metres.  As we gained height so we gained rain, mist and cold!! Reaching the summit after about 4 hours I was wet with sweat and rain.  I put on my waterproof cape before starting the descent to the lunch stop which was about 6K down.  I was getting colder and colder as the road passed under my wheels, eventually reaching the lunch stop where Filip, our mechanic, helped me off my bike!  My fingers were numb with cold and I just sat shaking, too cold to really hold the plastic cup of coffee Filip got me.  All around there were other riders in similar states of cold.  Soon the lunch truck returned, which I had seen going in the opposite direction a few K earlier.  It had been to pick up Jasper, a Dutch rider, who had had 2 punctures and I had seen walking along the roadside.  Once his bike was out of the truck a number of us got in it for warmth.  I eventually managed to drink the coffee!! We stayed in the truck as Didier decided to go back and find the remaining riders on the road, and like me none of them wanted to give up and got to the lunch stop before or just after we returned.
I was now much warmer, still in wet clothes, but with some others decided to carry on to Ona.  We were soon descending down out of the mist and into warmer temperatures and with most of the remaining distance being downhill we all got to the hostal where we could get into a warm shower and dry clothes.  Many stories were told that night over dinner before getting to bed ready for the longer harder day to follow this one of just 107K and 1771 metres of climbing!

Day 8 Rest day in Cuenca

Friday August 13th was our first rest day and it was spent doing various things.  Getting some well needed laundry done, going for a walk around town, eating all our meals out - the crew are of duty as well on rest days = and for those of us with PC's catching up on all sorts.

I also asked Didier, our nurse, if he could get me something for a very tight chest.  He got two tablets from the chemist (you can buy tablets singularly over here) and they solved the problem over the next 24 hours.

Having a real coffee in the morning was a treat as well as a superb ice cream sundae!!

The laundry gave us all problems as the hotel staff managed to mix up, or loose bits of our kit.  Luckily I made a list of what I had put in my bag and eventually I was reunited with all my kit.

Other times of the day we were all discussing the following two days on the road, both over 100K and both involving a lot of climbing.  Remember we are already over 2000 metres up before we add on any climbing metres!!

Day 7 Ingapirca to Cuenca

We left our overnight hostals in the coolness of the early morning to take another way back to join the Pan American Highway.  The twisty lane had it's full share of potholes, as the way in had the day before, but it also had a new selection of annoying dogs!  There seems to be a continuous stream of dogs who, when not staked down in a garden,  take great delight in chasing cyclists.  Sometimes the are alone, other times the work as a group.  Today a second rider was bitten by a dog, both riders being lucky to escape with non-puncturing bites.
Once back on the PA Highway there was another 5K to climb before the days summit was reached at 3550 metres.  We then dropped down about 1000 metres before we came to Cuenca.  The  PA Highway whilst both ascending and descending had another sprinkling of unfinished lengths, potholes and smooth surface.  Over 900 metres climbing and around 79K of riding bought us to our hotel and the slightly warmer environs of Cuenca.  We are here for two nights because Friday 13th August 2010 is our first REST DAY!!

Not 5* but it saved packing wet tents!

Day 6 Chunci to Ingapirca

Today, 11/8/10, was supposed to be the first day that we were to bushcamp.  However, that did not work out!  We left Chunci with fairly clear skies and with the temperature really pleasant for riding.  There was a reasonable amount of climbing to do today and it was on smooth tarmac and with comfortable gradients to start with.  Just before the lunch stop the wind increased a little and the temperature dropped slightly.  We had a good lunch before setting off again to find a different story for the afternoon.  The Pan American Highway changed on a number of occasions to the PA DUSTway, and the wind also became very strong.  Unmade sections of the road gave us a new experience whenever we were overtaken by trucks etc., a cloud of dust to breath in.  One section of partly completed concrete sections was also accompanied by strong winds reducing uphill speeds to around 4kph.  2 riders were blown off there bikes by the wind.  But on top of that we arrived at the ancient Inca site of Ingapirca to find that the access road to was dug up and the trucks could not gain access, therefore no bushcamp!  We were booked into alternative accomodation of two hostals which had seen better days.  It actually proved to be a blessing in disguise as heavy rain during the night meant that our tents would have been soaked.  Packing them away for the next camping night in 2 weeks would have given us a great problem.  So we had ridden about 70K, climbed over 1900 metres and actually had a good evening together in our new homes for the night at 3200 metres!

Pan American DUSTway!

Day 5 Guamote to Chunci

I felt a little like I may have a headcold this morning, but it may just be because we had been sleeping at 3060 metres.  So leaving the hostal we returned back to the main road and continued South.  We were soon climbing again and reached a height of over 3300 metres before we started to drop down towards the town of Alausi which was about 47K into the ride.  We had been told that the lunch stop would be somewhere around 50K.  Just as we passed Alausi, which was  below us on our right, someone spotted the lunch truck at the top of a long climb that lay ahead of us!!  A few expletives were said but it was actually the best place for it to be, so after another 3K and 750 metres higher we pulled off the road to the truck at exactly 50K, tired but pleased that we did not have to tackle that climb with full stomachs!!  After lunch it was time to set records, the high speed type!  A long descent on smooth tarmac was just too tempting - I hit 81.2kph but others claim to have gone faster!!  After another small climb along the way we dropped down to our hotel in the centre of Chunci after 80K and over 1300 metres of climbing.  We have come from the dizzy heights of Guamote at 3060 metres to just around 2300 metres - feels like we have dropped into an oxygen tent!!!

Leaving the hostal at Guamote

View from lunch back down to Alausi!

Day 4 Riobamba to Guamote

Today, 9/8/10, we travelled from Riobamba to a small village 52K away called Guamote.  The ride today was the first one that would be timed, so that anyone who wanted to "race" could do.  A number of us were not interested as we are treating the trip as a big holiday.

The day started one hour later than usual at 9am as the distance to go was short.  It started by climbing away from the hotel and it just kept climbing for the next 30K to lunch.  It was not one long climb but a lot of climbs with just a small drop to break them up, which if your legs are a bit dead is not so good.  The lunch stop was by the side of the road in a field with lovely scenery around us.  The area we travelled through was the most picturesque that we have seen so far, and the traffic was also quieter!

After lunch we carried on mostly downhill but with a stiff headwind.  A short climb up to the Hostal completed the day after 810 metres of climbing.  The hostal is along the lines of a youth hostel at home and is in a village that seems to be a hub for many buses and also the railway that passes through. The village was worth a visit before dinner and you really felt that you were seeing true rustic Ecuadorian life.   Most of us are a bit tired and were pleased that dinner was cooked for us in the hostal.

Lunch at 3100 metres!

Downtown Guamote

Day 3 La Tacunga to Riobamba

Today was a good and bad day!  My legs, heart and lungs felt good, but a number of us went of course and my computer's battery ran out!  Somehow we managed to miss some of the directions in the middle of the route and therefore missed the lunch truck.  It was not a disaster, it just meant that we landed up going a different way in the middle of the proposed route.  We stopped for some food in a little restaurant in a village called Quero and had a bowl of Chicken soup, Chicken with chips, rice, salad and a Pineapple Juice for the enormous sum of $2!!  After lunch we still went over the main climb of the day which was around 3450m.  As yesterday we were greeted with some rain at the top of the climb but it was not as bad as on day 2.  We also had fewer vehicles to deal with, maybe because it was Sunday, but it was also because we are getting further away from Quito.  Tomorrow we start to get into the countryside a lot more so the air should be cleaner.

Day 2 Quito to La Tacunga

We have now left Quito and have had our first real day on the road.  The weather was cooler but that was okay for the climbing that lay ahead.  Unfortunately we have a couple of days after leaving Quito that involve using the PanAmerican Highway which is very busy.  The biggest problem with that is the pollution from the big trucks and buses, not very nice to breathe in.
The day was fairly uneventful, except for the first puncture in the group and the rain that came in the afternoon.  A total distance of around 95K with total climbing of around 1450m.  The highest point reached being almost 3550m which is around 750m higher than Quito, oxygen was a bit more scarce up there but the day was a success.  More of the same in the next week or so which will hopefully mean that we all get accustomed to the more rarified air.

We are on our way!

On the morning of August 6th 2010 the months of waiting have ended! We cycled from our hotel in Quito to the Mitel del Mondo monument which is the symbol of The Equator and the start of our big adventure.  The ride from Quito to the monument is North away from our eventual destination of Ushuaia, but after visiting the museum and some formal presentations we turn our bikes South and rode our first 27K back to our hotel.  Day 1 was over and we were on our way at last!!

Our bikes on The Equator.

Ushuaia here I come!

South American Wiring!

Waiting for the start of the trek and wandering the streets of Quito gives you time to see things that are different to what you are accustomed to in your own country.  I am fascinated by the wiring in South America so here is a small break from things cycling:-

Of course it's safe!

Quito at last!

Long day of travel over, up at 04:00 in London to catch 07:25 flight to Madrid followed by 12:40 flight to Quito!    It is now 20:45 in Quito which is 02:45 in London. So nearly 23 hours awake, but I should sleep well tonight and be switched into Ecuadorian time in the morning.
Unpacked the bike and all is well, phew!  Just got to sort out the luggage now.
Two other participants here today, the others will arrive in next 2 days.  Hotel friendly and staff helpful.
I now feel as if the long wait it finally over, the next few days will be spent getting acclimatised to the altitude, meeting new people and counting down the last few days to the start.  The excitement is mounting!