I finally had to extract myself from the comfort of my nice room in Cuenca and head to Peru. There are three main ways you can leave Ecuador to the south. The first is via the Amazon jungle, The second up high in the Andes. And the third down on the coast at Huaquillas. I decided on option Numero Tres. While it was nice up in the Andes, the pull of the coastline and nice weather drew me back down. The ride back down to sea level should also be quite pleasant. At least that’s what I thought.

Not long after I left Cuenca the landscape changed. The scale of the mountains and valleys was the same but they were hard and arid and not green and soft like I had gotten used to. And then the wind started. I got to an area where there were lots of wind turbines and at one stage as I passed through a cutting I was almost lifted off the bike. It was really scary and I wasn’t even going fast. I was getting buffeted around like I was a piece of paper blowing down the road. Thankfully the road was dry and there wasn’t much traffic. If something big was coming the other way I slowed right down in case the combination of the wind and the truck passing, knocked me off the bike.

I pulled over at one stage just to have a rest. There was at least half an hour of difficult riding. I eventually got down lower and came across the river. I’m sure it wasn’t the Magdalena. There was somebody drying cocoa seeds on a concrete pad. He was asleep behind a big rock and sat up when I pulled in to take a photo. Once he knew I was aware he was there he laid back down.

I eventually ended up in a little town that was full of restaurants and bikers of both varieties having Sunday lunch. Both motorised and non motorised. Bikes everywhere. I decided to eat at a smaller restaurant across from all the busy ones as two women were cooking these giant empanadas. They were cheese and air empanadas. 2% cheese and 98% air. Still nice but not really food. They also had bananas with cheese which i didn’t try. There was a mass departure across the road and so I moved over there for some chicken and chips.

There were a couple of guys there on big adventure bikes. I had a bit of a chat to them. They were locals, just out on a Sunday ride. One was the same age as me. I continued my ride down on into Huaquilla, said Hi to JC on the way in and rocked up at the Hotel Rodey hoping they would have a room.

They did and at the bargain price of $15AUD a night. The room was tiny but fine except for a ceiling conduit that was crooked. I just didn’t lay on the bed until it was dark and then had the light off. They had bike parking but it in a little shed that was even smaller that my room and around the corner but still beneath the hotel. The bike just fitted in so that was all good. They also had a staff laundry up on the roof where I was allowed to sit with a beer and watch the sun set over Peru.

I had noticed there were two border crossings in this town and so I had specifically picked a hotel near one of them so I could check it out that night. It was a busy little border town. I wandered down the few blocks to the border and thought I was just strolling through a busy popup market. People selling all sorts of stuff and then suddenly I looked up and I was crossing the border. If I hadn’t had seen the sign I would have ended up prematurely in Peru without all my stuff. Including my passport. It was basically an open border with people crossing either direction. It was on a bridge above a dry riverbed which was the border between the two countries. No checking of any sort. I locked that one away in the memory bank.

I returned again later in the night and the market stalls were packed up and I could see a little police post on the start of the bridge. The photo above left was after the crowds were gone as I couldn’t get a photo at the time. There were still taxis rocking up at night and people wandering around and carrying bags of stuff across the border. I had a shish kebab from a street vendor, and she said the border was open all night. The town itself had lots of big flash buses coming and going to various depots around the hotel but they were heading out of town to a new big border crossing about five kilometres away. That was the one that I decided I should cross the next morning. I was up early in the morning, went for a walk and then loaded the bike and was on the road and headed for an easy border crossing by 8:30am. At least that’s what I thought.

KMS 7036