Biking with the Dutchman

Had to rise and shine at an early 5:30 am to get ready for an all day mountain bike ride through Papallacta. We were met at the hotel for a pick up and had a 20 minute ride to the Dutchman's house. We were greeted like family  and got to play with their German Shepperd Max, that was so cool because i was really missing my dog Sammy. So we all piled up into a transportation  vehicle with all of our bikes on the roof top of the truck and off we went! As we drove up to Papallacta we saw a terrible bus accident that had happened earlier in the day , the bus was over turned and there was quite a few people  walking away,it was a sad site to see , our guide told us that if there are any fatalities they painted blue hearts on the road similar to  how we put the flowers in an area where there has been a fatal  accident . After seeing the bus accident i was a little hesitant on having to bike on the road, there was so much fog and switch turns. We proceeded up the mountain to over 10,000 ft and I was starting to feel the elevation pressure in my body. While i was still at home i had started taking elevation medication , it did not me me feel normal at all , it gave me the jitters ,could not taste food and carbonated drinks tasted weird, just made me feel like i was on speed! So on the day we were flying out of Miami my time came up for my dose and i contemplated on do i take it or not ? Can the altitude be that bad? Will i even feel it , naahh it s only for 2 days so i decided not to take it,my  husband said he thought i looked all weirded out when he came home from work on Wednesday .What a mistake but i will get to that in a minute.

So we pull off to the side of the road at the top at Paso De la Virgin 13, 300 ft on to a dirt road and the Dutchman throws all of our helmets on the ground in the mud and rocks, i was like hmm this is going to be interesting, well that was the last time for a few hours i would be clean. We all got our gear on and started our decent to Cayuja the gateway to the Amazon, off we went down a rocky, muddy, and cold and let me mention misty rain!

 

This bike ride  is an excellent way to see a cross section of Ecuador’s ecosystems in just one day. As we travel, we are dwarfed by the striking Andes Mountains that surround us. We were not  lucky  enough to  have a clear day and we were not able to see  all the snow capped volcanoes of the Eastern Cordillera (Cayambe, Cotopaxi, Antisana, Chimborazo). We pedaled across the paramo – the Ecuadorian equivalent of the arctic tundra and down through stunning cloud forest, and traversing thorough steep Andean slopes as we descend down into the Amazon basin.The terrain for this leg of the journey is a combination of dirt and paved roads of scenic rolling hills.

Oh what i have i done to my poor group .We could hardly see anything or anyone in front of us , we road this trail for about 3 miles then we all met on the road side , yes road side , i was not looking forward to being on the road . The Dutchman told some of us , oh just continue down the road i will catch up but make sure to stay to the side so that you don’t get hit by a car. I gathered myself and off we went , we flew down that road as most of our biking was down hill. Saw some road kill and a dingo dog having his lunch from a carcase .

Now  we were soaked head to toe, good thing we all had some type of rain gear. The Dutchman caught up with all of us making sure no one was left behind, we then crossed the road and what looked like someone house was another dirt path that lead to a lake and down we went going very fast. As we were descending down the path we came across a cute little pig and a heard of cows. Good thing they were big enough to spot in the mist , to the right was a very large lake that unfortunately we couldn’t see very well due to the fog. Once we made it to the end we all took a look at each other and we were covered from head to toe with mud, but of course not me i did not see those few cow poop piles along the path and I went over a few and had cow poop all over my face and rain gear. Needless to say i was ready for the thermal hot springs!

 We arrived to Papallacta thermal hot springs,Papallacta has crystal clear water at ten different temperatures . I was happy to finally get there since this was a place to warm up, we all took out door hot showers and into the pool we went. After our warm baths in the thermal pools the Dutchman and crew had a great homemade lunch ready for us. We finished the day with the best part of the bike ride to me, the Ave Maria Pass (4200m), we then bike back towards Quito along the Chiche river basin. This is one of the longest downhill rides in the world, about 45 km. The last 18 kilometers will be on the famous railroad line going through five tunnels, one of which is 322 meters of paramo and cloud forest.We were chilled by occasional fog.We started head back towards Quito, it was in a beautiful trail that was a narrow rim with 4 tunnels and some beautiful scenery like waterfalls and beautiful river and fauna. It was now the end of the day and we all piled up in our transportation vehicle and back to the Dutchman’s house we went. When we arrived he had beverages waiting for us. It was a great day with a total of approximately 25miles of riding.

I could not wait to see my bottle of Excedrin but what a great time.

 

 

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