The first pleasant surprise crossing the border to Ecuador was the price drop for fuel from US$1.30/litre in Colombia to .40cents/litre. We drove straight to Quito airport (Ecaudor Capital), bought a ticket to Galapagos Islands (Santa Cruz Island) for the next morning and found a nearby cheap Hotel that had secure parking where we could store the bike and our riding gear for 2 weeks charging us $20 , which we thought was a bargain! There are 3 main islands with airports, Santa Cruz was the most logical place for us as most cruise ships leave from there and it was in the middle. We had been told by many experienced travellers (Thanks Ken Duval) to book a last minute cruise from the main town Puerto Ayora to save up to 50% off the internet price... perfect if you have lots of time and are not so fussy which boat you get! In order to get this savings you must pay in US dollars CASH, which should be no problem as Ecuadorian currency is in US dollars and available at all 3 ATM's in town, but with a maximum withdrawal of $600 every 24 hours!

For those who book by internet or distant travel agents you would be picked up at the airport and taken directly to the boat.
For us cheapskates there was a free bus to the ferry, a $1 ferry side across the channel and a $2 bus ride for 40 minutes into town (total 1 hour).

We saved US$1700 on the boat trip paying US$1,100 each for 6 day trip mainly around Isla Isabella. Our cruise left 3 days later, so we filled in the time by exploring Charles Darwin Centre, walked to Tortuga Bay and a snorkel trip to Kicker Rock on San Cristobal Island. We were fortunate enough to swim over a school of over 20 hammerhead sharks! Even our guide got a little nervous about this and suggested we get out of there!! Yikes!

Our boat "Encantada" slept 12 people for a 6 day journey into the unknown! There were people from Switzerland, New Zealand, Holland and Germany and we all got on well and would party on the evening as late as 8pm! We would all fall exhausted into bed for a cradle rocking sleep to wake up on a new island each morning.
All creatures we saw were not at all afraid of us, even though we were within touching and "treading on" distance! If you laid quietly and long enough on the beach, we are sure a mockingbird would land on your knee! On the leeward side of a small island while snorkelling we found an area of large turtles sleeping on the sandy bottom about 5m down! Amazing!
There were lots of sea Lions at every snorkelling spot, we snorkelled twice a day and Belinda was always the first one in and last one out.... she really loved diving and playing with the ever playful sea lions... a real highlight for this trip!

The Captain passed out cocktails as we passed the Equator and counted down the GPS co-ordinates to 0, just like New Years Eve!
The staff were wonderful and couldnt do enough for us. The weather was great, the sea was not too rough and the coolish water temps (22 degC- January) kept us from getting too hot, which was a surprise being right on the Equator. Our Naturalist Guide knew all the best snorkelling spots and explained the physical differences between the animals occupying separate islands.

The Galapagos Islands really blew our minds, we are so glad we went and we recommend everyone to go ASAP as the ecosystem is so fragile, it really is a totally unique place.
We believe Australia and New Zealand were a much bigger version of Galapagos hundreds of years ago, with its unique animal life, that is, until humans occupied the land and introduced creatures and plants that would have no natural predators and thus changed our landscape forever.

The time went too quickly, as we soon found ourselves, back in Quito, repacking the bike for our continued journey south to Banos. We missed going to downtown Quito as we heard so many stories of armed robbery during the day in front of the victims hotel and we had no desire to battle the city traffic for hours to see another colonial square!
Banos is a gorgeous natural hotspring town at the foot of an active volcano in the Andes. There were plenty of good Hotels, massage places and restaurants at very cheap prices, so we stayed a couple of nights before embarking on the dirt road shortcut to Riobamba. This road we had taken 14 years earlier, soon after a large earthquake that had collapsed all bridges at the base of the volcano. The 20km had taken us about 3 hours as we had to balance our bike on planks of timber suspended over 20m sheer drops into the canyon below! The locals had warned us that this road was impassable to vehicles, but we thought a bike could do it! The first crossing was so scary that when we came to the second crossing we thought we really didnt want to go back, surely this must be the last one! Well there were 7 in total and it was far more frightening than Bolivia's "Most Dangerous Road in the World" to Corioco.

This time it took us half an hour to complete the dirt road with all bridges in place. Shortly after Riobamba we connected with an Argentinian couple Juan and Lia Quiroga, riding a fully loaded 1200GS from San Francisco to Buenos Aires. We rode with them to Cuenca through some heavy rains and dense fog.

Thank goodness the roads were in good condition. What a shame to miss all the beautiful scenery! Cuenca was like an old Spanish city and kept us there for 2 days exploring before riding through some fantastic scenery roads to Vilcabamba in the south of Ecuador.
This is the area 14 years ago where we met up with Annette Taylor and John Green who travelled the world for 3.5 years before settling in a finca (orchard) near San Rafael, Argentina.
We stayed in the same hostel called Izhcayluma which is run by a German team who really know what travellers need and like...Fantastic food, great cabins with hammocks, laundry, fantastic written knowledge of the area and free yoga in the morning.

It is 2km south of the village overlooking the valley with lots of great hikes to be had around it. Vilcabamba had not changed a bit since last time and soon the road heading due south to Peru will be paved. We elected to enter to Peru via Macura on the lovely new sealed road.
The border crossing was fast with no line ups and all officials being courteous on the Ecuatorian side. When we gave our paperwork to Peru Customs the bike showed up on their computer under the old owners name: Mark Schmitt. The officer was suspicious and Pat was worried as he called Lima headquarters. Problem! Luckily we had the bill of sale from Mark and after another half hour of phone calls the officer smilingly handed us our new TIP (Temporary Import Permit) and said Welcome to Peru! Phew... one of our favourite countries... here we come!