After our Galapagos tour we stayed one more night in Quito, got our bikes from Sylvain at Freedom Bike Rentals, and the made our way down to Cuenca to visit Jose and Mary. They are a couple of fellow Calgarians we met on the Galapagos tour and are in Ecuador looking for a potential retirement spot.
Somewhere along the way we ventured off the Pan-American highway and ended up in Banos. This is a very popular spot for white-water rafting, zip-lining, treks and dune buggie rentals. There are plenty of hostals in town and it has a very young vibe. In the recent past the entire town and valley was evacuated due to the local volcano, Tungurahua, exploding, spewing ash everywhere.
The next morning rather than getting my bearings straight we headed out of town towards the Amazon jungle instead of back to the main highway. We passed several waterfalls as well as a major dam on our way to Puyo. Along the road were many ads for jungle tours into the rain forest. Good fortune now smiled upon us as this stretch of road before us was brand new, with no more than a dozen vehicles for the next 65 kms. There is no nicer feeling than fresh sticky smooth asphalt under your tires, not having to dodge potholes or uneven surfaces.
Well that good fortune ran out much faster than either of us was prepared for. Stopping in a small town for a bite to eat, we asked the locals of two choices to be made to proceed to Cuenca. We were told one was bad and the other was good. I can't imagine what the bad one was like. 30kms. out of town the asphalt was breaking up on a regular basis, sections of the road completely gone and we were fording small streams across the road. Next came gravel roads interspersed with large rocks to be missed. Dirt was furrowed up to make way for the new asphalt to be laid, we were heading into major construction, for how long was anybody's quess.
Then came a 2hr. wait at the crest of a hill while a crew cleared a bunch of rock that had fallen across the road. The first dynamite blast was a surprise as it echoed thru the hills. After intially cleaning, they planted more dynamite, but this time I got to see the explosion. The sound came thru over a second after the blast and then came the debris, hitting the nearby house and trees and parked vehicles.
Carol wanted to go slow, so we let all the back-up traffic pass us before riding on. Being in the valley it got dark quickly as so new fears of poor visibilty came into play. There was a light mist falling making the dirt slick in spots, but the traffic in front helped to dry it out somewhat. We were moving along at a smooth albeit slow pace when traffic stopped completely. Some genius was trying to get traffic to pass each other on roads too narrow. And now it really started to pour down, with cars, buses and heavy trucks inching by one another, with 2000 ft drop-offs on the outside. Funny!! you don't notice it as much in the dark, thank goodness. All the towns ahead of us were to small to have a hotel, so we plowed ahead, tired, wet, and cold. Sections of completed concrete road were on both sides, with re-bar sticking out waiting for the next pour. The night shift was busy pouring concrete as we passed them, blinded by their construction lighting. Finally after a 12 hr. day we found a hotel and a restaurant that was willing to stay open so we could get fed. Quite a ride to remember.