12 days round trip from Quito to Northeast Peru and back

We began in Quito, decided to ride on the panamerican highway down to Riobamba and take a not very usual beautiful road that passes Cebadas, Atillo lakes and finally ends in Macas, the capital of Morona Santiago, one of the Oriental (jungle) provinces of Ecuador. 369km, absolutely quiet and scenic road after Riobamba and a good night.
Atillo lakes are a very impressive group of lakes located at about 3500m above sea level, near Ozogoche lagoons.

From Vilcabamba to the south, good 85km paved road down to Palanda and then a very enjoyable 72km gravel, rocky, bumpy and partially wet road to the border, La Balza; you could say that this is the fourth border between Ecuador and Peru in order of importance. Lonely border, no conflicts or waiting rows; immigration and SUNAT (Peruvian customs for the bikes).

You cannot get the compulsory SOAT insurance here, you will have to do it in the next town San Isidro or in Jaen (10 USD for cars and 30 usd for motorcycles).

We left Jaén after buying the SOAT insurance, you will get in troubles if you are caught without it. Something else to remember, in Peru you MUST keep your car headlights ON all the time on the roads.

First detour after 140km in Pedro Ruiz, 33km to Pomacochas town and lake, very nice. I kissed Peruvian slippery mud trying to get to the lake… Nice touristic installations by the lake, back to the 800m extreme mud (with no more surprises) and to the main road.

Kuelap is a Pre-Incan fortress located at 3.000m at the south of Chachapoyas. It was built by the Chachapoyas Culture in the 6th century.

Before going there I did not find enough information to clearly understand the logistics for visiting this place, now I can tell you how we did it.

From Chachapoyas you can take the paved road to Tingo and Nuevo Tingo, we decided to use an alternate amazing gravel road that passes by the town of Levanto, a place with long pre-Incan and Incan history where you can visit the Yálape archeological site.

We spent two nights in Leymebamba, a nice small town in an acceptable hotel (La Petaca) with ocean (main quarter) view, we already needed a rest. This town is well known for a Museum dedicated to the Chachapoyas Culture, they have 261 mummies among many other archeological and ethnographic remains found in the “Laguna de los Cóndores”, a famous lake located at 2 or 3 days walk to the Southeast.

Cajamarca is a medium size city located at an elevation of 2750. It has many beautiful churches with plenty of influence of the Incan architecture. This city has a lot of Incan history.

Cajamarca is the last important city at the north of Peru and is located about 700km away of the Ecuadorian border. This city is the connection between the northern Amazon region, the central highlands and the three main cities of the northern Peruvian coast: Piura, Chiclayo and Trujillo.

Our original plan was to take the road from Huancabamba to Ayabaca, Pingola, Culqui, Zuyo and end in Macara - Ecuador; 310 km that normally would appear to be good for one day but not when you know that there are thousands of curves, it has been raining a lot and 40% of the road is expected to be muddy gravel.  

There are 4 main borders between the two countries, in order of importance Huaquillas – Tumbes, Macara, El Alamor – Zapotillo, and La Balsa. All of them have good paved roads at both sides, the only one that has 72km of gravel is La Balsa.

Back in Ecuador we feel almost at home.

First we rode to Macará to legalize the bikes in the Peruvian customs, they understood that there were no customs offices in the border that we used to enter Ecuador (Espindola – Jimbura). We did both procedures: Customs and immigration in both countries without problems.

All the way to Machala with an enjoyable walk in “Puyango Petrified Forest”.