From near the Amazon basin to the sea, all in one day.

We had stopped for a couple of days at a nice Spa town called Banos, which sits in the shadow of Tungurahua, which last erupted in May 2010.

The town is about 60km from the start of the Amazon basin, but as the hostel offered sauna treatments and thermal baths we opted to stay and play in the water.

We left the town, which is at around 6000 feet and which has a very ambient climate, and headed West towards the Pacific.

Yes we have stalled our Southern motion again.

The route took us over two Andean mountain ranges, and with a small detour up another Volcano we reached a height of 14435 feet, which we believe is the second highest Andean crossing, but is actually the highest road above the Earths core due to the Earth not actually being properly spherical.

At that height, it was mainly tundra, not that the grazing animals cared.

Anyway, it was cold, foggy, and we were not really dressed for it.

So, we headed down, we dropped out of the clouds into lush jungle, and then a cloud forest. It was very cloudy, very foresty and very wet which meant a change into waterproofs.

We had a couple of police stops, one which turned into a comedy as all the officers wanted to be photographed with Jean and despite me walking around trying to hand my documents over they ignored me completely.

Dropping further, it became hotter and drier so the riding gear needing changing again, then every where became more swampy, the town we had been heading for was built on stilts and looked really rough, so we decided to head for the largest city in Ecuador, Guayaquil, believing that there would be hotels on the way.

Nothing. Not even a Love Motel.

Most cities normally have hotels on the main roads at the outskirts, but here, nothing, we asked people and they tried t send us to the beach 80 miles away, so we had to play the airport card and headed towards that. Not a cheap night, but a comfy one.

Happy happy, happy talk

It was time to start humming tunes from South Pacific.

After a good ride North West, yes, I know, not South. We arrived at the Eco Resort of Alandaluz and got the tent out for the first time since Mexico.

Beach and surf to one side of us, jungle to the other.

The beach is about 4 miles long, we walked it and played in the surf, but we both forgot how close to the equator we were and got sunburn.

We have now swum in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and South Pacific, just one more to go.

We also had our first clear night, without light pollution since Central America, and gazed a long time at all the new constellations.

Since then we have turned south properly, not easy in Ecuador as they don't believe in sensible direction signs, and sometimes none at all. If it was not for truck drivers we would still probably be going round in circles at Guayaquil.

Nearing Peru, the road signs improved and even told us where the border was, which we found easily, crossing a new bridge. Unfortunately it was the Peruvian border, we had failed to get stamped out of Ecuador. The guards directed us back to the last Ecuadorian town where a very unassuming building was the immigration office.

Once stamped out we needed to make sure the bikes exited, but that had to be done at another unsigned building a further 4kms back into Ecuador, which technically we were not in any more.

Finally it was back across the new bridge, past the unopened new customs buildings and into Peru.

We found another nice beach, with even higher surf, but this time we have a desert behind us.

The jungle ended at Ecuador and started in Peru, a very fine line was drawn.

Peru Pictures will be added here.