11123 km Quito

Three weeks already since the last blog, so another short update on what I’ve been up to. After doing quite a bit of research on the route to take north from Trujillo, I unfortunatelly had to conclude that the road ahead was not safe enough to travel. Robberies are  commonplace in this area. Several busses have been robbed the last year and cycling is even more risky for obvious reasons. The road is a long dessert road, so it’s impossible for people not to notice this Dutch gringo around. All in all it’s just to dangerous for cycling so I took a bus and skipped a few hundred kilometers. I don’t like doing this, but it is what it is. Luckily the bike survived the busride, so the next day I was off again, heading for Ecuador. Crossing the border was a simple matter of a few stamps in the passport and off I was. First and most important thing to do at the border was to put on the right music, Sash - Ecuador

Under a loud “Dame tu mano y venga conmigo. Vamonos al viage para buscarlos sonidos magiscos de Ecuador!” I cycled into Ecuador. The landscape here has been different from the North of Peru. Where the North of Peru is dessertlike, this part of Ecuador is very green, warm and humid. I encountered lots of banana and cacao plantations along the way. People sell lots of delicious fruits on the road side. Apart from the bananas which are everywhere here, there are delicious melons, oranges and lots of local fruits like maracuya, ciruela, uvilla, achotillo and many more. 

After a few days I arrived in Guayaquil, where I took a 4 day break. There was still so much time left for the last stretch to Quito, so I took it as slow an easy as I can. The flight to the Galapagos islands has been booked already for the 27th of October, so there is no need to rush. Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador and I quite enjoyed my time there. The weather was good, the food nice and the city has a nice relaxed feel to it. What more can you wish for? After the 4 days though I decided to move on north, first to Santo Domingo and from there starting the climb up to Quito, the highest capital in the world, though only 2950m, so not really that high in my opinion. Personally I consider Lhasa In Tibet to be the highest, but maybe that’s just me....

The climb to Quito was not hard and so I arrived in Quito about a week ago. I’m staying at a nice hostel here, just a small walk away from the old city centre. Visited some cathedrals and churches and made a trip up the mountain for a nice view over the city. I’ve been reading up on the Galapagos Islands and all the options that exist for a trip there. A booking has now been made for an eight day cruise on the islands on the ‘Floreana’ 

Maaike will be coming over from the Netherlands as well to join me for this holiday. Will be nice to be able to speak some Dutch for a change. Though my Spanish is improving, it still takes a lot more effort speaking this. Looking forward to the weeks ahead!

Take care everybody, next update from Galapagos