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| Saying bye to Nigel |
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| Quito, Ecuador |
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| = black boogers and emphysema |
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| Bit cold when it's raining too |
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| Claudias, don't mind the hat. Fresh from the tree and real sweet, nice guys gave me some. |
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| When you see moss on the road, you know it's real wet most of the time |
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| Still cold back in the heat, full cold weather gear on for the high altitude wet areas |
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| and a cheap, delcious lunch to warm up |
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| Fans |
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| Really nice riding |
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| Riding in fog all day, the moisture collected on my legs and even my beard and eyelashes |
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| Cuenca, Ecuador |
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| Met a couple cool guys at a local brewery. Really great beer. |
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| Fantastic camping |
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| Found fresh basil at the supermarket, $0.70USD for a small bag, I was putting basil in everything for a couple days, so good. |
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| Long days on the hills |
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| Before finding a camp spot, I rolled up to fill my white water jug. These kids were just hanging out at their house, parents had gone to the coast... |
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| Really nice mechanic, helped me tighten my loose bolts on my front pannier bags. Didn't want any money for the service. |
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| Camping at one spot, the only availabe in a long stretch. Hidden from the road, and close by, it was immediately obvious that lots of cyclists had used it from all the tire tracks. I know they were traveling cyclists because you don't see locals riding their bikes around in these hills. So I made a welcome sign. |
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| It would be so uncomfortable not having a tent... Always reminded of the great explorers before, they had it so much more tough. |
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| Pine fresh cold clean air, loving the ride, but breathing hard |
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| Then down into the desert, and the thorns |
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| Ceba, really beautiful trees. Don't think I've seen since Guatemala |
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| First glimpse of Macará, signaling the end of the mountains for a while. |
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| Macará, Ecuador |
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| Walking the air strip |
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| Into Peru |
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| and the mountains are gone |
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| Detours, although dusty from the cars and bumpy, great scenery and less traffic |
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| Sometimes the cause of flats are really tough to find. This one gave me two flats before I finally found it. |
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| So much trash |
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| In the shade. Piura and the desert, so hot that it felt worse to stop. Riding the breeze helped cool me |
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| No water, all sweat |
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| The nearest house is about 70km |
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| I hate acacias |
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| Another flat, and getting just enough air in before the pump failed |
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| Shows you the prevailing wind - loads of plants growing away from the wind |
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| Really nice farming couple, camped behind their ranch |
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| More plumos for the steed |
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| Chiclayo, Perú |
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| Eating some cow heart with Junior |
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| Loads of fresh fish, and of course tasty ceviche |
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| Having lunch with Junior's family |
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| The locals go out on these hand made boats to fish, then sell them right on the beach |
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| Early morning and the lights of Paijan coming into view |
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| The famous KM 630 and Paiján, Perú |
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| Terrible drivers and so noisy |
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| Trujillo, Peru |
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| The Casa Ciclista, Casa Amistad, of Luis "Lucho" Ramierez in Trujillo. The first Casa Ciclista to be started. |
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| Two deaths of traveling cyclists in Peru. One was a hit and run, and the other driver is out free |
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| Lucho and I working on my bike, discovering bad news |
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| Terrible amount of pitting, very obvious the cones were incorrectly installed |
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| Lucho and his son Lance (guess where he got the name from) |
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| The drivers are so bad. Andy, dodging traffic |
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| La hora del planeta. Bike ride through town |
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| Three weary traveling cyclists, out for a beer. Marcus from Germany and Andy from the UK |
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| Special delivery package from Lima |
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| Cyclists hanging at the Casa |
Hill Profiles:
Nigel recently showed me this great site that does some nice hill profiles. Here's a look back at some of the notable hilly sections I had to get through that were difficult. I was always just going online and looking at the terrain and topo maps of the areas I was going to hit. It's really difficult to ascertain the difficulty level of the hills. Topo and terrain maps don't tell you for one, how steep the road is, and really doesn't show the smaller hills. These hill profiles show a much better graphical form of the hills, and, as you'll see, provides a much better insight as to what can be expected on the roads.
Note: if you drag your cursor over the graph, the map should indicate approximately where the corresponding section is. Units are in metric.
Heres the hills to get to Medellin
The hills from Popayan to the border
From the border to Quito
From Ambato to Cuenca
From Cuenca to the Border
Then of course just to give you an idea of what the flatter terrain looks like, heres from the border to Chiclayo for example
However, after everything I've done, besides hilly terrain, this is the craziest looking hill I will be doing from the coast at Haucho back into the mountains to get to Hauncayo. From sea level, a direct ascent that gradually gets steeper, cotinuously, all the way to nearly 5,000 meters.
Besides a massive climb to get back into the mountains, this must be one of hardest looking mountain sections. It looks daunting to say the least, but like always, I'll get through it.
I have almost never put the work of anyone else on my page, but sometimes a video will just grab hold of me. As a surfer, I think one can really appreciate the essence of a video. For a non-surfer, I think it will help explain why surfing, even in frigid cold waters, is well worth it. Enjoy.
Pete Devries - Outside the Box a Surfing video by MPORA
