June 22nd 2024 – Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador

We fired up the bikes on a Sunday morning while Quito was still rubbing its eyes. The city soon disappeared in our mirrors as we made our way south.
Late in the morning we stopped by a lodge not far from the Panamericana to pick up a key and drop off some of our luggage. It was time to have some fun.
The riding and the scenery was awesome as we ventured west into the mountains. The roads were generally in good condition, but we had to pay attention. The elements had wreaked havoc in many places, leaving potholes in various sizes – one so deep it offered a view of the valley below. Sometimes entire lanes were missing.

The weather was nice and cold. It was a pleasure to need warm riding gear for the first time in ages. Even the heated grips were activated when we arrived at Laguna Quilotoa more than 3900 m above sea level. The 3 kilometer wide and 250 m deep crater lake is the result of an eruption 800 years ago. It was a spectacular place.

After a much needed warm cup of coffee we continued the ride and made it back to the lodge shortly before dark after one of the best riding days ever.
We stayed at the ground floor of the place’s water tower. It was a cozy room. The common areas included a living room with a fireplace. Not bad after a long cold day on the bikes.

The lodge was located near the entrance to Cotopaxi National Park. After breakfast the following morning, we got picked up by Maria, a guide from the park. Another guest at the lodge, Scott from Washington DC, joined us for the day. After picking up coca sweets (Maria said we were going to need them) we stopped by the Visitors Center.

We continued towards the mountain on dirt roads in Maria’s old truck. It had been overcast all morning, but as we gained altitude the clouds parted and revealed the spectacular Volcano.
Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height of 5,897 m (19,347 ft). It is among the highest active volcanoes in the world. The volcano has an almost symmetrical cone that rises from the highland plain. It is about 23 km (14 mi) wide at its base and has one of the few equatorial glaciers in the world, which starts at the height of 5,000 m (16,400 ft).
Cotopaxi is known to have erupted 87 times during the last 500 years. The volcano is so big that a significant eruption could threaten Quito 100 km to the north.

Maria parked the truck at 4.500 m. Now the hard work began. It took us about an hour to reach José F. Ribas Refuge at 4.865 m. The refuge had a restaurant and some dorms, but neither running water nor heating. Climbers attempting the summit use it as a basecamp. They set out from the refuge at midnight and reach the summit at sunup. It allows them time to get back down, before the sun makes it too dangerous to traverse the glaciers.
We just opted for a short break and a cup of coca tea at the refuge.

Scott had to give up shortly after. The lack of oxygen was getting the better of him. We left him with a good view of the valley and resumed our climb. Half an hour later we had passed 5.000 meters and reached the glacier. This was as high as we could go without proper climbing gear.

None of us had much left when we arrived back at the car park. A lunch stop at a restaurant outside the park didn’t do much to rejuvenate us and we all needed a nap when Maria dropped us off at the lodge mid afternoon.
The nap didn’t make much of a difference. Both Kat and I called it a day right after dinner, went to bed and slept for 11 hours straight.

We decided to extend our stay at the lodge and take a day off. In the morning we chatted a lot with Suzanne and Andrew from Australia. They were both passionate motorcycle riders but currently exploring South America in a small 4×4.
Around noon both they and Scott had left. There were no other guests at the lodge. We stayed home all day and let Javier, who ran the place during our stay, spoil us. He was a young guy who managed to be both the receptionist, maid, chef and waiter. He was a very nice guy and exceptionally good at his job.
I spent much of the rest day trying to decide where to go next.
My initial plan was to shoot for Tena on the edge of the Amazonas, but I had received reports indicating that getting there could turn out to be problematic.
Heavy rain a few days earlier had resulted in severe floors and numerous mudslides over a wide area. Around 15 had been killed and even more were still missing. According to official sources it was impossible to reach Tena by road. According to google maps it was doable but time consuming. In the end we decided to give it a go.

After a gravel shortcut we hit the Panamericana northbound back towards Quito. South of the city we veered east and entered the highlands on fast flowing roads.

We crested the Papallacta pass at 4.063 m. The roads were mostly deserted and we made good progress. Eventually we hit a long line of mainly commercial trucks. It looked like they had been parked there for a long time. We continued along the line. At one point we reached a place where an almost foot deep layer of mud was flowing slowly across the road over a stretch of maybe 20 meters. A small car had aborted an attempt to pass. The mudflow slowly pushed it towards the edge of the road while it struggled to get back out.
The line of trucks continued on the other side of the mud. I judge that we could make it on the bikes and rode through. Katrine followed and nearly shat herself as the mudflow took hold of her bike. After some struggle and a few outbursts she made it across and we continued to the head of the line.

The police had blocked the road while heavy machinery was working to clear a path. It was the work of Sisyphus as mud and water kept flowing onto the road. With intervals they would let light vehicles pass. No commercial trucks had been allowed through for 5 days.
Our opportunity came after about half an hour and together with a handful of other motorcyclists and a score of cars we braved the mud for the second time that day.

It was the last roadblock we encountered that day. We continued down through the Cloud Forest surrounded by spectacular waterfalls. We stopped for lunch in a village before descending to the expected heat and humidity of the Amazon. We refueled in Tena. No new fuel supplies in 5 days had made people go into hoarder mode. There was chaos at the service stations that still had fuel to sell. We just waited our turn and enjoyed the show. We didn’t need much to fill up the tanks and would have been able to make it back across the mountains with what we got. It’s just nice to have a full tank.

The Honda’s are awesome when it comes to fuel consumption and range. After 280 km they took 7 liters each. That is an average of 40 km/l or 94 US MPG. With a 12.8 liter/3.4 gal tank it equals a range of +500 km/+300 miles. When I prepped the bikes I considered bringing a fuel bladder. I’m glad I decided against it. Not once have we come close to needing one.

Surprisingly the temperatures were tolerable considering that we were almost down at sea level on the edge of the Amazon. Humidity couldn’t get much higher though. We had booked a small apartment with AC for the night. It was located in a quirky hotel/resort complex in the hills above Tena surrounded by a rainforest teeming with wildlife. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

In the morning we headed south out of Tena with the Andes on our right and the Amazon on our left. The size of both is almost inconceivable. At Napo River we encountered the first detour of the day. The main bridge had been damaged. Lighter vehicles could use an old bridge downstream to cross the river. Another bridge was out just before we reached the town of Shell – again there was an alternative route for light vehicles.

Just outside of Shell we reached another police roadblock where a long line of commercial trucks waited for the road to open. The police waved us through with a call for caution.
As we followed the Pastaza River up into the mountains the severity of the recent floods became apparent to us. I lost count of the number of mud and rock slides that had hit the road. There was debris, mud and water everywhere. Some of the road tunnels we passed through had functioned as drainage pipes with water levels reaching 1/3 up the walls. Whole houses had been buried or razed to the ground. The devastation was appalling. Several times we had to wait for the road to be cleared and at one point we had to follow an alternate route through the muddy remains of a village.

Eventually we made it all the way to Baños de Agua Santa. We checked in at a charming little hotel on the outskirts of town. When the lady at the reception saw our bikes, she said they needed to be washed and showed me where I could do it. That kept me entertained the rest of the afternoon while Katrine took care of other stuff.

With the bikes clean, dry and covered up in the courtyard we walked to the center of town to find something to eat. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant and got the best burrito and gringas ever.
The town seemed to have much to offer, a cozy atmosphere and hardly any tourists. We decided to stay put for a few days. It would allow us time to catch up on a few things and for the road to the central part of the country to be cleaned up.