I think I had found the perfect solution, when you are sore from riding - go hiking and when you are sore from hiking you go riding. It was easy ride out of Riobamba, eventually catching the back of a truck to cheat on the final 1-200m climb.
Somehow, this area seemed poorer than the rest, many abandoned houses and a man approached me after I took a photo of a house, asking for a dollar for taking the photo.
At 4 I found a good spot and seeing as the next little bit was very populated decided to call it a day. Good view, not so much wind and if lucky Chimborazo will come out from behind the clouds.
There was even some night photo action.
I somehow managed to snooze over 10 times the alarm until the sun shone on my tent...
The surprisingly mellow hills were full of little houses, many in a bad shape and mny abandoned. People here really like having donkeys and let me tell you,ma baby donkey is possibly one of the cutest animals you will ever meet!
The quiet roads were also full of ecuadorian poodles and dirty ladas.
A very high percentage of the roadside garbage is these plastic cups. I recall seeing ecuador DoT workers eating out of them but I wonder if they are the ones throwing them out? Aside from that it seems that there is garbage collection and there are many bins in little towns and villages on the way.
I slugged my way up a hill, alternating between granny gear and pushing.
going towards a land where legends say sheep are bigger than houses!
a land where the dogs are very suspicious of you...
and the donkeys grow dreads to make any hippie jealaous!
For a moment there I left the well used road and looking at the map it seemed best to make camp here at 3800m or I'd be stuck somewhere high and windy for the night.
"My daughter told me there is a gringo here on my farm" said Pedro when he drove over with his moto. He told me pfppof some jugs of water down the road I can use and his wife gave me some bean-like veggies for soup.
Later two kids pushed up their bike to where I was and asked:
"Is your bike hard to push?"
"no", I said, so they tried
it was hard to escape the tall graze of Chimborazo... it would always peek from far away when the clouds clear
Pedro´s wife was up and walking to check on the cows first thing in the morning. It is unbelievable how hard people, especially women work here.
Next day was a surprisingly not steep ride into the paramo, for as far as you look you can see the farms covering the hillsides like wallpaper. It feels that if the land can be used, it is used here in Ecuador. No matter if its 4200 meters or national park or reserve, you can always let the cows on the loose to graze.
these buses can go anywhere!
After some cold and rainy section I was happy to take some rest and hang out with the cows, llamas and horses. The little horse was such a suspicious character.
Lunch break at some town with a very long name
It was obvious that I could use fatter tires... something like this?
It was so funny that all creatures that met me stop to wonder for a bit.
Road kept going up and down until I reached a little town. The route climbs up from here but it seemed like the valley had a trail leading to a lake.
laundry day!
baby donkey trying to learn how to eat grass
It got really chilly in the evening and as usual in Ecuadorian parks, there was a sign in the unprotected base of the lake saying "camping area", yeah right.
I found better shelter at the unbuild ranger headquaters.
Since it rained most of the morning I just hung out in the tent, drinking 3 in 1 coffee and hot chocolate.
My attention was on the front brake which has been steadily losing power over the last week. A temporary solution was to put some of my stove aluminum windscreen between the back of the pads and the calipers. Hopefully that will hold okay on the inca trail coming up...
The lake was pretty okay, kind of wished I had some fishing stuff to see if they got any fish. The ranger at the station said fishing is ok if you take less than 20... 20! wow
and sometimes... you may have 10,000 spoons but all you need is a fork...
and we´ll see how that inca trail goes with the front brake! stay tuned!
below, the favorite song of this section, Gregory Alan Isakov - Morning Lady. Video just has photos from this part!