Ecuador

Like Colombia before it, Ecuador has mesmerised us with its landscapes. We are higher here, our whole route over 2,000m and Quito itself at the whopping 2,800m, making it the second highest capital in the world. You really feel the difference the altitude makes, especially when going uphill, when our conversation is reduced to even fewer words and more grunts than normal. Andean peaks poke their heads out above the masses and it's been amazing to see the snowy tops of a few giants whilst we chug along in the heat.

Feasting on the panoramas

One result of the landscape and the time of year has been the wind. We’ve been lucky not to experience any soul destroying head winds, the unseen monster that reduces you to a pitiful crawl, but it has been a new experience for us to be badgered and hassled by a gusty cross wind which catches the panniers and tries to sweep your bike out from under you. This has been alarming on roads where we are fighting unseen elements and uncomprehended laws of science to hold our own in the space between the traffic on one side and the ever ready jaws of the gutter which yawn open on the other. Thankfully the switchbacks and weave of the road along the mountain edges mean that we change direction regularly and so we are only exposed to these cross winds for short sections at a time.

Riding the line

Politics and economics in Ecuador are at an interesting point. When the present government entered office in 2007 they switched the ratios between profit to oil companies and tax to the government (the 87% that previously went to the private companies becoming the 13% the government had taxed and vice versa). This has funded a huge program of investment in schools, hospitals and (where you'd expect our interests to lie) roads. We spent an afternoon singing as we whizzed down 40km of smooth new road, cut incredibly into the rock with a confluence of several valleys set out beautifully beneath us. We only cursed as we hit a section still being built when the dirt from the construction was picked up by the aforementioned wind, momentarily wrapping us in clouds of dust as we stumbled blindly on.

A new road beautifully cut through the desert rock

Sadly, not all roads are new and
the Ecuadoreans used to like
building with cobbles

Whilst the programme of investment has been well received, not all reports of the government are positive. With a significant push to focus on Ecuadorian commerce we see so many signs on the road saying ‘buying clothes/cheese/guinea pig, buy Ecuadorian first’. This advertising campaign is backed up by heavy import taxes, so whilst ‘buying local’ works for the great products and produce readily available in Ecuador, for anything that's not produced here (cars, mobile phones etc), the price can be prohibitively high.

Buying Ecuadorean can mean buying amazing fresh
fruit juices so all is not lost

Some also criticise the treatment of indigenous communities, whose homelands often coincide with the places that are being heavily mined to generate wealth from natural resources. That said, something is working because compared with 10 years ago the Ecuadorian economy is booming. One phenomenon which testifies to this is the influx of migrants from Spain, flocking to Quito to lap up the job prospects which are hard to find in Spain.

How can you not dawdle in the mornings with
views like this to stare at?

As the final leg of our trip, we've only scratched the surface of Ecuador sticking to the mountains, but hearing wonderful things about the jungle and the coast (perhaps for another visit?!). We've enjoyed our final nights of being out in the hills with our tent as our home (when it wasn't blowing away in the wind); waking up to the changing colours of the mountains in the early morning light, fixing ourselves for the day with the smell of good coffee and pottering (with exponentially diminishing amounts of efficiency) through our morning routine.

Quito is looming.