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Trip Start Oct 20, 2008 Previous
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  Quito, Ecuador
Thursday, November 27, 2008

November 24th

                         I was awakened at 5:30 this morning by a severe thunderstorm. The thunder rolled longer than the drummer to the song of wipe out. We ate a quick breakfast and released the bikes from their bachelor pad. We left for the town of Pasto. The ride was incredible, by far the best riding I have ever done period.
As per the norm no one follows traffic rules. In cities and towns this can be a little nerve racking, however out on the open highway it is an absolute joy. We have not seen one police officer pull anybody over in South America yet. Speed limits are posted but the unposted rule is that one should triple the speed of the posted limit.
As per Central America there are very small motorcycles (125 cc and 200cc), scooters and mopeds in South America. Everywhere we go people ask us ¨HOW BIG¨ our bikes are. The power advantage we have carving the Andes is great we are zipping past everybody on these mountainous curves. We were apx 20 kilometers from Pasto and there is a police detour. Once again we are sent up a ¨gravel road¨ This was the absolute most treacherous driving we have experienced. Every type of vehicle was on this secondary road. Buses, dump trucks, minibuses, motorcycles, scooters, horses and donkeys. Everybody passing each other on blind curves, huge mud puddles 10´ in length followed by 3-4 feet of greasy mud.  Huge rocks and boulders sticking out of the road, cars pulled over with flat tires. It was crazy chaos but we had a blast laughing the whole time, our bikes weaving through the madness.

We enter Pasto and of course no streets signs and we have no idea where we are located in the city full of one way streets. We pull out the compass and ask several people and we finally eek our way back to the Panamerican highway. We find a hotel for the night, shit we don´t have enough cash and they won´t accept visa. So off we go back to the center of Pasto.
We find a bank machine but it will not accept either of our debit cards. We push further into the core of the city. We find a bank machine. While Mike is trying to get some cash out of the machine I start researching other hotel options in our travel book. I notice there are 2 hotels within 2 blocks. Due to the high volume of traffic and one way streets Mike watched the bikes while I walked to the first hotel. As I approach the location of the first hotel I suddenly notice everybody is pulling the steel window security gates down used to lock their stores up for the night. I think to myself this is really weird. It´s long past siesta time. I look further up the street. All I can see are huge blue flags and apx 600 people protesting as they walk towards me. I spin on my heels and run as fast as my short little legs will carry me back to the bikes. I quickly tell Mike there´s a protest. We gear up. The only way for us to get out of the city core due to the one way streets is to head directly towards the protesters. Riot Police are already assembling and the human wall is getting closer while we wait for our opportunity to turn. We turn just as the protesters enter the intersection. We narrowly escape! We head back to the original hotel and stop for a quick bite to eat. After today´s events we are wiped and in bed and sound asleep by 9:00.

Tuesday November 25
                                  It´s a soft gentle rain this morning as we leave the hotel. They don´t offer breakfast so we hit the road yearning for a coffee and a bite to eat. After riding for half an hour we enter a new town and stop for breakfast. The coffee was poor but we had a great tasting deep fried bread for breakfast. We made our way towards Ipiales the ride again awesome.
 There is a church there built in the early 1900´s over top of a river that we wanted to see. After getting lost several times we finally found the church and we were not disappointed. This church is built over a river, has it own generator and incredibly neo-gothic in architecture. The walk back up the hill was brutal, I am still not over my cold, we are at higher elevation and we have to climb up a steep hill to get back to the parking lot. Wow we needed a rest after that. It´s only 10:30, we know we are close to the Columbia/Ecuador border so we decide we have enough time to cross. It was an absolute breeze to leave Columbia. And we spent less than a hour getting into Ecuador. We met a fellow adventurer from Australia riding a BMW R1200 between his gear and bike the guy was riding around on $30,000. We also met an American fellow riding a klr that he bought in Panama. He joined us for the evening. We found a suitable hotel. As we were parking the bikes in the secure parking area someone stole my helmet. In less than two minutes it was gone. 
The hotel receptionist felt bad. The hotel had a used helmet she offered me. I decided to try and find one. No luck.. I fall asleep tonight irritated at the person who nicked my helmet.

Wednesday November 26th
                                           A dull dreary day today, we decided to head for Quito Ecuador. We lose our new friend John. Which is fine with us. He made me laugh this morning, as we are leaving the hotel he put´s on his full upper body armour suit. I look at his feet and the twit is wearing flip flops. I ask him about his choice of attire, he said ¨I hate riding with shoes on¨  Again the Andes offer us superb riding. Suddenly there is a huge sign Equator. We pull over and the friendly attendant ushers us to the center of the platform. So here we are huge smiles. Mike standing in the Northern hemisphere and I standing on the opposite side of the earth in the Southern Hemisphere.
The attendant took several photo´s and explained many details about the Equator. We continue on our way into Quito, following road signs.... no kidding they do exist. After searching several places driving around Quito city and getting turned around due to all the one way streets we find our way to a great old Hostel in the Mariscal Sucre district. It´s very touristy but it is so nice having everything at your fingertips, without having to search for hours to find what you need. We had a couple of cool beverages and talked about the last couple of days riding. We both agree that we each have had a couple of pucker moments while driving these fantastic roads and we have pushed ourselves and the bikes to their limits.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

nicely lined roadway	scenery #1	Scenic Shot	fun
scenery #2	Equadorian	Miracles	full frontal
once apon a time.......	Las Lajas	Panam Ecuador	the line
0'o'	50 / 50	Equator	ROAD
Great Veiw #2	great view

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