Bike Riding in Ecualand

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40 km of wind in my hair seemed just about right for a Sunday morning bike ride. Susan and I met up with Susan Birch-Carl (another PCV) and three of her Ecuadorian friends to do the bike ride from Baños to Puyo.

Admittedly, I didn´t really want to do the ride when I woke up in the morning. I had every intention of going to Baños, doing a little shopping at the grocery store, then spending a lazy day back in Puyo. However, I felt it necessary to join the group on the ride, even though it was cloudy and a little chilly in Baños.

We rented some very nice GT mountain-bikes ($5/day) and started out on our mostly downhill journey. 5 minutes into the ride, the skies cleared and we had ourselves a splendid day in the making. We stopped 15 minutes into the ride so that the group could take the cable car across the gorge to see a waterfall. I stayed behind to watch the bikes - I´ve already done the cable car a couple of times anyhow.

When they returned we set off again. The first tunnel on the road we had to go through - this gets a little scary halfway in because there is no light. You find yourself gripping tight to the bike and hoping that there are no rocks or potholes in the road waiting to sabotage your ride. After the first tunnel, there are 5 additional tunnels - each of these has a path/road that takes bikers and pedestrians around the tunnel. These side roads are probably the most scenic and best part of the trip. You ride right next to the gorge and the vistas are stunning.

We all were riding leisurely, which was nice. At one point, I had a little bike trouble and lost my chain three times trying to switch into lower gears. Oh well, I got the chain back on and got a little greasy in the process.

As we rode on, Susan, Susan and I seemed to pull a little ahead of the others. We reached a rather large downhill stretch (5 km or so) and really pulled ahead of the group. It was rather fun and I was surprisingly not all that scared by traffic on this winding road - I thought it would be more dangerous than it was - or at least than it felt.

Up ahead we saw the rain clouds of Puyo, so we decided to stop in the town of Río Negro to wait for everyone and to make a decision about going further. That final 25km of the trip is brutal - so we´ve heard. Anyhow, as we waited we realized that one of the Ecuadorians with us had a spill trying to avoid, of all things, a pedestrian who failed to pay attention. He apparently flew off of his bike and had some nice skin abrasions on his arms, legs, and knuckles. He wasn´t really hurt that bad, but we decided to call it quits for the day after combining his wounds with the rain ahead of us.

We hired a truck driver to take us and our bikes back to Baños. While in Baños we walked around a bit to take in some sites and some stores. I am never really that excited to be in Baños. It is nice and all, but as a PCV living in Ecuador it just isn´t my scene. We did run into 3 more volunteers that day and all of us went to one of the better Baños restaurants (Casa Hood) to have lunch.

After lunch, we all went our separate ways and Susan and I headed to the bus station to catch a bus back to Puyo. Now this was an experience. Apparently buses to Puyo were scarce today so there were a lot of people waiting to get on one. Four buses left packed to the gill with people literally hanging out of the bus. We opted for a safer situation and purchased a ticket for a later bus. When this bus came we had to fight our way on and were lucky enough to actually get our seats. This bus was packed as well.

Finally, we reached home after a long, but successful and rewarding day.

Peace,
Jeremy

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