Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Day 9 - From the Highlands to Sea Level

We left Cuenca riding through the lobby of the hotel just as we came in.  

The morning ride was an Ecuadorian highlands typical ride ... great mountains, fields, rivers, all green as we descended from 7,000 ft down to sea level.  As we reached around 3,000 ft and got closer to the coast, all the mountains went brown, dry, and with no vegetation other than some desert plants here and there. A very interesting contrast.  

As we approached the ocean, the whole scenery went green again but this time more tropical ... palm trees, ferns, banana trees everywhere and finally the flats as we approached the border with Peru.

It is interesting to me how the human mind works. We have so much information stored in our brains but we do not know most of it is there.  We need triggers to recall great adventures, excitement, people, places, and feelings, across time and space.  

Traveling on a motorcycle through nature like we are doing often works as that trigger. The last few days, I have had glimpses and memories of rides in Zambia, Patagonia, Copper Canyon, Austria, Kyrgyzstan, and many other places.  Great experiences that make me smile.

We finally arrived to the border.  The Colombia-Ecuador border was a 3 (on a scale of 10) in terms of difficulty/bureaucracy.  The Ecuador-Peru border is a 6!  Wow.  It took us close to 5 hours to go through all the steps.  At some point the Ecuadorian system crashed and immigration processing came to a grinding stop for an hour.  After checking vehicles out of Ecuador, check vehicles into Peru, immigration out of Ecuador, immigration into Peru, vaccination checks, buying vehicle insurance, and checking all the vehicles permits 3 times ... we were exhausted and ready to get out of there.

The first thing you notice on the Peruvian side is the trash on the side of the road, lots and lots of rise fields, and 3-wheeled tuk-tuks everywhere. And, we got to ride alongside the pacific ocean with great views of the beach and the sun setting.

We arrived at Mancora, our destination for the night, after dark. 

With no time for a proper lunch, we checked in and went immediately out to a great seafood restaurant on the Main Street.  Absolutely the best seared tuna we have had in a long time.

Tomorrow, we head south.  We have our longest ride so far (600+ km) and a stretch of 500km with no gasoline.  It will be interesting.

From green highlands to a desert setting as we made our way to Peru

Leaving Ecuador

The border line

Entering Peru

Rebecca doing some dancing with jello travelers at the immigration line

Peru and Ecuador decided to do immigration side by side in the same building

A friend that thought our motorcycles were very cool

Made to Peru - our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean

Our restaurant for dinner in Mancora - a nice eclectic beach town



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