Up and running

OK, we´re on the road properly now. We have reached Cuenca, an attractive colonial city in southern Ecuador. Handy as it´s a Rest Day (like they have in the Tour de France). Cuenca´s a nice place for mooching about in, once you´ve done a lot of sleeping and some laundry. It is quite reminiscent of Spain (the colonial power of old).

We took four days to get here from Riobamba and, to be frank, is been tough. We´ve averaged 50km a day (up to 98km once!), which sounds rather wet, but also around 1000m of daily ascent with passes at 3500m and 40kg of bike and kit. So the muscles are coming along nicely.

The roads have got a lot quieter as we´ve got away from Quito. Rural Ecuador is jolly scenic, with big green hills (see above) and gentle farming life. The locals are genuine, warm souls and we are each equally curious of the other. The are sympathetic on the road, but also incessantly noisy (alarms, shouting and trucks all at 3am = earplugs every night).