Day 37 Wednesday 31st October: Quitting Quito

Mike writes:

Quito restricts access to the city based on number plates during peak hours. Having been forced to drive into the city at a snail’s pace when we arrived on Monday to avoid contravening the rules, we were so pleased to discover that no such restriction applied this morning that we launched ourselves straight into the morning rush hour traffic. We felt we needed to increase the “challenge” element of the trip after being accused of simply being on a big holiday!

Apart from Guinea Pig based cuisine, I’m wasn’t sure what other skills the Ecuadorians possessed. I’ve now discovered that they are expert road builders despite the obvious geographical handicaps of massive mountains and ridiculous altitude.  Unlike Colombia, where our journey was constantly impeded by rock falls on mountain roads, the roads around Quito have no such problems as they’ve taken to covering entire hills in concrete.

The main road was a 3 or 4 lane highway which would not be out of place in Europe (with fewer pot holes than the UK). As a result we made good progress along what was billed as the spectacular Avenue of Volcanoes.  Unfortunately, once again, the volcanoes refused to cooperate, hiding their tops behind the clouds.

We are reliably informed by Google that several of them are over 15,000 feet high including the stunning, snow capped Cotapaxi.  We decided to detour into the Cotapaxi National Park for a closer look but were put off by the deteriorating visibility, the warning signs (even though they were only at defcon “yellow”) and a very grumpy local woman at the park entrance.

Fortified by coca tea we opted instead to drive to Banos, a town famous for its numerous hot springs and as a starting point for Amazon jungle tours. Our motivation was different. After consuming our body weight in water daily to offset the effects of altitude sickness, we were naturally drawn to anything called “Banos”. We resisted both the temptation to immerse ourselves in hot water or to backpack into the Amazon and had lunch instead.  A detour for (astonishingly cheap) petrol offered great views back over the town, although not of the volcano Tungurahua which allegedly looms over it.

Our stopover tonight is Riobamba reached by another twisting mountain road.

We are staying at the Hotel Monte Carlo, a quirky place in the town centre, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to the other Monte Carlo and appears to be twinned with Jeddah if the prevalence of bars is anything to go by.

Tomorrow we drive further into rural Ecuador hoping that the cloud cover lifts to reveal the local superstar volcano, Chimborazo, which at 20,564 is the highest mountain in Ecuador.