Naranjal, Day 58, 298km

Our second night in Ecuador. We decided to ride to the west coast, north along it and then east to Quito.  We had enough time left and don’t need to take the direct way. Beautiful ride in the mountains, up to 2000m and back down to sea level again. Reminded a bit on the alps just with jungle. The roads are pretty good in Ecuador, like in Chile. Overnight we stayed in a cabana on a small hill with awesome views over the jungle. Food, a beer, route planning for the next day and to bed early as usual. But this time we also had a little whirlpool which was a perfect place to relax right in the nature.

Puerto Cayo, Day 59, 279km

We had to take the route to the west around Guayaquil, the biggest city of Ecuador, bigger than the capital Quito. A lot of traffic at the beginning which got less and less when we came closer to the coast. But the people here drive quite normal so it was ok. Nothing in comparison to the mentals in Peru. We had lunch on the side of the road and I had my first fresh coconut drink on this trip. Locals wanted to take photos with us and the bikes again. This has become a usual thing now when we stop. The last 30km we rode over a small pass and the weather changed from hot and dry inland to cloudy and rainy on the coast. On iOverlander we found a place to camp. A swiss guy, Samuel, moved to Ecuador 8 years ago and has a little hostel with a campsite in a beautiful garden with over 200 different plants. The beach was just across the road and we pitched our tent for the night.

Canoa, Day 60, 186km

The route for today was north along the coast to Canoa, a fisherman village with a very nice beach. Before we left we rode along the beach for some photos. What we didn’t consider was the upcoming high tide. After a few kilometers we wanted to get off the beach but there was a big step over a little dune which was to high to get over it. So we turned around. But Daniel got stuck. His 990 with lugguage is too heavy for low speed manoeuvres in deep sand. The rear swing arm of his bike was complety in the sand and the tide was rising. Not on of our brightest ideas! It is one those mistakes you only make once. So we took all the lugguage of his bike to reduce the weight and after a very exhausting half an hour and a lot of digging we managed to rescue the bike and get it of the beach. Once again we have been lucky.

After this we continued heading north on the road and stopped for lunch in San Lorenzo, a nice little fisherman village located in a scenic bay. The lunch was very delicious. The food in Ecuador is the best of all countries we have visited in the last months. Ecuador is very american, the roads, the architecture of bigger cities and the official currency is USD since 2000. The fuel is the very cheap, only 0,34€ per liter, a dream for motorcyclist! We arrived just before sundown, checked in a small hostel and had a seafood dinner at the beach. With tons of mosquitoes unfortunately!