Date: 18/02
City: Riobamba, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 197
Cumulative kilometre: 33327

It started to rain heavily in the morning, so we decided to delay our start a bit. That gave us time to take a picture of Thomas, a fellow motorcycle rider who was working at the reception.

We travelled for the next 100km without any problem and arrived in Ambato, where the Ecuadorian Schuberth dealer is located. The building looked great in an average area. The company sells safety glass, for door, mirror etc. and it is a Schuberth dealer as well. It turned out that the visor comes in two sizes and the only size available was the wrong one. But the guy did help us by giving us the visor from a new helmet, which was very nice of him. 😀

For the rest of the afternoon we continued to drive towards the border and decided to start looking for a hotel around 4PM. So we stopped in Riobamba and found a nice hotel after a couple of trials.
Sigrid dropped the bike when she tried to get onto the parking lot, she underestimated the step from the road to the sidewalk, stalled the engine and rolled on the footpath… but no bodily harm was done. I was too busy to take a picture at the time, so we fudged one later on.

The view from the hotel onto the surrounding mountains was great even though there were plenty of clouds.

Date: 19/02
City: Machala, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 310
Cumulative kilometre: 33637

Today we would leave the mountain region and go back to the coast, were the evenings are nice and warm. We were riding through nice windy mountain roads and partially through clouds. Around 4:30PM we arrived in at the warmer ocean region and looked for a hotel. If everything goes well tomorrow we will leave Ecuador and enter Peru.

Date: 20/02
City: Macara, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 216
Cumulative kilometre: 33853
Street: concrete/dirt road, windy
Weather: cloudy/foggy

After packing our bikes we were riding a further south before we turned inland again. Here we were riding through banana plantations, the banana plants grow right up to the road. We turned onto a two lane highway and progressed quite well. The highway wasn’t finished yet, so there were some one lane gravel patches, but nothing serious. Then we turned off from the highway to get to the border crossing further inland. The road was great but hardly anybody was on it, sometimes it felt like we were the only ones on the road. The road was newly laid and in prime condition, so why was hardly anybody using it???

After a while we came to a construction site where other cars and trucks waited. From here on the road was partially single lane and the pavement started to fade away, until we were on a gravel road. Then we came around a corner and the road ended in a huge pile of sand and a bulldozer which tried to create a path.

Eventually we let the trucks and car behind us pass before we approached the sand. That was good since a car got stuck on a big boulder which the workers then removed. We had seen in India that you can easily get injured when you hit a boulder hiding in the soft sand. We then just followed the tracks of the trucks, no problem. The road got better and deteriorated again before we finally reached the end of the 70km building site. The joy to be on a good road didn’t last very long, as the fog started. First a bit and it was fun to ride in, but then it got really dense, we couldn’t see further then a couple of meters and all of the sudden there were buildings popping up out of the fog! We passed through a village and hardly noticed it. After half an hour we came to lower altitude and the fog disappeared. We were back on the Pan American highway which meanders along the mountain following a river deep down. It was around 3PM when we arrived at the border town, so we decided to stay there over night and start the border crossing to Peru tomorrow morning.

Here it was the first time that we couldn’t get petrol when we arrived. We still had enough petrol for 200km, but we made it a habit to fill up in the evening, and here it was the first time that it didn’t work. I guess the petrol in Ecuador is so cheap that people from Peru come over and fill their cars up if there was petrol at the border town.

 

Date: 21/02
City: Chiclayo, Peru
Kilometres ridden: 342
Cumulative kilometre: 34195
Street: Highway/ partly windy
Weather: cloudy/hot

In the morning we packed our bikes and went to the petrol station, this time we got petrol. The border was not far so we arrived in no time. The border crossing worked without any problem, the Customs officer was even happy to get a picture taken.

All was well organized on the Peruvian side, which doesn’t mean that you have less paperwork. At around 10PM we were free to go, Peru here we are! The road was in good condition and of the nice windy type, the weather was warm but not hot, it was just perfect. The landscape reminded me of Australia.

After the first couple of corners we encountered the Peruvian wildlife for the first time: goats and donkeys were on the road. The goats just disappear when we came close. However the donkeys, as we could have guessed, had to be navigated around…

Or maybe it was a blind deaf donkey?

So after a short while we were alerted to the fact that stray animals could be on the road after each corner or over a crest. At lunch time we stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road where plenty of trucks were. So far we got good cheap meals at these places. The girls cooking and serving in the restaurant didn’t understand our Spanish at all (figure that 😉 ) so we had plenty of fun ordering the meals. Sigrid ordered some fish and I ordered some beef. The fish soup was ok, well, it contained  the full fish head but otherwise it was good. I must have gotten a traditional meal that is special to this region. I couldn’t cut the thin piece of meat, you had to tear it apart and chew on it for quite a while. It tasted good, but it was hard work to finish the meal. I think it was beef jerky which they heated up again (at least once).

From here we continued and stopped at a fruit stall where they sold mangos. Sigrid was keen to get some.

Eventually we stopped in Chiclayo for the night.

Date: 14/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

We got up early and had a look at the sunrise. There was thick cloud cover so it took the sun a while before we could see the first rays.

Then we went into the mangroves by Zodiac

And after a while we spotted some rays,

some turtles,

And a white tip shark.

The reflection in the water made it hard to see the animals, but the picture above really shows a white tip shark. Then we unfortunately had to return to our boat,

had breakfast, packed our stuff and went to the airport.

It’s hard to believe that the eight days are over. For us, this was the highlight of our trip so far. The flight back was without any problems, the service was even better than on the flight to the Islands. In Quito we realized how cold it could get in the mountains at night, it was freezing!

Date: 15/02 – 17/02
City: Quito, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

Not much to report about during the next 3 days. We found a solution for the broken zipper on my motorcycle jacket and contacted the Schuberth dealer in Ecuador. He gave us his GPS coordinates which will make it easy to find the shop. On the last day we had a look at the Basilica Voto National, it is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas. Below are some pictures

And then we discovered that we could also climb the bell towers 😀
Well not directly, first we had to walk over the top of the arches

And then climb another ladder outside,but the view was worth it.

Having said that, when we looked at the other side we realised that the bell tower on the other side was even higher and had even a huge dial,

So off we went, down the ladders, over the arches and up the other side. On the other side we could even see the clock work and the dial from the back, which was great.

We climbed up to the last ladder, I was just there at 3:45, which meant that the bell was just ringing.

Looking at the other tower, you can see that we were really higher up.

On our way down we found a nice cafe with a great view. So we had some hot beverages, well deserved after climbing all these stairs and ladders.

We also found some nice stone masons work with birds that we just saw in Galapagos (a booby and a frigate bird).

After the coffee was finished we continued our excursion and walked to the president palace. On our way we saw one of the smallest footpaths so far, not sure who can walk on it.

Then we arrived at the Plaza Grande where the palace of the president is. There was a huge crowd….Then we realised today was Election Day and the crowd was waiting for the results which would be released in fifteen minutes. There were cameras all over the place; the best was the camera man on the roof on the left hand.

So we waited a bit and saw that the previous president got re-elected. It looked like that the crowd was happy and celebrated it. Sigrid found a couple of more churches to visit, unfortunately in most of them a service had started, so we didn’t go in.

Eventually we jumped into a cab and went back to the hostel. We took a picture of our great host, Klaus, who made it easy to feel welcome and at home in the hostel.

Tomorrow we will leave and head towards Peru.

Date: 13/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

We anchored in a bay which was protected from the wind and the waves, the weather was warm, so Sigrid went for a swim in the morning around the boat. The boat got cleaned by a school of fish as soon we anchored. The water was so clean that we could see the fish nibbling on the boat from the deck.

After breakfast we were landing on Santa Fe Beach to see big trunk cacti’s and land iguanas. We saw plenty of the iguanas particular to this island; I couldn’t take enough pictures of them. Below is just a couple of the pictures taken.

Here you can see an iguana eating stones to support his digestive system.

We also met a fire lizard, who was really posing for us.

Here are now pictures of some big trunk cacti. Apparently they lose their thorns at the bottom of the trunk for the lack of predators on this island.

 

After we finished our walk we went back to the beach where a colony of sea lion was located.

So we enjoyed their attics and took pictures of them. Fabien, our tour guide, tried to contact the boat via the walkie talkie, as he has done a couple of times before. This time nobody was responding. So after some time he decided to swim back to the boat.


When he was half way there the boat crew realised that something was wrong and came with to pick us and Fabien up with a zodiac. On our way back, the engine of one zodiac stopped working. After trying to paddle -below are our two heros, Sean and Will who tried it –


we decided to get towed by the second zodiac.

After these little incidents we went back to the boat and from there to our last snorkelling excursion. Again, no pictures from me but Fabien did take some pictures during our snorkel excursion and hinted that we could have his footage, which would be great. When we came back from snorkelling we had lunch which was delicious, as usual.


During this time the boat moved to the next place, the South Plaza where we were looking for Land Iguanas, hybrid Iguanas and sea lion colonies.

I liked the colour of the island

We also took a picture of the whole bunch.

At dinner time we had a cocktail and Fabien gave a CD to each of us with pictures and movies of all the activities during the last seven days. That was really great, particularly the footage from the snorkelling excursion. Tomorrow morning is a real early start for our last activity, driving with the zodiac through mangroves.

We hope to see white tip sharks, tortoises and some sort of rays.

Date: 12/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

Today we have a look at the Interpretation Centre in San Cristobal Island.

There we got explanations about the creation of the Galapagos Islands and the current that flows around it and determines the vegetation and the climate. In addition it showed a table of the different Darwin Finches on the islands, which Darwin used to support his theory as well a map of Darwin’s trip in 1835.


They also showed the more sad history of the Galapagos Islands, which ranges from a Concentration Camp for Ecuador Criminals, failed agriculture businesses to mass slaughtering of tortoises to make lamp oil from them.

Finally the Islands were declared  a natural reserve and have been recognised worldwide. They aim to be 100% independent from fossil energy by 2017. After leaving the centre we walked back into town.

There we found a couple of unemployed guys veg’ing on the public benches. We tried to sit close to them to get a picture taken but that wasn’t successful. The guys objected loudly.

And below is a picture of the harbour.

Back to the boat and moving to Isla Lobos where we had a look at curious sea lions, stacks of Iguanas some and …….. yea …. red crabs and blue footed boobies. Here are some pictures.



Did I mention that I like the red crabs and the blue futted boobies?
After the exploration we went back to the boat and moved to a different spot for our snorkelling (no pictures again). At night we went back to the harbour which we had started from that morning. Some pictures of the harbour in the evening including a nice sunset.

We started to realise: one more day and then we have to leave paradise.

Date: 11/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

In the morning we were happy to see that the rain has stopped, so we went to explore the San Cristobal Island. When we arrived we were greeted by playful sea lions, colourful crabs and iguanas.

On our walk we saw plenty of other sea iguanas and some blue footed boobys with young ones. Below are some pictures of 🙂


Then we went back to the boat and moved to the Isla Lobos, where we would snorkel and had some time at the beach in the middle of a Sea lions colony. The snorkelling was ok, but the visibility not as good as on other days, but the time after at the beach was fantastic. Have a look at the pictures.

I think the pictures speak for themselves. It was certainly one of the best afternoons. Tomorrow morning we will have a look at the interpretative centre here on San Cristobal Island.

 

Date: 10/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

After breakfast we went for an excursion to Floreana Island at Punta Cormorant. We walked to a nice beach where the turtles had dug their nests. Some of them were cruising in front of the sandy beach and were waiting until it got dark to start digging their nest. We also saw a couple of rays just in front of us.


To be honest I can’t remember the name of the bird in the photo, but it looked colourful 🙂

After two hours we went back to the boat and went snorkelling at the Devil’s crown. During this snorkelling we saw nice colourful fish. Then we had lunch, our well needed break, and eventually went to the Post Office Bay where we would have a look at another lava tube. The barrel was used to put your mail in (without stamps) and whoever passed by had a look at the destination and if it is his/her country/town, then they took the mail and delivered it.  🙂


While we were having a look at the mail, it started to rain.

The way to the lava tubes was now wet sticky soil, which stuck to our shoes extremely well…. It made the way down to the tubes very slippery, some tried it bare footed.


At the end of the lava tube there was some water, it was freezing cold but we had to try it.

On our way back it was still raining and Caroline, having come from London, had an umbrella with her 🙂


Back at the boat all our clothes and the contents of our backpack was drenched, hopefully the rain stops tomorrow.

 

 

Date: 09/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

The plan for today didn’t involve any snorkelling. We would stay in the harbour until the evening and seven new guests would join us. In the morning we went to the visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, which was in walking distance from the jetty we landed on. During our zodiac ride, we saw some sea lions resting on boats, particular on boats which had been stationary for a while.

After landing we walked to the research station, had a look at an exhibition and went then to the turtle breeding ground.
The Darwin foundation is dedicated to the conversation of the Galapagos Islands. Here they had a breading program for giant tortoises. To increase the survival of the young tortoises, they collect the eggs after the female puts them into a nest. They then pack them carefully and bring them to the Darwin Research station, where they are put into an incubator. The gender of the tortoises is defined by the temperature, if the average temperature is cooler the egg becomes a male and if the average temperature is warmer the eggs became female. With the experience over many years, the survival rate of the eggs is close to 100%. The young tortoises are staying in the protective areas until they are four years old and then they are released back onto the island. Using this method, tortoises specific to an island and on the brink of extinction are brought back. And here are the young tortoises from one island.


There are other tortoises as well, mostly tortoises which humans have moved from one island to another. Where this happend they often created hybrids. So these tortoises are kept seperate , they are 70 years or older.


Then we moved to an area where the saddleback turtles are keept. They live in the lowlands where their food is higher up, which is the reason for the long neck and for the dent in the front of the shell.

 


It is hard to show the real size but with some people in the picture you can imagine how large they are.


On our way back to the jetty, we passed a fish market during its sale. The guys were cutting up the fish that people bought. They were accompanied by seals, pelicans and a blue footed booby.


The cut-offs were given to the animals around.


That was quiet entertaining particular when the sea lion started to claim his territory and shooed the birds away.

We back to the boat and to meet our new fellow travellers. They came from Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Sweden. After lunch and a short break, we went back onto land, this time to a farm where the giant tortoises roam freely and to see some lava tubes. It had started to rain when we arrived at the fish market and hadn’t stopped since. At the farm they were prepared for the rain and provided rubber boots for us. I think we look great in them.

But before we started our excursion we had a look at a shell of a giant turtle. On the right picture you can see that the spine is still connected to the shell.


We had to see if we fit, luckly nobody got stuck :p


Then we went to the lava tubes, this particular tube had another lava tube above it. The lave tubes are created when the lave flows down to the sea and the outer layer started to cool off.

Then we had a look at the free giant tortoises, which were roaming around here, uh, freely. This time of the year is the mating season, so we saw turtles mating. In this particular case, the male got the front and back of the female mixed up. It took a while for him to figure it out.

In the picture below a male is chasing a female….  veeeeery slowly 🙂

It was time for us to leave again, so we went back to the farm, had a coffee and changed back into our normal gear. The birds where just sitting close to the coffee table, so I thought I take a picture of them.

We couldn’t resist playing with the shells again.

On the way back to the jetty, we had to walk around a sea lion lying on the pathway.

After dinner we sailed to Floreana Island, which we would explore tomorrow morning.

Date: 08/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

In the morning we got a great breakfast, fruit, toast, eggs, fruit juice and coffee. After breakfast we got ready for our next excursion on the North Seymour Island. We hopped into the zodiac and went to the island. The first animal that we saw was a baby sea lion who was just relaxing on the stones.

We continued along the coast and all of the sudden we saw two male frigate birds with their red ball thing inflated – I just looked it up in the internet – throat pouches called “gular pouches“. There were two males competing for a female flying over their heads. The male in the middle who did not have his throat inflated was looking after the chook.

We also saw some frigate birds flying with the red throat pouches (still called “gular pouches“) inflated.

We continued and saw a Galapagos Dove digging for food and a Land Iguana enjoying some bits of a cactus.

He tried to eat it, but then spit it out and used his claw to drag it over the ground. After a while he turned it around, dragged the other side over the ground , then he ate it. This time hardly any spikes were left. We saw some more land iguanas, some looking for food, other just relaxing.

And then I saw a special species, the Galapagos paparazzi  ;), having said that, it seemed like the iguana was posing just for us.

A bit later we found an Iguana in a cactus eating the flowers he could reach. It seems like he was not affected by the spikes of the cactus at all.

Towards the end of the island we saw our first blue footed booby close up and then another one sitting on two eggs. On the right picture you can see that the Iguana doesn’t eat the blue footed bobby eggs, so they coexist nicely.

We continued to the end of the island seeing a sea lion and three land iguanas close together, it looks like they coexist nicely as wellJ

And then we saw the mating dance of a blue footed booby. That was great, so I switched my photo camera on and got a ’empty battery’ message! !@#! I couldn’t believe it! But I had still my video camera… which I left on the boat, bummer. So below there are three pictures of a blue footed booby dancing, I got them from our guide Fabien. On the left there is the male, he is dancing and showing his feet. If the female is attracted, she starts to dance as well; otherwise the male will get the message after a while and give up. In our case, another male was waiting patiently a couple of meters away, just in case that the current male was not successful.

Two hours on the island were gone in no time. We went back to the boat to change into swimming gear and went out for snorkelling again. No pictures from the snorkelling, my camera got a small crack when I had the motorcycle accident seven month ago, so I’m reluctant to put it under water. After we came back from an hour of snorkelling (which was too short J) we got lunch served, the cook is fantastic.

Then we had a snooze and during this time we sailed to the North West coast of Santa Cruz, ready for another excursion. Here we were looking for marine iguanas. They have a flatter face and a longer and flatter tail then the land iguanas, they use the tail for swimming and the face is flatter so they can feed on the small algae that grow under water. Did I mention the red crabs? They look great on the black lava stone on the beach. The marine iguana and the crabs are coexisting as well.

Then we found a Lava lizard – the female has red markings on her throat. And marine iguana and lava lizard are coexisting as well as you can see at the tail of the iguana.

We had a look at some cacti’s (not sure about the name), but they look very cuddly. On other islands, where these cactuses don’t have predators, they lose the spikes at the bottom part when they grow older, so they bottom looks like a trunk.

A bit further down we had a look at a lake where we could see flamingos again. Currently it is not the right season, so we only saw a couple.

On our way back to the zodiac I stumbled across a crab on a black stone…Did I mention that I like this colour combination? J

So back to the boat and changing into snorkelling gear- life can be hard. We snorkelled at the El Eden inlet, it was fantastic, again, no pictures from it. When we came back, we sailed to Puerto Ayora where we could visit the City in the evening. It was good for us, because we needed an ATM to get more money, sun cream and to replace the scissors that we lost at Quito airport. Below is a picture of the jetty and a street which plenty of restaurants.


After all the strainious shopping, we had to relax, so we had a short drink before returning to the boat. Below is a picture of the bunch- our current travel companions. From the left to the right, Caroline from England, me, David from Canada, Fredy from Switzerland and Sigrid.

What a day, looking forward to see how the other days pan out. 😀

 

Date: 07/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

So we got up before the alarm clock rung (6:30AM), organized the rest (cover bikes, put my jacket away…..), had breakfast and got into the taxi and got to the airport. Luckily, Willi had sent us good instructions on what to do at the airport. We had to find the luggage inspection and buy a migration card for 10US$/person,


Then drop our luggage off (only one side pannier), go through the x-ray, loose our scissor in the first aid kit J … and then waited to board the plane.

All worked without a hitch (didn’t get seats side by side, but I swapped). We arrived at the Seymour de Baltra airport, the temperature was nice and warm.

No problems at the customs and immigration and at the exit we found our guide Fabien immediately. Two fellow travellers were already waiting there since two hours and there was one still to come… But not too long after we arrived he arrived as well and after a short bus ride in a totally crammed bus we jumped into a zodiac (rubber dingy) and got transferred to the boat.

The cabin was great, it had air-condition and private toilet/shower. After a great lunch, we had our first excursion to an island with a beautiful white beach. On this beach sea turtles nest and we would have a look at the nesting place. In the right picture you can see the turtle tracks on the beach, they look a bit like tyre tracks.

Here we saw our first iguana

and red crabs on the black lava stones. I really like the contrast 😀

We continued a bit further to a small lake where we found some flamingos. Currently it is not the right time to see many of them, but we were quite happy with a few. I have seen flamingos before, but only in a zoo and not in their natural environment. By the way, the colour of the flamingos comes from algae that they eat.  See? We’re an educational blog 😉


Then it was time to get picked up again and to get back to the boat. The panorama picture below shows the view from our boat.

Back on the boat we grabbed our snorkeling gear and went snorkeling. The visibility was not too good, since it was a sandy beach and the water stirred up the sand. On our return the boat started to move to the next island which we would explore tomorrow. On our way we had some company, some fregate birds, and one landed on a pole to hitch a free ride, they were not scared at all.


And then there was the beautifull sunset, enough said J

After sunset we had dinner and the crew introduced themselves to us and visa versa.

So far we were only five passenger, but more would come in two days. When I was writing this blog, I immediately noticed that we have way to many pictures per day to fit all days in Galapagos into one post, so I’ll post it day by day.

 

 

 

Date: 02/02 – 03/02
City: Pasto, Columbia
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 32794

Not much happened the next two days. I updated our blog and we discussed our future plans. The temperature here was cold and the weather rainy and not much to see apart from the volcano nearby, and riding in rain to a cloudy volcano didn’t appeal much.

So we went to the nearest shopping centre, replenished our food reserves and had a lazy evening. On the way to the shopping centre we found some horses roaming on the road.

Date: 04/02
City: San Gabriel, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 140
Cumulative kilometre: 32934

We didn’t start too early today. We took a couple of pictures of our accommodation in the hope that in the rain would stop in the meantime, but it didn’t.

So we stared with our complete raingear on and rode out of the town. After a while the rain turned into drizzle and then stopped all together. We went to the view point to see the church built into a mountain wall and took a couple of pictures

Then we continued to the border. The border crossing took a while; first the Colombian customs officer would like to see our bikes, which meant we had to ride back to the DIAN office which was at the beginning of the border. After we did this, he was busy… So it took a while before we got the paperwork through. After the Colombian customs office was happy we went to migration to get our exit stamp into the passport, no problem at all.

And off we went to the Ecuador migration to get our passport stamped, which didn’t take very long. Now we had to get our bikes imported, so off we went to Customs. Here it took a while; we were waiting for ages before the customs officer started to process our bikes. First we needed a copy of our passports with the just acquired immigration stamp. So I went to get a copy. Sigrid was occupying our place in the customs office, so nobody else could squeeze in. When I came back with the copies, the migration officer noticed that the computer was not working so he had to go to another office. So we went with him and he started to process our bikes. We had all the copies but it took a while to enter the data into the computer, in the meantime it started to rain. So we continued our trip in heavy rain. After a while it got easier, luckily the roads in Ecuador are good!

When we filled up our bikes (1 gallon – 1.45US$, so for both our bikes we paid 10$, that is cheap!), we asked the staff there for a hotel. They described it, and after some driving around town we found the first one, but.. it didn’t have secure bike parking and no internet. They had, however suggested another hostel. So we continued to the next hostel, and this one was great. We tried to dry our cloth but no heater was available and it was cold. It was still raining heavily so we got our rain jackets on and went/ran for dinner. We had a nice meal in the local restaurant and it cost for both of us 7U$. I think with these petrol, hotel and restaurant prices we can easily stick to our budget :D.

Date: 05/02

City: Quito, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 196
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

When we started in the morning it was cloudy and fresh, but it didn’t rain.

We put our wet gear on anyway; it keeps the draft out and makes it more comfortable to ride in cold weather. It didn’t rain during the morning so we had a short break around lunch time. When we got ready to continue my motorcycle jacket zipper broke!
Great, so much to BMW quality…. For the rest of the day I left the BW jacket open and put the rain jacket on top of it, which works well as long it doesn’t get hot.

As we continued towards the equator we almost missed it! I assumed there would be a marker on the Pan American highway, but there was really nothing except the mountain road. When the GPS showed that we passed the equator we stopped at the next possible place and turned around.

There we did our equator dance http://www.facebook.com/RidingAroundTheWorld?ref=hl#!/photo.php?v=347150135399344

Once this ceremony was completed, we continued to Quito where we had booked a room in a hostel that was highly recommended by Franz and Marika, the motorcycle couple that we meet in Cartagena. When we arrived at the hostel, we notice that we had the wrong date, we booked the room for tomorrow and they didn’t have any room free and only one place in the dormitory. Rodney, the receptionist, made some calls, but nothing was free. We jumped on the bike and found a hostel not far from here, so we booked it for one night. The rooms were colourful and the bike could easily be securely parked.


We noticed that it got really cold here at night night, which was a bit different compared to the weather in the last few months.

Date: 06/02
City: Quito, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

We had breakfast and moved out around noon to the Hostel Casa Helbling where we meet Klaus, the owner. He made us feel welcome and he was happy for us to leave the bikes during our trip to the Galapagos Islands. We tried to organise stuff around all the broken equipment- helmet visor and jacket. In the meantime the travel agent came back and gave us a list of available trips. We picked one for tomorrow- the same that I’d seen earlier on the internet. There was only one problem -the payment. Credit card did not quite work, so Willi (our travel agent from Switzer land) suggested to meet at a bank to get is all sorted. To cut a long story short it did not work – we are going to have to pay via Commonwealth bank. Willi will continue to book the flight and the boat trip, worst case scenario is that we pay after. In that case Klaus would put a chain around the bikesJ.

Willi sent us all the details and everything was sorted with Simons help (he jumped on Skype and got us the bank key immediately so I could start an international bank transfer).

All was sorted, only packing for tomorrow, storing all the gear we won’t need and making Anna’s birthday video were left….So we started with the packing, went to dinner to the Chinese shop next door, finished everything and went to bed shortly after midnight.

Galapagos tomorrow!