left: 06.03.'06: Lying on the Equator (Latitude 0). Half the body on the northern hemisphere, half the body on the southern hemisphere! Gabriel, Felix and I had ridden our bikes up to the Equator the day before. From this point we headed back south along a terribly steep dirt road, averaging 5 to 7km an hour! The aim was to cycle over the Andes and then cycle down into the Amazon basin.
right: (06.03.'06) Gabriel at 3700 m.a.s.l. after hours of riding and pushing our bikes non-stop up a steep hill. The going was extremely slow. The pushing and shoving of our bikes at this altitude was also extremely tiring but the reward was awesome with fantastic views. In the background, in the clouds is the towering ice mass of Cayambe (5740m).
left: Felix riding up to the pass in the clouds (4000m). The road leading into the "Res. Ecology. Cayambe-Coca" on the Ecuadorian Altiplano is extremely remote. 5 cars passed us in 2 days!!! The scenery absolutely stunning!
right: After a hard day of cycling, it is good to relax in the spacious Swedish Hilleberg expedition tent. Here we pitched the tent below a pass at 3950m.a.s.l.
left: Typical camping spot on the Ecuadorian Altiplano with remote roads!
right: (08.03.'06) Felix, descending from the roof of America (Andes), down into the Amazon jungle. After spending 2 days cycling along the top of the Andes in extremely difficult conditions with heavy rain, cold fingers and toes and a stage where we had to push our bikes up a hill (2km long with an altitude gain of over 200m at 4000m.a.s.l.), it was time to descend over 3400m down into the Amazon.
Left: The main road leading down to Tena (the gateway to the Amazon).The going down into the Amazon was not much easier than up on the Altiplano. In pouring rain we had to negotiate rough, muddy roads.
right: The kids in the jungle towns were always curious and wanted to see our 'weird looking' trailers!
left: (10.03.'06) In Tena we desperately needed a rest from the hard cycling and so we decided to go on a jungle hike and learn about the rainforest. We had a great guide who explained all the different plants very well: "this plants juice is to put on a wound to stop the bleeding, that one is to wrap around a wound and those leaves over there are better than toilet paper, smooth and gets that 'ass' clean".... the jungle hike along the stream feeding the amazon was quite an excitement, the jungle is often so thick that the best is to walk up the rivers and streams (just watch out for the water snakes!)
right: Myself coming up one of the waterfalls with our daily supply of water. The jungle hike turned out to be more of a canyoning trip than anything else! Often we had to rope up and climb up the waterfalls. If one does not want to get wet then you better not even go on the hike because there is no way that you will stay dry!!! The hike was a fantastic experience, we loved it...full of action!
left: Typical house in the jungle where the indigenous people live. The houses are all on stilts! It keeps the crawling animals away!!
right: We had lunch at a house belonging to indigenous people. The kids prefer to eat on the floor!
We spent an evening in a small village watching the kids sing and dance (6 families live here. The 6 parents have a total of 50 kids!!). I was told anything between 8 and 20 kids per couple is normal here in the jungle!
right: (10.03.'06) Felix relaxing in our cool room overlooking the jungle and river near Tena.
11.03.'06: It was time for some real kayaking action... white water kayaking down the Napo river (tributary of the Amazon).
The kayaking proved to be rather challenging, even for Gabriel who is used to kayaking after his one year adventure school in Norway, kayaking in freezing waters! When Gabriel passed me near a huge rapid and said "wow, this rapid ahead is rather rough" I knew we were in for trouble... it was too late, the huge 'tidal wave' rapid was straight ahead of me, I had to take it full on but it was way too huge and it shot my kayak straight up into the air at 90 degrees! seconds later I was gasping for air, trying to escape from the 'whirlpool' effect of the huge rapid. In the process I lost my paddle and kayak. I was then taken downstream over more rapids, luckily not hurting myself too badly. I soon saw my kayak and paddle in sight! What an adrenalin kick!!! Let me tell you! Looking back I saw that Felix had hit the same wave and it was a matter of seconds and he was in the water. At the end of the day the number of falls out of the boat in rapids was as follows: Gabriel: 2, myself: 3 and Felix: 5. Ok Felix, I am sorry, I know I was responsible for the one fall out because you tried to rescue me in the one rapid and I held on to your kayak too long! All I heard out of the rapid was 'Du Sackgesicht' in his southern German dialect!
There were calm stretches in between where we had lunch. A rafting boat accompanied us along the way. The guide would always shout back: move to the left, hurry, hurry, the rapid is straight ahead...move it! Often it was too late and we had the most challenging rapids in front of our nose! It was however soon our turn to laugh when suddenly a water snake had somehow entered the raft! It was a matter of seconds and the 2 woman in the raft were out! It is amazing how fast a human can move when a reptile is around!
11.03.'06: Saturday evening at 7 pm. "Ok Felix that day of kayaking was not that hard...come on, time to go out and get a beer!" It was too late...Felix was so tired one could not wake the fellow!!
For the proceeding 3 days after the kayaking, we spent hours cycling back up to the Ecuadorian highlands. The route past Baños was beautiful but hard going! A good 120km uphill!
right: Gabriel cycling past waterfalls along the road leading up to Baños. A day later we arrived in Riobamba where we had a one day rest.
In Riobamba we had a huge problem: All the roads were blocked throughout the country due to ongoing problems between the Indians and the government in regard to trade regulations. The indians blocked all the roads for 10 days and most tourists were stranded. We had to turn back to Riobamba after a huge protest and due to a huge roadblock on the Pan-American, however our 'itchy' bums wanted to get going so we took a detour (a hard, steep, long 50km dirtroad) which eventually led us back onto the Pan-American. The road however was also full of trenches, and blocked by the indians. Fortunately we were able to make friends with these mobs, sipping their home-made cane alcohol, learning some cechua (indian language) words and telling them how lovely their country is....after a while they let us through, the whole community waving goodbye "adios amigos".
right: The roadblocks were never ending and for 3 days we were carrying or pushing our bikes around the blocks, talking to locals and asking for permission to pass. On the last day after we has crossed the last blockade the national TV news was there with their camera and interviewed us, wanting to know how the 'hell' 3 tourists got through all the blockades in central Ecuador. "Well, just make friends, sip their home made alcohol, eat some potatoes with the indian woman in the mudhuts and soon all are 'amigos'". I have to admit at one stage it took us 3 hours of sitting on a blockade with the indigenous people until they let us through!
left: A typical Ecuadorian girl in the highlands, sitting next to the Pan-American highway. The going in the highlands on a bicycle is very slow, hard and time consuming but the scenery is lovely (when it does not rain)!
right: The scenery reminded me much of the swiss farmlands with the many cows. Camping up here at 3000m.a.s.l. is great except for the cow that had to stand on the tent-line at 2:00 in the morning and let out a loud "mooooooo" and then nibble the line!!!
left: The tent sites had some great places to 'pee', with great views!
20.03.'06 We spent most of the morning viewing the interesting Inca site of Ingapirca (the largest inca site in Ecuador). It was great walking around such a site without a single other tourist, seeing it was not possible for other tourists to get to the site due to the roadblocks. The Inca culture has always interested me ever since I walked the Inca trail in Peru many years ago.
On the same day we made it to the lovely colonial city of Cuenca (known as the most beautiful city in Ecuador). It truly is a beautiful city with all it's colonial buildings!
A day later we cycled down towards the coast, passing mudslides due to the heavy rain. We cycled all afternoon in heavy rain and made it to a little house next to the roadside where we pitched our tent. We could not be too choosy when it came to pitching our tent, it was already dark!
left: 22.03.'06 Gabriel and Felix riding down from the Andes to the Pacific coast, a 2800m drop! Passing a deep cut canyon, later on past banana and cacao plantations! It was soon time to say goodbye to Ecuador and enter Peru.
left: 06.03.'06: Lying on the Equator (Latitude 0). Half the body on the northern hemisphere, half the body on the southern hemisphere! Gabriel, Felix and I had ridden our bikes up to the Equator the day before. From this point we headed back south along a terribly steep dirt road, averaging 5 to 7km an hour! The aim was to cycle over the Andes and then cycle down into the Amazon basin.
right: (06.03.'06) Gabriel at 3700 m.a.s.l. after hours of riding and pushing our bikes non-stop up a steep hill. The going was extremely slow. The pushing and shoving of our bikes at this altitude was also extremely tiring but the reward was awesome with fantastic views. In the background, in the clouds is the towering ice mass of Cayambe (5740m).
left: Felix riding up to the pass in the clouds (4000m). The road leading into the "Res. Ecology. Cayambe-Coca" on the Ecuadorian Altiplano is extremely remote. 5 cars passed us in 2 days!!! The scenery absolutely stunning!
right: After a hard day of cycling, it is good to relax in the spacious Swedish Hilleberg expedition tent. Here we pitched the tent below a pass at 3950m.a.s.l.
left: Typical camping spot on the Ecuadorian Altiplano with remote roads!
right: (08.03.'06) Felix, descending from the roof of America (Andes), down into the Amazon jungle. After spending 2 days cycling along the top of the Andes in extremely difficult conditions with heavy rain, cold fingers and toes and a stage where we had to push our bikes up a hill (2km long with an altitude gain of over 200m at 4000m.a.s.l.), it was time to descend over 3400m down into the Amazon.
Left: The main road leading down to Tena (the gateway to the Amazon).The going down into the Amazon was not much easier than up on the Altiplano. In pouring rain we had to negotiate rough, muddy roads.
right: The kids in the jungle towns were always curious and wanted to see our 'weird looking' trailers!
left: (10.03.'06) In Tena we desperately needed a rest from the hard cycling and so we decided to go on a jungle hike and learn about the rainforest. We had a great guide who explained all the different plants very well: "this plants juice is to put on a wound to stop the bleeding, that one is to wrap around a wound and those leaves over there are better than toilet paper, smooth and gets that 'ass' clean".... the jungle hike along the stream feeding the amazon was quite an excitement, the jungle is often so thick that the best is to walk up the rivers and streams (just watch out for the water snakes!)
right: Myself coming up one of the waterfalls with our daily supply of water. The jungle hike turned out to be more of a canyoning trip than anything else! Often we had to rope up and climb up the waterfalls. If one does not want to get wet then you better not even go on the hike because there is no way that you will stay dry!!! The hike was a fantastic experience, we loved it...full of action!
left: Typical house in the jungle where the indigenous people live. The houses are all on stilts! It keeps the crawling animals away!!
right: We had lunch at a house belonging to indigenous people. The kids prefer to eat on the floor!
We spent an evening in a small village watching the kids sing and dance (6 families live here. The 6 parents have a total of 50 kids!!). I was told anything between 8 and 20 kids per couple is normal here in the jungle!
right: (10.03.'06) Felix relaxing in our cool room overlooking the jungle and river near Tena.
11.03.'06: It was time for some real kayaking action... white water kayaking down the Napo river (tributary of the Amazon).
The kayaking proved to be rather challenging, even for Gabriel who is used to kayaking after his one year adventure school in Norway, kayaking in freezing waters! When Gabriel passed me near a huge rapid and said "wow, this rapid ahead is rather rough" I knew we were in for trouble... it was too late, the huge 'tidal wave' rapid was straight ahead of me, I had to take it full on but it was way too huge and it shot my kayak straight up into the air at 90 degrees! seconds later I was gasping for air, trying to escape from the 'whirlpool' effect of the huge rapid. In the process I lost my paddle and kayak. I was then taken downstream over more rapids, luckily not hurting myself too badly. I soon saw my kayak and paddle in sight! What an adrenalin kick!!! Let me tell you! Looking back I saw that Felix had hit the same wave and it was a matter of seconds and he was in the water. At the end of the day the number of falls out of the boat in rapids was as follows: Gabriel: 2, myself: 3 and Felix: 5. Ok Felix, I am sorry, I know I was responsible for the one fall out because you tried to rescue me in the one rapid and I held on to your kayak too long! All I heard out of the rapid was 'Du Sackgesicht' in his southern German dialect!
There were calm stretches in between where we had lunch. A rafting boat accompanied us along the way. The guide would always shout back: move to the left, hurry, hurry, the rapid is straight ahead...move it! Often it was too late and we had the most challenging rapids in front of our nose! It was however soon our turn to laugh when suddenly a water snake had somehow entered the raft! It was a matter of seconds and the 2 woman in the raft were out! It is amazing how fast a human can move when a reptile is around!
11.03.'06: Saturday evening at 7 pm. "Ok Felix that day of kayaking was not that hard...come on, time to go out and get a beer!" It was too late...Felix was so tired one could not wake the fellow!! 
For the proceeding 3 days after the kayaking, we spent hours cycling back up to the Ecuadorian highlands. The route past Baños was beautiful but hard going! A good 120km uphill!
right: Gabriel cycling past waterfalls along the road leading up to Baños. A day later we arrived in Riobamba where we had a one day rest.
In Riobamba we had a huge problem: All the roads were blocked throughout the country due to ongoing problems between the Indians and the government in regard to trade regulations. The indians blocked all the roads for 10 days and most tourists were stranded. We had to turn back to Riobamba after a huge protest and due to a huge roadblock on the Pan-American, however our 'itchy' bums wanted to get going so we took a detour (a hard, steep, long 50km dirtroad) which eventually led us back onto the Pan-American. The road however was also full of trenches, and blocked by the indians. Fortunately we were able to make friends with these mobs, sipping their home-made cane alcohol, learning some cechua (indian language) words and telling them how lovely their country is....after a while they let us through, the whole community waving goodbye "adios amigos".
right: The roadblocks were never ending and for 3 days we were carrying or pushing our bikes around the blocks, talking to locals and asking for permission to pass. On the last day after we has crossed the last blockade the national TV news was there with their camera and interviewed us, wanting to know how the 'hell' 3 tourists got through all the blockades in central Ecuador. "Well, just make friends, sip their home made alcohol, eat some potatoes with the indian woman in the mudhuts and soon all are 'amigos'". I have to admit at one stage it took us 3 hours of sitting on a blockade with the indigenous people until they let us through!
left: A typical Ecuadorian girl in the highlands, sitting next to the Pan-American highway. The going in the highlands on a bicycle is very slow, hard and time consuming but the scenery is lovely (when it does not rain)!
right: The scenery reminded me much of the swiss farmlands with the many cows. Camping up here at 3000m.a.s.l. is great except for the cow that had to stand on the tent-line at 2:00 in the morning and let out a loud "mooooooo" and then nibble the line!!!
left: The tent sites had some great places to 'pee', with great views!
20.03.'06 We spent most of the morning viewing the interesting Inca site of Ingapirca (the largest inca site in Ecuador). It was great walking around such a site without a single other tourist, seeing it was not possible for other tourists to get to the site due to the roadblocks. The Inca culture has always interested me ever since I walked the Inca trail in Peru many years ago.
On the same day we made it to the lovely colonial city of Cuenca (known as the most beautiful city in Ecuador). It truly is a beautiful city with all it's colonial buildings!
A day later we cycled down towards the coast, passing mudslides due to the heavy rain. We cycled all afternoon in heavy rain and made it to a little house next to the roadside where we pitched our tent. We could not be too choosy when it came to pitching our tent, it was already dark!
left: 22.03.'06 Gabriel and Felix riding down from the Andes to the Pacific coast, a 2800m drop! Passing a deep cut canyon, later on past banana and cacao plantations! It was soon time to say goodbye to Ecuador and enter Peru.