Alausi and the Devils Nose Train Ride

We always like a train ride so went on the Devil's Nose Train. The ride from Alausi is famous because it zig zags down a 500 metre rock face - the Devils Nose! They used to allow tourists to sit on the roof, until some fell off! 

In town we called into a cobbler to get a hole in one of Dee's flip flops glued up. Unfortunately, he couldn't see a thing through his cararacts! Not sure how long the repair will last.......

This lad, on his way home from school, was eager for a photo!

Into Ecuador and another earthquake

We have been in Ecuador a while and last night we were shaken by our first earthquake! In the morning we found out it was large, a 6.7 with the epicentre miles away from us (we are the blue dot on the map below). It's in the same area devastated by previous earthquakes recently, but luckily has not been disastrous.

As we approached the Ecuador border the humidity increased, as did the wildlife. After an easy crossing the 3 wheeled bike taxis disappeared, to be replaced by 4x4's. We were entering a different world, one we had not seen for some time, one with some money!

They still have donkeys though. We came across this one and 2 others walking up the road by themselves. They are loaded up and make their own way! We hope they are not carrying too much weight, the load was dry reeds so hopefully not.

We also noticed hardly any litter and hardly any speed bumps - yipee!! We have been plagued by speed bumps for months, normally at least 2 in every village and some so high they hit the centre stand as we go over them.

Vilcabamba, where the locals live forever... Where we stayed at a relaxing yoga retreat after several days riding.

We visited Cuenca, a lovely colonial city.

Ecuador is in fact where the famous Panama hats come from - remember that for a pub quiz!

Navigation

We have been navigating using paper maps, which we prefer; we are a Sat Nav free zone in our vehicles at home!  However, we have the back up of a smart phone with GPS. Using various apps (see below) we can check we are on the right road, navigate through towns and cities (saved us a lot of time) and also to find places to stay.

- ioverlander - accomodation, campsites and general overland info that can be used offline

- Mapsme - free mapping, route finding and also shows some accomodation and campsites that can be used offline

- Navigator - like Mapsme but with better route input.

However, Dee has to hold the phone on the bike and in some towns this is a bit dodgy - we are concerned it may get snatched out of her hands. The solution...

In Bolivia, we bought and converted a 2016 diary to hold the phone and look like a travel book! Dee can now take a sneaky look when needed. So far so good!

Landslides and Detours

After another trip to the beach - Huanchaco surf resort, we headed back up to the mountains again - the Cordillera Central.
The scenery up there was once again stunning, sometimes resembling Tuscany and even Devon in parts, not the pics below though....

The roads up there are another story! We weaved past many recent landslides and had to go on 2 major diversions.

The first because a bridge was closed, which involved an hour long ride along a sandy, single track "road" that was thrown down across the mountains. The second involved returning back to where we started, an hour and a half ago, to do a huge couple of hour detour due to a road collapse!

How long is the road closed for? A month, oh ok, we will go back then!

We did eventually make it to Los Banos del Inca, where we had a private bath in the "medicinal" thermal water. An Inca king bathed here to sort his war wounds.

We were going to explore further in this area, but due to the road problems we have decided to head north to Ecuador now :-)

Steripen Classic 3 Review

This is a review of our Steripen Classic 3 ultraviolet water purifier. We bought this so we could safely drink local water, saving literally hundreds of plastic bottles if we had to buy water. Also we thought it would be a lot more convenient to have water available whenever we needed it.

We chose the Classic 3 because it runs on AA batteries that we can buy anywhere. We can treat 1 litre of water in about a minute.

The set of 4AA batteries seems to last about 4 to 6 weeks. At very high altitude we have had to warm the batteries up as they get so cold, then it has worked fine.

We have one wide mouthed Nalgene bottle that we use to treat the water, then we tip it into our narrow necked drinking bottle - this routine is ideal.

Overall we are really pleased with this Steripen, if it packs up we would be gutted!

Back in the mountains - Cordillera Blanca

We rode to Chavin de Huantar to visit some ruins. Halfway we passed through a tunnel, only to find possibly the worst road we have ridden! Descending from 4500 metres to about 3100 metres on mostly very rutted loose dirt road was not fun!

We saw some gigantic endangered Puya Raymondii plants. They take 100 years to flower, seed and then die. While we were there a mighty Condor (3 metre wing span) glided overhead, which was cool.

We stayed at Yungay, buried in a mudslide caused by an earthquake in 1970 and now rebuilt. From here we hiked to Laguna 69 at 4600 metres. A beautiful place.

We rode through the Canyon del Pato, including 35 handmade, single track tunnels, which was a great ride but a bit vertiginous. We should have left earlier to avoid the gale force winds in the afternoon, making the journey a bit more interesting!

This mountain range has amazing scenery, with white peaks popping up everywhere. Most of the roads we have been on have been rough but the beautiful views at every turn made up for it! We are constantly amazed as to where a road can be built and the terrain we have passed through!