29 June: A long assed day but we got a lot of stuff done: large load of laundry, grocery shopping as we had really run the drawers down. After 2 failed attempts to find camping in town eventually tried to drive to the parking lot of the teleferico which turned into a real mission thanks to road closures so after multiple wrong turns on some very steep slopes we eventually pulled in to the teleferico in the dark – now all we had to do was find a way to move everything in the back of Mr J as we had 1,5months laundry there plus all the groceries we had bought. One hour later we could settle down for a supper of sandwiches and some rum, all while listening to “old macdonald had a farm” as the teleferico has an amusement park which runs until 9pm. Hoping for a safe night as we are the only overlanders in the parking and it feels a bit isolated.
30 June: Another productive but also frustrating day with stops at an optometrist, then a solar supply company (appeared closed) to try and source a 110v battery charger and then finally a LPG factory to get our gas bottle filled. Unfortunately, they overfilled it, so Stuart spent quite some time once back at the campsite draining off gas via a pipe in a bottle of water but a least we have gas for the next few months.
2 July: A partial rest and maintenance day in camp. Removed the back wheel to discover that the shim on the brake pad which is supposedly glued in place had shifted at least 3mm and hence was rubbing on the caliper causing the squeal – not sure how I am going to fix this one. Also removed part of the kitchen counter splashback to access the wires for our USB charging port as those have been acting up – time will tell if I managed to fix those or not as couldn’t find anything wrong so just redid some connections. In the evening the Voetspore team arrived and we had a lekker kuier until early hours of the morning. Really impressed with the chilled vibe in the team despite the long days that they do while on the trip filming.
3 July: Another chilled day in camp while Stuart fabricated a shim for the brake pad to be held in place by the brake pins. After lunch took a stroll to the very pretty town square and then back to camp for some sundowner Mojitos.
4 July: After saying cheers to the Voetspore team, its been a really nice few days of socialising, we briefly stopped to get Mr J washed and to do some shopping before heading south from Quito to the Cotopaxi Volcano national park. Campsite (3800m asl) is really pretty with lots of wild alpine flowers but no sight of volcano yet as it is in the clouds but it looks like the clouds may clear in time for sunset.
5 July: A long day of driving as we drove hairpin after hairpin on a scenic road towards the Quilotoa crater. It was very scenic but tiring. Took an hour-long break around lunch as Tania had quite a bad seizure and was very tired, think the high altitude plus late nights from the last few days haven’t helped. Ended the day at a small tourist complex which should have a great view over the crater lake but is currently shrouded in mist, hopefully tomorrow we can witness the view before we start a long and tiring descent towards the coast. We have been warned that it is a very slow road.
7 July: a very rough 24 hours, having been mostly without signal for the previous 2 days, we awoke yesterday to discover that Stuart WhatsApp account had been hacked and with poor signal could not even attempt to fix it, then after 2 hours driving and while halfway down a huge mountain pass that dropped from 4000m to 1000m (in roughly 50km) the brake pedal went very soft and almost to the floor! Fortunately, we could stop safely to discover that the back-right pad (attempted repairs) was smoking so that meant an hour on the side of the road fixing it. Thankfully we had stopped in one of the few wider sections but it was still between 2 hairpins and on a huge slope which is not exactly ideal for removing a wheel. Rest of the drive was uneventful until 15km from intended destination we had to take an hour plus detour thanks to a bridge been washed away. Finally arrived at a truck stop at 4pm having taken 7 hours to do 250km. Just as we were starting to relax by Mr J a humongous thunderstorm arrived which meant retiring inside him all while it was very very hot and sticky as we are back in the lowlands with high humidity. The night’s sleep was disturbed at midnight by the arrival of a bus who felt it necessary to park next to us (even though the forecourt was basically empty) and let his engine cool down for 10 minutes before switching off – he did the reverse 4 hours later at 4am!!! And then to finish a disturbed night’s sleep another bus arrived at 6:30 and did the same. Very very tired this morning and we have 4 hours of what would appear to be difficult driving ahead based on the relatively small km to cover.
8 July: another long day but at least slightly easier driving as we completed the descent to the coast and decided to skip staying further north and instead head back to Montanita. Despite being tired and it raining quite hard, Stuart headed into the ocean for an evening surf session which turned into a great one with reportedly some good waves.
9 July: a real quick 30minutes surf this morning before rushing back to Mr J to watch the springboks thump the Aussies – a great morning.
15 July: Amazing how quickly a week can pass when you are in a spot that you feel “at home” in. The weather has not been great – in that while it is very warm and humid, the sun just never appears and there is a constant greyness in place (the joys of the tropics) but apart from that we have had great days: Stuart surfs once or twice a day, Tania has been enjoying fantastic yoga classes every second day and in between we take walks on the beach or chill in the hammocks. And somedays we have “found time” to focus on admin like catching up on the blog or doing tax returns.
16 July: Last night was date night and it was a good one, company was obviously good and we had some great Mexican style food at a beach front bar with some of the best spicy margaritas we may have ever had. And then today we had brunch with two digital nomads we met a few weeks ago on the Isla del Plata tour – we are worlds apart in age and travelling style but in both cases very much long-term travelers and have in that regard very similar mindsets, before we knew it multiple cups of coffee had been drunk and 4 hours had passed.
17 July: Getting itchy feet but at the same time enjoying the surf and dreading the haul across Peru which is making us drag our feet to move on. On the positive side it is incredible how the slightly extended stay has improved my surfing.
18 July: Another date night, making the most of our time in La Punta, Montanita with its funky restaurants and food offerings. We have probably eaten out more in Montanita than anywhere else in South America
19 July: Finally hit the road today, although Tania did leave her water bottle so we had to go back, fortunately she realised it had been left only 1km down the road. After a stop in Montanita to buy water, then a misjudged detour into La Libertad to try and shop (a bust as the AKI we had our eye on was in middle of a fish and fruit market), so carried onwards to Guayaquil for shopping and then headed out of town towards Cuenca. With no camping options on the route it was going to be a truck stop night, the first gas station felt a bit small but google said there was another one 5km up the road (which there wasn’t!) and we ended up going 30km further to one in a small village just before the big climb up the mountains. Google warns us that the first 30km tomorrow climbs 2000m – hope Mr Jones sleeps well as he isn’t going to like that start tomorrow.
20 July: Google maps warning was a significant understatement, in total we climbed to over 4000m before descending again to around 2800m asl all in the course of 100km which of course was rather slow going and took nearly 3 hours. At least the scenery was good and quite varied even if sometimes the other drivers gave us the heebies but we are extra sensitive since news of the Voetspore teams accident a few days ago. In the afternoon took a pleasant walk around the old historical district, popped into a magnificent cathedral and spent sametime on a park bench observing the going’s on around us.
21 July: Last night was a very disturbed sleep, with many wakeups from the late visitors to the owners of the tiny parking/camping we were at and then vehicles passing by until early hours of the morning – the downside to being camped in the middle of a city. Laundry day followed by coffee with two American overlanders Tania knew from facebook (Eric & Brittany). It was an interesting and enjoyable few hours, with our key takeaway being we so sell ourselves short in terms of our travelling “achievements”. After coffee we did a quick relocation to another campsite on the outskirts of Cuenca hoping for a more peaceful night.
22 July: We were umming and aarghing in the morning as to whether we should move or not, but when by mid-morning it was still grey and damp we decided there is no point hanging around getting cold all day and so headed south to the town of Loja. 5 hours of driving took us over multiple mountain passes, all ranging in ascent/descent of between 700m to 1800m. It confirmed to us that even though the Peru coastal route is ugly and boring it is the preferable way back to Cusco versus following the perhaps more scenic but way more tiring central mountainous spine.
23 July: A great start followed by a frustrating afternoon and then quite a good end to the day. We ventured into the Parque Podocarpus and did a nice little walk through the forests with many stops to take pictures of the flaura. Sadly, didn’t see any birds although there are supposedly over 600 species in the park. We could have camped in the park but it was at 2800m and rather wet and cold so decided to head rather into Vilcabamba and the beginning of frustrations – firstly we got to a narrow wood bridge which we didn’t fancy crossing with impatient locals behind us and then as we drove around looking for somewhere to camp we were disappointed by 3 options before finding a nice little spot up the valley outside of town. As for Vilcabamba itself, it is meant to be a cool funky town in the “valley of longevity”, we found it to be rather plain and bland with a strange energy and certainly nothing like it is written about. It’s only plus point, it’s warmer than surrounding towns.
25 July: We were going to leave today and head towards the border but then woke to lovely blue skies and so it was an easy decision to rather stay another day as we have really enjoyed the serenity of this little valley. Spent the day chilling and reading next to the river and in between having basic conversations with owner and his father.
26 July: We always knew today was going to be a long day as we hoped to get to the border in one push and wanted to first shop in Loja. Leaving Vilcabamba the brakes started to squeal badly and so instead we popped into a mechanic in Loja (who after 2 hours declared the brakes fine), then went grocery shopping before heading over the mountains towards the border. Descending into Catamayo the brakes felt a bit soft and when Stuart pulled over at the start of town, his foot hit the floor, this was after a 10km descent! As luck would have it we were right outside a mechanics yard and so with Mr. J in low range (so we didn’t need brakes) we crawled into their yard. Things immediately looked good when the owner spoke English and Stuart could explain the problem easily, after a few hours we were back on the road again with new brake fluid and having checked over the pads and pistons. It could have been an ugly day if we had lost the brakes just 1km earlier but as always Mr J was an officer and a gentleman and held out until we could deal with the issue. With no accommodation options in town we drove another 90minutes into the mountain for a night at a remote fuel station.
27 July: Border day, border crossing was simple and low stress just rather slow as the systems seemed slow and a few local families in front of us seemed to have some issues so all in all took about 2,5 hours plus a good couple of hours driving either side made for a long but low stress day.