Day 83 - Cuenca to Guyaquil

Cuenca is JC's home town. He was born here and lived here until he was five, then again when he was 8 to 10, then moved to the USA when he was 13, by crossing the border and walking into the desert from Mexico. His mother lives in Cuenca and he went to visit her when he arrived. Cuenca is also a gloriously pretty and clean town, in particular compared to anywhere in Peru. Crossing into Ecuador was so stunningly different from Peru, and this town highlighted it with magnificent parks, mowed lawns, clean streets and well appointed houses. We were delighted. 

Our day started in the small but very neat hotel called La Casona, when we all piled into Willy's truck and headed down to the BMW Dealer at Challuabamba, one of six in Ecuador. They had done the service on our bikes overnight and were out testing them and getting them washed - my bike has not been so clean since it was new! The service was also excellent and a very fair price. They replaced my spark plugs, the oil and filter, air filter, and also all brake pads for the two front disks and rear. The difference in performance and smoothness was particularly noticeable, and I was very pleased. Our route out of town head up a very winding road on a nearby hill and Ned Meisner, the new rider joined us until the coffee stop on his new Suzuki adventure bike. It was a true cafe and the coffee was very good, and hopefully will continue to improve as we head north towards Colombia. 

The road continued up-hill but I was unable to stop at the "mirador" or lookout as a truck was parked across the entrance, and to make it worse a very heavy fog came down, which really slowed us down as we headed down the hill on generally good roads, trying to avoid the occasional pothole. We were heading to Guayaquil a port town on the Guayas River, and therefore reknowned as a drug smuggling port. We stopped after 200km at a Wyndham Hotel on the waterfront and then Sheryle and I went for a long walk along the waterfront and a ride in the local Poma Cabin lift across the river. We were warned not to wander too far out of the area, as "it's not safe" but it seemed very reasonable to us, at least around the hotel.

Tomorrow we fly to Glapagos, something we have waited on, for many years.