Cycling the Ecuadorian Pacific Coast

While Ramon was learning how to ride his 1st 2 wheeler in Pasto, dad decided he needed to do a bit of riding himself. So I simply hopped on my bike and pedalled from Pasto to the border, then the big downhill to the NW Pacific coast of Ecuador and all along the ocean to the end of the Ruta del Sol...The Sunshine route, in Salinas. I had expected a friend to join me, but unfortunately his wife became ill and he got Dengue fever, while being a judge on the tour of Colombia a few weeks ago.


Here is the start of the coastal route. Very light traffic all the way down.


Unlike Colombia, one doesn´t see many cyclists in Ecuador. These were the only two I met on route.

But there were a few friendly and not so friendly critters along the way.

¨Slow down....Monkey crossing¨ In another area I could hear howler monkeys, screaming in the forest. Don´t get that on a tour bus or car!

And of course, some fine beaches.

Lucky for me, it was cloudy most of the time....so it never got hotter than about 30.

Bringing logs out of the jungle to the coast.

Reminiscent of the Oregon coast.

The Ecuadorian fishing fleet :)

I had a wee bit of a food fixation on this trip. Going back to being a veggie-vegan hasn´t been difficult until now. With all the calories I was burning up, I needed to order two full meals a night!

I just go into the kitchen to see what they have and order up what I like. This has the added advantage of having most of the food cooked fresh.

An Incan runner-messenger logo on the plate.

Mile 0......Ok so I did the route backwards....but the ocean was closer to me on the RHS of the road. 1150 kms from Pasto in 9 days. Zero flats, 1 broken spoke.

Salinas is Ecuador´s biggest, fanciest and most expensive resort. I didn´t linger long. Caught the night bus up to Ecuador. $10 USD (which is the currency the have adopted here, after the Sucre crashed about 10 years ago) for a 10 hour ride up to Quito.

Flying my own flag here! After burning so many calories and fat...the jersey actually fits me now, without embarrasing myself :) Now it´s time to do some riding around the Pasto area with Ramon in the trailer.