(June 11 – written by Dave) Today we visited the largest known Inca ruins in Ecuador – Ingapirca.  It is not strictly an Inca ruin as the Cañar people lived in the area before the Inca arrived.  Over time the Inca outnumbered the Cañar but they never really conquered them.  Instead the two groups decided … Continue reading Ingapirca ruins

(June 10 – written by Nancy) Another big climbing day completed under relatively sunny skies – yahoo!  The hotel last night wasn’t one of our better ones – it was a bit noisy, mostly I think from the staff talking at the reception area which was just around the corner from our room.  And, the … Continue reading Up into the fog – Chunchi to El Tambo (61k/15,862k, +5249ft)

(June 9 – written by Nancy) Well, the weather gods smiled on us today – no rain and mostly blue sky and sun, which meant we could clearly see all of the amazing landscape around us as we made our way to Chunchi from Guamote.  We got up a bit earlier this morning to give … Continue reading Andes views – Guamote to Chunchi (79k/15,801k, +4265ft)

(June 8 – written by Dave) We’re living high tonight.  That is, we are sleeping higher than we ever have (not counting sleeping on a plane).  We are in Guamote, Ecuador at 3,100 meters (10,170 feet).  We are doing ok as we’ve been working up to this height now for more than 8 weeks, going … Continue reading The high life – Riobamba to Guamote (52k/15,722k, +2400ft)

(June 7 – written by Dave) We’ve had a nice, relaxing day here in Riobamba.  We intentionally didn’t plan any tours, or visits to historical sites.  We slept in, enjoyed the hotel brekkie and moved slow all day – perfect. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy Riobamba.  Nancy picked up a walking tour map … Continue reading Riobamba, Ecuador

(June 5 – written by Dave) We’ve been chased more dogs in the last two days than in almost forever.  We’d heard that dogs were bad in Ecuador but didn’t really see that many of them north of Quito.  The little blighters have spent that past 48 hours trying to make up for their countrymen … Continue reading A dog’s life – Latacunga to Ambato (50k/15,556k, +1300ft)

(June 4 – written by Dave) Today we rode the Avenue of the Volcanoes – or so it would seem.  We didn’t get any rain but after about the first hour of riding clouds pretty much made seeing any volcanoes unlikely.  We had blue skies for the start of the day but the sun couldn’t … Continue reading Avenue of Clouds –Machachi to Latacunga (53k/15,559k, +2000ft)

(June 3 – written by Nancy) Today we hit the road again after our nice two-week break in Quito.  I had my usual ‘I don’t want to leave’ anxiety – it’s easy to quickly get used to not having to worry about where you are going to sleep, where you will get food and water, … Continue reading Heading south – Quito to Machachi (45k/15,506k, +2000ft)

(May 31 – written by Dave) Greetings from Quito and our week of immersion Spanish.  We are not fluent in Spanish, nor are we effluent (but that’s a whole different story).  But we have actually learned a lot in the first four days of class.  Tomorrow we’ll have our last session and start getting ready … Continue reading Quito views and Spanish class