(Not sure why the title says Otavalo, Colombia. I am pretty sure we are in Otavalo, Ecuador. The stamp on our passport says we are in Ecuador)

We crossed the border into Ecuador a few days ago and the people here are just as generous and gracious as the people in Colombia. A few of the dogs we have come across however were not so welcoming. Before we arrived at the border there were still a few mountains to overcome in Colombia.

We had relatively easy rides from San Agustin to Mocoa, but no ride is without its share of hills. At least we were on pavement the next few days.

Mocoa is the start of a road called 'Trampolin de la Muerte'. This sounds ominous and in the past it was quite a dangerous road to drive. The road is 70 KM long and is rocky and very narrow in many places. If two oncoming vehicles meet at a narrow section one of them has to back up to let the other pass. There is also the concern of road wash outs when it is raining (which is most of the time) and the vertical cliffs that go down hundreds of meters from the road.
It was built in 1930 during the war between Colombia and Peru to transport soldiers.

The road now has some safety measures put in place such as guard rails and more pull outs.

I wondered why we were taking this road but there is really only one road to take to get to the Ecuador border and we needed to cross over to get to it.

On our way to the 'Trampolin de la Muerte' we met quite a few other cyclists. One group of 4 cyclists were going the same direction us and we crossed paths many times for the next few days.

The day came to start this part of our ride and it rained for most of the day with a few moments of sunshine. A lot has been written about this ride by other cyclists and all have raved about the scenery. When the sun did come out the deep valleys and high mountains were stunning. We could also see how steep the cliffs were beside the road. It made me ride a little bit more to the right side of the road. The road was pretty much as described by others with very narrow sections, twisty and windy and quite rocky. There were many times we had to stop and pull as far over as we could to let trucks and cars go by.

The first day we rode for about 9 hours making it to the top of the first pass. We had some idea of how we would spend the night from reading other cyclists' blogs but still did not know what to really expect. What we found was what Jacklin compared to the Hilton because we were able to put our tent inside a building, there was a toilet and a hot water shower. Everything is relative and this place was not very clean but for us this was luxury.

The next morning we woke to sunny skies and it remained that way for the next few hours. It did cloud over at times but there was no rain this day. Again the views were spectacular. At times we could see many kilometres in the distance to where our road was taking us and most of the time it was up. This wasn't discouraging, we just kept pedalling and stopping for photos and snacks and enjoying the beautiful mountains and numerous waterfalls. One of our highlights was seeing a Blackbilled Mountain Toucan sitting in a tree next to the road.

After another 9 hour day and overcoming another mountain pass we completed this ride and stayed at a Casa Cyclista near Sibundoy. Casa Cyclistas are houses where the owner allows cyclists to stay in their house or camp on their property. This one was fairly basic with an outhouse and outdoor kitchen. I was hoping for something a little more comfortable after a long and hard ride.

Our ride out of Sibundoy started out with a nice easy grade but after about 15 KM out of no where the road suddenly turned into an ugly 10% grade for the next 20 KM. This isn't really what we needed after crossing over 2 mountain passes the previous 2 days. However, like every other ride we made it to the top and were surprised to be high enough to be in the Paramos with the frailejones plants.

We were finally able to rest our legs for a couple of days when we found a chalet on Laguna Chota near El Encano. Rather, I should say the chalet found us. We were stopped on the side of the road to check our map when a woman, Rosa, walked up to us and told us that she has a nice place over looking the lake and that we should follow her. We did not know what to expect as we followed her for about 15 minutes. What we found was a gem of a place. It was a chalet with a wrap around deck, 4 bedrooms (not that we needed 4), a kitchen and a nice big fireplace and the place was huge. We were only going to stay for 2 nights but ended up staying for a third. It was such a restful and peaceful stay. Rosa was so sweet and brought firewood for us each day and Jacklin built a nice warm fire. We were still fairly high in altitude and the evenings were cold. Rosa also had a small restaurant down the road and we had some of our best meals there.

It was hard to leave Rosa's chalet but we got back on our bikes to start making our way to the Ecuador border. After riding mainly on small roads we didn't really have a choice but to get on the Pan/American highway. This is the main road that goes from Central America down to the tip of Argentina. At times traffic was non stop and there was an incredible amount of road construction with bridges being built and the road being widened. We were only on it for a couple of days and we could put up with the traffic and other inconveniences.

Our last stop in Colombia was in Ipiales where the Las Lajas Basilica is located. It was built at the bottom of a deep canyon that crosses over on both sides. This is the site where the image of the Virgin Mary was witnessed by a mother and daughter in the 18th Century. The daughter was deaf and mute but spoke for the first time upon seeing Mary.

The dogs in Colombia were great. We made a lot of new friends (sorry Claire) and the dogs that did chase us on our bikes were not aggressive at all, they seemed to have a 'happy' bark. Only once did one nip at Jacklin's bag. The stories we have read about the dogs in Ecuador had been making me a little apprehensive about travelling this country. As we were nearing the border I had 3 dogs chase me and their barks did not sound 'happy'. One of them sunk his teeth into my rear pannier and punctured it. However the damage done to my bag was really quite minor compared to what another dog did to Jacklin's bag a few days later once we were in Ecuador. She was riding along a nice dirt road and passed what seemed to be a dog just relaxing in the sun when all of a sudden it ran toward her and ripped open one of her rear panniers. We managed to do a temporary repair with Gorilla and packing tape. When we arrived in Otavalo Jacklin took it to a shoe repair shop for a more permanent repair. Elvis did a fantastic job and it looks like Jacklin's bag will survive until the next dog.

Having said this, most of the dogs have been fine so far.

Prior to coming to Otavalo we rode up to the El Angel Ecological Park at about 3800 meters asl where we experienced the biggest Paramos we have ridden through with miles upon miles of Frailejones. We slept on the floor in a Ranger cabin at the top which was a nice treat because it rained for most of the night. We met another cyclist here from Switzerland, Paul, and we rode with him for the next few days until we arrived in Otavalo. Paul spoke fluent Spanish and it was nice to have him as a travelling partner.

The Ecuadorian people have been so great to us. The three of us arrived in the small town of Mira and the only guest house here was closed. We tried the Bomberos (fire station which is a common place for cyclists to stay) but they couldn't accommodate us, we then tried the church and had to wait until later on in the day to see if we could stay there. So for the next couple of hours the 3 of us sat in the Town square. A fellow sat down next to Jacklin and I and started chatting with us and offered for us to stay at his house. The room was very basic but we were overjoyed by his generosity. This fellow, Eduardo, set the three of us up in the room and told us he was going out for the evening to his music lesson. Before he left, Jacklin asked to take his photo and he disappeared into his house. I was not sure if he was offended by this request, but a few minutes later my thoughts were clearly wrong when he came back out wearing a nice dark blazer and insisted on singing for us from his balcony. Eduardo sang for about 25 minutes and was oblivious to the rain coming down. He had such a fantastic voice and he was a very passionate performer. Music is a huge part of his life and he travels quite a bit performing with a group and as a soloist.

Paul, Jacklin and I left the next morning knowing that we would not forget Eduardo and his kind and musical nature. Our ride took us to Otavalo where Paul will head down to Quito and we will start to head West into the Cloud Forest.

I did a summary of various statistics of our time in Colombia. Our average distance per day was 44 KM and we climbed approximately 51,161 meters. I also could not help but notice that our most expensive hotel was on Jacklin's birthday and our cheapest stay was in our tent on my birthday. Just saying.