Into the Amazon Basin

I have wanted to go to the Amazon Basin for a long time. The Amazon represents a limitless expanse of known and unknown possibility. A terror of freedom. I have outlined numerous routes for trips by boat and bike – watching movies, reading literature, adventure accounts, and scientific expedition reports to get ideas and logistics (plant/bug sciences geeks go to all kinds of cool places). Noting places where the natives are not friendly and active resource/land conflicts simmer. I was going to the Amazon Basin several years ago but bought a house, enough said. But I have little actually jungle experience and what I do have comes from this trip. So I figure taking some less traveled routes along the edge of the Amazon Basin would be a good way to dip my feet and get off the busy Gringo packed Panamericana. I begin my drop to the amazon basin by heading for Banos, a place aptly named for hot springs. Not remote but packed with Ecuadorians, other Latins, locals and foreigners there to soak at the base of huge waterfall in town. Though I took no photos - people do not generally approve of strangers taking their photos in bathing suits. A young German female confirmed this for me by bringing her camera into the bathes. Shortly after negotiating my way into town through the tourists in go carts and four wheelers, I met Matt in the street, or rather

he jumped me in the street. I took a day off to write and work on finding new tenants for my house which brought a sudden realization of my precarious travel finance situation. But with the situation is well in hand, Matt and I decide to drop to the Amazon Basin together. Originally, Matt was going to head to Cuenca along the Panamericana but volcanic eruptions in the last three months had reburied the road meaning he would need to backtrack – no fun and good company for me.Volcano Tungurahua in the background - note the volcano evacuation sign - run!

As much I adore standing shoulder to shoulder with strangers in boiling water like a pot of steamers, we leave Banos and drop to Puyos in the Amazon Basin along a gentle 3000+ foot/60 kilometer downhill along the river. The good paved road with bike paths skirting tunnels along the deep canyon makes for easy riding past “extreme” tourist attractions like zip lines and bungee jumping, or my favorite, “pesca deportiva,” which involves dropping a line in a wading pool full of farmed fish. Small restaurants dot the way selling food and beer – you gotta giggle when you see beer bottles lining bridges where people are jumping.
The only downer is an asshole in a truck throwing oranges at cyclists. I felt something whack me in the back and it took a moment to register what happened. No one has thrown anything at me since the United States, normally I am pretty nonplussed, but that pisses me off, in part, because it is dangerous. I catch the truck on a long downhill passing into a small town, taking a moment to grab a rock, and pull up to the offending passenger window when they are crawling over a speed bump. The guy looks surprised as he rapidly rolls up his window. I tell him to pull over, and then some, while debating putting my rock through the window . . . but that seems a little extreme. Instead, I bounced the rock off the door leaving a nice dent and move on . . . not the wisest course of action but I felt better. Consequently, I did not give it much thought but hoped I saw them first, if at all, later down the line. Matt later tells me the same guy hit him with an orange and left a bruise.

The road and river starts to bottom out around the town of Shell, named after Royal Dutch Shell, but it is little more than a collection of airstrips for accessing deeper into the Amazon Basin for oil services. We spend the night in the ramshackle (I like ramshackle) city of Puyo. After a morning of watching the Tour de France (Contador getting the jump on Fleck . . .) we head towards Macas on the newly paved road while to our left is thousands of square miles of road-less amazon. Beautiful fast riding on a long ridges past Shuar villages dropping to the Rio Pastanza. You could take any one of these rivers to the Amazon River and onwards to the Atlantic Ocean thousands of miles away. The riding is generally level with dips and climbs across river drainage's. Traffic is light with time for headstands and grub crossings. The long 130km day to Macas was complete with Volcano Sangay erupting in the distance as the sun set 10km outside of Macas – we were pretty ecstatic about our day's riding.

Over two shorter days the terrain becomes hillier during which Matt and I part ways as he begins his climb to Cuenca to pick up yet another new pump for his Optimus stove (courtesy of Optimus) and I continue towards Loja along the Amazon Basin.In the little town of Limon the pavement comes to an end and I stop my day early to switch my tires for fat 29'er mountain bike tires, change my front disc brake pads (1^st time), and check over the bike. In the morning I head up out of Limon for one of my slower days yet – 9 hour day (7.5 hour rt) with an avg speed of 11.8km to cover 88km - I thought the amazon would be flat!I was mistaken and the climbs are continuous and long but so are the descents so I don't feel cheated. The dirt road is hard surfaced but with loose rock and gravel over the top, and pot holes galore. But traffic is light and concentrated at the beginning/end of the day with road
construction in spots as Ecuador completes paving the entire route 45. I was glad to have my fat 29” mtn bike tires on for cushion and traction. Overall, a sparsely populated area without many services but very beautiful with steep jungle and small waterfalls coming out of the hills. People are either excited to see me on the bike or a little circumspect . . . maybe just shy . . . ?

I, also, expected the Amazon to be hot like Panama but, was glad to be wrong. The temperatures are 70's to low 80's with cool breezes up higher. I am tempted to grab long sleeves on my final descent shortly before dark into Gualaquiza. Gualaquiza is small town at the juncture of several major dirt roads and I decide to take a rest day here. Today it is pouring so good idea . . . we will see what that means for the rest of the road - I still have nearly 200 km to Loja. And no anacondas - yet.