April 6, 2017
to Ambuqui: down to a different climate
The profile for today shows mostly downhill grades, but since this is Ecuador there are still plenty of short steep uphills included. We start the day with a nice breakfast at the hostel and meet one of the Canadian cyclists who's recumbent bicycles were parked next to our bikes last night. They are from Smithers BC and have cycled here on their way to Ushuaia.
Back on the Pan American we indeed get a lot of nice downhills. After skirting Ibarra there is a steep climb after a river crossing, then a long gradual climb to the city dump and then a huge downhill into the Chota River valley. We go down to about 1700 meters altitude and it gets noticeably hotter as we descend.
The green fields are replaced with either dry scrub land or fields of sugarcane. The last 10 kilometers or so are uphill, with a fierce headwind we struggle to get to our destination. Just before the town of Ambuqui, along the Pan American highway is a string of mini-resorts with swimming pools and water slides. We pick the Hosteria Aruba, the rooms are a little tired, but there is a nice outdoor seating area and a pool right outside the rooms.
The bugs are back though at this lower elevation. First we notice our room gets infested with flies when we leave the door open, then the sandflies get us. Again! For some reason they go for the ankles.
It is definitely off-season here, the place is deserted and so seem the other hosterias nearby. There is a gas station restaurant a little back down the road, but the buffet style food there does not look appealing. We had a good lunch of tuna-salad sandwiches, with the mangoes we bought just down the road today, and decide to make do with an instant-noodle dish at our room for dinner.
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Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 30,071 km (18,674 miles)
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