How far to Puyo?

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Ouch!

Andrea had been going on about how cool the cycle ride from Baños to Puyo was. I had my thoughts, but I decided to believe her. After all, how could I not enjoy a 70km cycle ride? Wasn´t that what holidays were for?

Breakfast was rushed, with all the excitement of "the big ride" and we headed to the bike shop, the next door bike shop seeing as we had chosen the first one that we´d seen. The little old woman kitted us out with bikes (she couldn´t get one with a saddle anywhere near where I like it, most people´s armpits), helmets (we looked like rejects from the first world war) and a pump, which worried me slightly. The route was explained, in Spanish of course, and we set off. Within about two minutes we were heading back, wasting precious energy to swap my bike for one where the gears worked. At this point we really should have done a more comprehensive check on our mean machines, but in the excitement of the moment...

The first sight was a dam that produces 147KW. Then there was a waterfall. Unfortunately the waterfall was on the other side of the valley that we were on. But never fear! In Ecuador, where there is a tourist buck, some entrepeneurial soul will build a ropey cable car, driven by an engine from an expired ford truck, with the exhaust pipe carefully balanced on a pile of bricks. The car was less safe looking than, well, pretty much everything. I took my vertigo in hand (I do have big hands) and crossed on this pile of scrap metal. It was a journey to remember, and only when I was most of the way accross did I remember that I needed to get back. I did the calculation and unfortunately I´d have taken the rest of the day to get back to the other side by foot. If I´d known what was to come, I may have taken the option! But again, after all my complaining and whinging, I really enjoyed the trip...

On the road again, and we pass through a tunnel. A very very dark tunnel. The tunnel is so dark that after about 20m in, I couldn´t see a thing. Just a light at the end. After I heard the truck horns, amplified by the acoustices of the cave, all I could think was "head for the light!" It was a nerve wracking 250m.

After the tunnel was another tourist stop. This one with a red cable car (the earlier one had been yellow). It was red for danger. The thing took off at a rate probably unsurpassed on land. Thankfully we (Andrea) had had our fill of precarious journeys 100m up over rocky ground and we continued to Puyo.

Thankfully all the rest of the tunnels had cycle paths around them. Probably the old roads from before the tunnels, but they hadn´t been looked after in a long long time. It was very cool to be cycling inches from 150m drops, and the adrenaline was pumping. We passed a pair of bridges, and there was another group of tourist sniffing Ecuadorians charging $10 to tie a rope to you and make you jump from one bridge, and then allegedly hang you from the other until they lower you down. The process looked as safe as the red cable car, and I wasn´t tempted. Andrea toyed with the idea for a while, but we were soon back on the road. On the way to Rio Verde. We swam in the Rio Verde. I use swim where I should say "stuck toe in the water and decided that not swimming was better because it was so cold." But while changing we were both attacked by swarms of biting insects, bites that 3 days later still itch!

The next stop was the Devil´s Cauldron. A fairly small waterfall with a massive throughflow of water. The spray from the bottom came up about 30m, and the noise was deafening. We both came away from the viewing station drenched! The walk back up the hill to the road could also have been a waste of needed energy, but well worth it to see the waterfall. We had a coke at the top as a treat. We had succeeded in climbing probably over 200m! Then we set off again, my bum starting to feel the saddle at about this point.

There wasn´t much more touristy stuff so we rode for a while, probably another hour, till we saw a pizzeria. I´d been craving a pizza for a couple of days at this point, so we stopped for lunch. There was another couple there, and we laughed when they said that there were still 40km to go. We´d been riding for hours already, we thought we must have done more than 30km? Surely?

The pizza had a problem. There was some kind of problem with the oven and it was covered in ash. Not the tastiest, and there wasn´t even a discount!

So we rode. And rode, and rode and rode. The climate changed. The water ran out. The climate changed again, we thought we were getting close as we summited the forty third hill, and still nothing. Then the rain started. (The climate had changed to rain forest...) and still we rode. My bum was complaining like it had never ridded a bike before, and Andrea was going up the hills at walking pace. We decided to stop, drenched again, at the top of a hill that had a shack on it. The shack was interesting, with the owner´s minute monkey and strange animal that looked like an armadillo but wasn´t. We had some fanta, and a rest, and found out that Puyo was 23Km away! The best thing about this ride was that I can now say "How far to Puyo? WHAT!" in Spanish.

So we toiled on. Up the hills and down the hills and up again. We passed villages and still we toiled into the wind. Andrea´s bike squeaking with each peddle.

We got to a large village after about 45 minutes, and thought it was Puyo. Till we saw the airstrip. It was in fact Shell. So we peddled on.

Eventually we got to Puyo. And there were still 4Km to the bus station. The tempation to give up and just hitch back to Baños was great! But in the end we prevailed! We found a bus, and it took us home (standing, of course!) and we slept like babies...