We eventually find the E35 heading out of Quito, aiming for the Peruvian border post at Macara some 752kms and a few days away. We fancy a ride on the ridge that divides Ecuador into wet and dry zones. We’ve ridden the dry coastal Ruta Spondylus and we've explored the northern wet Amazonas. Now it's time to do the bit down the middle. There is No GPS navigation in Ecuador so we are relying on me shouting out left, right, straight instructions to Brausch using the offline app Maps.me whilst clutching the phone. My new biking gloves have thin fingers allowing me to operate phone and camera witho ..read more

Quito Culture Michelle asks us to SPOT THE DIFFERENCE. She points up to the 8 white plaster cherubs adorning the length of the upper ledge of the simple pink painted building opposite the grotesquely ornate Jesuit church. We check out the chubby angels flying along the frieze until we reach number eight. He has a disproportionately large appendage between his legs aimed straight at the chapel door. The legend goes that the masons (builders) and the priests had a falling out and this 500 yearold plaster cast is an everlasting insult. We are walking down the Avenue of the Seven Crosses alongsid ..read more

It is great to back.  Our bike is SAFE. Carmel has done a great job. We found this parking site on iOverlander and can highly recommend it. Although covered in dust, there is one happy bike and two happy owners. We hand over the remaining forty thousand colombian pesos ( 11 euros per month) and unwrap our precious parcel. Concealed underneath the waterproof cover are helmets, bike gear, panniers and petrol can. All as we left it. How marvellous. We change out of our four day old clothes, change into motorcycle gear and after a quick cheese roll and coffee, ride the 2kms south to the Colo ..read more

Schedules and Sarongs Like all good schedules , this one went a bit wrong. We have had a month at home in France, busily entertaining ourselves with chores and friends. The timing is perfectly planned to have a good night’s sleep and depart at 9am to catch a train to Paris with a few hours to spare before catching the plane to Bogota: Except we receive an email from KLM reminding us to check in and, shock horror,discover our plane leaves at 7am not 7 pm . Oops. With a bit of a flurry we tidy the kitchen, made some sandwiches, stuff a pillow each and the electronics into a knapsack and switch ..read more

WE HAVE CHANGED TO 2up2wheels.wordpress.com For a few reasons: It is easier to upload photos when the WiFi is poor and I am writing on my phone. Easier to scroll through the stories. Latest at the top. By adding your email address in the empty box, once confirmed,  you will be automatically informed about new stories. WordPress has more categories so in due course we will add *border crossings *yummy local dishes * artwork * road conditions * wow sights * wildlife pics *and more. Blogger is great from a computer or lapbook . So When we get home I will update blogger in my spare time. Happ ..read more

We need to book out of Hotel Mercy by noon, and having slept like logs since 7pm the night before we rise with the larks. Our mission this morning is to clarify the vehicle insurance situation. With a lot of help from Google we discover the organisation responsible for motor insurance in Ecuador is named SPPAT and their offices in Machala are a few walking blocks away. We use Maps.me offline on ‘walking’ but walk faster than the little arrow which swings all over the place. After doing a few sharp u-turns mid stride B spots an exhaust fabrication unit with a USA bending machine just like his o ..read more

The plane touches down in Lima at 5h30 to a misty damp grey sky. We had been due to arrive some 8 weeks earlier to catch the last days of summer but a series of unconnected events kept tripping us up. Having welcomed the arrival of our granddaughter we are all set to resume the riding adventure around South America. On the day of departure B developed an acute ‘plumbing problem’ which requires emergency surgical intervention. On doctor’s orders he is banned from physical activities for 6 weeks and that includes flyng and riding any motorcycle. B is effectively grounded! The temporary import pe ..read more

We had been advised by the very helpful proprieter of the Hotel in Abancay to take the River road along the Valley to Puquio as the only other road out was treacherous and full of landslides. He described, with the help of google maps, the route along the river for 150kms then a bit high up and over the mountains before  arriving in Nasca, where the altitude was better. We are given hope that the next few days of the 1000kms ride to Lima would be easier on our lungs and arms. The first ‘easier’ bit was a continuous 30 minute steep downhill ride to get to the river bed, but we got there an ..read more

Tribals and Llama paintings  70 % of employment in Cusco revolves around the Tourist Industry. The aeroplanes bring in hundreds of Machu Pichu sight seekers, Inca Trail Hikers and Packaged Tours daily. Lovely Rosa, at the Hospedaje with the Purple Gate, escorted us to the local bus stop at 8am on Friday morning. We joined in with the students and workers catching the local bus into the centre of Cusco. There is a front door and back door to the bus, entrance and exit. People get on and only pay when you get off. The conductor leaps out the front, runs to the exit at the back to ..read more

Writing about our adventures is an exercise in selection, sifting through an average of 100 photos per day and re-living the dramas and the joys. The photos need cropping, post-processing and the quantity reduced to the best 5-a-day. As we ride, we are bombarded by multiple moments of tension and excitement. The only familiarity is each other, our kit and the bike. Everything else is new and strange, testing all our senses to the limit. Watching U-tube and reading about motorcycle travel adventures puts a great distance between the actuality of feeling the cold/heat, tasting the wind/rain ..read more