OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
Making sure the skin doesn’t burst, roasting cuy (guinea pigs) at the market, Gualaceo, Ecuador. Cuenca, Ecuador [by Paula] Just because we’ve been stopped for a while doesn’t mean we don’t keep learning things – oh no. The trajectory of our learning curve keeps speeding ahead in one direction. Here’s a few things from the last few weeks: 1. If…
Last night we stayed in a Mobil/Esso station over the oil drain pit. Armed guard watching and a little cafe where we could eat. Problem was in the morning we needed to move at 7:15am for two lorries to do an oil change.All the people were great and the garage staff were fantastic. Some photos of Rusty and Laura’s Land…
Well here we go: the LAST blog post for The Matt, Atley, Ferg and Wendy Show! As I write this, Atley and Wendy pedal hard to the south of Peru, towards a potential motorbike buyer. Ferg rides the glorious waves of the Ecuador coast, patiently awaiting his bike buyer. And I am in central Ecuador, sorting out an oil leak…
Last night we stayed for free with an lovely Australian man at his Garden Nursery. He’s got quite a huge plot of land near Ibarra, Ecuador and sells thousands of plants wholesale style. He has a nice spot to park up and a kitchen and shower. He even has rooms if you’re on a motorbike.If you want to stay there…
Laguna Quilotoa, Ecuador Quito, Ecuador [by Jeremy] It’s often said to be an endearing quality in a man to be able to show emotion, to be able to shed a tear. It’s not quite so endearing when the man in question is on all fours, clinging to a rock and blubbing uncontrollably. I am that man. Before setting out on…
Chugchilan, Ecuador [by Paula] We have become proficient enough at getting ourselves lost without any help from anyone, so we really don’t need someone telling us that when we’re going north we’re actually going sideways. Jeremy reacts to seeing the equator by displaying his Ministry of Silly Walks repertoire. And so it was when we crossed the equator. We pulled…
On the eve of Good Friday we were very close to the Colombia/ Ecuador border and decided to push on and camp the night at a suggested hotel some 500m from the border. The sun had set and darkness quickly descended on us, driving after dark is something we do not like to do. The road twisted and turned high…
Campspot with a view, Tatacoa Desert, Colombia Otavalo, Ecuador [by Paula] Hello Ecuador! We’d been in Colombia so long we were in danger of starting to look suspicious to the authorities. The last customs official to renew our car permit told us one more month would be plenty to get us to the border. So we took the hint… and…
I’d like to thank all of you who sent kind messages to me at a difficult time, it was really appreciated and lets us know we are not alone on our journey. I feel its like having a couple of hundred people on pillion and that is reassuring. We hopefully get back to Cali late Tuesday to re start the…
John (our friend from Ibarra) appeared in the morning to make sure we got out of town OK, excellent and thanks John. We made our way on great roads and fantastic scenery to the border, out of Equador quickly, immagration and temporary import cancelled in short order, at the Colombian side a copy of our international driving licence and passport…
We left Quito this morning (Sunday), the roads were ok, not too busy and many people at the lights were asking us where we were from and where we were going, a very friendly goodbye to Equador’s capital. After a bit of confusion we found the Equator, funnily enough in the same place its always been. There is a monument,…
We spent the Day around Banos looking around, very tourist orientated place with lots of “adventure” tours going off into the Amazon and adventure sports type stuff so full of tourists. The bridge over the Gorge had bungee jumping off the bridge, we watched a couple of guys go off, the guy asked if we were having a go, even…
Our last night in Cuenca and it coincided with the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, so the local communist party had a demonstration calling for the same style of Government for South America (as far as I could make out) It was good natured and the Police kept a distance, music, flags and chanting, all good stuff. Yesterday we…
Last night when we came back from eating we met Louis who moved here from Canada a while ago, we asked where we could get Equador stickers for the bike and he kindly said he’d look first thing for us, This morning we decided we liked this place so we stayed for another day. Louis appeared after breakfast to say…
A weekend in Loja, nice place and worth a visit (apart from the food, struggled to find anywhere that didn’t sell only chicken, rice and chips or a variation of that three) We met Henry on Saturday from Canada and had dinner with him at night, good to swap tales, he is heading South, We North so advice on both…
We tried to get insurance yesterday but will have to wait until Monday morning before we can get it sorted out, not to worry we needed the break. We haven’t been idle though , All Roads Lead to the Moon Episode 5 is here for your enjoyment & Comments. Tomorrow, all going well we march closer to the Equator, currently…
As we left Chicalayo and picked the bikes up at the secure parking we had a bit of luck, the parking lot guy was asking us about our trip when we noticed he had a pet monkey, saves us going to the Amazon to see them, it was really funny and took a liking to Fi’s mascot she has on…
There’s absolutely nowhere we’d rather be than with our families during the holidays. One of the hardest times to be away from home for us is the week between Christmas and New Years. No matter how much fun we’re having, no matter how much of a rhythm we have found on the road, being homesick during this time cannot be…
From the jungle we continued west through the town of Baños, a touristy spot where the activities are dune buggy rentals and bungee jumping. Not necessarily the things we go out of our way to pursue but we had half a day to burn and figured the hot springs were reason enough to stop. If the city had positive attributes,…
I awoke from my slumber feeling relieved. My fears of being violated by cockroaches during the night did not come to fruition and, to my surprise, I had slept peacefully. Of course that could be due to my position in the hammock. Zach might not have been so lucky, as he had offered to sleep on the bare wooden floor…
Jon here: Day 216, Friday 23rd November, it felt great to be back on the road. After the miraculous repair job performed by Meastro and his boys in Pasto, Tough Miles set sail towards Ecuador. Petes bike had undergone some serious surgery, so we proceeded with caution and checked oil and water at regular intervals. It was only a…
As promised (and as usually, late), a selection of the 3,000+,(no joke) photos from Galapagos: Click Here. We’ve omitted the ones with the boatloads (literally) of old folk in goofy hats, white socks and sandals who we managed to beat every time that we went onshore. NattieK and a few new new friends… Do you think this was worth losing…
We had driven more than 30,000 miles up to this point. We’d traveled for 14 months, through 12 countries on two continents and crossed the open sea. Still, traversing the imaginary line that divides the earth’s northern and southern hemispheres is about as anticlimactic a milestone as they come. Actually, on our first time across, I was sleeping in the…
We are trying to make some time in our trip, and unfortunately that means we are going to have to skip seeing some places along the way. When we set off this year we were a month later than expected because of hot and dry fall conditions that allowed us to work until the end of October. This is a…
The market in Otavalo, Ecuador was by far the most impressive we’ve seen since Guatemala. On market day when the market swells with vendors from surrounding towns the produce market alone would challenge in size any that we have seen in South America so far and that was just a third of what they had to offer. In addition to…
The border crossing from Peru into Ecuador is one of those crossings where everything changes. The scenery changes dramatically, from the dry Peruvian desert into lush rolling hills covered in sugar cane and banana plantations in a few short kms. Ecuador produce the most bananas in the world, almost twice as much as their nearest rivals, Costa Rica – they…
Each winter for a number of years Meg and I would get the “Itch” and throw down our heavily used ski poles, sift through our dressers until we found our shorts and dig out our rock climbing gear from the back of the closet. Maybe it was the pain of looking in the mirror day after day in those long…
For us it had been a late night last night, with supper of cheese and ham rolls at midnight, but everyone else here works to the routine of siesta – not mad dogs and Englishmen! Which meant everyone else was up and out at work by the time we woke up! Oops. Even so Graciela invited us to stay for…
“Can I see your documents please Sir” The Ecuadorian Customes Officer asked in Spanish. “Si claro” I responded . I opened my document wallet. Hmm now where are they. ”No seriously where are they? I had them yesterday!…..Uh oh !!”, The official went off to look at the Gavin and Gordon’s documents and in that moment while I was looking…
A Note on Ecuadorian dogs. If I was to describe Ecuador from a motorcyclists perspective I would call it the land of unfriendly dogs and nice mountains. Of course there is far more to this magnificent country than this, however these things stick out in my mind. What the hell is up with these dogs from Ecuador? Do dogs follow…