Friday 2nd May 2025 San Lorenzo to Bahía de Caráquez
Tried to find a restaurant, even with the help of one of the girls and her two dogs from the hostel, nothing open, ended up cooking in the room with what we could find in the little shop, it was actually ok pasta thing with a mustard twist, very up market, as we ate it out of our plastic bowls, drinking beer from the can, them pesky kids just do not know how to have a holiday.

All cleaned up in the morning, you would not know that Bingo had his bunson burner on full pelt last night, expect for the smoke burn on the wood chip wall paper, as Bingo prepared breakfast with the smallest pots of yogurt ever, they even had some cornflake things in, which reduced the yogurt even more, he was not happy.

As we left the lovely ladies offered us a coffee, who are we to say no, nice coffee in their little room, then another cyclist joined us, Jaun not sure of his second name, little photo of all three of us posing, typical cyclists, then we all set off to together, Jaun only joining us for the first mile, soon as we went up hill, he was off, don’t blame him. Little bit of drizzle and storm clouds in the air, best get going then and beat the rain, which we did eventually.

Only a little 4 mile climb as soon as we left the village, get the oil circulating around the body, just what you need, it was fine just a little incline for a few miles lovely climb, heading up into the forest, past a few little retreats and a monkey reserve, not seen any monkeys for a while, so will keep are eyes peeled. As we head further North towards Manta, then Bahía de Caráquez, on the bank of the river Chone, some 70 odd miles away, hey ho thats what we are here for let get on with it. Quite nice in the early morning, just wandering through the back lanes of Ecuador, watching out for all the wild creatures, nothing spectacular to note, just quite a few squashed snakes at the moment.

We try and bypass the big town of Manta, quite successfully I might add, getting used to these GPS garmins now, well had a bit of practice, then stop for a coffee break on the other side of the town. Just as we think we have the hang of theses GPS things, it sends us off the main road onto this big road with no markings or signs, off we go in to the wild , wild jungle it seems, just us and a few quarry trucks, nice road if not a bit bumpy, as we traverse the wilderness, for a while.

Just a bit of a slog today, as the sun got hotter and hotter, one of the reasons we set out so early is to try and get out of the sun, especially in the miday, but sometimes we just have to slog it out, today was one of the those days, only a few climbs but the last two right at the end, you certainly know the difference the later the day goes on, as Bingo and I meandered up the final 5 mile climb in 40 degree heat, just thinking of the ice cold beer awaiting us, not too bad a climb just really hot, me thinking of the great film ‘Ice Cold in Alice’ got me straight up the climb beating that African guy all day long. [it was ‘Ice Cold in Alex‘ Dale was thinking of: Alex being Alexandria in Egypt. The film was 1958 with John Mills and Anthony Quayle: Ed]

Mate we entered the town of Bahía de Caráquez, me dreaming of a beer, Bingo just goes straight for it, sees the tables outside, says I’m going in there, good lad, before I can get a valet to park my bike, he has four cans out of the fridge, lovely, with a bit of WIFI we duly check in to a hostel about 3 miles away, not sure if we are on even or odd numbers so both decided to count again and have 3 more beers, before we ride steady away to the digs.

All good after a tough day, they welcomed us with the usual impeccable hospitality, lovely people, room sorted and evening meal brilliant.