Saturday 3rd May 2025 Bahía de Caráquez to Cabuyal
Ended up with a pizza last night of all places, Pizza hut, in a near by shopping mall, the lady from the digs, directed us there, as she did not do vegetarian food, still not my favorite food, but least it is filling, only got the medium size, we both ate most of it then saved the rest for pudding. Into the to supermarket next door for the yogurt, chocolate and a few extra beers, just in case, then back to the digs. Soon finished off the rest of the pizza and the remaining beers, before we retired to bed, while the party was in full swing next door, no worries about keeping us up, you have not done enough work if you cant sleep through a bit of noise.

Out a first light again, get the miles in before it gets very hot, it’s just hot at the moment, very clammy this morning, as we hit the road, still heading up the coast, to a small village on the beach Cabuyal, few little hostels around will just have to chance are luck again. It felt like riding through treacle this morning, not sure if it was the humid moist air or the road surface, but every pedal strook seemed difficult, I thought it was me at first, so decided not to say anything, hoping I would get over it, then Bingo mentioned it, was so pleased it was just not me, thought the pizza had taken all my energy away, we both decided it was the road and the humid air, as we battled though it like two demented travellers, head down pushing hard. We was both soaking wet with sweat and the humid moist air, even had to take my glasses off, now that is dangerous cant see much with them on, just about see Bingo’s wheel, thats good enough for me, stopped for a soft drink, in El Paraíso still to early for the coffee shops, sat on the steps watching the village come to life again, guy came past us as we was sitting on the steps, with bunches of crabs tied to his handlebars brilliant all still alive moving in unison with his pedal strokes, best handlebar decoration I have ever seen.

We moved on still chuckling about the crab man, that took our mind of the road or the road got better, because we were soon full steam ahead, pumping the legs, eating up the miles, met a big cycling group coming the other way, nice cheery wave as we thundered past, feeling good. As we traverse the forest road, so green massive trees to the left, then rice fields (Paddy fields), banana plantations or market garden fields on the right, very fertile land, with a few cattle and donkeys added to the mix, very pleasant. Stopped for a coffee as soon as the little shops opened, lovely service on the side of the road and nice coffee to boot, that was the catalyst we needed to make us go even faster, up the only serious climb of the day all done with no bother. Then just the winding, twisting road, with the beautiful countryside as we headed towards Cabuyal, no knowing what accommodation we may find, both a bit wary of camping after seeing so many dead snakes on the road, we will if we have to (hope not). Just outside Cabuyal decided to stop, have a beer and look at the options, checking the phone, not much of a signal, but seem to be a few places around hidden, always helps with a beer though, asked the guy in the shop, in my pigeon Spanish, result place over the road, he pointed, well I thought thats what he said. Sure enough we had a log cabin, in a little farm yard, will do us, very basic, perfect, even got the host to cook us rice and eggs for lunch, nice.

Good relaxing afternoon checking out the routes to Quito and basically resting these weary legs, little shop over the road so going to get the bunsen burner out again tonight and cook a feast, luckly they also had copious amounts of beer, funny how we always seem to pick a place like this, its not luck.