Following some internet inspiration (Los Tres Volcanes, Ecuador), a growing love for bikes, and plenty of post-trip blues from the Bow Yoho… my long-time friend Quintin and I decided to book flights to Ecuador, and… figure out the details later. How hard could planning a bike-packing trip in South America be? The answer; surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly, to some) difficult! Financially and logistically, the details were not working out and our timeline was pretty aggressive. We considered cancelling the travel entirely, but I eventually put my ego aside and although our bikes would not be coming with us – the trip was still on!

We landed in Quito, spent the night at a nearby airport hotel, and kicked off the first leg of our journey down to Cotopaxi in the trusty Duster (our rental car). The lodge we stayed at, Hacienda El Porvenir, was incredibly beautiful and thoughtfully designed – and gave us great access to Cotopaxi National Park.

Quintin found an epic trail up Volcán Rumiñahui and with some reassurance from the hotel staff (many of whom seem to enjoy trail running in the region), we set off towards the 15,000 ft peak. The trail was beautiful and we saw only a handful of other folks. There was even some exposed scrambling towards the top of the route – pretty cool to break over 15k ft for the first time!

I have a difficult relationship with trail running (& running in general)… there are few situations in which I’d prefer to run instead of bike, but given the circumstances, this was a really exciting and fun way to see a new part of the world.

The weather was surprisingly rainy despite the summer “dry season”, but that sort of unpredictability seems par for the course in the Highlands. The mornings were generally dry and clear – so we managed to sneak in some nice runs before the clouds settled in.

The weather (… and certainly not our fitness) limited our options for running up high; but we ate great food, drank some local beer, took naps, and enjoyed exploring the grounds of the Hacienda in our downtime.

After chatting with some other guests at the Hacienda, we decided to rip up to the Cotacachi region to explore some trails and the Otavalo market. Laguna de Cuicocha was a much recommended stop with a spectacular trail around the rim of the caldera – an awesome & beautiful run!

We learned about the budding gravel-bike scene in the area and were fortunate enough to stumble into a B&B specifically catered towards bikers; very auspicious for our beta-gathering.

From Otavalo we headed west over to the Mindo Valley. The weather was especially rainy here, but we managed to squeeze in some running… alongside plenty of naps, creek swims, and coffee stops.

From Mindo, we made our way back towards Quito with a stop at the Volcán Pululahua caldera. There is an awesome trail in the base of the caldera that circumvents Cerro Pondoña; a small volcanic dome in the crater. We were, yet again, bamboozled by the weather and had to cut our run short. However, the little running we did was great and the landscape/geography was quite dramatic.

We ended the trip with a night in Quito; saw the old town, danced with the locals, and had some incredible food at Somos.

This was my first trip to South America, and while this wasn’t the huge bike-packing adventure I had originally thought it would be; it was great to spend time in a new place, reconnect with an old friend, and appreciate some type-I fun.

That said, I am certainly looking forward to returning with the bike in tow 😉