Day 11

36,407 – 36,621      214—–  Miles today (13,921 Miles Overall)

Cuenca, Ecuador – Máncora, Peru

So much for getting some sleep last night. Everyone and their mother and father decided to party in the kitchen last night. I went out and lost my shit on them a little after 3am. I couldn’t go back to bed so I rolled out of bed at 4, showered and packed up slowly. I didn’t want to leave too early because I don’t want to be riding alone at 4:30am in Ecuador going for the border. Don’t need to be crashing on wet roads in the mountains here. The rain also stopped thankfully which means it was a go for today!

I 100% was not quiet while dragging all my gear while wearing my motorcycle boots at 4:30am. Hope you all fell asleep and karmas a bitch! Loaded up the bike and sat at the door for 5 minutes making sure I had everything because once I lock the door there’s no getting back in. One of the most stressful parts of my day! Hah

I was on the move at 5:15 ish and GPS said i’ll be arriving at 9Am. I got some fuel and hit the road. Roads were still wet from last night so I took it easy. OK GPS you might win for once, whatever man. Luckily no rain for the beginning. I stopped to get some nice shots. I did a little snooping around the internet last night watching videos about photography and I guess my whole problem with doing landscape photography with the bike is the time of the day I’m shooting in. So from now on if I want some good pictures of mountains I need to be taking shots at that golden hour. I ended up blasting a speed bump at like 40-50 and my forks bottomed out along with my center stand. I pulled over and checked out the forks for a bit to make sure I didn’t just blow out the seals but thanks to Diego in Quito his fork maintenance held up great. Phew!

Today was one of those days since I was up so early and the weather was nice. I got a few shots in and videos for you IG followers out there. Hi Larry Gallin! I see you checking out my stories. Hope you’re enjoying the show and loving everything.

The scenery went from plush green landscape to pretty much a desert in no time once I got 2 hours or so south west of Cuenca. It felt like I was back in Morocco with the scenery and smells. So bizarre but I loved every second of it. It was absolutely gorgeous. I was in heaven. A few turns later it got so foggy I was actually watching the road through my go pro that mounted on my handlebars because the fog was so thick. I could maybe see 20′ in front of me but with the go pro a bit more. Weird huh?

The fog got super thick at one point where I was going maybe 10mph and I was not happy about it because I passed 2 18 wheelers a bit ago and I didn’t need them up my ass in the fog. It started to rain a bit and the ride got kinda shitty going through some real poor small towns where there were pretty much no roads.  My ride turned pretty depressing so quickly once the fog hit.

I’m pretty nervous today as it’s a big day. Border crossings give me so much anxiety now with the shit I dealt with in Central America. I did a lot of research last night online. I even threw in a fake booster shot on my Covid card since you need to be fully Vaxxed to get in the country. Hope I don’t get busted on this.

I finally pulled up to the border. The aduana for the Ecuador exit was so quick. I waited maybe 5 minutes for a man in front of me to get processed and then I was up. 5 minutes later I’m on my way to the Peru side to do the rest there. Exiting Ecuador and entering Peru was so easy it was actually a pleasant surprise. I got my bike checked into Peru and got some SOAT insurance for Peru. $35 for 1 month. Eh, not bad. They gave me and my bike 90 days to stay in Peru but I’ll be long gone before then. Didn’t have to pay any extra fees like some other countries usually want so I was thrilled about that. All in all the border crossing took 1:15 or so which is incredible. I wish they all went that quick and easy. I also arrived at 8:10 and they opened at 8 so I’m sure that helped.

Back on the road and I had maybe 2 hours till Mancora beach. Someone told me about it recently but I forgot who. My buddy came down this way on a bike maybe 6 weeks ago and stayed at a nice beach town but the cheapest hotel was $90 a night. Yeah no i’m never spending that kinda money to sleep anywhere so that was a hard pass. But Mancora is kind of a party town with cheap hostels. I scored a beautiful beachfront hostel for $8 a night with a pool. Cant beat it.

I passed a Colombian rider with a GS along the way. He threw me a fist bump and I opened up the throttle, only to have him pull up behind me at a police checkpoint a few minutes later. We had to show the police our passports and bike paperwork. 5 Minutes later and we were racing again. I got to Mancora at 11Am. I can’t believe I got here this early. I was hoping I would get here by 2-3. I checked into the hostel and jumped right in the pool and ordered some food.

This town became one of my top 5 spots on this trip within seconds of getting into the hostel. Quiet hidden beach town with sand for streets, cheap ceviche, drinks, music and people everywhere. I threw some sunscreen on for the first time in a while and just decided to bake in the sun like a lizard for a long time today. I took a few naps. I looked over my shoulder at one point into the clear turquoise colored water and just decided to go up front and book 4 nights.I walked in booking one night to get a feel for the place but I needed to stay for a few days. This is something I’ve been dreaming about since I left Puerto Escondido in Mexico. A small quiet beach town with delicious food and a good vibe and with no rush and no plans to get anywhere and alone so I can just relax. I feel like I am always in a rush but when you throw me a clean blue beach with a cheap hostel I’m cutting off this whole rushing thing.

I went for a walk down to the other side of town and then came back to watch the sunset on the deck of the hostel. I went back into town to buy some dinner. I got a bowl of ceviche and my god was this as delicious as I thought it was going to be and then some! I’m going to be eating ceviche everyday for lunch and dinner. So much clean protein and it fills me up quickly. Back to the hostel to work on the blog followed by some good sleep hopefully.