Well I haven’t done a road trip on Yamaha rig since I purchased it. The farthest I had been is Quito and I was itching to for a cruise. I asked Daniela for some ideas and she suggested two different locations. The city of Ambato or waterfalls just outside Otavalo. When I woke up in the morning I realized my ankle was sprained. The hike to the waterfalls was not going to happen now so off to Ambato. Daniela put off her project for the day and was game also.
The city is about three hours away driving the rig. You travel south along the Pan American highway from Quito. The city has a population of over 300,000 and is known for flowers, textiles, fruits and other industries. Daniela had never explored the city so it was new to both of us.
It was a easy ride and when we arrived we headed for the heart of the city. It being Sunday we figured the city would be busy but we got a little surprise. People in Ambato don’t work on Sunday’s and everything was closed. Very few people on the streets, just plain quiet. We walked a few blocks and nothing was open. Across from where we parked was a small restaurant so went in for some wings. As we were eating it started to rain not hard but enough. When we left we put on our rain gear for the ride home. All in all I don’t think we spent 2 hours in the city.
Just a few miles out of town we stopped at a scenic area to check out the lake below. Lots of people everywhere and we watched dozens of people taking pictures with the sidecar from our vantage point. In the states 99% of the people would not dream of touching your bike without permission. Here it’s a little different with the sidecar. They climb all over it like it is a jungle gym in the park. I almost think I could charge money for them sit on it and take pictures.
Since we had plenty of time to make it home Daniela suggested a side trip to the village of Salcedo. She said their ice cream is famous all over Ecuador so heck yeah I’m in. We left the highway and made our way to the village and parked on the square in the center of town. Daniela jumped out and headed towards the store to score us our ice cream. She came back empty handed. Seems they don’t make the ice cream locally anymore and the delivery truck is over a week late. No ice cream in the whole village.
Back to the highway and on the way we passed the ice cream monument. Before getting back on the Pan American we found a store and bought some ice cream. Daniela then said she wanted a picture with the highway sign for her blog. She decided we would eat the ice cream while stopped for the picture. By the time we found a sign worthy of her picture the ice cream was half melted. In fairness she got tired of waiting for the right sign and wanted to stop and eat our ice cream sooner. But by then I was on a mission and did not stop until the right sign appeared. It had to have no people, no trucks, or buildings in the background.
The rest of the ride home was uneventful and we even managed to avoid the rain until close to home. So our day consisted of visiting a city that was shut down for the day. Then to a village famous for ice cream with no ice cream.
Just what the doctor ordered. Glad we went because the next morning my ankle was screaming at me. Thank you Daniela for sharing.
