Feb. 14 – Riobamba to Naranjal
After our complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we loaded up and immediately got confused on trying to get out of town. The highway markings here are just basically non-existent, and following the correct path through the towns is a crap-shoot. The road south started out OK, but in the town of Cajabamba, we took a wrong turn and went a few miles down the wrong road – the road to Cuenca. We backtracked, and found the correct turn off, only to be stopped right there for over 30 minutes by a flagman for road construction. We sat for those 30+ minutes in the pouring rain, freezing cold even with all our winter gear and electric vests on! Here we were, barely south of the equator, and the temperature was barely 50º! Even with our coat liners, we were soon soaked through and through.
When we were finally allowed to proceed, we had no idea what we were about to get into. For the next 50 miles, we were treated to the worst road, and road experience, that we had encountered on this trip to date! The road had been torn up for repaving, but except for one-quarter mile at the start, and one-half mile at the end, no repaving had been done. There were hundreds of cuts through the old pavement, that had been badly filled with gravel, which had then been washed out or humped up by other traffic; landslides blocked all or some of the lanes, often around blind curves. Huge potholes where everywhere, some partially filled with gravel, and some not. Sections of the road were missing, having slid down the mountain. Washouts ran every which way across the roadway, and the grades were such that the trucks and buses barely crawled up the mountains. We could not maintain evan a 25 mph average. There were no places to pull off, no end to the rain, areas of dense fog, no shoulder, no services at all. We encountered several areas where work crews with heavy equipment were working to clear landslides or major washouts, and at least twice more we were stopped by flagman for extended periods of time while the road was closed by machinery. Some areas the road was covered with wet, slimy mud that was very hazardous for us. This was the main Pan American highway south, and it was just a mess! With the dust, mud, and diesel exhaust, we were totally coated with dirt from helmet to boots, and looked like raccoons with black all around our faces except for our eyes. Our clothes were wet and filthy.
After hours of this, we finally came to the end, and came down out of the mountains as well. The road returned to normal, and flattened out, but we had lost too much time to attempt the border crossing today. We stopped in the small town of Naranjal, and failed again to find a single hotel with hot water. We settled for a place that offered secure parking, and cleaned up as best we could.
We had fried fish dinners that were OK, and pulled our air filters out for cleaning. We sat on the hotel balcony, and watch the traffic on the street, consisting of more motorcycles than cars by a long way, and not one rider or passenger with a helmet! We checked our tires for wear, and decided that Lima was where we would need to replace at least the rears on both machines. We will be in Peru tomorrow!