Dirt Deluxe Guided Motorcycle Tour

Day 1

Quito – Intiñan – Pululahua – Nono – Tandayapa – Bellavista – Mindo

Day 1 begins at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental headquarters in Quito, sitting at roughly 9,350 feet / 2,850 meters in the Andes. Before anybody starts worrying about dirt roads, waterfalls, hummingbirds, or chocolate, we take care of the important stuff.

You’ll be fitted to your motorcycle and we’ll go through a detailed pre-ride briefing covering Ecuadorian traffic laws, local driving habits, road courtesies, group riding procedures, hand signals, communication, motorcycle setup, and the conditions we expect along the route.

Ecuadorian roads have their own rhythm. Out in the countryside you may share them with livestock, farm vehicles, pedestrians, dogs, horses, buses, and drivers who communicate in ways that make considerably more sense once somebody has explained them to you. We want everybody to understand how things work before we point the motorcycles toward the mountains.

Then we ride.

Our first stop is the Intiñan Equator Museum, where we stand directly on the Equator and spend some time learning about the geography, Indigenous cultures, and traditions connected with this part of Ecuador.

Intiñan is hands-on rather than museum-under-glass. There are demonstrations built around the Equator, exhibits on traditional ways of life, and plenty of opportunities to stand with one boot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is a good introduction to a country where geography controls almost everything we are about to experience. Over the next several hours, a relatively small change in distance and elevation will take us from Quito’s dry high-altitude basin into one of the wettest and most biologically diverse environments in South America.

A short ride farther brings us to the rim of Pululahua Crater, an enormous volcanic caldera just north of Quito.

Looking down from the rim, you can see farms, homes, and cultivated fields spread across the floor of the crater. People actually live and farm inside this volcano.

It is one of those places that gives you a quick lesson in how Ecuador works. Volcanic soil, steep mountains, farms tucked into improbable places, and people figuring out how to make a living wherever the land gives them a chance.

From here, we leave the main road behind.

The route turns onto unimproved dirt farm roads that begin working their way through the foothills of Pichincha Volcano and toward the western slopes of the Andes.

The traffic falls away quickly. Pavement gives way to dirt, farms replace neighborhoods, and the city that seemed enormous an hour earlier starts disappearing behind the mountains.

Our first village is Nono. On a map, Nono looks almost like a suburb of Quito. Standing in the village, it feels completely different.

Small farms surround the town, horses and cattle are common, traffic is light, and the pace of life has very little to do with the capital sitting just over the mountain. The physical distance is short. The cultural distance is much bigger.

From Nono, the road pulls us farther into the green country west of Quito and toward Guagrapamba Waterfall.

The waterfall sits in a steep, forested valley where cold mountain water drops through thick vegetation beside the route. It is our first real taste of the environment we are riding into: wetter, greener, quieter, and increasingly dominated by forest.

From here, we continue on what locals call the Hummingbird Road, a dirt route that threads through one of the richest bird habitats in Ecuador.

The name is well earned. Hummingbirds flash across the road, orchids and bromeliads hang from trees, mist collects on the vegetation, and every kilometer takes us deeper into the cloudforest.

Water is everywhere along this stretch. Small rivers cut across the mountains, waterfalls pour out of the forest, and the road follows the contours of steep green valleys as we work farther west.

This is where the landscape starts doing what Ecuador does so well: changing faster than seems reasonable. The air gets wetter, the vegetation gets thicker, and the dry Andean environment around Quito is already well behind us.

The route passes through the tiny hamlet of Tandayapa, a place that has become famous among birdwatchers, biologists, photographers, and researchers from around the world.

There is a reason serious bird people end up here carrying camera lenses that cost more than some motorcycles. The western slopes of the Andes contain an extraordinary concentration of species packed into a relatively small area.

Different elevations create different habitats, and the combination of moisture, temperature, forest, and geography produces a remarkable variety of birds, butterflies, amphibians, orchids, bromeliads, and other plant and animal life.

For us, it also happens to produce a very good dirt road.

We’ll stop at the Bellavista Cloudforest Reserve, where we’ll meet our friend Richard Parsons.

Richard established Bellavista in the 1990s, when the road running through this forest was still the principal route toward Ecuador’s coast. He began acquiring and protecting land here because he understood how biologically important these forests were and how quickly they could disappear.

Today, Bellavista protects a large piece of cloudforest and has become internationally known among birdwatchers, scientists, photographers, and naturalists.

Richard himself is worth the stop.

He is basically a walking BBC documentary about birds. Ask him about something with feathers and there is a good chance you are about to learn considerably more than you expected. He knows the forest, knows the species, knows what is moving through at different times of year, and genuinely enjoys sharing that knowledge.

We’ll have lunch at the Bellavista lodge, surrounded by forest, hummingbirds, and whatever else decides to show up while we are eating.

This is one of those meals where the setting does most of the decorating. Dense forest drops away from the lodge, birds move constantly through the vegetation, and the sounds of Quito have been replaced by wind, water, insects, and birds.

After lunch, we get back on the motorcycles for roughly another 10 miles of cloudforest riding.

The dirt road continues through thick vegetation and changing elevations before beginning a long descent toward the basin that contains Mindo.

Eventually the forest opens and we drop into the broad green bowl surrounding Mindo.

Mindo sits inside its own microclimate, and the difference can be remarkable. Conditions here are often completely different from what we experienced only a short distance away around Tandayapa and Bellavista.

Clouds, elevation, moisture, and the shape of the surrounding mountains all interact to create a warm, humid pocket famous for birds, butterflies, orchids, rivers, waterfalls, cacao, and coffee.

Mindo has become one of Ecuador’s great centers for biological research and nature tourism, but it still manages to feel like a small mountain town surrounded by a ridiculous amount of green.

In Mindo, we’ll stop for a chocolate tour and follow cacao from the tree to the finished product.

You’ll learn how cacao is grown, harvested, fermented, dried, roasted, ground, and finally turned into chocolate. More importantly, you’ll begin to understand why Ecuador produces the best chocolate in the world.

Ecuador is one of the historic homes of fine-aroma cacao, and the combination of genetics, climate, soil, fermentation, and careful processing can produce chocolate with remarkable complexity. There is considerably more involved than grinding up a brown bean and adding sugar.

There will, of course, be tasting. Education requires sacrifice.

Then we’ll ride to Las Terrazas de Dana Boutique Lodge, where private cabins are built into the hillside overlooking the surrounding cloudforest.

This is where the Dirt Deluxe part of the name starts earning its keep.

Each cabin gives you privacy, a comfortable bed, and a private terrace looking directly across the forest. After a day of dirt farm roads, waterfalls, hummingbirds, cloudforest, and chocolate, you can sit outside with a drink and simply absorb the view for a while.

There is also a swimming pool for anyone who still has enough ambition left to change out of their riding gear.

The lodge is owned by David, who is from Spain, and dinner reflects that connection. The kitchen produces excellent Spanish food, including paella, along with other dishes that pair very nicely with the revolutionary concept of sitting down after spending the day on a motorcycle.

Good riding, good food, a comfortable bed, and a private terrace hanging over the cloudforest.

That is Dirt Deluxe.

Day 2

Mindo – Río Intag Coffee Region – Lake Cuicocha – Otavalo

After breakfast overlooking the cloudforest, we’ll leave Mindo and head north on dirt roads through rolling green hills, fruit orchards, small farms, and thick vegetation. The morning starts warm and humid, with the smell of wet earth and forest still hanging in the air.

This section gives you a good look at how quickly Ecuador changes once you get away from the main highways. Small communities appear between ridges, farmhouses sit beside the road, and fields are tucked into slopes that would make most people think twice about owning a tractor.

One of our first stops is Cascada La Piragua. A short walk through the forest brings us to a cold waterfall and swimming hole used by local families. If the weather is cooperating, it is a great place to strip off some riding gear and get into the water.

Nearby, we’ll often stop for fresh sugarcane juice mixed with mandarin lemon. The cane is pressed right there, the citrus cuts the sweetness, and after a morning on dirt roads it does a respectable job of bringing a rider back to life.

This is the kind of stop that makes these tours interesting. The road gets you there, but getting off the motorcycle long enough to see what people are growing, drinking, making, and doing with the land is where the country starts making sense.

From La Piragua, the route continues through working agricultural country. We’ll pass farms growing tomatoes, celery, green peppers, fruit, and other vegetables, with crops changing as the elevation and temperature change.

These are working backroads. You may share them with farm trucks, cattle, people on horseback, families moving between villages, and whatever machinery has been persuaded to keep running another season. The views across the ridges can be enormous, but there is plenty going on right beside the road too.

We’ll pass through Nanegal and continue toward the Intag Valley, descending into warmer country as the vegetation thickens and the roads follow rivers, farms, and small communities deeper into the western Andes.

Eventually we enter the Río Intag Valley, a rugged agricultural region known for coffee, subtropical crops, cloudforest, rivers, and fiercely independent communities.

Our next major stop is Nangulví Hot Springs, beside the Río Intag. Several thermal pools give us a chance to soak tired muscles while the river charges past below.

We’ll also have lunch here before getting back on the motorcycles. Dirt roads in the morning, hot mineral water at midday, then more mountain roads after lunch. This is exactly the arrangement the human body has been waiting for.

In Apuela, we’ll stop at the Río Intag Coffee Growers’ Association to learn how coffee from these mountain farms is processed.

You’ll see how beans are dried, sorted, roasted, and prepared for sale, and get a better idea of what coffee production actually means in a place like Intag. Behind the finished cup are steep hillsides, shade trees, changing weather, family farms, picking, drying, sorting, and a lot of physical work.

The coffee here is part of the local economy and part of the landscape we have been riding through all morning.

From Apuela, we begin climbing out of the Intag Valley on dirt and old cobblestone roads toward the mountain village of Plaza Gutiérrez.

Here we’ll spend time with women from the local community who make handicrafts from cabuya, a tough natural fiber taken from the long leaves of Furcraea cabuya, a plant that looks similar to agave and grows well in this part of the Andes.

The leaves are cut and processed to extract strong fibers that can be dried, worked, and woven into bags, hats, baskets, mats, and other useful goods. The women have organized their work through the local Asociación Mujer y Medio Ambiente, creating income for families from a plant that grows right around them.

This is another place where getting off the motorcycle matters. You see the raw plant, the fiber, the finished work, and the people turning local materials and traditional skills into something they can sell.

Above Plaza Gutiérrez, the road starts climbing hard toward the high Andes. A series of steep switchbacks carries us out of the warm Intag Valley, with huge views opening across the mountains behind us.

Waterfalls drop through the green walls below, and the vegetation changes again as we gain altitude. Tropical plants give way to eucalyptus, pine, highland farms, and colder mountain air.

Eventually we reach Laguna Cuicocha, a volcanic crater lake sitting beneath Cotacachi Volcano. The dark blue water fills an enormous caldera, with two volcanic islands rising from the center.

The name Cuicocha is commonly translated as “Guinea Pig Lake,” and local traditions once held that the lake was bottomless or connected underground all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Whether or not you believe that part, standing on the crater rim after climbing up from the Intag Valley makes the geography of the day pretty hard to ignore.

From Cuicocha, old cobblestone and mountain roads carry us toward Otavalo, one of the most important Indigenous commercial centers in the Andes.

The Otavaleños have been skilled textile producers and traders for centuries. Their weaving traditions predate the Incas, survived the colonial period, and eventually developed into international trading networks that carried Otavaleño textiles and music far beyond Ecuador.

We’ll visit the famous Plaza de los Ponchos, where textiles, hats, leather goods, jewelry, spices, food, blankets, paintings, carvings, and all manner of locally made products fill the market.

It is colorful, busy, unapologetically commercial, and full of people who have been buying, selling, bargaining, and moving goods around the Andes for generations.

The day ends at Hacienda Pinsaquí, a historic colonial hacienda just outside Otavalo.

Pinsaquí has thick adobe walls, old courtyards, gardens, fireplaces, traditional furnishings, and enough history to make most modern hotels seem like they were assembled last Tuesday. The Treaty of Pinsaquí was signed here in 1863, helping bring an end to conflict between Ecuador and Colombia.

Before dinner, a local Indigenous Andean music group performs during the welcome reception. Then we sit down for dinner and settle into comfortable rooms surrounded by the architecture and atmosphere of one of northern Ecuador’s great old haciendas.

The day began in humid cloudforest, crossed waterfalls, vegetable farms, hot springs, coffee country, small mountain communities, cabuya workshops, steep dirt climbs, and a volcanic crater lake before finishing at a colonial hacienda in the high Andes.

That is a pretty solid day’s work.

Day 3

Otavalo – Cotacachi – Tumbabiro – Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park – Hacienda La Primavera

After a proper hacienda buffet breakfast and an early walk through the gardens and duck ponds at Pinsaquí, we’ll visit a nearby family workshop where textiles are still produced using traditional Otavaleño techniques.

The process begins well before anything reaches a loom. Natural fibers are prepared and spun, and colors are produced from local plants and traditional natural dyes. One of the more surprising sources is cochineal, a tiny insect that can produce brilliant reds, pinks, oranges, and purples depending on how it is prepared.

You’ll see how the fiber is spun, how the colors are made, and how the loom turns all of it into finished textiles. Otavaleño families have been producing and trading woven goods for centuries, but seeing the work behind a blanket or scarf gives you a completely different appreciation for what you saw hanging in the market yesterday.

There is a lot of time, skill, repetition, and knowledge hiding inside something that looks very simple when it is folded neatly on a market table.

From there, we ride to Cotacachi, Ecuador’s leather capital, sitting beneath the massive Cotacachi Volcano.

The center of town is lined with small workshops and stores selling jackets, boots, belts, saddles, wallets, handbags and other leather goods. But before looking at all that clean finished leather hanging under bright shop lights, we’ll go see where the process actually begins.

We’ll visit our friend Luis, an Indigenous leather tanner who still works hides using traditional vegetable-based methods rather than modern chemical tanning.

Walking into Luis’s tannery is a quick education in what the word leather actually means. There are animal hides packed in salt, wet skins hanging and drying, large vats, scraping tools, water, flies, and plenty of smells that will never be bottled and sold as an air freshener.

Luis works with salt, water, vegetable tanning solutions, time, muscle, and experience. Hides have to be cleaned, soaked, scraped, treated, stretched, dried and worked repeatedly before they become the smooth material you recognize as leather.

It is slow, physical work, and much of the knowledge has been handed down through generations.

Seeing the process from raw animal hide to finished leather explains why Cotacachi developed such a strong reputation for leather work in the first place.

Once you have seen the salted hides, tanning vats, scraping, stretching and drying involved, those jackets and boots in the shops down the street suddenly look a little different.

We’ll have some time in the center of Cotacachi afterward, where the leather shops offer remarkably good prices and where available luggage space can suddenly become an important engineering problem.

Leaving Cotacachi, we take old serpentine cobblestone roads through the agricultural country of northern Ecuador.

We’ll pass enormous farms producing long-stem roses and other cut flowers, one of Ecuador’s major exports. The combination of high elevation, intense equatorial sunlight, cool nights and fertile volcanic soil allows Ecuadorian growers to produce some of the best roses in the world.

The roads continue through a string of small towns with fading pastel adobe buildings, iron streetlights, old churches, cobbled sidewalks and farms pressed right up against the edge of town.

We’ll also stop for a soak in the mineral hot springs of this region before riding a short distance to Tumbabiro.

In Tumbabiro, we stop for lunch at Hacienda Pantaví, and this place deserves more than a quick mention.

Pantaví is part hacienda, part restaurant, part gallery, and part expression of the wonderfully unconventional imagination of Ecuadorian artist Diego Andrade. His paintings, sculptures and mosaics appear throughout the property, turning courtyards, walls, gardens and passageways into a constantly changing collection of things to look at.

This is not art hanging politely in identical frames along a hotel hallway. Andrade’s work is built into the personality of the place. You keep noticing another painting, another sculpture, another strange little detail tucked into a corner.

The Tumbabiro Valley also has a warm, dry climate that can feel remarkably different from Otavalo only a short ride away. The courtyard at Pantaví seems to catch that weather particularly well, making it a very good place to sit down for a proper lunch before the hard riding begins.

Enjoy it. The afternoon has plans for you.

After the last small town of Cahuasquí, we enter Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park, and the character of the day changes quickly.

The road begins climbing aggressively on unimproved dirt, with sections reaching grades of around 30 percent. In a remarkably short distance we gain thousands of feet of elevation as the agricultural valley falls away behind us.

Look back occasionally and you may catch views of snow-covered Cayambe Volcano far across the Andes.

The road first climbs through a magnificent pine forest before eventually breaking above the tree line into exposed high mountain country at more than 13,000 feet / 4,000 meters.

The views across the valleys below are enormous. The air is thinner, the temperature can drop quickly, and weather can change with very little warning. This is a good time to add another layer and keep your attention on the road.

From the high point, we begin descending the western slopes of the Andes on rocky switchbacks.

The environmental change happens quickly. Open, cold high country gives way to moss, thick vegetation, mountain pasture and eventually green cloudforest. Brooks cross the road, waterfalls pour down the mountainsides, and the air becomes wetter and warmer with every mile of descent.

Depending on conditions, there may even be an opportunity to get into some of that cold mountain water.

Eventually we reach La Merced de Buenos Aires, a small mountain village on the western side of the Andes.

We already ate lunch at Pantaví, but after the climb over the mountains there is always room for something else: freshly roasted trout.

A simple wooden restaurant in the village serves trout raised in the cold mountain water surrounding this area. It comes to the table hot, fresh and uncomplicated — exactly what you want after climbing above 13,000 feet and coming down the other side.

The people here are friendly and still genuinely interested when a group of motorcycle riders from another part of the world turns up in their village.

This is a snack worth making room for.

From La Merced de Buenos Aires, we continue west on unimproved dirt farm roads through a strange series of small mountains that look almost like pyramids rising from the surrounding valleys.

The road passes trout farms, fruit growers, coffee farms, cattle, rural homes and small agricultural communities. People are working in the fields, animals wander near the road, and children appear outside tiny schools in places where very few foreign travelers ever stop.

Along this route are rural schools connected with Ecuador Freedom’s Ride for a Purpose program, which helps us deliver school supplies to children in remote communities that our motorcycle tours allow us to reach.

This part of the ride is a good example of why we build tours around these roads. You are not riding through empty scenery. These mountains are working places filled with farms, families, schools and people making a living from whatever the land around them can produce.

We briefly join the paved E10 at the ranger station before leaving it again near Limonal.

The smaller road drops deep into the fertile western Andes, following a roaring river past waterfalls, farms and dense vegetation toward the tiny hamlet of Primavera.

Just outside the village, a small entrance leads toward Hacienda Primavera Wilderness Lodge.

The final approach is exactly how a lodge like this should be reached: by motorcycle, down a remote mountain road, with a full day already behind you.

Hacienda Primavera sits deep in the Chocó cloudforest, surrounded by primary and secondary forest, rivers, tropical vegetation, orchids, epiphytes and an extraordinary variety of birdlife.

Parrots and toucans are among the more conspicuous residents, but serious birdwatchers come here because the Chocó supports an enormous range of species within a relatively small area.

The lodge has large rooms, a gourmet restaurant, a beautiful spring-fed swimming pool, and a working horse and cattle ranch. There is also coffee grown on the property, and the staff can show you around if time and energy permit.

One of the best places to end the day is the infinity jacuzzi overlooking the rainforest. After cobblestone roads, leather workshops, hot springs, a good lunch, steep dirt climbs, thin air, rocky switchbacks, cloudforest and a hot trout on the side of a mountain, warm water suddenly becomes an extremely persuasive idea.

This is what the Dirt Deluxe concept is built around: put in a serious day on the motorcycle, then finish somewhere worth reaching.

Day 4

Primavera – El Chical – Maldonado – El Ángel Ecological Reserve – Tufiño – Tulcán – Aloburo

We wake up at Hacienda Primavera high on its hill above the tiny hamlet of Primavera, surrounded by a 360-degree view of mountains, forest, farms, and deep green valleys.

The hacienda is a working farm as well as a wilderness lodge, with its own coffee plantation, horses, tropical fruit trees, bananas, and vegetable gardens. Much of what appears at breakfast has not traveled very far to reach the table.

Then the motorcycles come back out.

Today we are going to ride from this warm, wet Chocó cloudforest all the way into cold high-altitude páramo near 14,000 feet, visit the Colombian borderlands, soak in volcanic hot springs, watch people turn local soil into bricks and roof tiles, walk through one of the strangest cemeteries anywhere, tackle some of the most challenging dirt of the tour, and then drop into cactus country for the night.

Ecuador has some explaining to do.

The ride away from Primavera begins on remote dirt roads through dense tropical vegetation, rushing streams, waterfalls, farms, and mountain valleys.

We have a steep climb up through the Golondrina Protected Forest, crossing a mountain pass before dropping into another valley and reaching the small community of El Chical, close to the Colombian border.

This is productive subtropical country. Families grow coffee, cacao, tropical fruits, bananas, and other crops on steep green hillsides cut by rivers and mountain streams.

There is very little tourism here. Most of what you see exists because somebody is farming, hauling, planting, harvesting, repairing, or trying to get something useful out of a mountain that rarely provides a level surface.

From El Chical, we continue through the border country toward Maldonado.

The road follows river valleys and mountain slopes through a landscape that still feels thoroughly tropical. It is worth remembering just how warm and green everything is here, because in a few hours you will be looking around wondering where all the trees went.

Sugar cane is one of the important crops in these warmer valleys, and along the way we’ll stop with a local family that still makes panela the traditional way.

Fresh cane is crushed to extract the juice, which is then boiled for hours in large open pans over a wood fire. The building fills with steam, wood smoke, and the heavy sweet smell of reducing sugar as the liquid slowly thickens into syrup.

When it reaches the right consistency, the syrup is poured into molds and allowed to cool into the hard golden-brown blocks of panela used in kitchens all over rural Ecuador.

Panela is dissolved in hot water to make agua de panela, stirred into coffee, used in cooking and desserts, and carried by people working in the fields as a quick source of energy. Here you get to see the entire process only a few feet from the cane fields that supply it.

In Maldonado, we visit the Golondrina Coffee Growers Cooperative, run by our friend Germán.

Germán works with farming families throughout this isolated border region who grow coffee using the particular combination of elevation, rainfall, temperature, and rich mountain soil found on these western Andean slopes.

He’ll show us what happens between picking a coffee cherry and pouring a cup. Beans have to be selected, dried, shelled, sorted, and roasted before anybody gets to sit down and complain that their morning coffee took too long.

Many families here also grow raspberries, and during harvest season red-stained fingers are simply part of everyday life.

The cooperative has worked with local communities on reforestation and agricultural practices intended to reduce erosion and protect the steep mountain soils these farmers depend on.

Then comes the important part: we drink the coffee.

A cup produced by the people who grew, picked, selected, dried, and roasted the beans tastes considerably better after you have ridden across the mountains to get it.

From Maldonado, the route begins climbing hard out of coffee country and toward one of the rarest landscapes of the entire tour: the high páramo of the El Ángel Ecological Reserve.

The change is dramatic. Dense forest begins opening. Temperatures fall. The air gets thinner. Trees eventually disappear altogether.

And then the frailejones take over.

These extraordinary plants look like somebody crossed a giant sunflower with a fuzzy palm tree and then planted thousands of them across the mountains.

Frailejones are built for high-altitude life. Their thick, woolly leaves protect them from freezing temperatures and intense ultraviolet radiation while helping collect moisture from fog and clouds. Dead leaves remain wrapped around the trunks, providing additional insulation against cold nights.

They are also part of the páramo’s natural water-storage system. Moisture collects in the plants, surrounding vegetation, and deep sponge-like soils, then gradually feeds streams and rivers flowing toward communities thousands of feet below.

There is no place on Earth quite like this.

The dirt road keeps climbing through hillsides covered with frailejones, small lakes, wetlands, exposed ridges, and huge open views.

We climb toward the Volcán Chiles region at elevations approaching 14,000 feet / 4,267 meters.

There are very few buildings up here, almost no traffic, and long stretches where the motorcycles are the only mechanical sound you hear.

The weather can move across these mountains very quickly. Blue sky can disappear behind fog, cold rain, or wind within minutes, while sections of dirt road can become muddy and slick.

Our guide manages the route and pace while you concentrate on riding through one of the strangest environments in the northern Andes.

Near Volcán Chiles, volcanic lakes sit among the mountains while mist moves across open páramo covered with frailejones.

This is cold, exposed country. At these elevations the temperature can change fast, the air is thin, and the wind has had several thousand miles of practice.

Fortunately, there is something considerably warmer waiting farther down the mountain.

A long old cobblestone road carries us toward a remote collection of natural hot springs near Tufiño, tucked beneath the slopes of Volcán Chiles and close to the Colombian border.

You may smell the sulfur before you reach the pools.

The setting is spectacular. Steep cliffs surround the springs, and Andean condors nest in the surrounding cliffs. We often see these enormous birds soaring overhead while we are soaking in the naturally heated mineral water below.

We park the motorcycles, exchange riding gear for bathing suits, and let hot volcanic water work on hands, backs, shoulders, and legs that have spent the morning climbing through the páramo.

Sitting in a remote hot spring beneath condor nests after riding across mountains approaching 14,000 feet is a difficult experience to improve upon.

Eventually somebody has to make the unpopular decision to get out of the water.

We continue through the small highland village of Tufiño and head toward Tulcán.

Along the road, we stop to visit traditional brick and roof-tile makers.

The soil in this part of Carchi is particularly well suited to producing the rich red bricks and clay roof tiles seen on homes, haciendas, and farm buildings throughout northern Ecuador.

The process is impressively physical. Local earth is prepared, compressed and shaped, then left to dry before thousands of bricks are carefully stacked into enormous kiln-like towers.

Huge logs feed the fires, which must remain burning continuously for about seven days. That sustained heat transforms ordinary local soil into the hard red bricks and roof tiles used throughout the region.

There is a tremendous amount of digging, carrying, shaping, stacking, firing, unstacking, and hauling behind every finished brick.

After you watch the process, you begin noticing those red roofs everywhere.

Then we reach Tulcán, the capital of Carchi Province and one of Ecuador’s principal border cities.

Our most unusual stop is the José María Azael Franco Guerrero Cemetery.

Calling it a cemetery does not really prepare you for what is inside.

More than four hectares of the grounds are filled with enormous cypress trees clipped and sculpted into hundreds of living figures: animals, arches, faces, Indigenous and pre-Columbian forms, geometric designs, mythical creatures, and shapes inspired by cultures from around the world.

The tradition began in 1936, when Tulcán parks director José María Azael Franco began shaping the cemetery’s cypress trees by hand. He called part of his creation the “Altar de Dios.” After his death, his family, other gardeners, and artists continued expanding the work.

Today, people interested in topiary travel to Tulcán specifically to walk through it.

Walking between graves beneath giant walls of living sculpture is peaceful, meticulous, slightly surreal, and completely unlike any cemetery most people have ever visited.

We’ll also visit Tulcán’s remodeled central market, where regional foods and everyday border-city life replace the formal landscaping of the cemetery. This is where we’ll have lunch.

There is also a chance to sample the local drink known as norteña before we turn the motorcycles south.

From Tulcán, we turn south onto sections of the old Pan-American route through the northern highlands.

This is one of the sections that earns the Dirt Deluxe tour its 5/5 Challenging difficulty rating.

The ground through this part of Carchi contains a great deal of dark volcanic soil and ash. When it is dry, it can be loose and dusty. When it gets wet, it becomes something else entirely.

Rain can turn these roads into deep, black, slick mud. Ruts fill with water, the surface underneath becomes difficult to read, and traction can change from one meter to the next. Some wheel tracks are firm. Others are deep enough to swallow half a motorcycle before you realize you chose poorly.

This is exactly the kind of riding many Dirt Deluxe riders came to Ecuador for.

You will be standing on the pegs, reading ruts, managing momentum, moving the motorcycle beneath you, and occasionally discovering that volcanic mud has its own opinion about where the front wheel ought to go.

The good news is that your guide knows these roads. He knows the sections that hold water, where the firmer lines tend to be, which ruts have a bottom, when to keep momentum, when to slow down, and how to get the group through the ugly bits.

That local knowledge matters here. Conditions can change dramatically after a hard rain, and a line that worked last week may be completely different today.

There may be sections where the mud is deep, the motorcycle is moving around underneath you, and progress requires concentration, commitment, and a willingness to work for it.

That is part of what you signed up for.

Dirt Deluxe is built for riders who want challenging dirt roads during the day and first-class treatment at night. There are sections where you will work hard, get muddy, wrestle with the motorcycle, and arrive at the other end knowing you actually rode something.

This stretch is one of the reasons the tour carries our highest 5/5 Challenging rating.

Once we get through the wet high-country sections, the ride begins changing again.

We start what we call the drying cycle.

As we descend toward the Chota Valley, warmer, drier air begins rising through the canyon.

Jackets open. Gloves start drying. Wet highland grass disappears. Frailejones are long gone. Green mountains slowly turn silver-gray and brown.

Then come the cactus.

Within a couple of hours, we have gone from fog, volcanic wetlands, and near-freezing mountain air to dry earth, goats, cactus, and warm sun.

The landscape looks like somebody changed countries while we were riding downhill.

As the route continues south, we leave the modern Pan-American Highway and turn onto an old cobblestone road that once formed part of the principal route between what are now Ecuador and Colombia.

Before modern highways cut through these mountains, roads like this carried farmers, merchants, armies, mail, livestock, and political power through the northern Andes.

Simón Bolívar traveled through this region during the independence campaigns that transformed northern South America.

Today, cactus lines the old road, goats move across the hillsides, and local people still work the dry land surrounding the route.

After waking up in rainforest, riding through cold páramo, and fighting your way through black volcanic mud, this dry canyon country feels completely removed from where the day began.

The old road eventually leads toward Hacienda Piman, tucked into an extraordinary dry Andean landscape above the Chota Valley.

After miles of old cobblestone, cactus, switchbacks, and silver mountains, a beautiful hacienda appears in the middle of all that dry country.

Piman has spacious, luxurious rooms, a swimming pool, excellent food, and private views across the surrounding mountains and canyon.

The outdoor pergola is one of the best places to finish the day, with comfortable seating, a huge wood-burning stove, and an excellent supply of cocktails.

Think about where you woke up this morning.

You started deep in wet Chocó cloudforest. Since breakfast you have crossed rainforest, sugar-cane country, a family panela operation, cacao and coffee country, isolated border communities, high páramo covered with frailejones, volcanic lakes, hot springs beneath condor nests, traditional brick yards, one of the strangest cemeteries in South America, deep black volcanic mud, ancient cobblestone roads, and dry cactus-covered mountains.

Now you are sitting beside a wood fire at a beautiful hacienda overlooking a dry Andean canyon.

That is Dirt Deluxe.

Day 5

Aloburo – Ibarra – Zuleta – Cayambe – Oyacachi – Papallacta

Today brings another major shift in climate, culture, history, and terrain. We leave the dry northern landscape around Aloburo and ride toward the tranquil shores of Laguna Yaguarcocha, also known as Blood Lake.

The peaceful lake has a particularly violent name because of a brutal chapter in Andean history. In 1495, Inca leader Huayna Capac defeated the local Cara people here, and tradition holds that thousands of bodies were thrown into the lake, turning its waters red.

Today, Yaguarcocha is considerably more peaceful. Totora reeds grow along the shore and are still used for traditional crafts, while the broad road surrounding the lake doubles as a racetrack.

Ancient battlefield, reed-lined lake, mountain scenery, race circuit. Ecuador has never been particularly interested in sticking to one subject at a time.

From the lake, we ride into the historic center of Ibarra, founded in 1606 and known as the White City for its whitewashed buildings.

The center is filled with stately plazas, churches, old façades, and colonial buildings sheltering quiet interior courtyards.

But there is another very good reason to stop here: helados de paila.

This intensely flavored fruit sorbet is made using fresh fruit, sugar, ice, and salt, traditionally worked by hand in a bronze pan. We stop at the original shop of Rosalía Suárez, the woman credited with making Ibarra’s helados de paila famous.

Choosing a flavor is generally followed by the realization that choosing only one was poor planning.

South of Ibarra, we ride through a patchwork of intensely green fields, dairy farms, and small highland communities toward Zuleta and a country road known locally as the Ruta de los Bordados — the Route of the Embroiderers.

The road runs beneath snow-covered Cayambe Volcano through countryside that, on a clear day, can look remarkably like Switzerland — rolling green farmland beneath a snowy mountain — just considerably less developed.

Along the route we stop at the embroidery shop of our friend Fanny Albán.

Embroidery has an important place in Otavaleña culture, especially in the beautifully decorated white blouses traditionally worn by Indigenous women throughout this part of northern Ecuador.

The elaborate flowers and patterns embroidered around the neckline, chest, and sleeves are among the most recognizable elements of Otavaleña dress. These garments are still worn in everyday life as well as at markets, festivals, weddings, and other important occasions.

This is a living tradition, not something being recreated for visitors. The embroidery remains part of how Otavaleña women express community, identity, and personal style.

Fanny gives us a closer look at the work and the amount of patience required to build these intricate designs by hand.

Look closely at the stitching. Flowers, leaves, stems, and geometric details are built one thread at a time, with the consistency coming from years of practice rather than a machine quietly doing the difficult part somewhere in the back room.

The same skills are used to produce beautiful household pieces, including embroidered tablecloths and sets of cloth napkins.

If you are looking for something useful to bring home, this is one of our favorite stops. Fanny's napkins and tablecloths pack easily into motorcycle luggage, and if you buy more than you want to carry, we can arrange to get them back to our office for you.

More importantly, when somebody asks where they came from, you can tell them exactly who made them and where you met her.

As we continue toward Cayambe, the massive volcano begins dominating the skyline.

Cayambe Volcano is the only place on Earth where the Equator crosses permanent snow. The Equator runs directly across its glacier, creating the rather ridiculous geographic possibility of standing at zero degrees latitude while looking up at ice and snow.

The surrounding region is also the heart of Ecuador’s cut-flower industry. High elevation, intense equatorial sunlight, cool nights, and volcanic soils produce enormous long-stem roses exported around the world.

By the time we reach the town of Cayambe, we have earned another Ecuador Freedom tradition: second breakfast.

Cayambe is famous throughout Ecuador for bizcochos, crisp, buttery biscuits that have been made here for generations.

We stop at our favorite place in town, where they still use a traditional recipe and bake the bizcochos in wood-fired ovens.

Fresh from the oven, they are warm, flaky, slightly salty, and dangerously easy to keep eating. They are traditionally served with fresh local cheese, dulce de leche, coffee, or hot chocolate.

This is one of those regional foods that tastes better in the place where it belongs.

So yes, we have breakfast twice. Motorcycle tours require fuel. Nobody said all of it had to go into the motorcycle.

After Cayambe and our second breakfast, we continue to Hacienda Guachalá, founded in 1580 and the oldest hacienda in Ecuador.

Guachalá has survived more than four centuries of Ecuadorian history. Presidents, political figures, explorers, landowners, workers, and generations of local families have all passed through this property while the country around it changed from Spanish colony to independent republic.

The old stone walls, heavy wooden doors, courtyards, gardens, and historic chapel make it immediately obvious that this is not somebody’s modern idea of what a colonial hacienda ought to look like. The place has actually been here long enough to accumulate the scars.

Haciendas like Guachalá were once enormous agricultural estates and major centers of economic and political power. Understanding them helps explain a lot about the history of the Ecuadorian Andes: who controlled the land, who worked it, how communities developed, and why the social structure of the countryside evolved the way it did.

We stop long enough to walk around, look at the old buildings, and understand a little of what happened here before returning to the considerably newer technology parked outside.

From Guachalá, we continue toward another place that helps explain why Ecuador calls itself the Middle of the World.

The Quitsato Equator Monument sits precisely on the Equator and is built around a giant sundial measuring approximately 54 meters across, with a central cylinder roughly 10 meters high.

The monument uses the movement of the sun and its shadows to demonstrate the time of day, the seasons, solstices, equinoxes, and the relationship between the Equator and the movement of celestial bodies.

The important part of Quitsato is that the story does not begin with Europeans arriving with instruments.

Indigenous cultures of this region were observing the sun, shadows, mountains, and seasonal movements of the sky long before modern surveying equipment arrived. Their understanding of celestial cycles allowed them to recognize the special geography of this region centuries before the measurements were given modern scientific labels.

The site connects that knowledge with the Chakana, or Andean Cross, and explains how astronomy, agriculture, seasons, geography, and ceremonial life were tied together in pre-Columbian culture.

By watching the direction and length of shadows throughout the day and over the course of the year, people could track seasonal changes and use that information to help determine when to plant, harvest, travel, and hold important ceremonies.

Standing here turns the Equator into considerably more than a line painted on the ground.

And yes, you can stand with one boot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere. Everybody does it. There is no point pretending you are above this sort of thing.

Once on the southern side of the Equator, the character of the ride changes again.

We turn onto old cobblestone roads climbing the slopes of Cayambe Volcano and enter the Cayambe-Coca National Park.

This is one of Ecuador’s most protected natural areas, and access to the route requires special permission. Ecuador Freedom has that permit, giving us access to one of the wildest and least-visited sections of the tour.

The park protects an enormous range of elevations and habitats, from high Andean páramo to cloudforest and the upper reaches of the Amazon watershed.

Hundreds of bird species live here, and Ecuador Freedom guides have personally encountered wild puma and spectacled bears inside the reserve.

The riding is high, remote, and exposed, with rough surfaces, cold air, open páramo, water, and very little sign of human development.

The Andes are not putting on a show for anybody up here. They are simply enormous, cold, wet, and indifferent while we work our way through them.

Eventually the route drops into Oyacachi, a remote highland community with a history directly connected to where we began the day.

Local tradition holds that Oyacachi was settled by descendants of people who fled the Inca violence around Laguna Yaguarcocha. After beginning the morning at Blood Lake, we have effectively ridden through a piece of that history.

Today Oyacachi is known for wood carving, thermal springs, cold mountain streams, and trout.

Lunch is exactly what ought to be waiting in a place like this: locally raised trout cooked over a wood fire using traditional methods.

The fish has not suffered through an international supply chain. It comes from the cold, clear water running through the valley, gets cooked, and lands on the plate.

There is also time for a soak in the Oyacachi hot springs.

After the cold highland riding, getting into naturally heated water does a remarkable job of convincing your hands, shoulders, legs, and back to cooperate for another few hours.

Then it is back onto the motorcycles, because the park is not finished with us yet.

From Oyacachi, we continue through remote sections of the reserve across high páramo that can look surprisingly like the Scottish Highlands.

Glacial lakes sit among broad open moorland. Cold wind pushes across the grass. Clouds move fast over the mountains, and the road threads through a landscape with very little between us and the weather.

Keep your eyes open for condors, mountain toucans, and other high-Andean wildlife.

This is one of the most beautiful high-altitude sections of the Dirt Deluxe, but it still requires attention. Weather changes quickly up here, and the isolation is real.

The day finishes at Termas Papallacta Hot Springs Spa & Resort, one of Ecuador’s best high-Andean retreats.

Your private adobe-and-thatch cabin has its own outdoor thermal bath. Cold mountain air hangs over the valley while hot mineral water steams a few steps from the door.

Think about what happened since breakfast.

You woke up in dry cactus country, rode around a lake named after an Inca massacre, ate hand-made fruit sorbet in a colonial city, met Fanny on the Ruta de los Bordados, ate warm bizcochos and cheese in Cayambe, walked through Ecuador’s oldest hacienda, stood on the Equator, climbed onto the slopes of a snow-covered volcano, crossed protected páramo, ate wood-fired trout in a remote mountain village, soaked in hot springs, crossed glacial country, and finished in your own thermal bath.

Challenging riding during the day. Posh treatment at night. That is Dirt Deluxe.

Day 6

Termas de Papallacta – Laguna Muerto Pungo – Quito

The final morning is built for recovery. After five days of dirt, cloudforest, high passes, cobblestone, hot springs, desert, borderlands, rainforest, and remote Andean roads, you’ll have time to enjoy your private cabin at Termas de Papallacta Spa Resort.

This is not a rushed pack-and-go morning. Soak in the thermal waters, walk the resort trails, breathe the cold mountain air, and let the body remember that it has been working hard all week.

The resort offers spa treatments, quiet paths, beautiful gardens, mountain views, and horseback riding in the surrounding area.

If you want one more slow cup of coffee, one more soak, or one more walk through the high-Andean landscape before returning to the city, this is the time to take it.

Dirt Deluxe means earning the comfort, and by Day 6, you have earned it properly.

The ride back toward Quito begins with the climb over Papallacta Pass, the continental divide at roughly 13,400 feet / 4,085 meters.

The air is thin, the weather can move quickly, and the views across the high páramo are a final reminder that Ecuador does not waste geography.

From here, the normal route begins dropping back toward the capital.

But there is another option.

For riders who still have some fight left in them before handing back the keys, we can take an optional alternate route toward Laguna Muerto Pungo, a remote high-altitude lake hidden deep in the páramo.

This is not simply a scenic detour. The road is rough, isolated, and genuinely challenging, with broken surfaces, steep sections, mud, water, loose rock, and rapidly changing high-mountain weather all capable of making an appearance.

Conditions vary enormously, and there are times when the route becomes too difficult or simply cannot be ridden safely.

That is why this section is only attempted when conditions allow. Your guide knows the road, knows what it looks like when it is rideable, and knows when it is time to turn around.

If we go, expect another proper piece of Dirt Deluxe riding rather than an easy sightseeing loop.

The reward is Laguna Muerto Pungo itself, sitting in cold, empty páramo with almost nothing around it except grassland, water, mountains, and weather.

We ride out to the lake, stop for a look around, and then retrace the route back toward Quito.

After six days of dirt roads, mud, high passes, cloudforest, volcanic country, and long days on the motorcycle, Muerto Pungo is a fitting last test.

If you still wanted one more challenging ride before the pavement takes over, this is it.

You’ll ride back toward Quito along old cobbled roads tied to the route of Francisco de Orellana, the Spanish explorer who crossed from the Andes toward the Amazon in search of wealth, glory, and whatever else men with royal backing and bad ideas convinced themselves they were chasing.

Centuries later, this route still feels like a passage between worlds: cold highlands behind you, Quito ahead, and the Amazon Basin somewhere beyond the mountains you just crossed.

The day finishes back at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental in Quito.

After six days, you will have crossed cloudforest, coffee country, crater lakes, colonial towns, high páramo, volcanic passes, rainforest, desert, hot springs, cobblestone roads, and some of the most rewarding dirt routes in Ecuador.

You started with a motorcycle and a clean jacket.

You finish with mud on the boots, a few stories that will grow with time, and the satisfaction of having ridden Dirt Deluxe the way it was meant to be ridden.

Six days of serious riding. Six nights of proper comfort. That is Dirt Deluxe.

This guided motorcycle adventure begins at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental’s headquarters in Quito’s secure and convenient La Carolina neighborhood. We strongly recommend arriving one or two days early so you can adjust to the altitude, complete your paperwork, and spend some time exploring the capital before the tour begins. Our guide to enjoying Quito before your motorcycle tour includes suggestions for nearby attractions, restaurants, museums, and other worthwhile places to visit. Completing the registration process in advance allows Day 1 to begin smoothly, with your attention where it belongs: on the motorcycle and the route ahead.

Orientation, Motorcycles & Support

Before departure, you’ll receive a detailed pre-ride briefing covering Ecuadorian traffic laws, local driving customs, road courtesies, riding signals, group-riding procedures, safety protocols, and the conditions you can expect along the route. We’ll review the itinerary, answer your questions, and make sure you understand how the group will operate when the roads become narrow, steep, muddy, rocky, or otherwise challenging.

You’ll be provided with the adventure-ready motorcycle of your choice, fitted with a waterproof luggage system, protective equipment, suitable tires, and an optional tank bag. Before leaving Quito, the motorcycle will be inspected with you so that you understand its controls, accessories, luggage, and any model-specific features.

For groups of five or more riders, a support truck will accompany the tour to carry luggage, bottled water, tools, emergency supplies, and other equipment. The truck adds comfort and an additional layer of support, but participants should still be prepared to ride the complete route each day. For smaller groups, a support vehicle may not be provided, and riders will carry their gear in the supplied saddlebags or luggage system.

The Route & Riding Experience

The Dirt Deluxe route is the result of years spent riding, scouting, testing, and refining Ecuador’s remote backroads. Your guide knows these roads thoroughly and understands where the surfaces change, where water collects, where the weather can turn, where the difficult climbs begin, and where conditions sometimes require a change of plan. On sections such as the old Pan-American route in Carchi and the optional ride toward Laguna Muerto Pungo, the guide will evaluate conditions and determine whether the intended route can be ridden safely that day.

This tour follows mostly unpaved, unimproved natural dirt roads rather than graded gravel highways. Expect narrow one-lane tracks, ancient cobblestone, loose rock, mud, ruts, steep climbs, rough descents, shallow water crossings, cold high passes, warm valleys, and rapid changes in elevation and weather. The roads are chosen for their scenery, remoteness, lack of traffic, cultural value, and the quality of the riding itself.

Dirt Deluxe carries our highest 5/5 Challenging difficulty rating. That rating reflects the demands of the complete tour: long riding days, sustained concentration, high altitude, steep climbs and descents, mud, loose rock, old cobblestone, water, rapidly changing weather, and sections where conditions can become genuinely technical. This is not an extreme enduro tour, but riders should arrive with solid off-road experience, good physical conditioning, and the stamina to remain focused for a full day on the motorcycle.

In northern Carchi, sections of the old Pan-American route cross dark volcanic soil and ash that can turn into deep, slick black mud after rain. Other sections climb steeply through rocky mountain terrain or cross isolated high páramo where weather and road conditions can change quickly.

The goal is to give you challenging, rewarding riding with the support to handle difficult sections sensibly. You are never expected to ride beyond your ability or continue through something you are not comfortable with. If a section feels beyond your skill level, tell your guide. He can help you assess the terrain, choose a line, assist you through a difficult section, or make another decision when conditions call for it. Good judgment is part of adventure riding, and asking for help when you need it is part of riding this tour well.

That support also means you can concentrate on the experience around you. Your guide will stop regularly to explain regional history, introduce you to people who live along the route, and show you places that most visitors to Ecuador never reach.

Participants are also encouraged to support our Ride for a Purpose program. Riders may bring requested school supplies, sports equipment, art materials, and other useful items for children in remote communities visited during the tour. Donations are delivered directly to local schools, giving participants an opportunity to meet students and teachers while making a practical contribution to the communities through which we ride. Please review the program page before packing for the current list of requested items.

This is the Dirt Deluxe idea: challenging backcountry riding during the day, followed by excellent food and some of Ecuador’s most comfortable, distinctive, and beautiful accommodations at night. You earn the luxury during the ride, which makes the warm shower, good dinner, comfortable room, and cold drink at the end of the day feel even better.

Meals & Tour Expenses

Meals on riding days are included, along with fuel, tolls, and normal tour-related expenses. You will only need additional spending money for gratuities, alcoholic beverages, snacks, souvenirs, and personal purchases. This allows you to focus on the riding rather than repeatedly reaching for your wallet throughout the day.

After the Ride

When the tour returns to Quito, you’ll have access to the Freedom Riders’ Lounge™, including the honor bar, jacuzzi, hot showers, luggage storage, and a comfortable place to relax before continuing your travels. Ecuador Freedom staff can also assist with hotel arrangements, airport transportation, local recommendations, and planning your next destination. More information about our location and facilities is available on the Ecuador Freedom headquarters page.

Weather & Temperatures

Ecuador’s general weather patterns remain fairly consistent throughout the year, but the dramatic elevation changes on the Dirt Deluxe route mean that conditions can vary considerably during a single riding day. You may begin in warm, humid valleys where temperatures approach 90°F / 32°C and later climb into the high Andes, where temperatures can fall into the 30s°F / 0–4°C.

Passing showers are common in the highlands, although a complete day of rain is unusual. Longer periods of rain are more likely on the western slopes of the Andes during March, April, and early May. Rain can make the unpaved sections considerably more demanding, adding mud, standing water, slippery rock, and deeper ruts to the riding conditions.

Dressing in layers is strongly recommended. Waterproof outerwear, warm gloves, breathable protective gear, moisture-wicking base layers, and quick-drying clothing will make the ride far more comfortable. Our detailed Weather in Ecuador Guide explains regional conditions, elevation-related temperature changes, seasonal patterns, and what riders should expect in the Andes, cloudforest, and lower valleys.

Accommodations

Throughout the tour, you’ll stay in carefully selected, higher-end hotels, historic haciendas, mountain lodges, and rural inns chosen for comfort, character, location, secure motorcycle parking, and convenient access to the route. These properties are an important part of the Dirt Deluxe experience rather than generic places selected simply to break up the journey.

After a demanding day of dirt roads, high passes, mud, rocks, and water crossings, you can expect a comfortable room, a hot shower, a good meal, and a welcoming place to recover before the following day’s ride. Ecuador Freedom reserves the right to substitute accommodations of comparable quality when required by availability, weather, access conditions, or other operational considerations.

Packing List & Preparation

Before your trip, Ecuador Freedom will provide detailed preparation information, including a recommended packing list and guidance on luggage, protective equipment, documents, physical preparation, and the conditions you are likely to encounter. We also recommend reviewing our complete Motorcycle Tour Packing Guide, which covers riding gear, layering, waterproof clothing, electronics, personal items, and other practical considerations for riding through Ecuador’s changing climates and elevations.

No knowledge of Spanish is required. Your guide speaks English and Spanish fluently and will assist with communication, logistics, meals, accommodations, mechanical issues, and local interactions throughout the tour.

The better prepared you are, the more you’ll enjoy the route’s changing weather, varied terrain, altitude, cultural encounters, and inevitable backcountry surprises. Dirt Deluxe is demanding enough to feel earned, but carefully organized so that riders can focus on the experience rather than the logistics.

• Unlimited-mileage motorcycle rental
• Knowledgeable, experienced, bilingual guide who lives in Ecuador
• Saddlebags or luggage system
• Luggage storage and locker use while riding
• Guaranteed departure — we go even if only one participant signs up
• Support vehicle for groups of 5 or more riders
• Single-occupancy accommodations in the luxury haciendas, lodges, and boutique hotels listed in the itinerary
• All meals included — breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Fuel included
• Tolls included
• All entry fees included for parks, activities, museums, and attractions listed in the itinerary
• 20% pre-tour discount on high-quality riding gear from Klim
• Pre-tour preparation package with packing lists, videos, and travel information
• Souvenir T-shirt
• Souvenir decal
• VIP access to the Freedom Riders’ Lounge™ with hot shower, jacuzzi, gym, and honor bar

Once the tour starts, almost everything is already taken care of. Fuel, meals, accommodations, tolls, listed activities, park entries, museum entries, and the complete riding experience are included.

You’ll only need additional spending money for alcoholic beverages, gratuities, snacks, souvenirs, and personal purchases.

• Airfare to and from Ecuador
• Airport transfers
• Refundable security deposit to cover any damage to the rental motorcycle
• Hotel accommodations before and after the tour in Quito
• Medical and emergency evacuation insurance
• Trip cancellation insurance or any other travel insurance
• Alcoholic beverages
• Personal purchases, souvenirs, laundry, or other incidental expenses
• Gratuities for your guide, hotel staff, restaurant staff, and other service providers along the route

Book your tour online in just a few steps.

To reserve your place, simply click the tour date above that you would like to ride.

Our reservation system will guide you through the booking process, including your rider information, motorcycle selection, optional extras, and deposit payment.

Our booking system operates under Ecuadorian banking regulations, which require an identification number when making a reservation. You may enter your passport number, driver’s license number, national ID number, or another government-issued identification number. If you are uncomfortable entering that information online, you may enter any number in that field and we will collect your identification securely before finalizing your reservation.

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