HIgh Andes, Deep Amazon Guided Motorcycle Tour

The High Andes, Deep Amazon Motorcycle Tour is built around a simple idea: the farther we get from the pavement, the more interesting Ecuador becomes. Much of this journey follows remote dirt roads, mountain tracks, and forgotten routes—not because they're more difficult, but because they lead to places that few travelers ever experience. The riding is adventurous, but the objective is exploration rather than technical off-roading. We want you lifting your head to take in the scenery, not staring at your front wheel all day.

Some of the places we'll visit simply cannot be reached by ordinary travel. At one point, we'll load the motorcycles into a long, motorized canoe and travel nearly one hundred miles down the Napo River, deep into the Amazon Basin, through Indigenous communities where the river serves as the highway and motorcycles arrive by boat. Later, we'll climb high into the Andes to villages where oxen still help plow the fields, horses remain essential transportation, and life moves to a rhythm that has changed little over generations.

Despite the remoteness, comfort is never far away. Each evening you'll arrive at carefully selected haciendas, lodges, and hotels where hot showers, comfortable beds, generous meals, and warm hospitality prepare you for the next day's adventure.

This tour is intended for intermediate to advanced riders with good off-road skills, endurance, and a sense of adventure. Some days involve long hours in the saddle, changing weather, rough surfaces, and complete isolation. Those challenges are part of what makes reaching these extraordinary places so rewarding.

WARNING: This is not an ordinary motorcycle tour. Riders should be prepared for extended days of up to ten hours, remote conditions where help may be many hours away, and a combination of dirt, mud, rocks, river crossings, and changing mountain weather. The rewards are extraordinary—but they must be earned.

Day 1

Quito – Avenue of the Volcanoes – Isinliví – Sigchos

The expedition begins at Ecuador Freedom headquarters with a detailed rider briefing covering Ecuadorian road customs, group riding procedures, and what to expect over the coming ten days. We'll spend the first hour riding a variety of roads and conditions, allowing everyone to settle into their motorcycles while the guides get to know each rider's pace and comfort level.

Leaving Quito behind, we head south along the legendary Avenue of the Volcanoes, where the eastern and western cordilleras of the Andes crowd together to create one of South America's most spectacular landscapes. Cotopaxi dominates the eastern skyline while the twin Illinizas rise to the west. It is an impressive beginning, but the real adventure lies beyond the highway.

Turning onto quieter country roads, we arrive at one of Ecuador's famous rose plantations. Because the Equator keeps the sun almost directly overhead throughout the year, rose bushes grow nearly straight upward instead of bending toward the light, producing the exceptionally long stems and brilliant blooms that have made Ecuadorian roses famous around the world. We'll walk through the greenhouses and see how thousands of flowers are cut, graded, cooled, packed, and shipped to florists across Europe, Asia, and North America.

Lunch is served at a remarkable colonial hacienda dating to the early 1600s that remains in the hands of descendants of the Spanish royal family. During Ecuador's great age of exploration, many famous expeditions planned their journeys into the Andes and Amazon from here. Members of the French Geodesic Mission led by Charles Marie de La Condamine prepared for the expedition that proved the Earth is slightly flattened at the poles, and Alexander von Humboldt also passed through while organizing his explorations of Ecuador. Few lunch stops anywhere in the world can claim to have helped launch discoveries that changed our understanding of the planet.

After lunch, the tour begins revealing its true character as we join the famous Quilotoa Loop. The farther we get from the pavement, the more interesting Ecuador becomes. Smooth asphalt gives way to ancient hand-laid cobblestones and eventually to narrow dirt roads climbing through highland farms and isolated Indigenous communities. These roads are not here to test your off-road skills—they are simply the only roads that reach places where life has changed remarkably little over generations.

Climbing above 13,000 feet (4,000 m), we reach the windswept Guingopana Pass, one of the strangest landscapes in the Ecuadorian Andes. Enormous jagged boulders rise from the hillsides as though they had been scattered by giants, inspiring countless local myths and legends. From this lofty pass, the view opens across the Avenue of the Volcanoes, where snow-capped peaks stretch across the horizon in every direction.

The small village of Isinliví is home to a remarkable woodworking program run by the Salesian Order of the Catholic Church. Here, young people learn traditional woodworking techniques, creating beautiful furniture that looks as though it belonged in a colonial hacienda two hundred years ago—solid pieces built to last for generations. We'll visit the workshop, meet the students, and deliver school supplies as part of our Ride for a Purpose program.

From Isinliví, we continue along a memorable combination of cobblestones, dirt roads, and mountain tracks before arriving in the historic town of Sigchos, an important Indigenous trading center long before the arrival of the Spanish.

Two miles outside town, we turn into a working cattle farm with a guest lodge called Hacienda San José de Sigchos. A hot shower, large indoor swimming pool, and giant jacuzzi have never felt more deserved after the first day of the expedition. Over dinner, it begins to sink in that we have already left modern Ecuador well behind. Tomorrow, we ride even farther into the Andes.

Day 2

Sigchos – Chugchilán – Quilotoa – Angamarca – El Corazón – Simiátug – Salinas de Guaranda

Today is one of the longest and most demanding days of the expedition. A substantial farm breakfast of eggs, fresh fruit, juice, granola, and freshly baked bread gives us a proper start before we pull on warm layers and return to the motorcycles in the crisp morning air.

Leaving the farm near Sigchos, we pass through the mountain village of Chugchilán and begin dropping into a deep canyon on a narrow dirt road. The route follows the edge of steep slopes through isolated Indigenous communities, with long views across fields worked into terrain that seems far too vertical for farming.

Local sheepdogs occasionally charge out to herd the motorcycles away from their flocks. They take the assignment seriously, even though nobody asked them. We keep the pace controlled, give the animals plenty of room, and continue climbing toward one of the great landmarks of the Ecuadorian Andes.

At approximately 12,800 feet / 3,900 meters, we arrive at Quilotoa Crater Lake. A major eruption roughly 800 years ago emptied the magma chamber beneath the volcano and caused the summit to collapse, creating the enormous caldera seen today. Minerals dissolved in the water give the lake its remarkable blue-green color, which shifts constantly with the angle of the sun and the passing clouds. Even after years of bringing riders here, the first view over the rim still stops the conversation.

From Quilotoa, we ride into Zumbahua, an Indigenous market town where Kichwa remains widely spoken and traditional clothing is part of everyday life. This is an excellent place for what usually becomes our second breakfast.

Empanadas de viento translate as “wind empanadas.” They are large, crisp pockets of fried dough with little more than air inside, usually finished with sugar. The name is much better than simply calling them fried dough, and they provide useful fuel before we return to the cold, exposed high country. We may also find fried potatoes grown in the surrounding fields.

Beyond Zumbahua, the road climbs into the high Andean páramo. The sky becomes enormous, vegetation stays low to the ground, and the open landscape stretches across broad ridges and deep valleys. Weather can change quickly at this elevation when clouds roll across the mountains, turning bright views into cold mist within minutes.

We may encounter llamas, sheep, horses, and cattle moving freely near the road, with the occasional Andean condor circling above the ridgelines. Families living here practice subsistence farming under demanding high-altitude conditions. Potatoes, barley, broad beans, chochos, sheep, and dairy animals support communities scattered across the hills.

We sometimes stop at small schools along this route to meet the children and teachers and leave useful school supplies. These visits are simple and informal, giving riders a chance to see how families and schools function in one of Ecuador’s most isolated highland regions.

The road begins a long descent through a series of tight dirt switchbacks toward Angamarca. Horses and llamas remain common transportation here, and surrounding farms send their produce into town for the local market.

Angamarca sits deep in the mountains, separated from Ecuador’s main highways by hours of rough road. Visitors are uncommon, traffic is minimal, and daily life remains closely tied to the farming calendar.

Our third breakfast is usually a bowl of cevichochos, a highland version of ceviche made with chochos, the protein-rich Andean lupin beans grown throughout the surrounding fields. They are mixed with citrus, tomato, onion, and herbs. It is bright, filling, and remarkably effective at convincing everyone they are ready for more riding.

The road leaving Angamarca clings to the edge of the mountains, with the valley falling hundreds of feet below. There may be stretches of hours without passing another vehicle. Out here, the absence of traffic is part of the landscape.

The elevation continues to fall as we approach El Corazón. Heavy riding layers come off, tropical vegetation returns, and sugarcane begins covering the surrounding hillsides.

The town’s small distilleries produce aguardiente, the powerful sugarcane spirit found throughout rural Ecuador. The stills are fired with dried cane fiber, filling the air with a sweet smell that resembles burning marshmallows.

Lunch is with our friends Paquita and Sergio. Their farm outside town raises the chickens served in the restaurant, roasted until the meat is tender and the skin is crisp. Perhaps the long ride sharpens the appetite, but this remains some of the finest roast chicken we have found anywhere.

Paquita and Sergio also produce the flavored aguardiente for which El Corazón is known. We usually pick up a bottle—perhaps coconut, chocolate, or bubblegum—to open once the motorcycles are parked safely at the end of the day.

After leaving El Corazón and beginning the climb back toward the Andes, we stop with a local family that produces panela, the blocks of natural cane sugar used throughout Ecuador. Fresh sugarcane juice is boiled in wide pans until it thickens, then poured into molds and left to harden. We watch the process, taste the warm sugar at different stages, and see how one of Ecuador’s everyday ingredients is still made by hand on a small family farm.

The climb becomes steep, remote, and sustained, passing through Indigenous villages and small family farms connected by rough dirt roads. Tropical vegetation slowly disappears as we gain elevation and return to the colder highlands.

We eventually reach Simiátug, a village set inside a broad mountain bowl surrounded by cultivated slopes. Livestock move through the streets, traditional clothing remains common, and the town still serves as the commercial center for families living across the surrounding mountains.

A tremendous earthquake in 1970 destroyed much of Simiátug, including its main church. One surviving wall and its church bell remain as a stark reminder of the disaster. The town rebuilt around them, while the broken wall continues to overlook the plaza and surrounding farms.

From Simiátug, the road climbs again toward a pass above 13,000 feet / 4,000 meters. Tropical vegetation disappears, open páramo returns, and the temperature drops quickly.

If conditions are right, we may catch one of Ecuador’s most unusual sunset effects: the sun sinking between two layers of clouds, with one bank above us and another filling the valleys below. It creates the sense that the motorcycles are riding through the middle of the sky. We see this often enough to hope for it, but it remains extraordinary every time it happens.

We arrive in Salinas de Guaranda at approximately 11,800 feet / 3,600 meters and check into the family-run Cachi Yacu Hotel. The rooms are simple and comfortable, the views extend across the surrounding mountains, and a large fire usually burns in the salon.

Our host, Amelia, often has hot coca tea waiting to help guests settle in at altitude. Salinas becomes very cold after dark, and the heavy blankets piled on the beds are especially appreciated around three in the morning.

The evening meal reflects the town’s cooperative economy. Pizza is made with cheese, sausage, and Italian-style cured meats produced locally in Salinas. After one of the longest days of the expedition, dinner in the small restaurant heated by the wood pizza oven and a small glass of El Corazón aguardiente close out a ride through crater lakes, high páramo, cliff roads, sugarcane country, isolated villages, and two complete changes of climate.

Day 3

Salinas de Guaranda – Chimborazo Wildlife Reserve – Baños de Agua Santa

After yesterday's marathon ride, this morning begins at a gentler pace. Breakfast overlooks the rooftops of Salinas while the crisp mountain air reminds everyone why the heavy blankets were so welcome a few hours earlier.

This morning is devoted to discovering why Salinas de Guaranda has become one of Ecuador's most remarkable mountain communities. We'll walk through several of the town's cooperative businesses, tasting locally made cheeses and chocolate while seeing how a remote Andean village built an economy around skills, resources, and products that already existed here.

At the wool mill, carefully maintained textile machines from the old mills of New England still turn alpaca and sheep wool into high-quality yarn. Nearby, the ladies' knitting cooperative produces handmade sweaters, scarves, hats, rugs, and blankets—the kind of substantial wool goods meant to be used for decades.

We also visit the town's soccer ball workshop, where balls are still made by hand using natural latex, molds, and ovens. We usually buy a few here to carry with us and distribute to schools farther along the route through our Ride for a Purpose program. It's a good example of how one small cooperative enterprise ends up connecting with communities many miles down the road.

The walking tour also takes us through the ham-curing and fruit-drying operations, where locally raised meats and highland produce are turned into products sold throughout Ecuador. Nearly every stop reveals another small business tied into the same cooperative network.

And then there is the reason the town is called Salinas. Natural salt springs emerge from the surrounding mountains, and people have harvested salt here for centuries. Long before refrigeration, salt was essential for preserving meat and other foods and could be more valuable than gold in everyday life. The springs made this mountain settlement important long before either the Inca or the Spanish arrived. We'll visit the salt springs and see the resource that first gave this remote village its reason to exist.

Leaving Salinas, the pavement gradually gives way to rougher roads as we climb back into the high Andes. By now, a pattern is beginning to emerge: the farther we get from pavement, the more interesting Ecuador becomes. Villages grow smaller, traffic disappears, and before long we're riding through highland communities where farming is still done much as it has been for generations.

The road climbs steadily past scattered family farms until even they begin disappearing. Vegetation becomes sparse, volcanic ash replaces fertile fields, and the immense white dome of Chimborazo slowly takes over the horizon.

At over 14,500 feet (4,420 m), we enter the Chimborazo Wildlife Reserve. It feels like another planet. The air is thin, temperatures hover just above freezing, and the volcanic landscape stretches toward Ecuador's highest mountain.

Two days ago, we visited the hacienda where Charles Marie de La Condamine and the French Geodesic Mission planned the expedition that proved the Earth is not a perfect sphere. Because our planet bulges slightly at the Equator, Chimborazo holds a remarkable distinction. Although Mount Everest rises higher above sea level, the summit of Chimborazo is actually the point on Earth's surface farthest from the planet's center. If you've ever wanted to stand at the closest place to Heaven on Earth, this is technically it.

This protected wildlife reserve is one of the best places in South America to observe wild vicuña. The smallest and most graceful of the South American camelids, vicuñas are built for life at extreme altitude. Their exceptionally fine wool was once reserved exclusively for Inca royalty, and after nearly disappearing in the 20th century, they have made a remarkable recovery. Today, herds roam freely beneath the slopes of Chimborazo, and we'll almost certainly stop for photos.

The descent from Chimborazo is dramatic. Volcanic ash gives way to pastureland, the air becomes noticeably warmer, and before long we arrive in the elegant city of Riobamba, often called the "Sultan of the Andes." Once one of Ecuador's most prosperous colonial cities, Riobamba still retains its broad avenues, handsome architecture, and relaxed atmosphere.

We'll stop here for a well-earned lunch built around the regional dishes people travel to Ecuador to taste. This is a good place to try llapingachos—golden potato patties with cheese—along with specialties such as yahuarlocro, slow-cooked goat, rabbit stew, and other traditional highland foods that rarely appear outside Ecuador. By this point in the ride, nobody needs much convincing to order generously. 

Most travelers follow the paved highway into Baños. We don't. Instead, we leave the pavement behind again and circle the base of Tungurahua Volcano on one of our favorite dirt roads in Ecuador. The surface is composed of black volcanic ash left behind by centuries of eruptions. It offers surprisingly good traction, but this is a mountain that is still very much alive.

The landscape is constantly changing. Geological forces continue to shift the mountainside, and fault lines periodically tear across the road, creating cracks, ledges, washouts, and obstacles that keep riders alert. It isn't highly technical riding, but it is engaging, unpredictable, and exactly the kind of road that makes this expedition different. Once again, leaving the pavement behind leads us somewhere far more interesting.

By late afternoon we roll into Baños de Agua Santa, one of Ecuador's favorite mountain towns. Adventure outfitters, cafés, bakeries, juice bars, and thermal baths line the streets beneath the towering volcano.

Tonight we stay at our longtime favorite, Posada del Arte. After three demanding days crossing some of Ecuador's most remote country, a hot shower, a walk through town, and a soak in the famous volcanic hot springs feel exceptionally well earned before another outstanding dinner together.

Day 4

Rest Day in Baños

After three demanding days in the Andes, today gives everyone a chance to choose their own pace. Baños sits in a steep green valley beneath Tungurahua Volcano, surrounded by rivers, waterfalls, trails, and thermal springs. It has become one of Ecuador's great outdoor towns because there is an astonishing amount to do within a very small area.

If you're still hungry for adventure, this is the place for it. Spend the day whitewater rafting or kayaking on the Pastaza River, go canyoning and rappel down waterfalls, experience the famous bridge swing, ride zip lines across the canyon, hike into the surrounding mountains, rent an ATV, or take a mountain bike into the hills above town. Our guides will happily point you toward local operators we know and trust.

If your body votes for a slower pace, Baños delivers that just as well. The volcanic thermal baths are only a short walk from the hotel, while cafés, bakeries, juice bars, markets, and excellent restaurants make it easy to spend an unhurried day exploring town. The motorcycles are available if you'd like to ride on your own, but there is no obligation to go anywhere today.

By evening, everyone usually regroups with a different story. Some riders have spent the day bouncing through rapids or hanging beneath a bridge. Others have barely moved beyond a hot spring, a leisurely lunch, and a good cup of Ecuadorian coffee. Both approaches are perfectly acceptable in Baños.

Day 5

Baños – Pailón del Diablo – Hola Vida – Puerto Misahuallí

Refreshed after a day in Baños, we point the motorcycles east and begin descending the eastern slopes of the Andes toward the Amazon Basin. The road follows the Pastaza River through a canyon where waterfalls spill directly from the cliffs and disappear into the river below. With every mile, the air becomes warmer, heavier, and greener.

Our first major stop is Pailón del Diablo, the Devil's Cauldron. The waterfall itself is spectacular, but getting there is half the fun. We leave the motorcycles behind and follow walkways, stone steps, and rickety suspension bridges deeper into the gorge. The roar grows louder with every turn until the trail finally brings us into the spray near the base of the falls.

There are plenty of opportunities along this road to get off the motorcycles and do something mildly unreasonable. We stop at one of the enormous zip lines stretched across the Pastaza Gorge, and participation has become something of an Ecuador Freedom tradition. Somehow even riders who begin the morning insisting they have no intention of flying across a canyon usually end up wearing a harness.

As we continue east, the Andes slowly loosen their grip. The air becomes more humid, broad tropical leaves replace mountain vegetation, and the scents and sounds around us change completely. We are now entering the Amazon Basin.

We make a detour to Hola Vida, where we park the motorcycles and walk about twenty minutes into the rainforest. This is our first chance on the expedition to leave the road behind on foot and experience the jungle from inside it rather than from a motorcycle seat.

The trail passes unfamiliar plants, insects, birds, and enormous tropical trees before crossing old wooden bridges on the way to a hidden waterfall. Hola Vida Falls drops roughly 65 feet into a nearly circular natural swimming pool surrounded by rainforest. The water is cool enough to erase the humidity without making you regret jumping in, and swimming beneath the waterfall is one of the best ways we know to spend an afternoon in the Amazon.

Nearby, we visit Mirador Indichuris, a legendary site overlooking the rainforest. Caves around the property contain carved faces and other unusual features, while a walk to the top of the hill reveals an enormous view across the Amazon Basin.

From up here, the scale of the landscape finally becomes clear. Green forest stretches toward the horizon in every direction, rivers cut through the trees below, and the Andes rise behind us to the west. It gives us a much better sense of just how far we have descended since leaving the high mountains.

We continue through Puyo, the principal city of Pastaza Province, and stop for lunch at one of the restaurants specializing in ingredients from the surrounding Amazon.

This is another new region, which means another set of flavors. Look for ingredients such as ishpingo, an intensely aromatic Amazonian spice sometimes described as Ecuador's native cinnamon, and guayusa, the caffeinated leaf traditionally brewed into tea throughout this part of the Amazon. Depending on the restaurant, we may also find maito—fish wrapped in leaves and cooked over heat—served with yuca, hearts of palm, and other ingredients grown nearby.

By now the food itself has become a useful map of the trip. Highland potatoes and grains have given way to yuca, river fish, tropical fruit, aromatic leaves, and ingredients most riders have never encountered before coming to Ecuador.

Leaving Puyo, the road settles into broad sweepers before a few series of switchbacks carry us lower into the Amazon Basin. The Andes tower behind us to the west while the landscape ahead becomes flatter, hotter, and increasingly dominated by rainforest.

Eventually we join the southern bank of the Napo River, one of the great tributaries of the Amazon. From here, life becomes increasingly organized around the river. Long motorized canoes replace trucks, small settlements appear along the banks, and the rainforest presses close to the road.

By late afternoon we arrive in Puerto Misahuallí, one of the westernmost navigable ports in the Amazon river system. The town sits directly on the Napo, and the riverfront is usually patrolled by a famously mischievous population of monkeys who have become very accomplished at relieving careless visitors of snacks and anything else left within reach.

Tonight we stay at El Jardín Misahuallí Lodge, overlooking the Napo River. The lodge was built by our friend Edgar, whom we knew for years before there was ever a hotel here. He already operated one of our favorite restaurants in the Amazon and had an extraordinary instinct for hospitality, so we spent years encouraging him to build a place where our riders could stay.

He eventually did, and today El Jardín is an Ecuador Freedom motorcycle tour exclusive. Comfortable private cabins sit among tropical gardens around a koi and duck pond, and each cabin has its own plunge pool—a particularly useful feature after riding all day in Amazon humidity.

Dinner is one of the highlights of the evening, with Amazonian ingredients, fresh tropical juices, and the kind of relaxed service that makes it easy to forget what time it is. Afterward, we settle into the cabins while frogs, cicadas, and thousands of unseen insects take over the soundtrack.

Tomorrow morning, motorcycles give way to a motorized canoe as our longtime friend Marco, a native Kichwa guide, takes us deeper into the rainforest.

Day 6

Puerto Misahuallí – Río Coca

Today is the day this expedition earns its name. After an Amazonian breakfast of fresh fruit, cereals, eggs, juices, and plenty of coffee, we ride the short distance into Puerto Misahuallí and down to the river.

From here, the map begins to look very different. Puerto Misahuallí sits on the Napo River, part of the immense river network that eventually reaches the Amazon and continues all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Beyond this point, rivers become the highways. Canoes carry families, food, schoolchildren, supplies, fuel, livestock, and just about everything else needed by communities with no road connection to the outside world.

This is exactly where we want to go.

Our trusted boat captain, Joel, has done this journey with us many times. One by one, we carefully roll the motorcycles down to the riverbank and load them into a long motorized canoe. Bikes are secured, luggage is stowed, snacks and drinks come aboard, and suddenly our motorcycle tour has become a river expedition.

There are no roads where we are going today. For the next stretch of the journey, the Napo River is the road.

The canoe pushes downstream through an enormous green corridor of rainforest. Sandy banks appear and disappear around bends, dugout canoes pass in the opposite direction, and small riverside settlements emerge from the forest before disappearing behind us. People fish from the banks, pan for gold in the shallows, and travel between communities in boats much as families elsewhere might use a pickup truck.

Along the way, we stop at one of the small communities that live along this stretch of river. These places are accessible primarily by canoe, and the river shapes nearly every part of daily life.

Our hosts introduce us to some of the skills and traditions that remain useful here: panning for gold, using a blowgun, preparing hunting darts, working with forest plants, and cooking with local ingredients. Some of these skills may have limited application when you return to the office, although proficiency with a blowgun could certainly improve certain meetings.

We also visit the local school when conditions and schedules allow, bringing school supplies and other useful items through our Ride for a Purpose program. Out here, delivering a box of school supplies involves considerably more logistics than dropping something at a front desk.

Lunch is simple and local, eaten beside the river or with the community before we climb back into the canoe and continue downstream.

The journey continues for roughly 80 miles downriver, carrying us deeper into the Amazon Basin while gradually losing elevation. The pace is completely different from riding a motorcycle. There are no corners to attack and no traffic lights to beat. For hours, we simply move with the river while the jungle slides past.

This is one of the moments that defines the entire High Andes, Deep Amazon expedition. A few days ago we were above 14,000 feet beneath Chimborazo. Now our motorcycles are sitting in a canoe in the Amazon, traveling through communities where there isn't a road for miles.

The farther we have traveled from the pavement, the more interesting Ecuador has become. Today, we finally run out of pavement altogether.

By late afternoon, the canoe reaches Río Coca, an important Amazon river city that grew rapidly with the development of Ecuador's oil industry.

Here the operation goes into reverse. The motorcycles are carefully unloaded onto the riverbank, luggage goes back onto the bikes, helmets replace life jackets, and after spending most of the day traveling by water we ride the final short distance to the hotel.

After checking in at the Gran Hotel del Coca, we'll have time for a swim before heading out along the city's riverside malecón. Outdoor restaurants line the riverfront, and dinner gives us another chance to explore the flavors of Ecuador's Amazon before settling in for a comfortable night's sleep.

Tomorrow morning, we put the motorcycles back to work.

Day 7

Río Coca – La Bonita – Tulcán – Ipiales, Colombia

Today we have a lot of ground to cover and one of the most dramatic changes in elevation, climate, vegetation, and culture on the entire expedition. After an early breakfast, we leave Río Coca in the warm morning air and begin crossing the broad plains and forests of the Amazon Basin.

For a while the road rolls easily through the lowlands, but the Andes are already rising ahead of us. Broad sweepers gradually tighten as we approach the mountains, the forest closes in, and the road begins climbing toward one of Ecuador's most isolated corners.

Eventually the pavement ends and we begin the long climb toward La Bonita on a lonely road running through the mountains near the Colombian border. Traffic becomes scarce, settlements become smaller, and once again the farther we get from the pavement, the more interesting Ecuador becomes.

This is one of the least-traveled regions on the tour. The mountains are steep and intensely green, and water seems to pour from everywhere. Waterfalls spill directly from cliffs beside the road, streams tumble beneath bridges, and mist hangs across valleys that remain largely undeveloped.

The area is also strategically important because of its proximity to Colombia, so military and police checkpoints are part of traveling through this region. We keep identification handy and continue through when cleared.

At one of our favorite waterfalls, we stop the motorcycles and go for a swim. After hours of climbing through humid forest, cold mountain water does an excellent job of resetting everyone before we continue toward higher elevations.

The road keeps climbing toward the small town of La Bonita, where we stop for lunch. This is mountain food territory again, and a hearty soup or stew is exactly what works after coming out of the warmer Amazon lowlands. La Bonita is a small, friendly place tucked into a steep valley, and the change from yesterday's river communities is striking.

Beyond La Bonita, we continue climbing into Carchi Province. Dirt roads and narrow paved farm roads wind through forests, cultivated valleys, dairy farms, and villages scattered across the northern Andes.

The temperature continues dropping as the landscape opens into high mountain farmland. By this point it is difficult to believe that the morning began in the Amazon Basin. Ecuador has compressed another complete change of climate and culture into a single day of riding.

By late afternoon we arrive in Tulcán, Ecuador's northernmost major city and a busy commercial border town. Colombians and Ecuadorians cross back and forth through this region every day to shop, trade, eat, and hunt for bargains on whichever side of the border offers the better deal. The city has an energetic, practical character that comes from being a crossroads between two countries.

We check into the comfortable Palacio Imperial, right in the heart of Tulcán. Its central location makes it an easy base for the evening, with shops, restaurants, and the daily bustle of the border town all close by.

Once the motorcycles are parked, the expedition takes another turn. We take a taxi to the Rumichaca border crossing, complete the required immigration procedures, and cross into Colombia for dinner and an evening visit to nearby Ipiales.

The highlight is the extraordinary Las Lajas Sanctuary, a neo-Gothic basilica built directly across the Guáitara River gorge. The church rises from the canyon walls on a bridge roughly 50 meters above the river, creating one of the most improbable pieces of architecture anywhere in South America. Pilgrims have traveled here for generations following stories of an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the gorge in the 1700s.

After a Colombian-style dinner in Ipiales, we cross back into Ecuador and return to Tulcán for the night. It is a fitting end to a day that began beside an Amazon river and finishes in the cold northern Andes after dinner in another country.

Day 8

Tulcán – Tufiño – El Ángel Ecological Reserve – Maldonado – Hacienda Primavera

Before leaving Tulcán, we make one stop at a place that has become famous far beyond Ecuador: the José María Azael Franco Guerrero Cemetery. Calling it a cemetery does not quite 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, and shapes inspired by cultures from around the world.

The work began in 1936, when Tulcán's 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”, and the tradition continued after his death through his family, gardeners, and other artists who expanded the gardens. Today, people interested in the art of topiary travel to Tulcán specifically to walk through this extraordinary place.

Walking among the graves beneath walls of living sculpture is a wonderfully strange way to begin a motorcycle day. The place is peaceful, meticulous, a little surreal, and completely unlike any cemetery most of us have ever visited.

Leaving Tulcán toward Tufiño, we stop along the road to visit some of the area's traditional brick and roof-tile makers. The soil in this part of Carchi is ideal for producing the rich red bricks and clay roof tiles seen on buildings throughout the northern Andes.

The earth is compressed and formed, dried, and then stacked by the thousands into enormous kiln-like towers. Huge logs are brought in to feed the fires, which must be kept burning continuously for about seven days. That sustained heat transforms the local soil into the hard, beautifully colored bricks and roof tiles used on homes, haciendas, and other buildings throughout the region.

We'll stop to meet the people doing the work and see the process up close. Once you've watched these bricks being made, you'll start recognizing them on buildings everywhere we ride.

We continue through the small highland village of Tufiño, but our next stop lies several miles beyond town. A long cobblestone road carries us farther into the mountains, running along the border with Colombia toward a remote collection of natural hot springs beneath the slopes of Volcán Chiles.

The setting is spectacular. The springs are surrounded by steep cliffs far from the noise and activity of town. Andean condors nest in the surrounding cliffs, and we often see these enormous birds soaring overhead while we soak in the naturally heated mineral water below.

We'll park the motorcycles, trade riding gear for bathing suits, and let the hot water do its work before climbing back onto the bikes. Sitting in a remote hot spring beneath condor nests isn't a bad way to prepare for dirt roads over 13,300 feet.

Back on the motorcycles, we continue climbing on unpaved roads into one of the strangest and rarest ecosystems of the entire trip: the high-altitude páramo of El Ángel Ecological Reserve.

This landscape is dominated by the remarkable frailejón, a plant that looks as though somebody crossed a giant sunflower with a fuzzy palm tree and then planted thousands of them across the mountains. Frailejones are specially adapted to the cold, wet conditions at extreme elevation. Their thick, woolly leaves protect them from freezing temperatures while helping capture moisture from clouds and fog.

The plants occur naturally only in a limited part of the northern Andes, making El Ángel one of the few places in the world where you can ride through entire hillsides covered with them.

The road climbs toward 14,000 feet, where temperatures can drop quickly and clouds can roll across the mountains with little warning. Small lakes and wetlands fill depressions between the mountains while frailejones cover the surrounding slopes. There are few buildings, little traffic, and long stretches where the motorcycles may be the only mechanical sound for miles.

Then we begin giving all that elevation back.

The road drops down the western slopes of the Andes toward Maldonado, and Ecuador changes around us yet again. The stark páramo disappears, temperatures rise, and dense green vegetation begins closing over the road. In the space of a few hours we've gone from cold, treeless mountains into coffee country.

In Maldonado, we visit the Golondrina Coffee Growers Cooperative, run by our friend Germán. He works with local farming families who grow coffee here to international quality standards, taking advantage of the elevation, climate, rainfall, and rich soils of these western Andean slopes.

Germán walks us through what happens between picking a coffee cherry and pouring a cup. We'll see how the beans are selected, dried, shelled, sorted, and roasted, and learn how much work goes into something most of us consume every morning without thinking much about it.

Then comes the important part: we drink the coffee. A cup made by the people who grew, selected, dried, and roasted the beans tastes considerably better after you've ridden across the mountains to get there.

We also stop for lunch in Maldonado at our friend Amanda's restaurant. Amanda always seems to have something delicious waiting for us, prepared with produce and ingredients from the surrounding farms. After spending the morning riding through the cold high páramo, a generous home-cooked lunch in this warm agricultural valley hits the spot.

Days like this connect the landscape with the people who live from it. This morning we watched bricks being made from Carchi soil. A few hours later we're sitting with coffee growers and eating food produced on farms in the valley around us. These are the places and people we would miss if we stayed on the highway.

After Maldonado, we continue deeper into the western forests, passing through El Chical and riding through mountain passes, river valleys, small farms, and thick tropical vegetation. Eventually we leave even these small communities behind and arrive in the tiny hamlet of Primavera—a settlement of only about six houses tucked into a remote green valley.

High on a hill above the hamlet sits Hacienda Primavera Wilderness Lodge, one of our favorite places to stay anywhere in Ecuador. Its position on top of the hill gives the hacienda an extraordinary 360-degree view across the surrounding mountains, forests, farms, and valleys. After a full day of riding, this is the kind of place where everyone stops for a minute when they arrive and simply looks around.

Hacienda Primavera is also a working farm. The property has its own coffee plantation, horses, tropical fruit trees, bananas, and vegetable gardens, and much of what grows here finds its way into the meals we'll eat during our stay. You're sleeping, eating, and drinking coffee in the middle of the land that produced much of it.

Then there is the pool. The hacienda has a beautiful spring-fed swimming pool filled with natural water and no chlorine. After a long day inside motorcycle gear, jumping into cool spring water while looking across the surrounding mountains is hard to beat.

And just beyond it is an infinity jacuzzi overlooking the green valley below. Sitting there with a drink as the afternoon disappears over the mountains, you may start feeling suspiciously like a drug kingpin relaxing at his private mansion somewhere deep in the cocaine-growing region of South America.

We won't tell anyone.

Then dinner arrives, much of it grown right here on the property, and the motorcycles stay parked for the night. We're a long way from the highways, cities, and tourist trail now. This is exactly where the High Andes Deep Amazon is supposed to take us.

Day 9

Primavera – La Merced de Buenos Aires – Cotacachi – Otavalo – Lake San Pablo

After breakfast overlooking the green valleys surrounding Hacienda Primavera, we get back on the motorcycles and continue through the remote western slopes of the Andes. The morning begins on unpaved farm roads twisting through dense forest before we start climbing again toward the high mountains.

The road carries us into the vast Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, one of Ecuador's great protected natural areas. Civilization becomes increasingly scarce as the road climbs through changing vegetation toward the high country.

Once again, we're traveling through this landscape on dirt because dirt is what gets us there. These roads connect isolated farms and mountain communities that remain far removed from Ecuador's main highways.

We eventually reach the isolated village of La Merced de Buenos Aires, where we're going to have something this expedition has become rather good at: second breakfast.

This time it is fresh trout from the cold mountain waters of the region. We'll stop, get off the motorcycles, eat a trout, drink something warm, and prepare ourselves for the serious climbing ahead. There are very few circumstances in life where two breakfasts require an explanation. Riding motorcycles across the Ecuadorian Andes is one of them.

Beyond Buenos Aires, the road begins climbing aggressively. The vegetation changes again as we work our way up steep switchbacks and eventually rise above the clouds to more than 12,000 feet.

The views from up here can be enormous. Mountains stretch away in every direction while the valleys we've just ridden through disappear beneath a layer of clouds far below. Then the road points downward.

What follows is a steep descent into a deep canyon on a long succession of dirt switchbacks cut into the side of the mountain. This is another stretch where the High Andes Deep Amazon shows its character. The riding requires concentration, but every turn opens another view across a part of Ecuador that very few visitors ever see.

Eventually we emerge from the mountains into an entirely different climate and stop at the hacienda of our friend Diego Andrade, a well-known Ecuadorian artist.

Diego has filled the property with his avant-garde paintings, sculptures, and creations. Artwork appears everywhere—inside the buildings, throughout the gardens, around the courtyard, and in places where you don't expect to find it. The result is part hacienda, part gallery, part sculpture garden, and part trip through Diego's imagination.

The climate here is remarkable. Days are commonly sunny and comfortable, with fresh mountain air and a light breeze moving through the valley. After the cold elevations and difficult mountain roads we've crossed during the morning, sitting in Diego's courtyard surrounded by his artwork feels pretty luxurious.

We'll have lunch here, spend some time with Diego, wander around the hacienda, and see what he's been working on lately. Over the years, stops like this have become some of our favorite parts of the tour. We're visiting a friend at his home rather than walking through an attraction built for tourists, and no two visits are ever quite the same.

From Diego's hacienda we continue toward Urcuquí, an agricultural town known locally for the thermal springs found throughout the surrounding valley.

The riding changes again as dirt roads give way to a combination of wonderfully twisty pavement and sections of old cobblestone. We continue east toward Cotacachi, a town famous throughout Ecuador for its leatherworkers.

In Cotacachi, we visit our friend Luis, who tans leather using traditional methods and natural ingredients. This isn't a polished demonstration set up behind glass. Luis's workshop is a working tannery.

Walk through the door and you'll find salted cow, goat, and sheep hides, big vats, tools, half-finished pieces of leather, and usually plenty of flies interested in the whole operation. The place could have been operating several hundred years ago.

Luis shows us how raw animal hides are transformed into beautiful, durable leather using techniques passed down through generations. He and his family work with cow, goat, and sheep skins and make everything from traditional leather goods to the furry chaps worn by local cowboys and during festivals around Otavalo.

After seeing where the leather actually comes from, we'll have some time to explore Cotacachi. The town is lined with workshops and stores selling locally made jackets, boots, belts, wallets, bags, saddles, and other leather goods. If you've been thinking about a new belt or wallet, this is the place to do something about it.

From Cotacachi, we continue to Otavalo, the cultural and commercial center of one of Ecuador's best-known Indigenous communities, which we will explore in the morning when things are hopping.

Our final stop of the day is one of the most beautiful settings of the entire trip: Lake San Pablo, directly beneath the massive Imbabura volcano.

Tonight we stay at Cabañas del Lago Hostería, a beautiful lodge built directly along the lakeshore. The property makes the lake part of everything. The main lodge and dining room sit right beside the water, and part of the restaurant actually extends out over the lake, surrounding us with views of the water, mountains, and enormous Imbabura volcano rising above the opposite shore.

The private cabins are made for a chilly Andean evening, with big comfortable beds and large wood-burning fireplaces. After nine days of riding through the Andes and Amazon, having your own cabin and a roaring fire beside the bed is a pretty good arrangement.

The staff are local Otavaleñas, and they are cheerful, playful, and part of what makes staying here so much fun. We'll settle in, have dinner beside the lake, and enjoy the calm of a place where the mountains seem to come right down to the water.

At some point we'll climb aboard a boat and head out onto Lake San Pablo beneath Imbabura. We'll bring along canelazo, Ecuador's traditional hot drink made with cinnamon, sugar, citrus, and aguardiente. Warm canelazo, cold mountain air, a volcano towering above us, and the lights along the lakeshore make a fine way to spend the final night of the expedition.

Tomorrow we ride back to Quito. Tonight, we enjoy the lake.

Day 10

Otavalo – Cuicocha Lake – San José de Minas – Perucho – Intiñan Solar Museum – Quito

Our final day still has plenty of Ecuador left in it. We deliberately schedule this tour so that our last morning in Otavalo falls on a Saturday, when the region's famous animal market is in full swing.

The market begins early and has very little interest in entertaining tourists. Farmers arrive from the surrounding countryside to buy and sell cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, guinea pigs, and just about anything else that can be raised on a farm. Animals complain loudly about the arrangements, negotiations happen quickly, trucks come and go, and the whole place operates with the organized chaos of a market that has been serving local families for generations.

It's an excellent way to start the last day because this is exactly the Ecuador we've spent the previous nine days looking for: working communities going about their normal lives.

From the animal market, we head into central Otavalo and spend some time exploring the famous Plaza de los Ponchos. Saturday is the big market day, when vendors spread well beyond the plaza into the surrounding streets and the center of town becomes a maze of textiles, clothing, jewelry, artwork, leather goods, food, household items, and handicrafts.

After nine days of riding, this is also a good opportunity to buy something that will fit into the luggage and remind you of Ecuador long after the motorcycle has been returned.

Then we leave the commercial market behind to see where some of Otavalo's finest textiles actually come from. We visit the Andrango family at the Tahuantinsuyo weaving workshop, where generations of the family have preserved traditional methods of spinning, dyeing, and weaving wool.

The process begins long before anything reaches a loom. Wool is spun by hand and dyed using colors extracted from local plants and other natural materials, including cochineal insects, which can produce surprisingly brilliant reds and purples. The family then weaves the yarn into exceptionally fine textiles using techniques passed from one generation to another.

Watching the process changes the way you look at the finished work. A woven blanket or scarf that initially looks beautiful becomes considerably more impressive once you've watched someone create the thread, make the color, and weave the pattern by hand.

Just up the road, we visit another local family preserving a different Otavaleño tradition: musical instrument making. Bamboo becomes pan flutes and other wind instruments, while guitars and traditional Andean instruments are assembled and finished by hand.

Some traditional instruments have even incorporated materials such as armadillo shells. Our hosts explain how the instruments are made, demonstrate how they are played, and inevitably hand a few of them over to us.

Musical talent is not required.

Then we ride to Cuicocha Lake, a beautiful volcanic crater lake tucked beneath the slopes of Cotacachi Volcano. Two forested islands rise from the deep blue water inside the caldera, and on clear days the surrounding peaks frame one of the finest views in northern Ecuador.

The name Cuicocha is commonly translated as "Guinea Pig Lake", and after admiring the crater we observe another important Ecuador Freedom tradition: second breakfast.

This morning's second breakfast is homemade ice cream. Nobody needs to justify it. We've been riding motorcycles around Ecuador for ten days.

Leaving Cuicocha, we cross the valley and point the motorcycles back toward the mountains. Smooth pavement eventually gives way to the combination of old cobblestone and rocky dirt roads that has carried us to so many of the interesting places on this expedition.

The road climbs and falls through small agricultural communities before reaching the picturesque colonial town of San José de Minas. Once again, we're traveling through an Ecuador that disappears almost completely when you stay on the main highway.

From here the route begins dropping toward a warmer, drier landscape. Rose farms and fields of fresh-cut flowers appear beside the road, and the vegetation changes quickly as we descend toward the Guayllabamba River canyon.

We stop for lunch in the small town of Perucho, an agricultural community famous locally for its tangerine groves. The fruit thrives in the warm, dry climate here, and local cooks have found plenty of ways to work it into the food and drink.

Lunch is traditional Ecuadorian cooking done slowly and properly. Depending on what is being prepared that day, the table may include sancocho de cerdo, a substantial pork soup cooked until the flavors have had plenty of time to come together; fritada, chunks of pork slowly cooked until tender and browned; seco de carne, beef simmered in a rich sauce; or even roast guinea pig, one of the oldest celebratory foods of the Ecuadorian Andes.

There are also dishes incorporating local tangerines, and we'll try the town's tangerine wine. After ten days of eating our way through the regions we've ridden, Perucho gives us one last chance to taste a place rather than simply pass through it.

Leaving Perucho, the road drops into the Guayllabamba River canyon, and Ecuador changes costumes one more time. The green highlands give way to a dry, dusty landscape of exposed slopes, cactus, and sun-baked earth that can look more like parts of Arizona or California than the Ecuador we've been riding through for the past week.

Then we climb out of the canyon toward one final important stop.

At the Intiñan Solar Museum, we stand directly on the Equator and explore the relationship between this unusual latitude and the cultures that have lived here for thousands of years.

At the Intiñan Solar Museum, we'll stand directly on the Equator and take part in a series of demonstrations designed to illustrate some of the unusual things associated with latitude zero. The most famous involves draining water from a basin on the Equator and then moving it a short distance north and south, where the water appears to drain in opposite directions. It's a fun demonstration that has probably started more arguments about the Coriolis effect than it has settled.

After crossing the Equator more times than anyone has bothered counting during this expedition, it seems appropriate to stop and actually stand on it before going home.

From Intiñan, we make the final ride back into Quito and return to Ecuador Freedom headquarters where we started ten days ago.

By now the motorcycles have crossed high páramo, volcanic ash, ancient cobblestones, rainforest tracks, steep dirt switchbacks, farm roads, river valleys, and mountain passes. At one point there wasn't a road left at all, so we loaded the bikes into a canoe and kept going nearly 100 miles down the Napo River.

We've eaten with friends, farmers, artists, coffee growers, craftspeople, and families in communities most visitors never reach. We've gone from freezing elevations above 14,000 feet to Amazon humidity, crossed into Colombia for dinner, soaked in remote hot springs beneath condors, and slept everywhere from working farms to wilderness lodges overlooking valleys that don't appear in most guidebooks.

The farther we got from the pavement, the more interesting Ecuador became.

That's the High Andes, Deep Amazon.

This ten-day guided motorcycle expedition begins and ends at Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental headquarters in Quito's La Carolina neighborhood, close to hotels, restaurants, parks, shopping, galleries, and museums. We recommend arriving in Quito at least a day before the tour. This gives you time to enjoy the city, adjust to the elevation, complete your paperwork, and arrive on the first morning rested and ready to ride.

On the morning of departure, we'll begin with a detailed rider briefing covering Ecuadorian rules of the road, local driving customs and courtesies, group riding procedures, and what to expect over the next ten days. You'll be introduced to your motorcycle and have time to get comfortable with it before we leave the city.

Your motorcycle will be equipped with a waterproof luggage system, with a tank bag available if you would like one. On larger departures, a support vehicle may accompany the group to carry luggage and bottled water and provide additional assistance when needed.

The Riding

We have spent years exploring Ecuador by motorcycle and refining this route. Your guides know these roads, communities, hotels, restaurants, and stops from riding them again and again. That local knowledge allows us to spend less time searching for places and more time showing you the Ecuador we've discovered over the years.

The farther we get from the pavement, the more interesting Ecuador becomes. That idea is at the heart of the High Andes, Deep Amazon tour.

Much of the route follows lightly traveled dirt roads, old hand-laid cobblestones, farm roads, mountain tracks, and remote paved roads that connect communities far from Ecuador's main highways. There is no planned single-track riding. The unpaved sections are chosen because of where they take us: across high Andean passes, through farming villages, along volcanic landscapes, into cloudforests, and eventually deep into the Amazon Basin.

There are challenging sections, and conditions can change with weather and road maintenance, but this tour was never designed around seeing how difficult we could make the riding. We don't want you staring at the ground all day trying to survive the next obstacle. We want you comfortable enough to lift your head, look around, and experience where you are.

That also means we stop frequently. We'll stop for viewpoints, photographs, coffee, roadside food, workshops, markets, schools, farms, waterfalls, swimming holes, and visits with people we've gotten to know along the route. Some of the best parts of this expedition happen after the motorcycles have been switched off.

And when the roads finally disappear altogether, we keep going. We'll carefully load the motorcycles into a motorized canoe and travel roughly 80 miles through the Amazon river system, visiting river communities and places where the river remains the connection to the outside world.

A note about travel advisories: Some governments publish heightened travel advisories for parts of northern Ecuador near the Colombian border. These advisories often cover very large geographic areas and may not distinguish between individual roads, towns, and communities. We have operated the High Andes, Deep Amazon route for more than 15 years without a security incident in this region. Our guides know these roads and communities extremely well, we travel during daylight hours, and there is a strong military and police presence along portions of the route with regular security checkpoints.

We continually pay attention to local conditions and information from Ecuadorian authorities and will change the route if circumstances warrant it. We also encourage every guest to review the current travel advice issued by their own government and make a travel decision they are comfortable with.

British travelers: because UK travel advisories can affect the validity of some standard travel-insurance policies, we recommend arranging appropriate coverage through our partner Global Rescue before departure.

Weather & Temperatures

One of the remarkable things about riding in Ecuador is how many climates we can experience in a single day. Because Ecuador lies on the Equator, seasonal temperature changes are relatively small. Elevation has a much greater effect on temperature than the time of year.

During this expedition we'll ride from the Amazon Basin at roughly 800 feet above sea level, where temperatures can reach around 85°F, to Andean passes above 14,000 feet, where temperatures can drop into the 30s and 40s°F. In between, we'll pass through warm valleys, cloudforests, high páramo, volcanic landscapes, and temperate agricultural regions.

Passing showers are always possible in the highlands, although an entire day of rain is uncommon. Wetter conditions are more likely on the western slopes of the Andes during March, April, and early May. Weather can change quickly at high elevation when clouds move across the mountains, so dressing in layers is important.

For more detailed information about rainfall, temperatures, elevation, and riding conditions, see our Weather in Ecuador guide.

Accommodations

The accommodations are part of the experience. Over ten days we'll stay in a carefully selected mix of comfortable hotels, family-run inns, working haciendas, wilderness lodges, and a few simpler places that earn their place on the itinerary because of their location and character.

Some nights bring swimming pools, jacuzzis, fireplaces, and exceptional meals. Other nights are simpler because we're staying in a small Andean community where luxury hotels don't exist. Every property has been selected from years of experience running this route, and each contributes something to the journey.

Please see the accommodations section on this page for photos and descriptions of the places we normally use. Occasionally we may need to substitute a property because of availability. When that happens, we'll choose the best appropriate alternative available.

Packing & Preparation

Before the tour, we'll provide detailed preparation information so you know what to bring and how to prepare for the changing elevations and climates. Our Packing Guide covers riding gear, clothing, luggage, electronics, personal items, and other practical considerations for motorcycle travel in Ecuador.

Because we'll experience everything from tropical Amazon heat to near-freezing temperatures in the high Andes, good layering and appropriate motorcycle gear are important.

You do not need to speak Spanish. Your guides speak both English and Spanish and, just as importantly, know many of the people and communities we'll visit along the way.

When we return to Ecuador Freedom headquarters at the end of Day 10, the motorcycles may be dirty and you'll probably be ready for a hot shower. Our jacuzzi, shower, honor bar, and comfortable After-Ride Lounge will be waiting, and our staff can help with luggage, transportation, or whatever comes next in your Ecuador travels.