Exploring Ecuador
Exploring Ecuador
 

Words by Olly Wilkins - Videos by Olly Wilkins, Ben Deakin and Iven Ebener

Photos by Alejandro Janeta - Trip by 2wheel Epix


I didn’t know much about Ecuador before I went. I found out it translated to ‘Equator’ in Spanish. This narrowed down the location a little. I also knew it was in South America. Other than that I had no idea. Our trip gave me a clearer picture of what Ecuador was like in some ways and left me more confused in others. If you try to build a mental image of it as a country I think you will quickly fail. Ecuador isn’t one thing. By comparison the UK can be summarised with one nice image I think. Green woods, small hills. Our climate and ecosystem does vary but not by much. Ecuador on the other hand has one of the most diverse climates and ecosystems on the planet. Photos from our trip could be from a different country for every day we spent there, and so it turns out, the riding could be too!

Ecuador isn’t one thing

Iven, the Deakinator and myself packed our bikes and headed for the capital, Quito. Iven and myself chose to bring our JAM Carbons (8. series) and Deak’s his alloy version (6. series). ‘I know what these trips are like’ he reasoned. ‘We are gonna be bombing through the jungle with bikes rattling around on a land cruiser.’ In hind site he wasn’t wrong!

Iven Ebener MTB FOCUS Trip Ecuador
Ben Deakin MTB FOCUS Trip Ecuador
Olly Wilkins MTB FOCUS Trip Ecuador
Iven Ebener MTB FOCUS Trip Ecuador
Ben Deakin MTB FOCUS Trip Ecuador
Olly Wilkins MTB FOCUS Trip Ecuador

Upon arrival we rode the local bike park for an afternoon. The place was amazing. A good mix of trails with a short uplift made for the perfect intro day. We were shuttling but on one of the transfers Deak’s noted he was out of breath. We asked around until we found we were actually at 2,800m of elevation. A long way higher than our ‘record peak’ in the UK! As it turned out elevation became a theme for the rest of the trip! After riding the bike park we headed to the local trail spot where we rode dirt jumps with the locals. Our trail bikes were amazingly nimble through the dirt jumps and Iven even brought out a flip after landing from his later flight minutes before!


Gradually everything became a lot more spiky
 
 
Gradually everything became a lot more spiky
 

The next day took us to the high desert of Ibarra. As we travelled in the 2wheel epix minivan we noticed the scenery drastically change from that of the hills surrounding Quito. Gradually everything became a lot more spiky. Dusty rocks started appearing from the previously green hillsides and the flora and fauna was swapped with cactus and succulents. The desert is harsh and so is the riding. Giant steeps were covered with Moto hillclimbs and we picked our way down the wild unbuilt lines available. Agave plants offered the only landmarks. The desert scares me. Luckily our guide knew exactly where we were going once we had all completely lost direction.

Iven found a giant steep and proceeded to hike a bike up. As he descended the whole slope came with him and he kinda rode his own avalanche out!

Dusty
Dusty
Dusty Dusty

Dusty
 

The next day brought us to Cotopaxi bikepark. This park was unbelievably dialled. Sat at the foot of Cotopaxi volcano the black dirt was unreal. Trails had been sculpted from the hill and had a lot of jumps and cool features to mess about on. A huge contrast to the riding we had done the day before and the day after for that matter.


Volcanos have always amazed me. My very first magazine trip when I was younger had been to Mt. Etna and the black dirt had been the closest thing to powder snowboarding that I had experienced on a bike. Cotopaxi is nearly twice the height of Etna. Sitting at just under 6000m this meant twice the amount of riding. We were not disappointed.


Volcanos have always amazed me. My very first magazine trip when I was younger had been to Mt. Etna and the black dirt had been the closest thing to powder snowboarding that I had experienced on a bike. Cotopaxi is nearly twice the height of Etna. Sitting at just under 6000m this meant twice the amount of riding. We were not disappointed.

Volcanoes

There was nothing cooler than following Deaks down the mountain and carving turns with no aim or goal. There are two approved cycle routes down the volcano but both have only approximate locations for a lot of the run. This meant for some high speed cornering and overtakes as Deaks, Iven and myself swapped positions all the way down. We descended from 5000m and at this height you feel terribly unfit. Luckily there is very little pedalling and we completed 3 uplifted runs of the volcano. A huge amount of elevation change in very little time!


The last location again was as different as you could imagine. We were next on to the Jungle. Once again the scenery changed drastically on our drive. As the plants became less oxygen starved they began to bloom once again. The vegetation became thick and alive with life. We were entering the jungle on the very edge of the Amazon itself. Putting our pads on I looked around. It truly looked like a scene from avatar. Giant mountains we completely covered with thick green jungle. A sea of clouds sat below us. We pedalled along endless trails built by indigenous people years before, repurposed for mountain biking by locals.


green jungle

thick green jungle
 

The trip was unreal. We had descended around 3-4000m per day, experienced half a dozen completely different landscapes and ridden some amazing terrain, both natural and manmade. It’s really amazing where a 150mm travel bike can take you. All three of us left feeling as though we had only scratched the surface of what riding Ecuador has. Looks like we are due a trip back then!

Special thanks to 2wheel Epix!

2wheel Epix MTB Tours
 

Due to maintenance, it is currently not possible to place any orders in our Click & Collect Shop. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are trying to be back to full service as soon as possible.

Due to the upcoming holiday leave, we will have a delay in our bike deliveries. Beginning of January 2024, we will start working on the order income again.