Note that in this post “biking” refers to push-biking/bicycling. In India at least, “a bike” almost always means a motorcycle, so biking could easily be confused with riding a motorcycle.

Matt had heard during his travels that it was possible to arrange for a biking tour down the Chimborazo, and that it was a great experience. He was going to Rio Bamba this weekend to do it, and I decided to join him. We reached Rio Bamba on Saturday evening, checked into a cheap room, and set off to arrange for the tour.

That's an interesting way to open a coconut

The first place we went to was called Probici and was run by an affable guy called Galo. Galo gave us an overview of the various route options that one could take along with the costs associated with each. He also said that there was a third person who was interested in going on a biking tour on the same day, so we could get a discount along with a free bonus hike to a nearby “twisted trees” forest. We thought that this was a steal for 40 USD, so we decided to look no further and took up Galo on his offer. We also chose our bikes from his collection and other equipment that we’d need.

After doing some shopping for the next day, having a traditional Ecuadorian dinner and downing a few beers, we hit the sack in anticipation of an adventurous day ahead.

In the morning, at the agreed upon time, Galo met us outside our hostel with the 3 bikes secured firmly on top of his Toyota 4WD. The third person who would be riding with us was a British guy called Jeremy. Along the way to Chimborazo, we stopped by a bull farm and spotted a few bulls that were being raised specifically for participating in bull-fights.

The farm where fighting bulls are raised

Driving to the Chimborazo

A Vicuña along the way

First look at the Chimborazo

Then we drove off-road for a bit, parked, hiked up a small hill and ended up in the “twisted trees” forest. The forest was very interesting and seemed completely out-of-place as it bore absolutely no resemblance to any other vegetation around. We were told that the twisted trees only grew on the leeward side of the hill, as it was way too windy at all other places.

The strange twisted trees

From there, we drove all the way up to the first base camp and parked. After that, we proceeded to hike up another 950 feet to reach the second base camp which was just beyond the snow line. This was the first time that I was touching snow in Ecuador! Once back at the first base camp, we unloaded the bikes and listened to some last minute instructions from Galo, who would be following us in the jeep. Then, we were off.

Hiking up to the second base camp

Chilling in the snow

Within the first 20 metres I knew that this was not going to be a walk-in-the-park. It was freezing cold and my fingers had gone numb inside my gloves. It had begun to rain a little, but under the power of the gale force winds, the rain droplets were needles stinging our faces. The loose gravel, the steep descent and the deep ridges on the road made it not only difficult, but also quite a dangerous endeavour. But Matt seemed totally unperturbed by all this, and tore off down the road. Jeremy and I on the other hand, struggled and descended at our own pace.

A few kilometres later, just when I thought I’d got the hang of it, I lost control and crashed. Thankfully the soft gravel cushioned my fall and I escaped with nothing more than a bruised ego. The rest of the ride was challenging, but at the same time amazing. Before we knew it, we’d covered the 14 km to the next rendezvous point.

At this point, there was a fork in the road - one road went back to Rio Bamba and the other one went to Ambato. The road to Rio Bamba involved more mountain biking and provided great views of the mighty mountain on a clear day. The road to Ambato involved 45 km of asphalt road biking and no views of the Chimborazo. The rains showed no sign of stopping, so there was no way we could see any more of the Chimborazo today, so Matt and I wanted to go to Ambato. But Galo & Jeremy wanted to go the other way. Finally after a long debate, we convinced Galo & Jeremy to ride to Ambato and began the asphalt road biking stretch.

A quick picture taken when the rain paused for a bit

Biker Googie

The views along the way were simply breath-taking. But the incessant rains meant that (1) we couldn’t take our cameras out to get any pictures, and (2) we got completely drenched. But we made it back to Ambato in good time, said goodbye to Galo and Jeremy, and caught a bus back to Salasaca. All-in-all, it was 40 dollars well spent.