Surreal

Sometimes I'm blown away by how surreal my life is.

For example: the last three haircuts I got were on three different continents.

Maybe I should be used to it by now. Or maybe I shouldn't be - if I get to a point where I'm jaded enough that new experiences like this don't continue to amaze me, that's probably not a good thing. But regardless, I still have moments where I'm just absolutely blown away by where I am: "I'm actually riding a motorcycle around the French countryside."

Huanchaco

Exhausted from one fun day of riding and one not so fun day, I got to Huanchaco and settled in - and man did I get comfortable. I once again got lucky on a hostel, and it made me not want to leave.

To the Beach

From Leimibamba, it was about 500km on curvy mountain roads to the town of Huanchaco on the beach, which was my next destination. Two days of relatively easy riding - or so I thought. Google Maps had other ideas.

Kuelap

Freshly patched tube in the rear tire, I headed up to Kuelap, hoping the roads wouldn't be too bad. Were they? I guess that depends on your definition of bad. But seeing the Kuelap ruins was definitely worth the struggle to get there.

Chachapoyas

After the exhausting day of trekking through mud and rain to the border, I was ready to relax a bit more. I can't say Chachapoyas was the best place to do it, but it's where I ended up.

Vilcabamba and Peru Border

After Cuenca, I decided it was time to head for the border and get out of Ecuador. I hadn't planned on spending that much time in the country, as much as I enjoyed it, and I was itching to move. Funny how quick that itch can disappear if you put me in the right place though...

The border was still a couple days' worth of riding, so I headed for the last star on my map between me and the border: Vilcabamba.

Cuenca

Cuenca was hardly on my list of things to see, it was just a city on the way to where I wanted to go. I planned on taking a single day to relax and get some errands done, and ended up staying a few more days than planned (like usual, at this point).