Ecuador: Journey to Middle Earth

Ecuador is the best-value riding country in South America for anybody short on time, because the distances are small and the changes are enormous. Quito sits in a valley at 2,850 metres with volcanoes on both sides. Ride west and the road falls into cloud forest and then to the Pacific in a few hours. Ride south and you follow the Avenue of the Volcanoes between two parallel cordilleras. Ride east and the Andes drop into the upper Amazon. Baños, which this itinerary centres on, sits on that eastern edge below Tungurahua, an active volcano, and is the country's adventure-sports town: rafting, canyoning, waterfalls and thermal baths within a few kilometres of the plaza. Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental is the local operator. It is based in Quito, runs both guided and self-guided programmes, and publishes a catalogue that currently spans four to nineteen days, including a four-day off-road excursion and week-long tours combining Andes, Amazon and Pacific. Guided tours are led by a guide riding with the group, and a support vehicle carries luggage on most of them. The fleet is large and mixed, and the equator monument and museum north of Quito is a standard first-morning stop on tours that leave the capital northbound. An important caveat on this listing. The tour name recorded here comes from a magazine feature about a ride in Ecuador rather than from the operator's own catalogue, and no tour of this name currently appears on the operator's site. The four-day duration, the Quito-Baños shape of the route and the KTM 1050 Adventure and 690 Enduro R noted against this listing should all be treated as indicative rather than bookable facts; the operator's published fleet today is built around Honda, Suzuki, BMW, Yamaha, Husqvarna, Triumph and Aprilia machines. If the shape of this trip appeals, contact Ecuador Freedom directly and ask which of its current guided tours covers the Baños area, what the riding standard is, whether the tour is on-road or off-road, and what the security deposit is for the bike you want. Altitude matters here too: riders arriving from sea level should allow a day in Quito before a long stage.

A short guided ride out of Quito into the Ecuadorian Andes, run on the ground by Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental, the Quito outfit that has been guiding and renting in the country since the mid-2000s. Ecuador packs an unreasonable amount of terrain into a small area: from the capital at 2,850 metres you can drop through cloud forest, cross the equator, ride the corridor of volcanoes and reach the hot springs at Baños in a day or two. Baños sits below the active Tungurahua cone and is the usual base for a rest day, with rafting and canyoning on the doorstep. Guiding is led from a motorcycle with a support vehicle carrying luggage behind. The route recorded here is not currently published by the operator, so confirm the itinerary, the bike list and the dates before booking anything around it.