La Cruz

After a long day in the saddle, and two failed attempts to fill our gas (propane for the yanks) tanks filled we got close to the border and camped for the night at a nice spot with a swimming pool, 3 emus and 4 super cute puppies. As Ecuadorian petrol is sooo cheap ($1.50 for a GALLON!) we filled everything we could before we went further south and back to the standard $1.50 a litre.

It was one of our easiest crossing and we were done in about an hour and half. From there it was a few hours to Swisswazi, a nice camp ground right on the beach. I don't know what it was about the place but surprisingly we didn't feel we wanted to stay for a long time - maybe the fact they charged us for Maya (why?!) or simply the fact we knew we had a long drive ahead of us.

The road south was absolutely shocking - one of worst we have ever driven on, and that's saying something! After the beautiful roads of Ecuador it was definitely a shock to the system. The other HUGE change, gone was the lush ecosystem with everything choked with quick growing vines (which had only started growing 3 weeks earlier when the wet season had started) and instead it was replaced with arid desert. It wasn't just the crappy road & uninspiring landscape, but there was rubbish everywhere. All along the roadside was littered with it, partly from people dumping but also from the wind blowing it from where they appeared to be burning huge quantities of it - gross. Still at least the beaches are nice.Read more