Birthday Trip Part 2 - The Road Home

After a good nights sleep we headed for Cuenca via the road to Paute on which we came.  When we got a few miles up the road out of Mendez we came to a line of trucks stopped and the road closed.  I asked the fellow in the hard hat how much longer and he said until about 3 PM!  This was 10 AM.  Jack says we are not sitting in this sun and humidity for 5 hours even if we are at the head of the line.  Famous last words, "there must be another way".  Out comes the map and we decied to head for Gualaquiza, it's only 124 km south and then over the Andes to SigSig....so we turn around and head down the mountain and then south. 

Part of the way is great new concrete road . . . which suddenly truns to dirt, and then back to new road.

When we reach Gualaquiza we turn on the GPS and it tells us to turn around and head back the way we came . . hum, turns out it was set to avoid dirt roads....Shawn figures out how to change the preferences but only after I hire a cab to show us the road to SigSig.  We climb out of the valley into the most breath taking scenery we have encountered in Ecuador thus far..

Night begins to fall and we are still climbing the Andes on a single lane dirt road.

We saw a waterfall that must be close to 2000 feet high but the picture did not turn out well so I guess we have to go again!

Anyway night fell, we entered the clouds and the rain and still we climbed the Andes!  At one point we were going 5 to 10 km/hr with Shawn hanging out the window to keep us on the road!!!

To make a long story short, it took us 12 hours to get home instead of the 6 it took to get there but the reward was seeing parts of Ecuador that were fabulous. We are so thankful for all-wheel drive!!!

We had a great vist with our kids and look forward to their return.  It was the best birthday present!

The drive to Guayaquil was peaceful and the wildlife came out to say "Hasta LaVista" in a grand way.

Thanks for following....Chau for now!