This article topic is as fresh as your morning bread from a bakery. We’ve just come down from El Ángel reserve and because I’m sick we can’t continue on TEMBR straight away. It’s perfect for you though as I can bring you this photo story in the flashiest of flashes ;).
We started riding TEMBR dirt version and in 20 kilometres we entered páramo, alpine vegetation area. The last car and the last motorcycle have stayed way behind. I guess we’ve never been riding such a quiet road on this journey.
And then the first frailejones appeared. These etheric plants live in páramos of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. They are a genus of perennial subshrubs, in the sunflower family. They are able to catch the moisture from the clouds and mist, retain it in their spongy trunks and then release into the soil.
The silence was broken only by our occasional shouting: “Lolo, Lolo!” when the black beast went into the vegetation after a little bunny. There’s plenty of them here.
The road is rocky and bumpy with many puddles. But thanks to that there are no cars as well. With our lighter setup for TEMBR, we enjoyed riding there a lot.
We were taking many pictures and flying the drone and suddenly the darkness came. We still had about 3 kms to the Refugio of El Ángel reserve where we hoped to sleep that night. With the headlamps on, we slowly rode to the park ranger station and friendly Edison opened. He let us sleep in one of the new rooms there.
In the morning we headed out for 2.5km walk to the lakes. You’re surrounded by frailejones, it’s quite spectacular. We had nice clear weather, only at the end the light fog came, which gives this place even more mystical atmosphere.
I hope I’ll get back in shape soon so we can continue riding some remote roads of Ecuador. We will soon celebrate our two years on the road (31st May), I have a feeling it will be on a muscle wrecking 2500 metre climb to Piñan páramo. Until then, friends!
Read about the most spectacular road in Colombia!
