CYCLING AT NEW PEAK IN ECUADORAN ANDES
Sunday, December 10, 2000
Section: Travel
Edition: Final
Page: 1J
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO, jtamayo@herald.com

ECUADOR: Mountain bikers, hikers and other active travelers like the terrain and the prices. Riding a mountain bike down the side of the world's highest active volcano, from just below its 14,770-foot-high snowline to its foothills, can literally take away your breath.
''Amazing. Brilliant. Stunning,'' said South African tourist Jaqui Reid, reduced to single-word exclamations more by the thrill than the thin oxygen even halfway through her three-hour downhill ride. Long known to eco-tourists for its Galapagos Islands and Amazon jungles, Ecuador is slowly emerging as a mecca for mountain bikers who want to hurdle down the sides of its majestic Andean peaks.

"I can't think of a better place to do downhill biking. Maybe the Himalayas!'' said Jan Lescrauwaet, whose Biking Dutchman company has been running mountain bike tours out of the Ecuadoran capital of Quito since 1991.
Half a dozen other companies offer biking tours plus other ``adventure'' trips such as mountain climbing, trekking and white-water rafting and kayaking, and many more rent bikes for the do-it-yourself tourists.
Ecuador is extraordinarily cheap for tourists these days - bike tours run from $45 to $65 per day - following a 280 percent devaluation of its currency in 1999 and its embrace of the U.S. dollar as its official currency.

A suite at a four-star Quito hotel can go for as low as $70 a night, and hordes of young backpackers are finding hostel rooms for as little as $10 a night and dinners for $1.
Some hard-core bikers, mostly from Europe, actually try to pedal their way up mountains like Cotopaxi 31 miles south of Quito, a postcard-perfect active volcano and at 19,354 feet the world's highest. ``There's no oxygen so you just gasp and pedal, vomit, gasp and pedal, gasp and pedal,'' said Uwe Albrecht, a 20-year-old Berlin university student who made it halfway up the Guagua Pichincha volcano east of Quito.
But the majority hire tour companies and guides that use four-wheel drive vehicles to drive the tourists and bikes up the mountains, then follow them down with the day's box lunch and spare tubes in case of flats. ``The combination of four-wheel-drives and bikes means anyone of any age can do it,'' said tour guide Arie Tijssen. ``If you can ride a bike and you're in normal health, even a 70-year-old person can do it.''
For South Florida bikers, whose biggest ``climbs'' are 30-foot dredge mounds at Oleta State Park in north Miami and Markham Park in Broward, this is close to heaven just a 31/2-hour flight away.

The Cotopaxi tour starts at 14,769 feet, just below the hut that climbers use to overnight before launching their attempts to top the snow-capped volcano - six hours of climbing, eight hours of walking down. While Reid's husband Ken was getting ready to climb the summit, she opted to ride down, through moss and lychen-covered lava fields, across a volcanic ash valley and finally through a pine forest to the entrance to the Cotopaxi national park at the 6,564-foot level.
That's an 8,205-foot drop in 20 miles and three hours, including a half-hour lunch stop and several brief breaks to take in the stunning views, breathe a bit and relax hands that keep a death drip on the brakes. ``Marvelous. Just incredible,'' gushed Amsterdam tourist Willemyn Pare after finishing the trip through a steep gully that opened into a stunning view of the volcano.
Other guided tours are just as impressive. One starts at a 13,784-foot high mountain pass east of Quito, el Paso de la Virgen, and drops for 21 miles into Ecuador's steamy Pacific coast. Bikers ride trucks back to the top, lunch near the Papallacta hot springs and then ride another 18 miles down to the Tumbaco valley. Another one-day tour takes bikers to the marker for the Equator - they don't call this country Ecuador for nothing - and later the village of Calacali for the start of a 24-mile downhill into a subtropical forest.

Companies like Biking Dutchman, Ugsha and Adventour can string together one-day tours into 10 and 14-day tours for large groups.
Bikers can also opt for self-guided rides out of Banos, a picturesque town a 31/2-hour bus ride south of Quito quickly earning a reputation as a delightful stop for easy riders.
Tourists can rent bikes for $5-$7 a day at any of a dozen shops in the 4,600-foot high town, then ride down 39 miles to the Amazon Basin town of Tunje before taking public buses back up the hill - for 25 U.S. cents. The ride is on the shoulders of a paved road with some traffic, but bikers pass by 320 waterfalls, clutches of wild orchids and an occasional pride of monkeys, according to experienced guides.
Tours to Guagua Pichincha have been closed for several months because of volcanic rumblings, but guides say the activity has dropped in recent weeks and they expect to be allowed to drive up to the crater's edge again soon.
Bikers should bring sunglasses and lots of sunblock - El Sol really burns at these altitudes - plus a first-aid kit. U.S. doctors can prescribe a preventive medicine for altitude sickness often used by skiers and mountain climbers.
Clothing should be many-layered - it can be nastily cold and wet at the top of a ride and hot and muggy at the bottom - and include long bicycling pants to protect against the odd fall.
Most tour companies provide good-quality helmets but only cloth gloves. Bikes lack clipless pedals, so either bring boots and sneakers or bring your own pedals and cycling shoes. ``It is an incredible experience,'' said Pare.