I am thinking of vacationing there and was wondering...

I'd look up crime stats for the region.

https://www.osac.gov/Country/Ecuador/Content/Detail/Report/601b6068-116c-46c3-8350-15f4aebf6d02

Richard Carapaz might know of some good routes. He's a little busy right now though.

Usually I'll just do a search on RideWithGPS or Strava in the area I'm going to be and see what rides and routes others have made public. Never been that far south though.

I was down there 30 years ago up in the Andes (Quito to Riobamba), but not for bicycle riding. I do know the politics are pretty volatile (not as volatile as nearby Bolivia), but most of the people take that as normal and life goes on.

You might look at crazyguyonabike and see who’s been there recently. Have fun.

Zombie thread from 2012?

I was down there two years ago and did a little riding. It depends on what one wants to do. I did the following:

a) I rented a bike in Quito and tooled around the neighborhoods. Streets and traffic were somewhat of an issue, but I like urban site seeing on a bike, particularly for those parts that aren't the obvious tourist neighborhoods.

b) as part of an arranged tour to Cotopaxi, downhill MTB riding! Leaving from Quito in a bus, you go up to where the road ends and hike up the sides of Cotopaxi a ways. (I got to around 16,000' or so. Later, I got to 17,000' on Chimborazo. Talk about sucking air!) afterwards, they give you MTBs with very wide tires and very low air pressure and you can descent a couple of thousand feet on the unpaved, very soft, very steep road. Super fun.

c) in Banos, I rented a MTB ($5/day). There are many rides one can do, including cycling La Ruta de las Cascadas. You can spend the day going down the road on the Ruta, stopping at many waterfalls, and then when you are done, for a small fee you pay a truck to take your bike back and you take a bus back up the mountain to town. As far as I can tell, few if any actually ride back up the mountain. I didn't do either (I toured La Ruta by car - highly recommended). Instead, I did a local climb on a partly paved road. It was about a 3000' climb over maybe 8 miles, in places very steep (15%). Elevation went frrom maybe 5000' to 8000'.

Some people cycle the Pan-American highway, touring. I'd be very wary of doing that.

Crap!

I try to look for such things and just not comment if I can manage to hold my tongue and not be snarky. Still think the forum ought to ban newbs from attaching to them. IMO, linking to them is always much preferred if they really are thought to be material. Especially for the 10 page long threads I sometimes read through a dozen replies before noticing.

Great catch!

Interesting first hand info.

A couple of addenda:

1. You cannot ride a road bike in Quito unless you really know which routes to pick. Otherwise you'll encounter cobble stone streets with multiple missing cobble stones. You need a MTB, CX with fattish tires, etc.

2. I did see a few real roadies in the Quito area. They were riding on the shoulders of 4 lane freeways that are ring roads outside of Quito, which are pretty nice roads.

View from La Casa del Arbol climb, Banos, Ecuador

MTB rented for $5/day Banos, Ecuador

Cotopaxi Volcano 19,300'

Downhill riding from Cotopaxi

Downhill riding from Cotopaxi

Tooling around Quito