Day 1 – Colmenar to Loja 47kms

I hope the title of this entry does not give the impression of speed, as that would be misleading. 

After spending the whole morning running around in circles, turning things off, defrosting the freezer and trying to think of everything that we needed to do to leave the house for four months, we were eventually ready.  We loaded the bikes and immediately Ken´s stand broke off – perhaps we are carrying too much stuff?  After a technical adjustment we managed to make a start on our grand trip at 2pm. 

We were not even out of sight of our village when I fell off the bike.  The combination of 20kg of stuff and gravity stopped me in my tracks at the first hill and I couldn´t release my feet from the pedals quick enough, so I ended up upside-down with the bike on top of me. A few kilometres further on and It was a good job Denise was not in at her Bed and Breakfast because we would have been seriously tempted to stay for our first night.  We can actually see our house from her place so that would have been seriously embarrassing.

We did make it to our intended destination – Loja.  We found a nice hotel and checked-in for a quiet night.  That was when the wedding party arrived.  No sleep there then!