Ecuador: Manta > Quevaldo > Ambato

Mar 2026 |

Here's info on 2 rides from Manta on the coast to Ambato.

Manta > Quevaldo

To put it bluntly, this was a shit day of riding. I wanted to ride further down the coast and then work my way inland. But that appeared to require riding through or near Guayaquil, a recommended no-go area of Ecuador. I had a map of a route I found online, going from Manta through a town called Olmedo, a country road, so I set off in that direction. Once I arrived at Olmedo, Google Maps routed me down a road that turned into a goat trail. Not in the mood for adventure, I gave up and turned back. Next, I tried to ride from Santa Ana up to Pozo Honda, a national park area. And this route also didn't seem viable after 30 mins of riding, so once again, I turned back. Next, I took a final Google route, up a very steep hill, and worked my way back to a main highway, which turned out to be the worst paved road I saw in Ecuador, a moonscape. These diversions wasted about 4 hours. I finally made it to Quevaldo after dark. It's located in a currently "red" area of the country, travel not advised. And it was apparent things were a bit more edgy here: the Chinese restaurant I ate dinner at had an armed security guard (I hadn't seen this anywhere else in Ecuador).

Ride: 325 km / 10 hrs

Quevaldo > Ambato

This was a decent ride, back into the mountains, some good roads and scenery. A highlight was a stop at Mirador to Laguna Quilotoa, one of the most famous tourist sites in Ecuador. It was up to 4000m and temperatures as low as 9c. I met a German rider there and we rode north, but not far as the road was soon completely washed out by a massive landslide. We swapped bikes for a bit, and I took his CFMoto 450 Ibex for a short ride. I continued on to Ambato for one night, didn't look around much.

Ride: 290 km / 9 hrs