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fauna. Others go simply to visit the capital city, Quito, and experience its cultural richness. Some of the more adventurous head to outlying areas to hike, go white-water rafting, climb towering mountains, or visit ancient Incan ruins. Now there's another reason to go and it's one that can also encompass as many of those activities as you wish to add: It's a Moto-Loco adventure trail tour. Well, you probably won't be able to ride on the Galapagos Islands, but from what we saw on a tour we took, much of the rest of Ecuador is wide open and welcomes those on dirt bikes. In Spanish, "moto" refers to motorcycles while "loco" means crazy, and Moto-Loco principal Patrick Henry and his small crew are certainly dirtbike fanatics. To give us a good taste of Ecuador, they arranged for us to take an eight-day, 900-mile ride up Ecuador's famed "Valley of the Vol- (Above) Horsepower meets firepower. ruin. No one knows if it was a temple, a civic center, a fortress, or what, but wandering around lngapirca certainly makes one ponder what might've gone on many, many generations ago. Two nights later, we arrived at the Hakuna Matata (seriously) resort outside of Tena, arguably the most charming and unique hacienda we've ever been to. Built five years ago by Belgians Rudy Hoeberigs and Marcellina Braem, Hakuna Matata (come on, didn't you see Disney's The Lion King?) is fairly close to town, yet isolated in what feels like the middle of the jungle. Its cabins are clean and comfy, while Braem and Hoeberigs grow and prepare much of the food served. They also built a small, riverdriven generator to augment the diesel generator, since those are the only sources of electricity for the facility. It would've been very easy to spend several days just relaxing there. An army unit out on maneuvers didn't mind posing for photos with our group. (Left) Moderate-sized towns generally seemed to have very photogenic: examples of Spanish-influenc:ed arc:hitec:ture. canoes." Starting from Cuenca in the south, we'd visit the edge of the Amazon jungles, spend a night next to an ancient Incan ruin, ride on the slopes of a volcano, and stand on the equator with a foot in both the northern and southern hemispheres. As Henry declared in his Texas drawl, "You saw more of the country than about 95 percent of the people who live here." And, we'd guess, more than most regular tourists, as well. Unlike most tour operators, Henry issues the high-performance Yamaha WR426F to his clients, although he augmented those with brand-new KTM 520 E/XCs on our ride, since the local Yamaha distributor failed to come up with additional bikes for our group in time. Using something other than a regular trail bike was, in his mind, a necessity due to universal performance degradation at high altitude (though he can't give you bigger lungs when you're wheezing at 10,000 feet or higher). In addition, should a customer want to try his hand at racing in Ecuador, the WR-F (or E/XC) is obviously more competition-oriented. It certainly makes Moto-Loco stand out a bit more. Ecuador is also unique in many ways, not the least of which is their use of both American dollars as official currency and 110-volt/60-hertz electricity. Thus, we didn't have to exchange money, nor did we need to take along those inconvenient adapters for things such as battery chargers. But it's Ecuador's diversity that proved to be its most lasting memory for us. While we spent most of the first four or five days on dirt roads in the lower-lying jungle-type sections of the country, just trying to reach that night's accommodations (most of which are the best in town), the sights and sounds proved to be memorable. For instance, one night we stayed next door to one of the best examples in Ecuador of an Incan cue I e n e _ S • OCTOBER 9, 2002 45