 Muchas gracias! Thank you so much, muchas gracias! Ciao ciao! Ciao ciao! So I'll go past the pole and then I'll do a sharp turn down the hill. I'm just going to swing wide and then come round. There we go! Hit in the road again! Hi I'm Lavi and I'm Oli and this is our hero Bumblebee. Together we are attempting a Guinness World Record to become the youngest pair to circumnavigate the globe by Motorcycle. Join us for season 3 here in South America. Good morning world, welcome back to the channel. It's day number 342 on our circumnavigation around the globe by Motorcycle. We're here in the capital of Ecuador, Quito, and there's an amazing massive cathedral right in front of us. It looks absolutely stunning. Yeah well what a beautiful cathedral, I can't believe it. Yeah it's like sort of a Gothic style, it's a bit like the one in Cologne, hey? Yeah! The historic center of Quito is famous for being just so well preserved and such like an amazing example of colonial architecture and mixing with Moorish styles and also indigenous styles. But yeah, Quito is a pretty cool place. Yeah unfortunately we couldn't spend too much time here. Yeah because we have an important mission today and that is to cross the border with Colombia. So let me show you guys the route for today. So we are here in the capital and today we're going to be heading on this road through Cayambe, up through Ibarra and up to the border of Colombia which is just past El Angel somewhere around here. The reason for us going to cross the border today is because we have a plan to cross the Darien Gap. Now there are basically two ways to cross the Darien Gap. You can either ship the bike with a container or you can fly the bike. There used to be a lot of options with like little boats and ferries as people have seen on Itubuza's channel but this option is no longer available. We had good word from multiple people who have tried that same technique loading the bike onto a boat. You know, a few days nice trip through the San Blas Islands and then you're in Panama. But we contacted some operators and basically everybody said to us this is not happening anymore. The government has cracked down on this type of Darien Gap crossing and it's no longer available. So that leaves us with the option of a container or flying. Now you know what happened the last time we put Bumblebee in a container. It took three months before we could see her again. It was a nightmare, cost a fortune so we are not doing that again. Yeah we are still traumatized from this experience. Absolutely. So that leaves us with flying the bike. Now luckily there is an awesome company called Cargo Rider and they will fly your bike from Bogota in Colombia to Panama City. Literally you drop off the bike a couple of days later it's ready to collect. It's like super easy, super straightforward and it only costs US$1,250 which is not too bad considering we paid US$5,000 for our container shipping. Yeah I'm really really happy with this option actually and we are in contact now with Veronica and we wrote her this morning actually a message and saying to her we will be in Bogota in like four days and she said no worries. But this is the reason we have a bit of a time constraint because basically they only accept bikes on Thursday morning every week and then those bikes will be flown on the Saturday of that same week. So basically unless we want to wait a whole another week we need to reach Bogota by Thursday morning. So it's currently Friday today so our mission is including today to have five rides to reach Bogota. That'll get us to Bogota on Tuesday night and then Wednesday we get our tyre changed, fingers crossed if we managed to get that organised and then Thursday morning Bumblebee is ready to be shipped. And we will be heading over to Panama! We just have our morning mission at the moment to try to get out of Quito because although this isn't the largest city in Ecuador it's pretty close there are two million people living here so yeah it's still a big place. Yeah and the traffic is quite tricky because it's very hilly here as well and it's a very long city here if you see on the map it's like it's really spread over like a kilometres you know. We'll hopefully find our way out. So today our mission is to try to cross the border to Colombia and reach the town of Ibales which is basically the first major town over the other side of the border. Yes our navigation says it will take us four hours and 50 minutes. It's already 9.30 so better hit the road let's go. Yes on our way out of the city and wow it looks like we were quite up high in Quito because now we're just descending down into this massive valley ahead. It's a beautiful day today sunshine 19 degrees can't complain. Yeah it's like Ecuador started us off on a bad foot. Welcome to Ecuador! Oh yeah yeah and then like made up for it towards the end. Yeah absolutely. Oh sorry guys here's a couple of days of sunshine to finish your trip. Yes. Thanks Ecuador. I just realised as well that we were across the equator today my love. No way. Yeah must be no. No you're totally right. Yeah. Actually we might need to look that up. Yeah. We should be passing the equator like really really soon. Yeah. It's supposed to be just north of Quito. Yeah exactly. That's like literally where we are now. Yeah. Oh no do you think we've already passed it? I don't know. So we don't have any signal right now to check 100% but we think that the equator or at least some sort of mark of the equator is coming up in the town of Cayambe. So we're just going to continue on ahead and see if we can find it. I got some internet and I just found out that there's actually a solar clock which we're going to go now and there apparently it's the 00 latitude. So there is actually the point where the equator is directly. It's about 17 minutes from here now. It's a little bit of a detour but it's a worthwhile detour so we will go there now and check that out. Exciting. Okay we appreciate this stunning surroundings here. Yeah it's really not what I expected of the equator but it's beautiful. Yes it's absolutely crazy. If you'd asked me before I would have said I'm 100% sure that it would be rainforest at the equator. Yes somewhere deep in the jungle you know. Yeah that's the way you have the equator in your mind that's what you think right? Yes I think my whole life is alive. Look at it. So 0.3 miles we will reach the middle of the world. I'm ready for it. Oh here we go look. Linea equinocial equator this way. Amazing. So is that the pen? Yeah I think so. I think you have to turn here to the left in a minute. Turn here to the left. Yeah there's a big sign here. Bienvenidos la mitad del mundo. All right yeah let's go over to the side. Amazing. When we adopted the name Ecuador it was on 1830 on the 19th century. And so the name of the country Ecuador is just because the equator is here. Yeah exactly. Ecuador means equator, equator means equator. It is part of our identity. It has to be exposed with honesty and respect. Do you think this is why the Inca, why they made a city here? Do you think it's related to the fact that it's very very close to the equator? Yes but for example the local towns that they lived here before the Inca scheme they established different archaeological sites. And one of these temples is exactly on the equator. Wow. Made in five centuries before the Inca scheme. Oh wow okay. This is even close to Quito city in San Antonio de Pichitio Town. So clever hey? Yes it is. That's why for us it's very important to try to share all this information when the people come because it's part of our history. Yeah. And it's interesting sharing all this knowledge as well. Twice the year 21st of March and September 23rd we have the sun comes from the east. So like that. Okay. This little tooth is the same one as you can see there. The tower gives us a shot in the morning to the west straight along the equator. Exactly directly west. Yes. Okay. Today we are not on the equinox because it is on 21st of March and 23rd of September. But it's interesting because just twice the year you are able to observe the shadow by this tower is straight along the equator. Wow. And then using the shadow we can see different hours by these lines. Okay. 8, 9, 20, 11, 12. But I've known 12. There's no shadows because the sun is going to be directly above. Oh wow. It's perpendicular that's why it's completely shining into this tower and the shadows disappear. Oh magical. Just for two or three minutes. Wow. Yeah. But in the afternoon the sun is sitting in the west. Yes. And the shadow goes to the other side. Okay. Give us 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 p.m. Yes. April, May, June. Yes. We have the sun over the Tropic of Cancer. Yes. That's why it's summer for the north. Yeah. Winter for the south. Uh huh. The Tropic of Cancer line is over Cuba, Mexico, Saudi Arabia. A lot of countries. We rode through it in Morocco. Morocco? Yes. It is. July, August, September, November, October, November, December. We have the sun over the Tropic of Capricorn. That's why it's summer for the south, winter for the north. You are in the northern hemisphere. Germany and... Yes. United Kingdom. You are around between latitudes 40, 50 degrees, 55 degrees. That's why for you most part of the time the sun is always to the south. Uh huh. Like that. That's why everybody has their garden in England, always facing the south. But in the southern hemisphere, opposite. Yes. And here you can't put your garden... Yeah. You have no... You can put on both sides. Yeah. Both sides. Or east, west, north, south. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's interesting. If we place at... North Pole. Ah, yeah. It's like six months dark. Yeah. Or from the south pole. It's like six months dark. So here is equal days, equal nights. Yes. All the year. All year. Yeah. And when we are on the sources or equinoxes, we can fill the same time. 12 hours for the day, 12 hours for the night. Wow. We have the sunrise 6 a.m. and sunset 6 a.m. That's why here there are no seasons. There's no seasons. It's a little bit boring, but... It's explaining also why this region is one of the most biodiversity. Much more numbers of plants and animals. So the plants are developing photosynthesis. It's 100% all year round. Wow. At this moment we are not still on the clear line because it's there. Yes. We are here one second out in the south, which is equal 30 meters. If you want to prove, you can use the smartphones or smartwatch or GPS to see the coordinates. 00, one second south. Look at that. One second south. Oh, cool. But in this moment we are keep walking that way where there you are going to observe 00 all. Cool. Let's do it. Let's make our way to the equator. That's why this is the most accurate spot in the history of Ecuador and also in all the way around. Most part of the monuments in the other places around are not exactly in the equator. Okay. They're just very close, but not exactly. But this is like exactly the line. Yes. Only in the unique place in the world find it zero degrees, zero minus, zero seconds with one millimeter precision. Crazy. Look at that. 00, wow. Zero, zero, zero seconds and that's the line. Look at this. Kayambe latitude 00, Ecuador. Yes. Wow. After this line it's southern hemisphere. Okay. There and northern hemisphere. Wow. For us this line is the line that it makes just one single word joins together. It's the line of the union balance and equilibrium. It's not a line that most of the people think is the line which is divided here into hemispheres. Yes. It's the line of the union. Wow, cool. The mosaic as you can see inside is the same symbol that you must find all over the world. Okay. So Mexico, Egypt, you can find the same symbol all over the world. It comes from the astronomical observations by the local people for thousands of years ago, for the last 29 years by this organization. We discovered more than 250 different pre-Inca archeological sites inside of this macro region. Okay. And each one is on a specific point relating to the equinox or the solstice. And it's on the relationship of this kind of symbol of the star with eight points. Okay. That's why the center one is Catechia. But if you are in Catechia Hill in June 21st you will observe the sunrise there. But the sun comes aligned with the pyramids of Koczeski. June 21st. And six months later we'll get another solstice. We have the sunrise on top of this archeological site which is called Bamba Marca. This is the way how they figured it out. Amazing. This is how these people choose a specific point on the horizon where they were observed where the sunrise and sets. And this is the way how they hold these places with mathematical precision. Wow. Look, look, look. I'm in the north. I'm in the south. Woo. That's amazing. Different hemispheres joined by us. Yeah, this is some kind of goosebumps place. When the guide is explaining everything about the sun, it's just like magical, magical. Okay. So it's 12 o'clock now. So that sun is shining all the way down this tube. And if it was on the equinox then this circle would be perfectly inside this circle here. You know, I get goosebumps. I really can cry because it's so... You don't really experience something like this anywhere in the world, just here. And whilst we're here in the middle of the world, I have another important announcement and that is that we have just hit 22,000 miles on the road. Woo. Wow. That was a magical place. I'm so happy that we went there and as well it was like five US dollars per person. It was the best five dollars spent in a long time. Like they had so much knowledge that explained so many things. It was so worthwhile going like I loved it. Yeah. I mean, they really showed us the importance of what it means to be on the equator. You know, the history and sort of how the ancient cultures built temples on the hills. And it's just, yeah, it's amazing just to see the wider context and just to see what it really means to be on the equator. It's amazing. Definitely well worth taking a detour to go there. But now we have to make some distance. Oh, yes. We're still heading to the Colombian border. And oh my God, it says now we will arrive there at like 4.20. So it doesn't give us a huge amount of time. But yeah, we have to push on now. Yeah. I mean, we've got probably by the time we arrive, we'll have only about two hours until sunset. So we are really pushing it. But yeah, I guess we've just got to try and make some distance now. Yeah. Let's hurry up. Many unbearable hours later. So it's currently three o'clock and we've reattached our media mod because it stopped raining. The sun is back. Yeah, let's dry up a little bit, eh? Yes. We've still got an hour and a half riding to get us to the border. At the moment, it's estimating that we'll get there half past four. But hopefully it will be quite smooth at the border and we will enter Colombia. Yeah, we've actually enlisted the help of Veronica helping us out with the paperwork to get our temporary import permit for Colombia. Now normally we would just arrive at the border and just, you know, do whatever we need to do. But I know to cross the border into Colombia with the motorcycle, we have to do some stuff online. And we tried having a look at the website and it's just impossible for us to make sense of any of it. Yeah, everything was in Spanish and even the English translation. Like, we didn't really get what's going on there. So I think Veronica says she'll do all the paperwork for us and email it over. So that just makes it much smoother and quicker when we do get to the border to get everything sorted because we won't have a lot of time. It's literally going to be two hours to sunset. Oh, look at this for a bend. Oh my God. It's been a really hilly ride winding our way around all these crazy, crazy bends. Yeah, you can't really go very fast here in Ecuador. Even though the distances aren't great, it still takes you a lifetime to go around here. Look at that. There we go. Gracias por visitar la República de Ecuador. Oh, do we have to do something here, my love? What do you mean? Look, migrations there. Oh, do we have to do something just here on this side? So we went, apparently, the guy said that we went straight past migration for Ecuador and we should have actually stamped ourselves out and given back our temporary import permit for Ecuador here. So I've done my passport stamp out and Lavi is doing hers now and I'm just moving Bumblebee. Customs is right there as well, so it's pretty easy. I think they might want to have a look at the bike. So I'm just going to bring it round. Okay, here we go. Five minutes later. Beautiful. That was super easy. So we just gave back the temporary import permit without a little window there and that was it. It was easy. It looks like a busy border. But actually, getting out of Ecuador there, that was really quick. That was really quick. I mean, that took us about 10 minutes. So now, again, going back across the bridge, bienvenidos Colombia. I'll go do my migration, get the passport stamped in, you do the same. Yes. And then we're ready to get our temporary import permit for Bumblebee. So now we've sent over everything to Veronica and we're just waiting for her to upload and get everything ready for us. Then I'm going to go over to Customs and hopefully everything should be sorted. What time is it now? It's like five o'clock. It's looking okay. Yeah, but it's still super busy here. People are standing around here everywhere. I don't know what they're doing. But otherwise, the process was quite quick. And yeah, welcome to Colombia. One more thing to do and we're in. All right, customs is done. We've got our temporary import permit. I think that's it. I think we're good to go, hey? Yeah, let's just see if they stop us. Doesn't look like it. Perfect. Nobody stopped us. We are through. Welcome to Colombia. Amazing. And it's not dark yet, which is amazing. It is currently 5.50. So we are very close to sunset, but luckily it's only a 10 minute ride to get to the town of Ipales. And there we have an accommodation in mind. So we should be all gravy. Yes. Awesome. The accommodation complete. That's a deluxe place tonight. It looks really cool. Gracias. So this is our room here. And it's super amazing because the room costs us just nine pounds, which is a new record, I think. But for some reason, they always put us like on the third floor or fourth floor and they don't have an elevator. So we're always carrying all our stuff in the last, last room in the whole hotel. It's the furthest you can walk in the entire hotel and this box is really heavy. So, Jesus. We made it. Happy to live. Yeah, so we're here in the square in the center of Ipales. This is a really massive cool church behind us as well. We made it to Colombia. We are here. Mission accomplished. I'm super happy to be here to discover a new country, which is super amazing. But our first priority is to find something to eat. So we're going to have a look around the square and see what we can find. And that's it from us today. We hope you enjoyed the video. If so, please give us a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel. Share the video with your friends and family. Comment below. And we will see you next time. I think we've gone a little overboard. This is what riding all day does to you. Keep my hand. Bon appetit.