Pride of Ecuador

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 16.11.2014

A rumor circulated around the finish line that the Brazilians were giving a barbeque this afternoon at the finish line and all were invited. The choice was quickly made between a siesta and the barbeque. Hosted by Brazil-Advogado Adventureira, they’d purchased thirty kilos of meat and had been preparing all morning. The “asado” was a mellow affair as we picked our choice of meats with our fingers directly off the cutting board and teams sat in the sand discussing their race.

Full course teams continue to cross the finish line two days after the winners, Seagate. It has been a pleasure to see how many Ecuadorian teams were on this race and families and friends have been here at the finish line to cheer them in. (There were thirteen teams from the host country on the list.)  One of the Ecuadorian full course teams that came in this morning was Guambras: Biosil-Powerade. We’d come across them yesterday at the end of the jungle trek and the tides on the last kayak section wrecked havoc with their plans to finish yesterday.

The two women racing on the team, Maria and Daniela, are part of the seven women Ecuadorian adventure racing club, the Guambras (Guambras is local slang for “the gals”). They’d raced last year ‘s Huirasinchi and were the only all women team to have finished the full course. Their fellow team members and their families lined the streets of Mompiche this morning to cheer them in. I came across Maria later in the day after she’d showered and she was almost unrecognizable. Walking hand in hand with her father, her mother a few paces ahead, her parents radiated pride in their daughter who had been such an Amazon throughout the race.

The team dynamics had continued to be as positive as when we’d seen them at TA6 in Independiante. The two guys from the New Zealand team Bivouac Colts, Dayne Mcknight and Ryan Thompson, who’d been racing as part of their team had “been animals” according to UK-adidas TERREX’s Warren Bates, who said they’d not hesitated to carry the women’s gear.

Ecuadorian team Terra Aventura Fybeca-Discover also finished the full course and their female team member, Danish racer Sanne Elidsbo Hansen spoke over a beer at the finish line about the last two sections. She said the jungle trek had been interminable and that the mud was not “normal mud, it just stuck to you and when you tried to rinse it off in the river, it just became slimier.”

They’d been caught out by the tide last night so at about 02:00 they stopped at a local fishermen’s hut and asked the family if they could sleep there for two hours. They were immediately ushered into the hut, the father of the family moved his sleeping children off the large family bed and insisted that they sleep there. Sanne added that they had to stop the mother of the family from starting to cook for them, she’d already lit the gas, as they’d also wanted to feed them!

Sanne said they’d encountered this generosity of spirit and hospitality to strangers throughout the race. Ten family members of her Ecuadorian teammates had been following the race since the start, camping in their cars and at each TA she said they’d been instantly boosted by their enthusiastic cheering. She finished by saying that the guys on her team had been great and she’d felt comfortable racing with them in spite of the language barrier.

All of the Ecuadorians that we’ve spoken to throughout this race have asked us how we like their country and one is tempted to answer “what’s not to like?” The incredible diversity of the terrains crossed, the wildlife and the selfless hospitality that many of us from the Northern hemisphere have a hard time fathoming have made this a very special place to race.

The course closes tomorrow at 12:00 and teams who were short coursed and are still racing will have one final push to make it to this ultimate time cut-off.

­

See All Stories On This Race