Our journey south from Quito was harem scarem following the sat nav through Quito back streets. Once on the highway we cruised along happy as a llama, heading south.

Speaking of llamas here’s an alpaca. Well they’re much the same thing are they not?

Okay, okay, let’s see a baby llama and Susan.

More interesting than Susan and a baby llama is the mountain in the background.

That’s Cotopaxi, third highest active volcano on earth. For the last two years climbers haven’t been allowed to the top as it’s a bit too active just now. Currently, it’s at Alert Level Yellow (second highest level). It’s a stratovolcano which means that it’s of a type that can explode violently upon eruption. However, just look at Susan – fearless as the baby llama. As she. says ‘ after being on the back of that bl**dy bike in Columbia, I have no fear of potential pyroclastic clouds’!

Here’s another photo as the sun set over our hostel.

Yes we’re in a hostel again. We went for the private ‘family room’s as our bike gear is quite bulky. Here’s our room. Comfortably authentic is how I describe it.

The following day, a couple of hours down the road we stayed at a hacienda. This time I treated Susan to the full romance package with rose petals on the bed. Please don’t show this photo to your partner as they will complain ‘why can’t you treat me like Clif treats Susan’! Instead, show them the photo of the hostel above and they will be grateful they’re with you.

This hacienda was a fairly eclectic museum type place. It also had rabbits so here’s another photo of Susan feeding things. She’s being doing so much for animal welfare in South America.

And now for another interesting fact and this one’s going to knock your socks off!

So you think you know the highest mountain on earth? Well no you don’t!

This is the highest mountain and it was right beside our hacienda. This is Chimborazo, inactive volcano (last eruption 550 AD) and the highest point on earth. Move over Everest.

Let me explain. The earth isn’t round. The combined effects of gravity and rotational forces have pushed the earth’s mass around the equator. Effectively there’s a big bulge around the middle. Please stop looking down at yourself and keep reading…

If we take this equatorial bulge into account then Chimborazo is further from the centre of the earth and further out into space. The summit of Chimborazo is actually over 2,072 metres further from the centre of the earth than puny Everest. It’s a winner hands down!

And, completely irrelevant to South America, you will be surprised to learn that Everest is also beaten by Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This mountain originates deep below the Pacific Ocean and rises more than 10,210 metres compared to puny Everest at 8,848 metres.

So the next time someone asks you to climb the highest mountain in earth you can raise an eyebrow and say ‘oh yes I would love to go to Ecuador’ Just not on a motorbike!

• Ecuador
• South America