Long Way Up (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - Ecuador - full transcript
Got sun on my face.
Sleeping rough on the road
I'll tell you all about it.
When I get home.
Gonna roll up the sidewalk.
Gonna need letting up.
Comin' round to meet you.
The long way up.
We're gonna ride 13,000
miles through 13 countries.
From Ushuaia, in and out of Argentina
and Chile, to the Atacama Desert,
heading up to La Paz
before we cross Lake Titicaca,
continuing along the Andes
to Colombia, over to Panama,
through Central America and Mexico,
arriving in Los Angeles 100 days later.
We're gonna give these guys video cameras,
and they're also gonna have cameras
with microphones on their crash helmets
so they can film themselves
as they're riding along.
Is this a road? My God!
A third motorcycle will travel with them,
and on it will be Claudio, our cameraman.
In addition, Russ and I will
travel in two electric pickup trucks,
along with cameramen Jimmy,
Anthony and Taylor, who
will also help with logistics.
We'll be filming the
guys from the vehicles,
linking up with them at borders,
but otherwise, the
motorcycles will be on their own.
Ecuador, land of my fathers.
It's just totally different
from Peru, isn't it?
Completely.
Everyone talks about Ecuador
being kind of a fun place.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's a tiny little country.
Yeah.
We're gonna be in Ecuador
for only four or five days,
but really looking
forward to a new country.
Be nice to be moving on.
And then we got Colombia
four or five days later.
It's all looking good.
Our crew, we're all
gonna split up a little bit.
There's only a small amount of
us who are gonna go to Colombia.
It's gonna be fun though.
I think I'm gonna like it here, you know?
With the roadless Darién Gap
blocking our route to Central America,
the Rivians need to be ferried
from Esmeraldas to Panama
while we go as far as we can by
road through Ecuador and Colombia.
- Yeah, so you can see...
- Yeah, you see for miles.
- Yes.
- Yes.
Guayaquil is Ecuador's largest city,
and it's got a real artistic vibe to it.
All these are galleries. Artiste. Bohemian.
- That is cool.
- Yes.
- Hola. Hello.
- Yeah, it's cool.
- Look at this.
- Yeah, yeah.
This one's interesting.
I'm so obsessed with
charging the motorbike.
I'm just drawn to the plug in
this otherwise odd painting.
- One quick photo. My pals are waiting.
- Yes.
- Thank you so much.
- You're very welcome, mate.
He's from Star Wars, man.
How do people know?
'Cause it's just lots of people
coming up these stairs...
- Maybe it is just...
- Who know that we're here.
Here the coffee is very good.
Dulce de tres leches.
Not just dulce de leche, but dulce
de tres leches. Are you kidding?
Let's get one of those.
Okay, triple leche.
Make a close-up with...
Is that good?
It is triple... It's like,
bang, bang, bang!
Fantastic. Great cakes.
Yeah, I know.
Dear, dear.
How will we ever get out of the restaurant?
He's doing it through the door.
Make a path, make a path.
Maybe I can go over there. They make
a line, people come in and out, okay?
Geez, it's just such a big line.
- Hello, hello, how are you?
- Can you go like this?
Yeah, look over here.
Direction.
- Thank you.
- Always love a bit of direction.
- Hello there.
- You say it.
This is Obi-Wan. He is the
best hero in the whole world.
Look at this. Wow!
Do it like that. Now, go over here. Look.
Thanks, man. Thank you.
I love you.
Thanks, guys. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Cheers.
Well, that was pretty intense, Ewan.
Well done for sticking it out.
And I know it's all...
can be a bit panicky,
all that kind of stuff. You
made their day, you really have.
It was just nuts
with the old Star Wars
fraternity coming out in force.
Holy moly, that never happens.
So weird.
Anyway...
It was very nice to make some
people smile like that. It was fun.
We've got our own...
It's like crazy golf for motorbikes.
Isn't it?
It's very cool.
I'll go round this outside.
While we're enjoying the open road,
the team is in a dash across Ecuador
to get the Rivians to the port.
We've got a long drive ahead of us,
and the cars will definitely
need tow-charging.
And it's gonna take a while because this
is just a single-lane highway all the way.
We just passed this amazing
motorcycle graveyard.
I've never seen that in my life.
It's all here.
Well, I suppose one
upside of driving a bit slower
is we're getting to see a bit of Ecuador.
Everything is here. On this one road.
Banana plantations and even
that weird amusement park.
That's bizarre.
You see, we're learning a lot on
this road about Ecuadorian culture.
Because we're basically
heading directly north,
we've beaten the boys to the equator.
But if I'm honest, they
haven't really missed much.
It's a little bit of an anticlimax
compared to when we did
Long Way Down in Africa,
where they had a big sign to
say you're crossing the equator.
This is like a bit of a tip.
But somebody has
put on this weird sign for a hotel, that.
Which I think is zero degrees
longitude or whatever it is.
So at least we know
we're in the right place.
So, it's the first time on Long
Way Up we've crossed the equator,
and we've probably
crossed before the boys have.
I'm only at 97% and,
of course, Charley's 100.
Regardless of the charging.
We're heading to the rain forest
on the west coast and to Montecristi,
apparently the birthplace
of a very famous hat.
Today, we're gonna go
and get some Panama hats,
which are named Panama hats,
but apparently they were
born here in Ecuador.
So they should really be called
Ecuador hats or Montecristi hats.
I think that... You make
Panama hats out of that, I think.
Yeah, I think you do.
- Hola.
- Hola.
- I'm Ewan. Charley.
- Nice to see you.
- Wow.
- Hola.
- Are they woven by hand?
- Sí.
By hand?
Look at the pattern.
Amazing.
I think I just assumed it was
done with a machine or something.
I'd never imagined it would
be done by hand like this.
How long does it take her
to make one hat like this?
It can be anywhere up to a month.
- A month?
- Yes.
A month?
And the process just
to get these materials...
So this plant over here is where
it comes from. These palms.
They have to boil it and then dry
it, and then they have to shred it.
And the finer the shred, the finer the hat.
So, you get sort of wide... like
where you can really see the weaving.
But then there's ones
like this. Look at this!
Look how fine that is.
That's like silk almost, that one.
Isn't that amazing?
One question left is what shape to go for.
Prices can go as high as
$2,000 for these amazing hats.
Fifteen days.
And then this one... is a month.
No, I think I prefer the shorter.
I don't know how we'd keep one on our bike.
Well, sunny...
It's designed to be easily
rolled up and carried around.
- I'm up for this one.
- You look good in that one, Charley.
I'm gonna go for this one. Mine's only $80.
Nice?
Gracias.
We do need to get to the ferry,
but all along this drive there
are things that distract us.
Cacao?
Yes, this is cacao.
This is the basis of chocolate.
Yes, these ones are raw and those are dry.
That's why their smell is stronger.
That, for me, is very interesting.
Look.
Do you break it?
That's a very strong smell
as soon as you break it open.
It's like very, very dense dark chocolate.
And very brittle. Look.
And are these cocoa, or cacao
beans, are they grown locally?
This is a family business
ran by four brothers
who work with collection.
They collect from small producers
then they dry the beans
and sell to traders who will export them.
Cacao, is that a big product for
Ecuador? An important product?
Yes.
It moves the economy a lot.
We're heading towards the coastal jungle,
an area that's suffered
from extensive deforestation.
While the Cool Earth initiative we saw in
Peru was all about reducing deforestation,
we're off to stay with an
ex-New York City trader
who's attempting to reforest the jungle.
Well, we are now heading down.
We've got about 12 miles to go,
and we're going to this conservancy,
where they are trying to reintroduce
this sort of coastline jungle.
So, we're gonna leave
our bikes with the mayor.
The mayor of the town is letting
us park our bikes up at his house.
'Cause it's totally off-grid
in there. And plug them in.
And then we'll head in...
There's a big ole spotty dog.
Look at the big ole spotty, man.
The big spotted dog.
And we're gonna head into the jungle.
What a place to live. My God.
How you doing?
- So glad you guys are here.
- Yeah, we too.
Thank you guys for coming.
Nobody really knows about
this coastal region of Ecuador.
Cattle ranching was by far the
biggest driver of deforestation here.
Wow.
And you see it all around.
And you have little bit of forest, but
all these deforested parts is for cattle.
If my numbers are correct, the Amazon
maybe lost 25% to 30% of its forest,
but this forest here has lost 98%.
The cool thing though is that
if they allow it to grow back,
- it will come back.
- Yeah.
We came here in 2007.
We'd been kind of roaming around Ecuador,
looking for a site to do this project.
We met this guy, and he told
us about his dad's property.
And so we went with him and checked it out,
and the foundation was
pretty much born that day.
We had a team of about ten or 12
people, and we planted for about two weeks
every single day.
And we did that once a
year for about three years,
and then we stopped planting.
And then it was just, you know,
assisted natural regeneration.
Six years ago, it was
pure cattle patch here.
- Here?
- It's amazing.
This is six years of growth.
- Wow, that's incredible.
- It seems like a lie.
Amazing.
These here were nothing. These
probably didn't exist six years ago.
- They came up on their own.
- Look how tall they are.
They're growing fast 'cause they have to.
To survive. Yeah. Get their sunlight.
It's a young forest.
- It's on its way.
- Yeah.
Wow. Beautiful. Well done. It's amazing.
Jerry and his partners set up
a foundation to purchase land
with a mission to expand this forest.
How much of it is... do you
own... how much of it is...
So, 1,600 acres kind of going all
the way up the mountain. So, it's big.
- It's enough to get lost in.
- Yeah.
I think it's amazing that
Jerry left New York City behind
to help protect this part of the forest.
This is a great little bathing spot.
This water is so pristine
and clean that you can drink it.
That's nice.
Have you had any run-ins with people
trying to illegally take wood and stuff,
or no?
Early on, you'd hear buzz saws
just singing out all over the place.
There were tense moments
with... And people would be armed
with, like, a really old-school
rifle, and it would be me coming up
with my machete and basically
just getting into a conversation
or really, "This is
what we're trying to do."
And, you know?
And then slowly but surely, as we expanded,
we also offered employment to a lot
of people who used to cut trees down.
So, we're at 12 years now,
and everyone knows we're
just a part of this community.
We learned Ecuador is one of the
most biodiverse countries in the world
with 10% of the world's mammal
species and 15% of its birds.
There are some monkeys
up there, by the way.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Those are howler monkeys.
- Howlers.
- We haven't seen very many.
What's that noise?
- Those are the howlers.
- The howlers.
- That's his family. Yeah.
- Jesus Christ.
There's about five different troops
of them and they communicate,
they basically shout to each
other, establishing their territory.
So you'll hear those guys will go
off and then those guys will go off
and then those guys will go off.
And that's just alone.
Then you get sometimes lone
guy who's just doing his thing,
looking for food.
It's so beauti...
It's just when you see
it, the thick forest there.
It's so beautiful, isn't it?
All that would probably be gone
by now if this weren't for this project.
Really?
How amazing. Brilliant, so brilliant.
We call this the bamboo house.
- Clever.
- It's amazing.
Beautiful, beautiful.
- If you're hungry...
- We'd love some food.
- Yeah, that be lovely.
- Hi, there.
- Hey there. How's it going?
- Hi.
- Hello.
- Hi, oops. Sorry.
This is like... Jama-Coaque
has a bird observatory here.
This is a sunbittern, and that's
what it looks like when it's flying.
It's got those little eyes.
Yeah.
And as a display, they'll open their wings
and it looks like these two giant
eyespots that are this far apart.
- The wingspan is about that big.
- Is that for defense?
And it's for protection, right? It's
to scare off predators and such.
I think so.
These birds are a big
draw for nature lovers,
which in turn helps Jerry
fund the forest foundation.
I mean, what a great
thing to make some money.
The antithesis of this and
the New York financial world,
and then go, "No, I'm
gonna do this." So cool.
So, do you have any good birding jokes?
- Do people tell bird jokes?
- Man.
Must be. Come on, there must be some.
I have a bird joke.
A duck walks into a pharmacy, or
where I come from, a chemist shop,
and he goes up to the chemist
and he says, "You got something for...
Have you got something for dry lips?"
And he goes, "Yeah, look,
I've got this ChapStick."
And he goes, "Okay, I'll take it."
He goes, "That'll be £2.55, please."
And the duck says, "No,
no, no, just put it on my bill."
That's a birding joke, isn't it?
That's good. That's... Yeah. It's there.
The sound of the jungle
was just beautiful all night.
And if you were to choose
to be a bird, you know?
A hummingbird, that would be
my choice if you could choose one.
- I loved it. I don't wanna leave.
- It was incredible.
- Jerry, thank you so much.
- Take care, Jerry.
- Enjoy the rest of the ride.
- We'll see you soon.
Yep.
So cool. What a place.
What a beautiful place.
Maybe the highlight
of the whole trip so far
was spending the night at the rain forest.
I loved it. I loved sleeping
under my mosquito net,
listening to the noises of the jungle.
The insects and the monkeys,
howling and screeching.
I just felt like
spending the night there was
as good a reason of doing
this trip as any, you know?
I'm having such a great time.
I love Charley Boorman with all my heart
and all of the team.
But it's been such a great
pleasure to be riding with them again
and riding these beautiful
electric motorcycles.
I'm very lucky. A very lucky man.
Russ now has to get to the port
to get the Rivians' paperwork done
or they won't make it on the ship in time.
We are 50 miles from Esmeraldas.
I don't wanna tempt
fate, but we got a lot done,
we got a lot of miles covered.
I hope the boys are having a good time.
You know, the next time we see them
will be on the way to the Colombian border.
I hope they're going okay, because
we haven't heard from them at all today.
Ready to go?
- I've got 98.
- All right!
We're going up into the
mountains and it's 2,000 meters,
so it's colder and it's
raining there at the moment.
We're just made of such tough
stuff, it doesn't really matter to us.
Hot, cold. You know, you
never hear us moaning about it.
For those of you who have been
watching episodes one to eight,
you'll know that that's not quite true.
My God, what a trip. Machu
Picchu, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego,
Patagonia, Argentina, Chile,
Bolivia, Peru, Peru, Peru. What a trip.
And now Ecuador, and soon Colombia.
Well, up to the mountains again.
Going up back onto the mountains.
I wanna stay on the coast and stay warm.
Jesus!
We need to get past this truck.
We're all stuck behind this oil truck.
You're gonna get stuck,
you're gonna get stuck there.
Don't do it. Don't pull out. Don't do it.
- Don't do it.
- No, don't do it.
Top man.
Ewan! Jesus!
Ewan!
I was just along...
I'm alongside him and he pulled out.
I had to dodge round it.
God.
That would have been messy as well.
Could've taken us both down.
After a few hundred
miles' drive across Ecuador,
we finally arrived at the port.
Yes.
The idea is to put all the cars onto
the ship to go round to Panama City,
thereby missing the Darién Gap.
But the next job
is to make sure that these cars
are actually booked on the boat.
We need to get the cars to Panama.
And these cars are very special
'cause they're prototype electric vehicles.
And so, they're going
on the ship from your port.
From here? From Esmeraldas?
Yes.
What cars?
They're called Rivians.
But are you sure the boat is going
to leave from Esmeraldas Port?
Well, hopefully.
I'm saying yes because that's
what we've been told, but...
Okay.
Give me a second. I need to call somebody.
- Darío, right?
- Darío.
The funny thing is when I
opened this up the other day,
it didn't say this ship was stopping here.
Well, now you're saying that.
That's why I'm wondering.
It doesn't say it's stopping here.
That would not be good.
"Myshippingtracker-dot-com-vessels."
It's supposed to be our boat.
The Pluto, from Panama,
will be here on the 14th, right?
These ships, they come once a week.
It is gonna be here only for an hour.
All of our files on the
boat go on in one hour.
Yes, but the thing is...
- It takes more time...
- An hour?
- Yeah, because it only has...
- Is it normally an easy process?
The thing is you have to
fill out a lot of applications
and all the paperwork has to be done
before you start the shipment.
That was interesting 'cause at least
they found our boat on the system.
Up to that point, I couldn't
see our boat stopping here.
So, I was getting a bit worried.
And it's only docking for
one hour and then it will go.
So, honestly, if we don't
have that paperwork sorted out,
that's not gonna stop for long.
And if that doesn't turn up in
Panama, that's got all of our stuff on it.
So I'm sort of smiling, but, you
know, shipping stuff is problematic.
What we don't really wanna have happen now
is Ewan and Charley have a major problem.
'Cause we've split up as a team,
we'd struggle to get to them.
And that actually would screw up our plans.
Okay, I really can't see a thing.
It's like being in the water.
Sweating our pants off this
morning, now, rather chilly.
And this is a nasty stretch of
road between here and the border.
Look at this.
Okay, this is pretty scary.
Can't see a thing.
Rain is now like needles.
Crazy.
God, I hate this. This
is like slick tarmac.
Soaking wet, downhill,
loads of traffic, big trucks.
Let's just see if we can
get there without anyone...
I'm down at 66%.
What's wrong with my bike?
- I don't know why.
- That's weird.
My God.
I heard a bit of squeaking of tires there.
"DANGER - LANDSLIDE ZONE"
Magnificent leadership, Charley.
Boy.
You okay?
I'm all right, mate. You?
Yeah, not bad. Yeah, a
hot chocolate would be nice.
And a bed. Plug them straight in.
Plug in and get in a bath.
I can't believe tomorrow
we'll be in Colombia.
New country, our last day in Ecuador.
It's a shame really 'cause it's so lovely.
I got such a taste of it.
We're going into Colombia, and we're at...
Pretty much at the top of South America.
And I remember sitting on this
bike in the first ten days of our trip
and just the thought of being
up here was just so far away.
It was unbelievable.
And now, we're getting ready. Five
miles away is the Colombian border.
Charley, my bike's doing something weird.
Your bike what?
It's saying it's not ready.
It won't let me start.
Okay, I've switched it off.
No. "Wait, not ready." Look.
Well, at worst, it could be,
at worst, it could be software.
- Did you see that little spark?
- I did.
Well, let's check first before
we put it all back together.
Yeah. No. Yeah. No. Yeah.
No.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Just trying to think.
Right now, we're in the
middle of testing something,
so I just wanted to give
you guys a heads-up
that we're actively working on it,
trying to see if what we're thinking will
fix it... is possibly able to fix it. Okay?
Okay, hold on. Can you
just hold on one second?
Guys, I've just got Rachel on the phone.
Okay, Rachel, go ahead.
Okay. All right, guys, we've been working
with the engineers in Milwaukee.
What we believe that is going on is
we've put that prototype calibration in
that increased the range.
Yeah.
And it looks like right now that that
has caused the software to lock up.
Okay.
And is that something which you
can plug into a computer and reset?
No.
We have to... At this point,
we have to shut the bike down.
I give you guys the option of
do we want to replace the bike
- or replace the battery?
- Isn't there a point?
Let us digest that and then
we'll see where we go. Okay?
- Sorry for the bad news. Bye.
- Bye.
I don't wanna go without my bike
to Colombia. Like, that would be...
No. That wouldn't be fun at all.
The battery management unit
failed during a software update.
It was a preproduction version
with a custom software configuration.
And the HD team made the call
that it was easier to change the
entire battery assembly in the field
versus attempting to change the BMU.
What we'll do is we'll probably try and
arrange to get the bike on a truck now.
And then we'll get it to
Panama where, hopefully,
there'll be some Harley
technicians to fix it.
Our mad plan is to catch a plane
from Pasto in Colombia to Buenaventura
and then up the coast
by boat to Bahía Solano.
And then another plane will
hopefully take us to Panama City
over the top of the Darién Gap.
Okay. One, two, three.
Most of our... Colombia is
not riding the bikes, anyway.
They're gonna be on a plane,
on a big barge, on another plane,
and then we're gonna fly them to Panama.
So, that being said, let's do it.
Get our bike into Panama earlier
and then they can get working on it.
I'll ride Claudio's bike
with Claudio on the back.
Okay, this is going to
be a big moment for me.
- Big moment.
- Are you ready?
Here it comes.
My God, look at the beast. And no gears.
- Well done, mate.
- Cheers, mate.
Let's go to the border and go to Colombia.
I'm still by your side, Charley.
I'm still right by your
side through thick and thin.
I wonder how Colombia's gonna look,
'cause I get the feeling it's gonna
be very colorful. I get the feeling.
This must be the border here.
Wow, here we are.
For a long time, I've been
curious about Colombia.
Fifty years of civil war.
They've had drug cartels that
have brought misery everywhere.
But now the country's really
turning around and opening up,
and so it's a very
interesting time to be here.
It's interesting about Colombia, you know?
Medellín, supposedly
one of the safest cities,
was the murder capital of the world
not too many years ago. Ten years ago.
It was on a no-fly, no-visit list.
There are parts of
Colombia that we're visiting...
Buenaventura, we were warned,
might not be a place that we should go to.
We didn't want to miss
Colombia. Nobody in this team did.
They just need to let us in.
The customs in Colombia,
they weren't willing to let us in.
He was like, "No, you have to stay
here, and tomorrow the person responsible
for that is going to check the
equipment and blah, blah, blah."
And I was, "Please, please, I have to
take a plane first thing in the morning."
And then Maxim came in and he said,
"Excuse me, are you a Star Wars fan?"
"Yes."
"Do you know who was sitting here?"
"No."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi." Ding.
And then what?
And then he's just like,
"Okay. Boom! A stamp noise".
We are in Colombia!
Colombia. Colombia!
Wow. That is very nice.
A whole new world of everything.
Yeah, the architecture's
definitely changed, hasn't it?
There's the guinea pig.
- My God. This is a big thing.
- Yeah. We are in the land of...
Guinea pigs here are absolutely massive.
Look at these ones on the right.
Happy guinea... My gosh.
Come and eat, come and eat us.
Why would you want that?
And then his dead
mates are right beside him.
But then sometimes you see
that in butcher shops in Britain.
Yeah, there's a cow outside
the butcher that I go to.
But he's not dressed up in human
clothes, looking at you smiling, saying,
"Look I'm a guinea pig. Eat my cousins."
I don't like following my bike like this.
- It's so depressing. Jesus!
- No, it's not...
- It's not nice, is it?
- Not really.
We're staying in Pasto tonight.
But we're check out a famous church nearby
as we've been told it's not to be missed.
We're going in this bubble
car to visit an old church.
My God, look how high
we are over this gorge.
I mean, that's quite
scary. Holy crap, look at it.
It's stunning.
Why is it they built it down there?
I have no idea.
This bizarre church is an absolute wonder.
It's called the Las Lajas Sanctuary.
- "I'm gonna build a church down here."
- "Down here."
"Don't you just wanna
build it down here, mate?"
"I was asleep and it came to me
one night. Build it and they will come."
Dear.
This last bit is a killer, isn't
it? Jesus, we're so close.
How long has it actually been?
I think we've been in here
about 20 minutes, I think.
But it's sort of like a
Disney movie castle, isn't it?
You come across, bring up the drawbridge.
That's making me feel weird.
- My God!
- Wow!
Look at that water
coming out of that building.
That's so high.
I don't like that at all, do you?
So, it turns out the
inspiration for building it
happened over 250 years ago
when a young woman was said
to have been cured of deafness
after she saw the Virgin Mary
on a rock down in the valley,
and they ended up building
the church around that.
You can see it behind the altar.
It's different, isn't it? It's not like a
cathedral in Europe or something.
It's just got a bit of a glitz to it.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
It's taking us longer than
we thought to get back up.
And we've just heard that there's
a landslide on the road ahead.
But can I ask, with the landslide,
we can get past all the cars
and get to the front, but
is the road very difficult?
This morning it was full
of rocks. This morning.
Because one of the driver
came and that's why they...
One of the rocks hit
his tire and it explode.
What do you think, Charley?
I think we should go that way.
I would agree.
We're doing it again.
Riding in the dark and in the
rain, and this road is just crazy.
It's a mess.
That was a big one.
Jesus Christ, man!
Yeah, a bit shitey here. This
is probably where the slide was.
Vertical drops on the side of the road.
Yeah.
I'm sure this is where it was.
Look at the rain coming down.
I mean, it's horrendous, the rain.
Just slamming into my face.
- It's like needles, isn't it?
- Needles, yeah.
There's a cone on the right. A cone.
Jesus, what are we doing?
It really is just bonkers, actually.
- Wow, wow!
- Jesus!
But can you imagine just driving
along and then suddenly, boom!
That huge...
I mean, it must've been a big rock
to make that kind of damage as well.
I didn't see the rock.
- No, no, no.
- It wasn't still in the car, was it?
No.
This is a ride to remember.
I'll never forget this night in Colombia.
No.
It was just bonkers. It was
raining so hard at one point.
And there was one corner I
thought I was gonna really mess up
'cause it was just tightened
up and I was on the brakes.
Dear.
I'm seeing my bike out
there in the back of a lorry,
and it just makes me so sad.
Okay, I'm really tired and I'm
gonna say good night. Good night!
Good morning, everybody.
Good morning from Colombia.
Incredible?
It's a big town square here.
The trip has become this sort of animal.
And it's sort of slightly out
of all of our controls now,
and we're all trying to
control it, and it doesn't work.
It's a big day ahead.
Having sent the Rivians on
the ferry, Russ has rejoined us,
and we need to catch a boat this
evening that goes at six from Buenaventura.
But first, we need to get
a plane to get us there.
You're in here, guys.
No pressure. If we miss this
flight, we'll be stranded overnight.
So, we've got here and check
this out. It's a real pea-souper.
There's fog everywhere.
Our plane won't be cleared
to land until the fog is clear.
- So, he won't take off...
- Won't be able to...
He won't take off from
Cali till it's clear here.
And that...
- They need to see the...
- The runway.
- Did you hear that, Ewan?
- Sorry?
- The airport is closed due to fog.
- It's too foggy.
Yes.
We're gonna be delayed, which
might mean that we'll miss the boat.
It's just steam coming off the tarmac.
It was raining a few minutes ago.
This is not even half of our... here.
We're just gonna have
to sit it out and wait.
Was that the pilot?
Yes, but not regarding the
fog but the weight of the kit.
Like everything... He says it's
too heavy. There's 600 kilos.
What was he... Where's he happy
at? Four hundred, five hundred?
Four hundred, three hundred.
The good news is this airport's open.
Like, the fog is now gone from here.
You can see through there.
But the fog has closed in at
Buenaventura, so that's shut.
So, we've made a decision
where our guys have to go through,
get on the plane and wait.
So, we're delayed.
Our gear is too heavy for the plane,
and now they're sending in the
sniffer dogs to check the luggage.
They are looking with the
police and the anti-narcotic dogs
to take the last check of
the bags and everything.
So, they're looking for drugs, alcohol,
anything that shouldn't be on here.
Yes, illegal substances.
So, the sniffer dogs have sniffed
the bags, and we're fine there,
but we still can't take off because
there's fog at the other end.
So, we've decided to load, and we're just
gonna wait to see if we're cleared to go.
I never imagined it would be like this.
When you think cargo plane,
you don't think like...
Look all like this, do you?
Charley and I are in one
plane with three bikes,
and Russ, David and the crew are going
in the other plane with all the equipment.
- I mean, I suppose this is...
- Where do we sit?
Is there a couple of chairs in the front?
- There's two chairs at the back.
- Sorry, sir.
There's two... That's why
there's only two people going on.
- I see.
- There's just two chairs. Yeah.
How weird is it gonna be when we take off?
You know, with three more bikes
in front of you, ready to slide down.
Are you gonna be...
Are you gonna be the hostess,
or am I gonna be the hostess?
We could do 50/50. Should we?
Should I do...
I've got my outfit.
- I think I can change just behind there.
- Okay.
So, here we are, loaded
up on the two planes.
The fog hasn't cleared on the other end,
so we're literally stuck
here on the runway.
And maybe now we're too late for the boat.
Sleeping rough on the road
I'll tell you all about it.
When I get home.
Gonna roll up the sidewalk.
Gonna need letting up.
Comin' round to meet you.
The long way up.
We're gonna ride 13,000
miles through 13 countries.
From Ushuaia, in and out of Argentina
and Chile, to the Atacama Desert,
heading up to La Paz
before we cross Lake Titicaca,
continuing along the Andes
to Colombia, over to Panama,
through Central America and Mexico,
arriving in Los Angeles 100 days later.
We're gonna give these guys video cameras,
and they're also gonna have cameras
with microphones on their crash helmets
so they can film themselves
as they're riding along.
Is this a road? My God!
A third motorcycle will travel with them,
and on it will be Claudio, our cameraman.
In addition, Russ and I will
travel in two electric pickup trucks,
along with cameramen Jimmy,
Anthony and Taylor, who
will also help with logistics.
We'll be filming the
guys from the vehicles,
linking up with them at borders,
but otherwise, the
motorcycles will be on their own.
Ecuador, land of my fathers.
It's just totally different
from Peru, isn't it?
Completely.
Everyone talks about Ecuador
being kind of a fun place.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's a tiny little country.
Yeah.
We're gonna be in Ecuador
for only four or five days,
but really looking
forward to a new country.
Be nice to be moving on.
And then we got Colombia
four or five days later.
It's all looking good.
Our crew, we're all
gonna split up a little bit.
There's only a small amount of
us who are gonna go to Colombia.
It's gonna be fun though.
I think I'm gonna like it here, you know?
With the roadless Darién Gap
blocking our route to Central America,
the Rivians need to be ferried
from Esmeraldas to Panama
while we go as far as we can by
road through Ecuador and Colombia.
- Yeah, so you can see...
- Yeah, you see for miles.
- Yes.
- Yes.
Guayaquil is Ecuador's largest city,
and it's got a real artistic vibe to it.
All these are galleries. Artiste. Bohemian.
- That is cool.
- Yes.
- Hola. Hello.
- Yeah, it's cool.
- Look at this.
- Yeah, yeah.
This one's interesting.
I'm so obsessed with
charging the motorbike.
I'm just drawn to the plug in
this otherwise odd painting.
- One quick photo. My pals are waiting.
- Yes.
- Thank you so much.
- You're very welcome, mate.
He's from Star Wars, man.
How do people know?
'Cause it's just lots of people
coming up these stairs...
- Maybe it is just...
- Who know that we're here.
Here the coffee is very good.
Dulce de tres leches.
Not just dulce de leche, but dulce
de tres leches. Are you kidding?
Let's get one of those.
Okay, triple leche.
Make a close-up with...
Is that good?
It is triple... It's like,
bang, bang, bang!
Fantastic. Great cakes.
Yeah, I know.
Dear, dear.
How will we ever get out of the restaurant?
He's doing it through the door.
Make a path, make a path.
Maybe I can go over there. They make
a line, people come in and out, okay?
Geez, it's just such a big line.
- Hello, hello, how are you?
- Can you go like this?
Yeah, look over here.
Direction.
- Thank you.
- Always love a bit of direction.
- Hello there.
- You say it.
This is Obi-Wan. He is the
best hero in the whole world.
Look at this. Wow!
Do it like that. Now, go over here. Look.
Thanks, man. Thank you.
I love you.
Thanks, guys. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Cheers.
Well, that was pretty intense, Ewan.
Well done for sticking it out.
And I know it's all...
can be a bit panicky,
all that kind of stuff. You
made their day, you really have.
It was just nuts
with the old Star Wars
fraternity coming out in force.
Holy moly, that never happens.
So weird.
Anyway...
It was very nice to make some
people smile like that. It was fun.
We've got our own...
It's like crazy golf for motorbikes.
Isn't it?
It's very cool.
I'll go round this outside.
While we're enjoying the open road,
the team is in a dash across Ecuador
to get the Rivians to the port.
We've got a long drive ahead of us,
and the cars will definitely
need tow-charging.
And it's gonna take a while because this
is just a single-lane highway all the way.
We just passed this amazing
motorcycle graveyard.
I've never seen that in my life.
It's all here.
Well, I suppose one
upside of driving a bit slower
is we're getting to see a bit of Ecuador.
Everything is here. On this one road.
Banana plantations and even
that weird amusement park.
That's bizarre.
You see, we're learning a lot on
this road about Ecuadorian culture.
Because we're basically
heading directly north,
we've beaten the boys to the equator.
But if I'm honest, they
haven't really missed much.
It's a little bit of an anticlimax
compared to when we did
Long Way Down in Africa,
where they had a big sign to
say you're crossing the equator.
This is like a bit of a tip.
But somebody has
put on this weird sign for a hotel, that.
Which I think is zero degrees
longitude or whatever it is.
So at least we know
we're in the right place.
So, it's the first time on Long
Way Up we've crossed the equator,
and we've probably
crossed before the boys have.
I'm only at 97% and,
of course, Charley's 100.
Regardless of the charging.
We're heading to the rain forest
on the west coast and to Montecristi,
apparently the birthplace
of a very famous hat.
Today, we're gonna go
and get some Panama hats,
which are named Panama hats,
but apparently they were
born here in Ecuador.
So they should really be called
Ecuador hats or Montecristi hats.
I think that... You make
Panama hats out of that, I think.
Yeah, I think you do.
- Hola.
- Hola.
- I'm Ewan. Charley.
- Nice to see you.
- Wow.
- Hola.
- Are they woven by hand?
- Sí.
By hand?
Look at the pattern.
Amazing.
I think I just assumed it was
done with a machine or something.
I'd never imagined it would
be done by hand like this.
How long does it take her
to make one hat like this?
It can be anywhere up to a month.
- A month?
- Yes.
A month?
And the process just
to get these materials...
So this plant over here is where
it comes from. These palms.
They have to boil it and then dry
it, and then they have to shred it.
And the finer the shred, the finer the hat.
So, you get sort of wide... like
where you can really see the weaving.
But then there's ones
like this. Look at this!
Look how fine that is.
That's like silk almost, that one.
Isn't that amazing?
One question left is what shape to go for.
Prices can go as high as
$2,000 for these amazing hats.
Fifteen days.
And then this one... is a month.
No, I think I prefer the shorter.
I don't know how we'd keep one on our bike.
Well, sunny...
It's designed to be easily
rolled up and carried around.
- I'm up for this one.
- You look good in that one, Charley.
I'm gonna go for this one. Mine's only $80.
Nice?
Gracias.
We do need to get to the ferry,
but all along this drive there
are things that distract us.
Cacao?
Yes, this is cacao.
This is the basis of chocolate.
Yes, these ones are raw and those are dry.
That's why their smell is stronger.
That, for me, is very interesting.
Look.
Do you break it?
That's a very strong smell
as soon as you break it open.
It's like very, very dense dark chocolate.
And very brittle. Look.
And are these cocoa, or cacao
beans, are they grown locally?
This is a family business
ran by four brothers
who work with collection.
They collect from small producers
then they dry the beans
and sell to traders who will export them.
Cacao, is that a big product for
Ecuador? An important product?
Yes.
It moves the economy a lot.
We're heading towards the coastal jungle,
an area that's suffered
from extensive deforestation.
While the Cool Earth initiative we saw in
Peru was all about reducing deforestation,
we're off to stay with an
ex-New York City trader
who's attempting to reforest the jungle.
Well, we are now heading down.
We've got about 12 miles to go,
and we're going to this conservancy,
where they are trying to reintroduce
this sort of coastline jungle.
So, we're gonna leave
our bikes with the mayor.
The mayor of the town is letting
us park our bikes up at his house.
'Cause it's totally off-grid
in there. And plug them in.
And then we'll head in...
There's a big ole spotty dog.
Look at the big ole spotty, man.
The big spotted dog.
And we're gonna head into the jungle.
What a place to live. My God.
How you doing?
- So glad you guys are here.
- Yeah, we too.
Thank you guys for coming.
Nobody really knows about
this coastal region of Ecuador.
Cattle ranching was by far the
biggest driver of deforestation here.
Wow.
And you see it all around.
And you have little bit of forest, but
all these deforested parts is for cattle.
If my numbers are correct, the Amazon
maybe lost 25% to 30% of its forest,
but this forest here has lost 98%.
The cool thing though is that
if they allow it to grow back,
- it will come back.
- Yeah.
We came here in 2007.
We'd been kind of roaming around Ecuador,
looking for a site to do this project.
We met this guy, and he told
us about his dad's property.
And so we went with him and checked it out,
and the foundation was
pretty much born that day.
We had a team of about ten or 12
people, and we planted for about two weeks
every single day.
And we did that once a
year for about three years,
and then we stopped planting.
And then it was just, you know,
assisted natural regeneration.
Six years ago, it was
pure cattle patch here.
- Here?
- It's amazing.
This is six years of growth.
- Wow, that's incredible.
- It seems like a lie.
Amazing.
These here were nothing. These
probably didn't exist six years ago.
- They came up on their own.
- Look how tall they are.
They're growing fast 'cause they have to.
To survive. Yeah. Get their sunlight.
It's a young forest.
- It's on its way.
- Yeah.
Wow. Beautiful. Well done. It's amazing.
Jerry and his partners set up
a foundation to purchase land
with a mission to expand this forest.
How much of it is... do you
own... how much of it is...
So, 1,600 acres kind of going all
the way up the mountain. So, it's big.
- It's enough to get lost in.
- Yeah.
I think it's amazing that
Jerry left New York City behind
to help protect this part of the forest.
This is a great little bathing spot.
This water is so pristine
and clean that you can drink it.
That's nice.
Have you had any run-ins with people
trying to illegally take wood and stuff,
or no?
Early on, you'd hear buzz saws
just singing out all over the place.
There were tense moments
with... And people would be armed
with, like, a really old-school
rifle, and it would be me coming up
with my machete and basically
just getting into a conversation
or really, "This is
what we're trying to do."
And, you know?
And then slowly but surely, as we expanded,
we also offered employment to a lot
of people who used to cut trees down.
So, we're at 12 years now,
and everyone knows we're
just a part of this community.
We learned Ecuador is one of the
most biodiverse countries in the world
with 10% of the world's mammal
species and 15% of its birds.
There are some monkeys
up there, by the way.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Those are howler monkeys.
- Howlers.
- We haven't seen very many.
What's that noise?
- Those are the howlers.
- The howlers.
- That's his family. Yeah.
- Jesus Christ.
There's about five different troops
of them and they communicate,
they basically shout to each
other, establishing their territory.
So you'll hear those guys will go
off and then those guys will go off
and then those guys will go off.
And that's just alone.
Then you get sometimes lone
guy who's just doing his thing,
looking for food.
It's so beauti...
It's just when you see
it, the thick forest there.
It's so beautiful, isn't it?
All that would probably be gone
by now if this weren't for this project.
Really?
How amazing. Brilliant, so brilliant.
We call this the bamboo house.
- Clever.
- It's amazing.
Beautiful, beautiful.
- If you're hungry...
- We'd love some food.
- Yeah, that be lovely.
- Hi, there.
- Hey there. How's it going?
- Hi.
- Hello.
- Hi, oops. Sorry.
This is like... Jama-Coaque
has a bird observatory here.
This is a sunbittern, and that's
what it looks like when it's flying.
It's got those little eyes.
Yeah.
And as a display, they'll open their wings
and it looks like these two giant
eyespots that are this far apart.
- The wingspan is about that big.
- Is that for defense?
And it's for protection, right? It's
to scare off predators and such.
I think so.
These birds are a big
draw for nature lovers,
which in turn helps Jerry
fund the forest foundation.
I mean, what a great
thing to make some money.
The antithesis of this and
the New York financial world,
and then go, "No, I'm
gonna do this." So cool.
So, do you have any good birding jokes?
- Do people tell bird jokes?
- Man.
Must be. Come on, there must be some.
I have a bird joke.
A duck walks into a pharmacy, or
where I come from, a chemist shop,
and he goes up to the chemist
and he says, "You got something for...
Have you got something for dry lips?"
And he goes, "Yeah, look,
I've got this ChapStick."
And he goes, "Okay, I'll take it."
He goes, "That'll be £2.55, please."
And the duck says, "No,
no, no, just put it on my bill."
That's a birding joke, isn't it?
That's good. That's... Yeah. It's there.
The sound of the jungle
was just beautiful all night.
And if you were to choose
to be a bird, you know?
A hummingbird, that would be
my choice if you could choose one.
- I loved it. I don't wanna leave.
- It was incredible.
- Jerry, thank you so much.
- Take care, Jerry.
- Enjoy the rest of the ride.
- We'll see you soon.
Yep.
So cool. What a place.
What a beautiful place.
Maybe the highlight
of the whole trip so far
was spending the night at the rain forest.
I loved it. I loved sleeping
under my mosquito net,
listening to the noises of the jungle.
The insects and the monkeys,
howling and screeching.
I just felt like
spending the night there was
as good a reason of doing
this trip as any, you know?
I'm having such a great time.
I love Charley Boorman with all my heart
and all of the team.
But it's been such a great
pleasure to be riding with them again
and riding these beautiful
electric motorcycles.
I'm very lucky. A very lucky man.
Russ now has to get to the port
to get the Rivians' paperwork done
or they won't make it on the ship in time.
We are 50 miles from Esmeraldas.
I don't wanna tempt
fate, but we got a lot done,
we got a lot of miles covered.
I hope the boys are having a good time.
You know, the next time we see them
will be on the way to the Colombian border.
I hope they're going okay, because
we haven't heard from them at all today.
Ready to go?
- I've got 98.
- All right!
We're going up into the
mountains and it's 2,000 meters,
so it's colder and it's
raining there at the moment.
We're just made of such tough
stuff, it doesn't really matter to us.
Hot, cold. You know, you
never hear us moaning about it.
For those of you who have been
watching episodes one to eight,
you'll know that that's not quite true.
My God, what a trip. Machu
Picchu, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego,
Patagonia, Argentina, Chile,
Bolivia, Peru, Peru, Peru. What a trip.
And now Ecuador, and soon Colombia.
Well, up to the mountains again.
Going up back onto the mountains.
I wanna stay on the coast and stay warm.
Jesus!
We need to get past this truck.
We're all stuck behind this oil truck.
You're gonna get stuck,
you're gonna get stuck there.
Don't do it. Don't pull out. Don't do it.
- Don't do it.
- No, don't do it.
Top man.
Ewan! Jesus!
Ewan!
I was just along...
I'm alongside him and he pulled out.
I had to dodge round it.
God.
That would have been messy as well.
Could've taken us both down.
After a few hundred
miles' drive across Ecuador,
we finally arrived at the port.
Yes.
The idea is to put all the cars onto
the ship to go round to Panama City,
thereby missing the Darién Gap.
But the next job
is to make sure that these cars
are actually booked on the boat.
We need to get the cars to Panama.
And these cars are very special
'cause they're prototype electric vehicles.
And so, they're going
on the ship from your port.
From here? From Esmeraldas?
Yes.
What cars?
They're called Rivians.
But are you sure the boat is going
to leave from Esmeraldas Port?
Well, hopefully.
I'm saying yes because that's
what we've been told, but...
Okay.
Give me a second. I need to call somebody.
- Darío, right?
- Darío.
The funny thing is when I
opened this up the other day,
it didn't say this ship was stopping here.
Well, now you're saying that.
That's why I'm wondering.
It doesn't say it's stopping here.
That would not be good.
"Myshippingtracker-dot-com-vessels."
It's supposed to be our boat.
The Pluto, from Panama,
will be here on the 14th, right?
These ships, they come once a week.
It is gonna be here only for an hour.
All of our files on the
boat go on in one hour.
Yes, but the thing is...
- It takes more time...
- An hour?
- Yeah, because it only has...
- Is it normally an easy process?
The thing is you have to
fill out a lot of applications
and all the paperwork has to be done
before you start the shipment.
That was interesting 'cause at least
they found our boat on the system.
Up to that point, I couldn't
see our boat stopping here.
So, I was getting a bit worried.
And it's only docking for
one hour and then it will go.
So, honestly, if we don't
have that paperwork sorted out,
that's not gonna stop for long.
And if that doesn't turn up in
Panama, that's got all of our stuff on it.
So I'm sort of smiling, but, you
know, shipping stuff is problematic.
What we don't really wanna have happen now
is Ewan and Charley have a major problem.
'Cause we've split up as a team,
we'd struggle to get to them.
And that actually would screw up our plans.
Okay, I really can't see a thing.
It's like being in the water.
Sweating our pants off this
morning, now, rather chilly.
And this is a nasty stretch of
road between here and the border.
Look at this.
Okay, this is pretty scary.
Can't see a thing.
Rain is now like needles.
Crazy.
God, I hate this. This
is like slick tarmac.
Soaking wet, downhill,
loads of traffic, big trucks.
Let's just see if we can
get there without anyone...
I'm down at 66%.
What's wrong with my bike?
- I don't know why.
- That's weird.
My God.
I heard a bit of squeaking of tires there.
"DANGER - LANDSLIDE ZONE"
Magnificent leadership, Charley.
Boy.
You okay?
I'm all right, mate. You?
Yeah, not bad. Yeah, a
hot chocolate would be nice.
And a bed. Plug them straight in.
Plug in and get in a bath.
I can't believe tomorrow
we'll be in Colombia.
New country, our last day in Ecuador.
It's a shame really 'cause it's so lovely.
I got such a taste of it.
We're going into Colombia, and we're at...
Pretty much at the top of South America.
And I remember sitting on this
bike in the first ten days of our trip
and just the thought of being
up here was just so far away.
It was unbelievable.
And now, we're getting ready. Five
miles away is the Colombian border.
Charley, my bike's doing something weird.
Your bike what?
It's saying it's not ready.
It won't let me start.
Okay, I've switched it off.
No. "Wait, not ready." Look.
Well, at worst, it could be,
at worst, it could be software.
- Did you see that little spark?
- I did.
Well, let's check first before
we put it all back together.
Yeah. No. Yeah. No. Yeah.
No.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Just trying to think.
Right now, we're in the
middle of testing something,
so I just wanted to give
you guys a heads-up
that we're actively working on it,
trying to see if what we're thinking will
fix it... is possibly able to fix it. Okay?
Okay, hold on. Can you
just hold on one second?
Guys, I've just got Rachel on the phone.
Okay, Rachel, go ahead.
Okay. All right, guys, we've been working
with the engineers in Milwaukee.
What we believe that is going on is
we've put that prototype calibration in
that increased the range.
Yeah.
And it looks like right now that that
has caused the software to lock up.
Okay.
And is that something which you
can plug into a computer and reset?
No.
We have to... At this point,
we have to shut the bike down.
I give you guys the option of
do we want to replace the bike
- or replace the battery?
- Isn't there a point?
Let us digest that and then
we'll see where we go. Okay?
- Sorry for the bad news. Bye.
- Bye.
I don't wanna go without my bike
to Colombia. Like, that would be...
No. That wouldn't be fun at all.
The battery management unit
failed during a software update.
It was a preproduction version
with a custom software configuration.
And the HD team made the call
that it was easier to change the
entire battery assembly in the field
versus attempting to change the BMU.
What we'll do is we'll probably try and
arrange to get the bike on a truck now.
And then we'll get it to
Panama where, hopefully,
there'll be some Harley
technicians to fix it.
Our mad plan is to catch a plane
from Pasto in Colombia to Buenaventura
and then up the coast
by boat to Bahía Solano.
And then another plane will
hopefully take us to Panama City
over the top of the Darién Gap.
Okay. One, two, three.
Most of our... Colombia is
not riding the bikes, anyway.
They're gonna be on a plane,
on a big barge, on another plane,
and then we're gonna fly them to Panama.
So, that being said, let's do it.
Get our bike into Panama earlier
and then they can get working on it.
I'll ride Claudio's bike
with Claudio on the back.
Okay, this is going to
be a big moment for me.
- Big moment.
- Are you ready?
Here it comes.
My God, look at the beast. And no gears.
- Well done, mate.
- Cheers, mate.
Let's go to the border and go to Colombia.
I'm still by your side, Charley.
I'm still right by your
side through thick and thin.
I wonder how Colombia's gonna look,
'cause I get the feeling it's gonna
be very colorful. I get the feeling.
This must be the border here.
Wow, here we are.
For a long time, I've been
curious about Colombia.
Fifty years of civil war.
They've had drug cartels that
have brought misery everywhere.
But now the country's really
turning around and opening up,
and so it's a very
interesting time to be here.
It's interesting about Colombia, you know?
Medellín, supposedly
one of the safest cities,
was the murder capital of the world
not too many years ago. Ten years ago.
It was on a no-fly, no-visit list.
There are parts of
Colombia that we're visiting...
Buenaventura, we were warned,
might not be a place that we should go to.
We didn't want to miss
Colombia. Nobody in this team did.
They just need to let us in.
The customs in Colombia,
they weren't willing to let us in.
He was like, "No, you have to stay
here, and tomorrow the person responsible
for that is going to check the
equipment and blah, blah, blah."
And I was, "Please, please, I have to
take a plane first thing in the morning."
And then Maxim came in and he said,
"Excuse me, are you a Star Wars fan?"
"Yes."
"Do you know who was sitting here?"
"No."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi." Ding.
And then what?
And then he's just like,
"Okay. Boom! A stamp noise".
We are in Colombia!
Colombia. Colombia!
Wow. That is very nice.
A whole new world of everything.
Yeah, the architecture's
definitely changed, hasn't it?
There's the guinea pig.
- My God. This is a big thing.
- Yeah. We are in the land of...
Guinea pigs here are absolutely massive.
Look at these ones on the right.
Happy guinea... My gosh.
Come and eat, come and eat us.
Why would you want that?
And then his dead
mates are right beside him.
But then sometimes you see
that in butcher shops in Britain.
Yeah, there's a cow outside
the butcher that I go to.
But he's not dressed up in human
clothes, looking at you smiling, saying,
"Look I'm a guinea pig. Eat my cousins."
I don't like following my bike like this.
- It's so depressing. Jesus!
- No, it's not...
- It's not nice, is it?
- Not really.
We're staying in Pasto tonight.
But we're check out a famous church nearby
as we've been told it's not to be missed.
We're going in this bubble
car to visit an old church.
My God, look how high
we are over this gorge.
I mean, that's quite
scary. Holy crap, look at it.
It's stunning.
Why is it they built it down there?
I have no idea.
This bizarre church is an absolute wonder.
It's called the Las Lajas Sanctuary.
- "I'm gonna build a church down here."
- "Down here."
"Don't you just wanna
build it down here, mate?"
"I was asleep and it came to me
one night. Build it and they will come."
Dear.
This last bit is a killer, isn't
it? Jesus, we're so close.
How long has it actually been?
I think we've been in here
about 20 minutes, I think.
But it's sort of like a
Disney movie castle, isn't it?
You come across, bring up the drawbridge.
That's making me feel weird.
- My God!
- Wow!
Look at that water
coming out of that building.
That's so high.
I don't like that at all, do you?
So, it turns out the
inspiration for building it
happened over 250 years ago
when a young woman was said
to have been cured of deafness
after she saw the Virgin Mary
on a rock down in the valley,
and they ended up building
the church around that.
You can see it behind the altar.
It's different, isn't it? It's not like a
cathedral in Europe or something.
It's just got a bit of a glitz to it.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
It's taking us longer than
we thought to get back up.
And we've just heard that there's
a landslide on the road ahead.
But can I ask, with the landslide,
we can get past all the cars
and get to the front, but
is the road very difficult?
This morning it was full
of rocks. This morning.
Because one of the driver
came and that's why they...
One of the rocks hit
his tire and it explode.
What do you think, Charley?
I think we should go that way.
I would agree.
We're doing it again.
Riding in the dark and in the
rain, and this road is just crazy.
It's a mess.
That was a big one.
Jesus Christ, man!
Yeah, a bit shitey here. This
is probably where the slide was.
Vertical drops on the side of the road.
Yeah.
I'm sure this is where it was.
Look at the rain coming down.
I mean, it's horrendous, the rain.
Just slamming into my face.
- It's like needles, isn't it?
- Needles, yeah.
There's a cone on the right. A cone.
Jesus, what are we doing?
It really is just bonkers, actually.
- Wow, wow!
- Jesus!
But can you imagine just driving
along and then suddenly, boom!
That huge...
I mean, it must've been a big rock
to make that kind of damage as well.
I didn't see the rock.
- No, no, no.
- It wasn't still in the car, was it?
No.
This is a ride to remember.
I'll never forget this night in Colombia.
No.
It was just bonkers. It was
raining so hard at one point.
And there was one corner I
thought I was gonna really mess up
'cause it was just tightened
up and I was on the brakes.
Dear.
I'm seeing my bike out
there in the back of a lorry,
and it just makes me so sad.
Okay, I'm really tired and I'm
gonna say good night. Good night!
Good morning, everybody.
Good morning from Colombia.
Incredible?
It's a big town square here.
The trip has become this sort of animal.
And it's sort of slightly out
of all of our controls now,
and we're all trying to
control it, and it doesn't work.
It's a big day ahead.
Having sent the Rivians on
the ferry, Russ has rejoined us,
and we need to catch a boat this
evening that goes at six from Buenaventura.
But first, we need to get
a plane to get us there.
You're in here, guys.
No pressure. If we miss this
flight, we'll be stranded overnight.
So, we've got here and check
this out. It's a real pea-souper.
There's fog everywhere.
Our plane won't be cleared
to land until the fog is clear.
- So, he won't take off...
- Won't be able to...
He won't take off from
Cali till it's clear here.
And that...
- They need to see the...
- The runway.
- Did you hear that, Ewan?
- Sorry?
- The airport is closed due to fog.
- It's too foggy.
Yes.
We're gonna be delayed, which
might mean that we'll miss the boat.
It's just steam coming off the tarmac.
It was raining a few minutes ago.
This is not even half of our... here.
We're just gonna have
to sit it out and wait.
Was that the pilot?
Yes, but not regarding the
fog but the weight of the kit.
Like everything... He says it's
too heavy. There's 600 kilos.
What was he... Where's he happy
at? Four hundred, five hundred?
Four hundred, three hundred.
The good news is this airport's open.
Like, the fog is now gone from here.
You can see through there.
But the fog has closed in at
Buenaventura, so that's shut.
So, we've made a decision
where our guys have to go through,
get on the plane and wait.
So, we're delayed.
Our gear is too heavy for the plane,
and now they're sending in the
sniffer dogs to check the luggage.
They are looking with the
police and the anti-narcotic dogs
to take the last check of
the bags and everything.
So, they're looking for drugs, alcohol,
anything that shouldn't be on here.
Yes, illegal substances.
So, the sniffer dogs have sniffed
the bags, and we're fine there,
but we still can't take off because
there's fog at the other end.
So, we've decided to load, and we're just
gonna wait to see if we're cleared to go.
I never imagined it would be like this.
When you think cargo plane,
you don't think like...
Look all like this, do you?
Charley and I are in one
plane with three bikes,
and Russ, David and the crew are going
in the other plane with all the equipment.
- I mean, I suppose this is...
- Where do we sit?
Is there a couple of chairs in the front?
- There's two chairs at the back.
- Sorry, sir.
There's two... That's why
there's only two people going on.
- I see.
- There's just two chairs. Yeah.
How weird is it gonna be when we take off?
You know, with three more bikes
in front of you, ready to slide down.
Are you gonna be...
Are you gonna be the hostess,
or am I gonna be the hostess?
We could do 50/50. Should we?
Should I do...
I've got my outfit.
- I think I can change just behind there.
- Okay.
So, here we are, loaded
up on the two planes.
The fog hasn't cleared on the other end,
so we're literally stuck
here on the runway.
And maybe now we're too late for the boat.