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tricky nature of the roads makes it feel truly remote and reaching anywhere takes time . This is the deepest farmland where people grow cocoa , citrus , bananas , and papaya for a living . Their simple wooden houses have no glass in the windows , allowing for a wonderfully cool air flow in this humid heat . Working horses and fighting roosters are kept in the unpaved dirt yards and it feels like a true step back in time , except that they do of course have a television , smart phones , and excellent Wi-Fi .
The guides first met a lady called Maria , when she brought a tray of fruit to the group of riders picnicking outside her home - there are no restaurants here . Since then , she proudly cooks La Tonga for everyone when an Ecuador Freedom tour passes through . You could not find a more kind and giving host , excited to introduce travellers to the local cuisine .
La Tonga , literally meaning “ bundle ”, is fluffy rice , chicken , indigenous herbs , and peanut sauce wrapped in a fragrant plantain leaf and steamed to perfection . It is a scrumptious meal , easy to take into the fields and as perfect to sustain gruelling labour as it is to re-energise the off-road rider .
A short ride from there , an enterprising old lady , charging the toll fee with a big smile , has built a floating bridge across the section of an otherwise impassable lake that she owns . In the past it was made of mere wooden planks , but she has upgraded it to metal grids held afloat by blue plastic barrels with a rail to make you feel safer as your bike causes gentle waves making for an unsettlingly liquid , yet fun , sensation .
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