Tulcán is the last big town in Ecuador, a high, cold border city at close to 3,000 metres with Colombia a few kilometres up the road. It is a place of traders, lorries and families crossing for the day, and its streets are busy with shops selling clothes, electronics and cheese from the surrounding dairy farms. The air is thin and crisp, the wind carries a chill, and a woollen layer is normal clothing even in the dry months.
The reason to stop is the cemetery, which sounds morbid and is, strangely, one of the most charming sights in the country. Cypress hedges in the Tulcán municipal cemetery have been clipped into arches, animals, pyramids and faces, a tradition begun in the first half of the twentieth century by the gardener Azael Franco and continued by his students. Walking between the green sculptures on a bright morning, with the volcano Chiles on the horizon, is oddly peaceful, and the place is a recognised landmark.
Riding here from the south on the Pan-American Highway you cross a high, rolling countryside of green fields, potatoes and cattle, at times with views across to the páramo ridges. The road is generally good, though fog can make the final stretch slow, and trucks queue near the border. The Rumichaca crossing, with its natural stone bridge, lies a few kilometres to the north, and the Colombian side, with its small villages such as Carlosama and Aldana, has similar farmland and weather.
Tulcán is a proper city of more than eighty thousand, so fuel, food and rooms are all easy to find. The hearty local dishes include potato soup with cheese and fried pork, which are well suited to the weather. If you are crossing the border, allow time for paperwork, check what documents your motorcycle needs, and fill the tank before the crossing, since prices and fuel rules differ between the two countries. Go gently on the cobbled streets, and wrap up warm in the evenings, when temperatures drop quickly.