Pete, will you be going north to Ecuado? Quito is a beautiful city with a pleasant year round temperature due to the elevation of approximately 9000 feet. However, once you drop into the Amazon basin it's a whole different story! I haven't been there in over ten years, but it was a friendly city then with a lot of tourists from Europe etc. Safe travels, the roads in Ecuador sound similar to what you are seeing, I.e, curvy dirt roads, no guardrails, long drops!