The end of the rainbow

We found it.
[The obligatory GPS shot at the equator. I couldn't quite get it to zero.]

After leaving Cayembe and stopping at the Equator for a quick visit and some obligatory snap shots, we headed up over the mountains  towards a 13,500 foot pass. At around 12,000 feet the rain kicked in.

We crested the pass in style and then descended towards the Amazon. As one might expect for an 11,000 foot descent into the jungle, the rain kicked in in full force and the fog started to get thick. Fortunately, there was no traffic and the roads were in excellent shape. As we plugged away at 25 mph hugging the white line on the side of the road, I started to seriously doubt our decision to take a detour from the relatively dry mountains of Central Ecuador over to the Oriente (or Jungle) side.

We hit Baeza and the rain started to lift. 10 minutes later, the roads were dry and we road impeccable twisties for a good 100 km through the jungle going over small passes and noticing how the vegetation and landscape changed from area to area.
Deciding at around 3 pm it was time to start looking for a place to stay, we took a gamble and turned off the main road on a small dirt track towards what we hoped would be a cute little place out in the jungle. The signs looked a little old, and it being low season, we didn't know if the place would be open or not. The road was cobbly and in places steep and at this time I would like to make a few comments about riding with your spouse:
I had spotted this little place in the guidebook and decided, without consulting Megan, that this was the place to go. I had a hunch that it would be like Cave Lodge in Thailand (one of my favorite places to visit) and wanted very badly to go check it out. I misunderstood the guidebook in that I thought it was 3.6 km from the last town but still just off the main road. When we got to the turn off, it became apparent that we would have to ride some sort of dirt/ rock track for 3.6 km to get to the place.
It was hot, we were tired, and when we got to the turn off I kind of just went down the road expecting Megan to follow. About a 1 km into the road, I stopped to adjust my suspension, and when Megan pulled up next to me, I just reached over and started adjusting her suspension without asking her. At this point she was pretty upset with me, but really wanting to push on, and being way too hot to stop and talk about things, I just sort of pushed on. BAD IDEA.
After 2 km, we arrive at a sketchy looking suspension bridge which Megan was going to have no part of crossing on her motorcycle. We started to talk about whether it was a good idea to have come down this in the first place, and although it would have been fine under normal circumstances, we had spiraled into a place where communicating wasn't effectively happening and where we both were digging in our heels.
This is usually the crescendo of any argument. At this point, we could a) start listening to each other and understand the other's point of view or b) do the opposite and think that other is unreasonable and just plain wrong. Usually what happens is that option b goes on for a little while longer until one or both of us gets tired of being mad and then we realize what is going on (often by putting food in our mouths) and someone takes the first step towards option a.
We stayed at b for a while longer.

I rode her bike across the bridge. Walked back. Got mine. Road it across the bridge. I figured we were at the point of no return where it would be harder to turn back then to push forward to the unknown lodge. We could just keep going and sort out the emotional stuff later. Another bad idea.
The road was technical and with us upset with each other, it was hard to stay focussed to ride.
After a while we finally pulled up to Hakuna Matata, and as Megan later called it: the end of the rainbow.
There is a third option for what to do when in an argument that I didn't mention above. This is c) arrive at fantasy island aka paradise and be greeted by a soft spoken Belgian who makes everything ok.

We are now the only guests at a perfect resort, with a spring fed palm tree shaped swimming pool, luxurious accommodations, all meals covered, horses to ride, and views out to the rainforest that belong on the Nature Channel. There is a light rain coming down outside as I sit under a thatched roof with light Ecuadorian music playing in the background.
Of course we decided to stay for another night so that we could have a full day here. It is just way too nice.
Back to the couple thing for just another little bit. How could we have handled the situation differently to avoid the grumpiness? I think stopping before we turned off the main road to come up with a plan would have helped. I think making sure that we were both equally invested in coming out here would have put the responsibility of arriving on both of us, rather than just on me. Any advice out there is greatly appreciated.