Spicymonkey Tours

The Grand Finale - Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

2009-09-11T11:46:00.001-07:00

All the excitement of reaching Cusco left us very tired and in need of more cake. We spent a couple of days eating carrot cake with Mum-(2) and David to help them acclimatize before the trek.

Cusco was very nice for killing time shopping and eating. No time for photos though, there`s loads for the trek.
An early morning (6am), we joined the rest of our group on the bus to the start. In the picture we have from left to right: -

Gem, Ian, Melia, Anirbar, Erwin, Haneka, Yola, Stuart, Carrie, Santiago, Leonardo, Mum-(2) and David.

We had a nervous start following some passport trouble but off we went. We shouldn`t need to say it, the first part of the trek was uphill. We headed into a valley where the trail became more steep and the views behind became even more magnificent.

All smiles at the start of the trail

Cheeks start puffing when the trail gets steeper

Mum-(2) and David half way through day-1

We passed a couple of Inca ruins along the way. Our guide Bryan insisted they wern`t ruins, they were in fact archeaological remains. Silly us.

Archeaological remains- impressive

We arrived at camp that afternoon with only a few minutes of daylight to spare. Our legs were not used to walking such distances and we wondered if leaving the bikes back i nCusco was a good idea. Mum-(2) and David were holding up well but suffering a little from the altitude. Fortunately the porters had a sack full of coca leaves for such occassions and at bed time the chewing from inside the tents sounded like a herd of cows in a field.

Camp site - end of day-1

At dinner our guide gave us the bad news. Although we seemed a fast group and we were all doing very well so far, Day-2 is commonly known to be the most difficult day of the trek.

Starting at 2,800m the trail heads straight into another valley and rises up to 4,200m in just 3 miles. Eeek!!!!

Half way up the immense pass on day-2

We stopped many times on the way up to catch our breath and realise how much of a good idea the train would have been. The 3 miles to the top of the huge pass took us nearly 6 hours!

The porters made it look so easy - they often ran

Highest point on the trail - 4,200m

Once at the top of the pass we had great views to the other side. Unfortunately there was a line snaking through this valley which clearly showed our path for the following day. Another pass and lots of stairs! Going up such a big hill was knackering but it`s going down that hurts the most. Knees were strained close to snapping and the thighs were burning up by the time we got the bottom. An early night didn`t help so much, we had another early start.

Trying to come down the stairs slowly was difficult

The 3rd day was much of the same. Lots of uphill and lots of downhill. It was incredibly steep in places and it was clear that the entire group was beginning to tire. Our guide Bryan had no trouble with telling us the bad news... the final day was a 3:45am start. QUE!?

The final day was also Gemma`s 30th birthday so there was much to celebrate. Thanks to everyone that sent cards with mum-(2), it was great to read all the messages. Even at 30 years old and at 3:45am, Gemma looked this good...

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY!!!

There weren`t so many big smiles amongst the other 500 people on the trail that morning. Everyone was knackered and filthy. But still, just an hour or so away was Machu Picchu, the reason we had made ourselves suffer 4 brutal days of mental hiking. A wonder of the world and the most well known attraction on the continent. Very excited we all set off in the dark to get there when it got light.

At the Sun Gate - start of day-4 - we could see Machu Picchu now

It`s right behind us

The group with Machu Picchu behind

Even Eric and Fatrat made it

Our guides - Roger with Limpi and Bryan with Eric and Fatrat

The classic view of Machu Picchu

We spent a few hours staggering around Machu Picchu, our legs and shoulders were aching terribly. Machu Picchu itself was absolutely stunning and despite the pain we were really pleased to have got there via the Inca Trail. Seeing the other nearby ruins (sorry - archaeolgical remains) along the way helped build the anticipation for Machu Picchu and certainly did not fail to impress any of us. It`s hard to imagine what the place must have looked like in it`s heyday and what efforts must have been put into building such an immense place in such an isolated location. The thing that made us wonder the most though, was would the Inca`s that built this place have been as impressed about the journey that we took to get there?

With that final side-trip over, our journey through South America has ended. We are now in Lima and have just 2 more days until our flight home. It will probably take us more than those 2 days to think of something to write about what we have just achieved. There are many things to reflect on and despite the excitement of coming home, we are obviously nervous too.

We can`t wait to see our families and friends and to you all - we`ll see you in just a couple of days!

Loads of love x

Crossing the finish line !!!

2009-09-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

From Juliaca we had a few days ride towards Cusco. Keeping with the style of the trip so far, we didn`t head straight there.
Our first stop was a small town called Pucara. This place is locally famous for it`s ceramic work. The whole town is littered with clay bulls. Small, big and gi-hyoooooj!
We left as soon as Ian started attracting the local crazies.

Gi-hyoooooj bull with tongue stuck up it`s nose.

Our next stop was another pokey hole named Santa Rosa. Here we found the locals didn`t sleep. They are in fact nocturnal and like to congregrate in the street just outside where our hotel was.

From there, the road went uphill to a pass which took us into Cusco province. We saw our first road sign for Cusco city and became very excited about being so close.

Top of Abra del Raya - our last major mountain pass!

First sign for Cusco - 100kms to go!!!

Raqchi - an ancient Inca temple built with mud.

Down the other side the road heads straight into Cusco city but we couldn`t finish just yet. Instead, we took an alternative route which followed the Urubamba river into the Sacred Valley of the Inca`s. The road took us through spectacular scenery and eventually into the town of Pisac. Here we spent nearly a week relaxing and eating. The carrot cake was especially good.

The bikes in Pisac

It`s difficult haggling at the market - especially when you`re laughing.

Ollantaytambo - a massive fortress with giant steps.

After visiting loads of Inca ruins and markets we got back on the bikes. Our final day of cycling was a short one (just over 20 miles) but involved an 800m climb. We saw our first views of Cusco and could make out the plaza and the finish line below.

Gem at the top of the last hill with Cusco behind.

Battling through traffic and tiny streets for the final minutes wasn`t much of a problem. We were delighted to pedal up to the plaza and be greeted by Lynn and David who sprinted over to us with banners and waving arms.

Plaza de Armas in Cusco - We`ve finished!!!

After 10 months we had cycled 7,250kms (mostly uphill) and eaten at least 300 cakes each.
Not content with what we had already achieved, we only have a couple of days rest before starting the grand finale. A four day hike (mostly uphill) to Machu Picchu to see another wonder of the world.

We will make our final blog entry once we return, and no doubt there will be more pictures than words.

Yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arequipa - Nasca - Ica - Pisco

2009-08-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

As we said previously Arequipa is a beautiful city. The sunny plaza has a wonderful backdrop of the volcanoes and the city centre seems to built entirely out of white volcanic rock.
We dropped by the Santa Catalina monastry which is unbelievably photogenic and very peaceful. We managed to survive a couple of hours without setting on fire. No point boring you with the history, it´s all nun stuff.

Courtyard in cathedral

Gemma still not on fire

Not even guinea pigs are safe in God´s house

Plaza in Arequipa

First excursion was a trip to Colca Canyon, the second deepest in the world. The deepest is a few more hours drive north. It´s a strangely beautiful area but it seems the masses of tourists have ruined the local villages by turning them into circuses.

A tasty treat for an alpaca

And a nice cup of tea

In the canyon there are a couple of condors. People come from all over the world to watch them fly here. If they flew further south they could see millions.

Condor in flight

Boys are safe, condors only eat dead stuff

The shallow end of the canyon

We packed up our bikes and bags, hid them in a cupboard at the hotel in Arequipa and then left for Nasca. Very excited of course. Here are a couple of random photos we like.

Yummy Inca Kola smells like dandelion and burt`ock and tastes like Irn Bru.

Cup of tea Katie?

After big breakfasts we were very glad for the two hour wait at the airport. The tiny Cessna planes only seated 6 and the ride was very bumpy. It was a struggle keeping the stomachs in, especially when the pilot was intent on making us see the figures from every possible angle.

He would shout, "LOOK RIGHT SIDE... YOU CAN SEE RIGHT SIDE!!!" and then bank the plane round as quickly as possible before, "NOW LEFT SIDE... SPIDER LEFT SIDE!!!".

Smiling before take-off

Pilot waving his hands around - reassuring!

Man

Spider

Hummingbird

Twenty minutes and 50 banked corners later we were back on the ground. Getting off the plane was the most difficult. It was like learning to walk all over again. To people watching it must have looked like we´d been dropped off after an 18 hour bender.

After we´d settled down and found our feet we headed for the other sights in Nasca. Aquaducts which are 2,000 years old and are still in perfect condition. The vents look like portals to an underworld.

Obviously they couldn´t be, the ancient Nasca people didn´t build a Necropolis underground. They just left their dead to sit facing the sunset so they could enjoy that for ever. Not far from the cemetry a local family have a shed. For a small silver coin you can go in the shed and come face to face with their ancestors. Lovely.

The hair is still attached and is 3m long!

Ian´s farts can wake the dead and make them laugh

Back in the cemetry...

Look for the parrot in there too

Next we went to Pisco. We had forgotten something very important. This nice little seaside town was destroyed by a massive earthquake exactly two years previously. It was a wreck. Buildings were crumbled into the streets, some were missing altogether. A local man told us how the earthquake started at 7pm and he got his wife and two children to hide under the table (of course!) where they sat for 4 hours until it stopped. Fortunately they survived without injury. Nearby, 300 people took shelter in the cathedral (expecting God to protect them) and the entire building collapsed on top of them. Very cheerful.

We soon left on a boat to the nearby Ballestas Islands which are known locally as the "poor mans Galapagos". Home to millions of cormorants, Peruvian boobies, Inca terns, pelicans, Humbolt penguins, sealions and many more.

Obviously being sat in a boat meant we were target practice for the millions of birds.

So many birds produce a lot of guano. Every few years locals go to collect the droppings and export it for fertilizer. From the boats the smell was bad enough. Up close it must burn.

Pelicans queuing outside the restaurant back door

The dark patches on the hill are millions of birds

Finally on to Ica and Huacachina. Ica sits on the edge of a desert. A short taxi ride takes you to a small oasis called Huacachina. It´s a beautiful place surrounded by huge dunes. These dunes are now a playground for sandboarders and buggy riders.

With that little trip over, we are now back in Arequipa getting the bikes back to being roadworthy. Tomorrow we set off towards Cusco and the finish line. Woohoo!

We will update once we have more stories,

until then,

Byyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Puno to Arequipa - the road that wasn´t on our maps!

2009-08-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

Around the shores of Lake Titicaca the scenery was very much like it was in Bolivia. The main difference we noticed was the number of people here that shout "Ey, Greeeeengo!!!!!".
It was funny the first time.

In Puno we enjoyed some sunshine in the day but it was freezing cold at night. It is winter over here. Although the town centre was nice, the lakeside here smelled of dead stuff. Dead stuff turned green.

Puno´s plaza was a great place to find empanadas.

Titicaca was not very watery here.

We stayed long enough to realise Peru has many more tourists than Bolivia. This meant lots more touristy tat shops and that Ian had to drag Gemma away quickly.
We had a quick and easy ride to Juliaca (45kms) which we were told was not a very nice place.
It seemed nice at first, here´s the plaza...

Moto-tricycles in Juliaca.

After a quick lunch we had a wander around. Not far from our hostal Ian felt a wet splodge in the back of his neck. Turning around there was a woman pointing up and shouting. Suddenly a couple more women started pushing at him from in front and Ian felt hands trying to get into his pockets.
Unfortunately for the women we have just cycled 5000 miles. Our thighs are giant coconut crushers. To get a hand into one of Ian´s pockets is not very easy. In shops and restaurants he risks arrest for indecent behaviour every time he has to pay for something.
So the women were quickly pushed away and off they scurried.

We left as early as possible the next morning and had to cycle through another nice part of town.

Clean air is thin enough at this altitude.

Sign says "We protect our environment - don´t litter".
Signs are like traffic signals - ignore them.

From Juliaca we were on a road which was not on our maps. Not sure how old either are. We were promised the road was paved all the way to Arequipa. Yeah...

Nearly paved.

On such dangerous roads it is important to wear the correct safety gear.

Crash test dummy.

Cycling up into a large canyon we were heading back up to the altiplano. High, barren, nothingness awaited.

We pushed on for ages looking for a good place to camp. We came across a road side restaurant near a big lake and asked for some place there. The man in the shop was happy to sweep aside the sheep and alpaca droppings from a corner of his barn. We slept for 12 hours next to the droppings.

Front of roadside restaurant.

Our place in the barn.

Nearby lake.

The next morning we cycled up over the hills again, it´s always uphill in the morning!
The entire day was a bit of a struggle. We had no idea where we were, no clue of any towns or villages on the way, and we didn´t know how far it would be. A small lake with a few flamingoes and a few alpaca were the only interesting parts of the day.

We found ourselves a lovely crumbling old railway building to camp in. It wasn´t very warm.

Brrr.

Obviously the next morning was uphill. Over the other side though was a great downhill section leading us to a flat plain full of vicuña and volcanoes. This meant we were close to Arequipa which is surrounded by the volcanoes.

Volcano Misti, Arequipa is just the other side.

After cycling around volcanoes for hours the road took us down. It may not look so spectacular in the picture but down there is nearly 2,000m of downhill sitting (not cycling). It was great fun.

Down!!!!

Time for a quick game? Let´s play "Where´s Gemma?"...

Near the bottom we came across this and thought it was Arequipa. It turned out to be a giant cement factory which was the size of a town.

Arequipa is much nicer. A very beautiful place and it´s baking hot. And there´s air for us to breath. Oh and giant chickens to eat.

While here we will be taking time out to visit one of the deepest canyons on earth, we will visit the Nasca lines and will get very excited about the fact we have only about 5 days of cycling to get to Cusco. Woohoo!

Next update once we´ve got loads of pictures of monkeys drawn by aliens.

xx

La Paz to Puno - Around Lake Titicaca

2009-07-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Just as we were geting ready to leave La Paz, thousands of fresh students arrived for the new academic year. Common practice here is for the new students to put on a big show for the locals. Much nicer than getting hammered and sicking up all over the streets for a week.

Fantastic costumes everywhere in the parade.

Men dressed as cakes.

Women dressed in very little - great!

After the party it was time to go.

Remember what we said about arriving La Paz? It´s down a whopping great hill into a canyon. Well, to get back out of La Paz, we had to go back the same way. Pah!
Luckily, we had a fantastic plan, it´s called a taxi. Many taxis in La Paz have roof racks and so we managed to get our iron-donkeys roped to a roof and off we sped up the hill.

Back in El Alto we rode through the horrible streets and out into the altiplano again. It was only about 60kms to the shores of Lake Titicaca.

Here by the lake there are some folk that use the totora reeds to build boats. We found one in the process of being built.

Not long after we found one sailing by.

And that evening we spent the night in a hostel (used frequently by cyclists but not many others) which was owned by a guy who built these boats for travellers wanting to do crazy things like sail them to Easter Island or down the Amazon. In his shed was a big boat head.

Here we met a couple of Canadian lads also on bikes. They had cycled all the way from home and were going down to Ushuaia. We spent a good couple of hours reminiscing and exchanging tales.
The next day we cycled to Copacabana. While cycling up a hill a man in a car couldn´t resist rushing over to take our photo. In return we managed a photo of his whole family that squeezed into a tiny car after this pose.

They must have a thrilling photo album.

Down the other side was a quick ferry crossing. It was absolutely freezing this day, no idea how Gemma managed to smile so well without cracking the skin on her face, or breaking her teeth.

-600C - smile frozen on.

-600C - hands frozen together.

The feries are not quite P&O standard. They are just a few planks of wood nailed together with a small motor at the back. Coming the other way we saw this thing being taken over...

It´s a miracle.

It´s amazing how the thing stayed afloat, it was swaying all over and the tiny motor was barely doing anything.
Most likely it survived due to a recent visit to Copacabana. This town on the shores of the lake is a local worshipping place. People from both Bolivia and Peru come here to cover their vehicles in tat and have water thrown on it by nuns. We even saw one car have an entire bucket of confetti thrown into the engine. Not sure if that will help it last long but at least the drivers are assured.
We weren´t. We guessed it meant they felt they could drive like maniacs and trust God to look after them.

Purchasing miracles from nuns.

The cathedral in which Ian accidentaly swore.
Hell beckons.

We then had a little stroll up this whopping great rock next to town. Nice view. Just in front of us were more crazies. These nuters were buying miniature replicas of things they wanted (new house, car, shop etc), they then put them ina small garden, pour beer on them and then set fire to them. You´ve gotta love ´em.

Sat in a garden waiting for dreams to come true.
Almost as crazy as cycling 5,000 miles.

Next up was a trip on a boat to the Isla del Sol. Legendary birthplace of the founders of the Incas.

A short walk from the port takes you to the building built like a labyrinth. It´s easy to get lost in the hundreds of tiny rooms and tunnels and alleys, so long as you don´t just look over the wall.

Not far from here is a rock which bears footprints made by the sun itself. Amazing.

The sun stays in the sky because it´s feet are so tiny it falls over easily.

From here you can follow a path up a hill which keeps going up, and up, beyond the clouds and into the sky. It eventually takes you to the sun. Incredible.

After you´ve gone all the way to the sun it´s a long walk back. To make the return journey nice, the early Inca´s built a giant staircase.

The fountain near the bottom (to the left) is believed to have all sorts of healing powers and other magic stuff. It tasted just like soil.

On the way back to Copacabana the nice boat man stopped by some floating islands. These islands are made from the same reeds that they use to build those boats. Apparently the Urco´s people who occupy them don´t like the other people on the mainland, so they moved onto the lake. Very sensible of them, rather than starting a war and getting themselves slaughtered.

And so the the following day we got the bikes out again and headed off to Peru, just 8kms (5 miles) away. We have enjoyed Bolivia in many parts, the scenery and landscape is absolutely beautiful. We tested ourselves to the extreme in the remote and freezing south west, we will also never forget our time at IntiWaraYassi (God we miss those little criters). Unfortunately we won´t be very sad to leave behind some other aspects of the country. Although the majority of people were great, we had many bad experiences with others which made things very frustrating. Gemma managed to get herself punched by a crazy man in La Paz, he was simply unable to wait 5 more seconds for her to move the bike out of his way. Hopefully in Peru we will have less of this craziness.

Ian crossing into Peru.

Gemma crossing the final border.

Our final border crossing before returning home. Just 500kms from the finish line in Cusco if we follow the main road (which we´re not!). Going home seems to be all we think and talk about now. We´re excited about being so close to the end, but it will also be tough returning back to the so called ´normal´ life.

Next up is a nutty ride to Arequipa. We have a lot of time left before we need to be in Cusco. So we are heading over the mountains again, down to Arequipa where we will visit massive canyons, valleys of fire and the Nasca lines.

Not long now everyone...

love you all.

A week around La Paz.

2009-07-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

We had arrived in La Paz hoping that all the hype and the fantastic reports from other travellers were true.

La Paz (the world´s highest capital city - even though it is not the capital!?) must be the world´s most overly exaggerated place.

They claim to have the world´s hottest curry (which Ian ate without even breaking wind), there´s the world´s most dangerous road (more on this below) and the world´s funniest wrestling (probably true - also see below).

First up was a visit to the curry house. It had been nearly 8 months since we had a curry (other than the odd efforts Ian cooked with limited spices) and so we were quite excited. The restaurant makes the claim that it has "The World´s Hottest Vindaloo!" and if any crazy can complete the dish, they win a t-shirt. Something normally only attempted by students, Gemma convinced Ian to try it. Afterall, it would be crazy to run a curry making business and not be able eat a vindaloo.

Having watched a couple of Isreali´s try it, (one just survived, the other failed) there was a little bit of concern. The dish arrived and smelled just like a pot of minced hot peppers. There were hundreds of little seeds in there and the vapours burned the back of the throat. A few spoonfulls in and Ian was still going strong and feeling good. With the aid of 4 strong beers the whole thing was finished even before Gemma had finished her Korma. Job done, only a slight sweat but some large belly rumblings.

The vindaloo was hot, but it is by no means the hottest in the world. The main trouble with the meal is the aftermath...

At high altitudes the toilet roll is always cold. Good.

After some soothing, the next day we headed out to Tiawanku. This small village about 60kms from La Paz used to be the main city of an ancient empire. Long before the Inca´s were even dreamt up, these folk built huge structures and ceremonial stuff along with Easter Island like statues. It was a fascinating place but unfortunately a lot of the history has been lost or forgotten, so much of what is known is made up by imaginative locals.

Very old statue of man holding two double Frappuchino´s with cinnamon from Starbuck´s.

The sun gate is a giant calender, if you believe September has 35 days!?

Another gate with statues in front and behind.

Heads of defeated warriors.

Warriors pulled funny faces just before they died.

Back in La Paz we visited the witches market. Here you can buy anything to cast spells on enemies, loved ones or just to nibble on if you like eating llama foetuses. We´d already had a big lunch thankfully.

The witches market.

You can buy whole armadillo´s. Want one Katie?

Llama foetuseses. Or is the plural just ´feet´?

Next came a couple of days out at Sorata. This is a small town at the foot of the Illampu mountain. A very beautiful place where palm tress grow, hummingbirds hum around and people come to trek on the massive snowy mountain. We didn´t fancy any serious trekking, so instead we had a walk around to San Pedro´s cave where there are millions of bats and fish with no eyes. Unfortunately the lights were out and we had to make do with tiny torches. No photos of the cave because obviously it was a bit dark.

Gemma, Sorata, Illampu.

No Gemma, Sorata, Illampu.

Ian giving a llama breakfast.

Back in La Paz we decided to investigate the hype around "The World´s Most Dangerous Road". This road from La Paz to Coroico goes up to 4,700m and then in just 65kms it plunges 3,600m to Yolasita before climbing back up slightly to Coroico. Starting in the icy mountains you ride through freezing temperatures, into cloud forest, through rain and into the steamy jungle, all while the road clings to the edge of the mountain side. Sounds fun right? ...

The reason for the title is because in 1996 some fella in a suit behind a desk at the world bank saw a report saying many people had died from buses and trucks falling over the edge. This probably has nothing to do with the road, but with the drivers. They´re not very good here.

Some 15 years later the tour operators still convince people that it´s worth £50-75 to join their tours. These companies supply full suspension mountain bikes with disc brakes, knee and elbow pads, goggles, motorbike helmets, sparkly banners and all manner of other tosh.

We inquired at several of these companies about the possibility of transport to the top of the hill and back from the bottom. We were told that the road was impossible to cycle without disc brakes and full protective gear. One guy was a little shocked when Ian explained that the bikes they used were built for mountain biking, not for road use.

So the next day we made our own way to La Cumbre (the top of the hill) and began the descent on our bikes with no suspension, v-brakes only and no protective clothing. In the first 20kms we had sped down a nice high valley with our fingers and toes getting quite cold. During this stage Gemma could have been heard laughing and mocking the tour cyclists as she raced past them.

Ian´s bike at La Cumbre.

Gemma heading down to the clouds.

The valley opened out and the clouds were pouring in.

After 20kms the road starts to go uphill for a while. In the thick fog we couldn´t see much. We did however see the tour groups speed past - in their buses! - as they were transported to the next downhill section. Tsch.

A short while later we came to a tunnel which was 1 mile long. A man hurried out to tell us that we couldn´t cycle through and instructed 3 men to drive us through on the back of a truck. At the other side these men demanded a large quantity of cash. The driver then told us that it was prohibited for tourists to use this road because it was so dangerous. It would have been useless explaining to him that the title and the reputation were a result of Bolivian drivers, not tourists on bikes. It would have also been crazy to take road safety advice from somebody in a country where at a crossroads with fully working traffic lights, they still need 4 policemen to direct the traffic. After much arguing and a small payment equivalent to 20p, we set off again.

Down we went, through the clouds and into the jungle. Unfortunately at the bottom of the hill is a 10km ascent of 600m to Coroico. Tour cyclists again jump onto their buses, we had to huff our way over the cobbles for an hour and a half.

In the clouds with huge cliffs behind.

Coroico and the road behind.

Overall, we decided the road was "The World´s Most Dissappointing Road", there was no real danger and not a great deal of beauty. But it was at least fun going down such a long and big hill. The next morning we had the bikes put on top of a local bus and headed back to La Paz.

Back in La Paz we had one last event to see. Cholita Wrestling. This is not ordinary wrestling with muscular freaks in tiny kaks. This is local wifey´s in traditional dress and local men trying their best "Nacho Libre" impersonations. From the very start we were in hysterics all the way to the end. The costumes were hilarious and the women were very scary!

Novice Nacho.

Wifey about to get ´splashed´.

"I said I wanted my tea ready at 6!"

Wifey fought back and won.

Our favourite star of the night must have been "Fat Elvis". Harking back to Ian´s younger days at Butlins (Darren and Karl - must remember this!), no wrestling event is complete without an Elvis, either in the crowd or in the ring.

Sadly "Sunny" did not make an appearance this night.

After an eventful week, we are now ready to leave. Tomorrow morning we will be heading back up out of the canyon, and onto the road for Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca, where we will update again.

Love to all at home, thanks for the recent spurt in comments, we need them to keep us going.

xxx

Cochabamba to La Paz - A shock to the legs!

2009-07-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

Never mind the fact we´ve cycled 6,000 kms already, after 3 weeks of monkeying around our legs were just not prepared for the next few days.

Cochabamba itself sits at a lofty 2,500m but to get to La Paz the road engineers decided it would be fun to test the nations vehicles by sending them along a road that winds around countless canyons and over ridiculous passes.

The signs showing the way are correct when they point up.

On the way up we had to camp in some trees clinging to the side of a near verticle canyon. Luckily just enough room for the tent though we did wake up in a heap in the bottom corner of it.

It took us 2 and a half days to reach the first summit at just over 4,100m. The contours on our maps don´t show much detail and so we assumed (hoped) that it wouldn´t get much higher.

Down the other side we found a small town where a woman gave us the privelage of sleeping in her potato shed for the night. Nothing but the best for Gem on her honeymoon.

Tent in the back room of the spud shed.

Outside the shed was a broken down bus. Four men, black from head to toe with oil, were trying their best to fix it. We asked them what the road was like from here and it sounded bad. Up, down, up, down, up, down, forever going higher until it´s impossible to breath. They offered us a lift in the bus once the spare part arrived from the nearest city.

Gem sat outside the spud shed to the right.

In the morning the men were still hard at work and the part had not arrived. By lunch time the part still hadn´t arrived and so we decided to leave. Uphill of course.

The next pass got to 4,300m. We slept at an art centre (out here?). The old man at the centre told us that the next morning´s pass was the last pass. It took us to 4,500m and we were wondering how on earth just 3 weeks rest could hurt so much! Fortunately Gemma´s bite wound hadn´t reopened but it was hurting. On the way up we saw our bus again - broken down on the side of the road - again. It had also been abandoned, no people anywhere near it.

Spare part was obviously not all it needed.

Going down the other side was great fun of course. We were also amazed to find a short cut that on our maps was unpaved, had recently been paved and so we could arrive at our next city two hours earlier than expected!

Views across the canyons going down.

Oruro isn´t a great place for toursits. There´s not really much to see or do unless you like mines. We stayed long enough to buy valuable food goods and then set off over the flatish altiplano for La Paz. The next 3 days were rather dull and uninteresting.

It seems crazy to say it but after 5 days of moaning about the hills and mountains and steep roads, when we get to the flat bits we so crave, they´re boring.

Anyhoo, before arriving in La Paz it is impossible to avoid going through the horrible El Alto, which is the part of the city that spills out over the canyons upper edges. La Paz itself sits 500m below in the canyon and is not visible until you reach the very edge. It is a truly magnificent sight and the views across to the Royal Mountains are spectacular.

El Alto just in front, mountains behind.

It makes you feel a bit dizzy.

Like cycling a real life computer game, hit a rock and you lose a tooth. Loose more than three teeth and it´s game over.

Now in La Paz, we intend to have some fun. There are countless things to do here and we are most excited about the wrestling. It´s not any wrestling though, it´s old women in traditional dress followed by midgets in Disney costumes. Finally Bolivia got something right.

Obviously we´ll be putting plenty of those photos on here soon.

Until then, can somebody let us know if they are still reading this thing?

Love to all xxx

Gem and Ian.

Inti Wara Yassi - in the jungle helping save monkeys!

2009-07-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

After Sucre we decided we were rested enough to do some hard work. Following another gruelling 17 hour bus ride we were on the edges of the Amazon rainforest in Bolivia´s second city, Santa Cruz. There was nothing worth reporting, it was just a city. From here we cycled for 3 days into the jungle to find Inti Wara Yassi near the town of Villa Tunari. This region in the Chapare was once one of the largest coca growing areas in the world and the town was once rife with drug dealers and smugglers. Luckily none of that exists anymore.

Jungle outskirts

Deeper jungle

Inti Wara Yassi is a community of international volunteers all working extremely hard to help animals have better lives. Many of the animals there were from circuses, zoos or were mistreat pets. At Inti Wara Yassi they are given an opportunity to live amongst other animals and in a more natural environment.

For 2 weeks Gemma set to work with the so called "Small Animals". These really should have been named "Vicious Killers" as they included 13 coatis (a small badger like creature with huge claws and teeth), and 3 tyras (like a weasel but again with ferocious teeth claws and teeth). The latter, we were told, were so dangerous they can kill pumas!

It took only one and a half days for Gemma to learn about their reputation as one of the coatis bit her on the back of the leg. A chunk of flesh was found in her trousers by the vet who did brilliantly in trying to stitch together such a large hole. A large scar will definitely form and it will most likely take the form of a smiley face where the top fangs form the eyes, and the bottom row of teeth make up the smile.

However, Gemma quickly became attached to her little killers and likewise they began to like her. The little critters were also friendly and enjoyed having their backs scratched, they enjoyed sleeping on laps and loved their walks to find wood they could scratch.

Gemma´s daily routine was mainly feeding, cleaning, walking, scratching and watching the animals sleep. It sounds fairly easy but the critters were often getting into fights with the local wild monkeys who would come down to try to steal food.
We soon learned that the monkey invasions were being led by a capuchin monkey named Victor, who had escaped from the park and formed a terrorist group bent on wreaking havoc for food and fun. Victor was a powerfully strong and large alpha male capuchin. It was always wise to just give up food if he attacked as it was not worth finding out how much damage he could actually do.

Although Gemma loved all her little killers she became very fond of Suicide (her attacker), Barbara and Adriana.
Suicide was normally quiet and loved having his belly tickled but as Gem found out, he had a vicious streak which was terrifying considering he had the largest fangs of all the coatis.

Safest time to take his picture!

Barbara liked to climb on Gemma´s head and just sit there.

Barbara nibbled her arm when happy

Barbara in her favourite place

Adriana was quite needy and wanted 24 hour attention but was very sweet and loving in return for any affection.

Adriana shows off her teeth

Smiley Adriana

Ian spent his two weeks working with 41 capuchin monkeys and 5 spider monkeys in the quarantine area of the park. The quarantine area was used for new arrivals (to reduce risk of spreading any disease or parasite), for the sick (again to reduce spread of illness) but also for problematic monkeys. Many monkeys arrive at the park in bad condition and unfortunately some arrive with terrible psychological problems due to being mistreat. These monkeys can be completely unpredictable and very aggressive in certain situations. It also means they are less likely to be accepted into social groups by the wild monkeys due to their behaviour. This sadly meant that a few of the monkeys were kept in cages for theirs and for others protection.

Despite all these problems Ian quickly formed good relationships with many of the monkeys. This was probably helped by little things he did for the monkeys like collecting termites for snacks, stealing coconuts from nearby gardens for treats, lots of grooming and playing (especially with tools) and for being pretty good at scaring away the wild monkeys that would try to steal the food.

Ian made monkeys very happy with his own monkey like ways

During the first few days, Victor the terrorist monkey descended upon the quarantine and attacked two of Ian´s favourite monkeys (Harold and Doctor). Doctor was wounded quite badly and had to have stitches in a gash in his right wrist. The very next day , Victor returned and attacked Doctor again, this time breaking the little finger on his left hand and leaving a terrible gash in his palm. Doctor was miserable for days and so Ian spent a lot of time grooming him.

During the following few days the head vet (Flash) spent much time hunting Victor with a dart gun in an attempt to capture him and put an end to the war. Amazingly, the hero turned out to be Ian as he managed to capture Victor himself using the old fashioned method of luring him into a cage with a banana and closing the door behind him. It sounds very easy but there was much bum-squeaking by Ian and his little army of capuchins. For his efforts, Ian was rewarded with looking after Victor which proved very interesting as Victor´s hatred of him was absolutely clear.

A caged Victor is not happy

Ian´s daily routine with so many monkeys was mainly taken up with feeding and cleaning several times. There was still plenty of time for fun and games though, as the days were very long.

Ian´s favourite monkeys were Doctor, Oscar, Harold and Oliver (capuchins).
Doctor was a large male with a mean looking face but a very sweet nature. He enjoyed being groomed and was noticably more happy once Victor was captured.

Doctor trying to look excited

Oscar was very playful and loved to learn how to use tools, especially hammers and pliers. He was also a keen forager and enjoyed eating termites.

Oscar looking very innocent - he was very naughty though.

Oscar admiring Ian.

Harold was another big male who enjoyed grooming Ian and picking Ian´s nose and ears. When saying goodbye, Ian received a bite on a finger which showed just how upset he was that we were leaving.

Harold before the goodbye bite

Oliver was very smiley and would rub his hands together when happy. He also had a little bit of rage which made him quite unpredictable.

Oliver found it hard to hide emotions

Following the amazing experience it was difficult saying goodbye to the animals. The bonds we had formed were quite strong and it is strange to think we may never see these lovely animals again. Although we wouldn´t say it was a life changing experience, it was definitely one we will never forget.

We have have amazing memories and many more fantastic photos but unfortunately we can´t sit here all day and load them all up so here are a couple more favourites...

Gem, Kiswara and Vladecito

Gem being groomed by Abraham

Ian being hugged by Marucha

With teary eyes we left Villa Tunari and ascended the mountains again, out of the Amazon jungle and back to the dizzying heights of the altiplano. Now in Cochabamba we plan to rest for a couple days until Gemmas wound properly heals before heading to La Paz.

Lots of love to everyone back home, we will post again when in La Paz.

Uyuni - Sucre ... lots of rest

2009-06-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

While in Uyuni we had a trip out to the train cemetry. They really should have just called it the train dump. Many of the trains had graffiti sprayed on them which were quite amusing, Einstein equations, ex-President Bush quotes (always funny) and our favourite was simply "No mas chu-chu" (no more choo-choo).

After hearing of a couple cycling the road from Uyuni to Potosi we decided to take the bus. The couple had managed just 100kms in four days on the road. It is in very bad condition and roadworks along the way don´t help. The bus ride itself still took 7 hours for just 275kms (180 miles) and our bottoms were numb when we arrived from all the bumps and bouncing.

Luckily the bikes survived in their baggage compartment.

Once in Potosi we found a nice hostel with a TV in the room and we basically slept, ate and watched TV for 5 days. The occassional venture out was only to find more chocolate, biscuits and cake.

We did manage to find time to take a photo of the hill behind the town. Cerro Rico was once stuffed full of silver which was mined out over the last few hundred years. Potosi was once the richest and biggest city in all the Americas, now it is just another dump. People still mine the hill for tin in appalling conditions. We chose not to go on a tour of the mines as it meant a few hours out of our warm room with no cake.

After the big rest, we cycled to Sucre. This road was paved and mainly downhill so no problems.

Lots of small villages along the way looked very poor and had huge signs of the charity they were sponsored by. We later came across a giant bridge complete with huge towers which must have cost a fortune to build, no wonder the villages remain so poor.

Sucre, the capital city of Bolivia (although many would have you believe it was La Paz) was very nice. A beautiful plaza, huge colonial buildings and churches and a giant cement factory where dinosaur footprints were found.

Again, we spent most of our time resting and watching TV. A day trip to Tarabuco took us to a huge textile and tat market. Here you could buy almost anything you wanted so long as you weren´t fussed about quality.

We thought we had seen everything until we noticed some other people taking photos of this first. A llama foetus nailed to the wall with some other dead stuff.

From Sucre we head into the jungle. The road from here is unpaved and also very bad so we have tickets for a gruelling 17 hour bus trip taking us to Santa Cruz. From there we will be cycling through the outer edges of the Amazon looking for monkeys, jaguars, caimens and tucans.

We´re very excited.

South-West Bolivia - for nutters.

2009-05-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

We think that this stage from San Pedro into Bolivia via the South West corner is pretty special. Indeed, you have to be a bit 'special' to consider trying it on a bike.

So we will explain our most painful but beautiful stage in detail, make yourselves comfortable...

DAY 1: San Pedro - Laguna Verde

It took us two days, two days!, to find somebody to give us a lift up the mountain side. From San Pedro to the border with Bolivia the road rises over 2,000m in just 45kms. No way were we cyling that, not after the climb of Lipan in the previous stage.

At the border we waved goodbye to Chile for the last time, cycled down to Laguna Blanca and battled through some ripio for a couple of hours to Laguna Verde. After crossing (cycling through) the stream between the two lakes we sat down for lunch. Laguna Verde was grey when we arrived but while we sat there it turned a bright green in just a few minutes. Very bizarre and very spectacular.

We camped that night near the lake, in an abandoned park ranger hut. It seemed quite sheltered.

DAY 2: Laguna Verde - Laguna Chalviri

We woke in the morning absolutely freezing. Morning temperature of -10C was not nice to get ready in. Most of our water had frozen overnight leaving us with just enough to make breakfast and hope that some would melt before we got thirsty.

The route from here was not too bad. A little sandy in places, we had to push the bikes occasionally before we reached our first pass. At 4,700m we were left panting like excited puppies. The other side was not much better. Even going downhill was slow as our wheels buried into the sand. The Dali desert was just as you'd expect from the name. For us, the 'desert' bit was most descriptive.

At Laguna Chalviri we found oursleves alone with a family of Bolivians who run the refuge there. We enjoyed the hot springs, Ian needed the bath desperately. We slept that night on the floor of the restaurant, a bit warmer than the tent.

DAY 3: Laguna Chalviri - Laguna Colorada

We were rudely awaken by the early arrival of jeep tours. Hoards of tourists expecting hot drinks and breakfast came pouring in just as we were wiping the sleep from our eyes and having a good morning scrat.

Before they got chance to pester us with ridiculous questions we headed north for Laguna Colorada. The route was slightly better, we managed to cycle most of the way. The pass on this day took us to our highest point so far, and probably of the entire trip. At 4,950m we were suffering with headaches and struggling to breath. We assumed it must have been the altitude, but maybe it was also something to do with our little side trip to the bubbling hot pools of sulphuric acid.

Coming down from this height was a great relief and a lot of fun. We found ourselves a nice campsite in a dry river canyon not far from Laguna Colorada.

Day 4: Laguna Colorada - Laguna Capina

We woke up in the morning with -15C. God only knows how cold it was in the night but it can get between -20 and -30C! We raced down to the lake side though, Laguna Colorada is well known for its flamingoes. Because we arrived early and it was still freezing, the edge of the lake was covered in ice. Obviously that meant Ian would wander out on the ice hoping to get a bit closer to the stinking birds.
They were magnificent and beautiful to watch for a while.

This day we had to endure another 4,700m pass, but fortunately again the route was not too bad. We arrived at the next lake to find a dual carriageway Bolivian style!

Passing a couple of mines and nearby settlements, we found ourselves another cold campsite. This time another abandoned building to shelter from the wind. Unfortunately the building was so small our tent would not fit inside, we had to only put it half up.

DAY 5: Laguna Capina - Villa Mar

Following the lakes, we didn't really have much interest in the next part until the great Salar de Uyuni. So this day was rather uneventful. We cycled over another mountain pass and the route seemed to worsen a bit.
Much steeper, much more rocky and great danger of being spat at by local wildlife.

We eventually arrived at our first Bolivian town after pushing the bikes through some pretty deep sand. We found ourselves a hostel with real beds and found some nice lady to cook us some soup and some pasta. It felt like a great treat until we tried the shower. Hot water was supposedly available. Maybe out here, when water is in liquid form and not solid, it is deemed hot no matter what temperature it is.

DAY 6: Villa Mar - Villa Alota

Our first reasonably flat day in Bolivia was quite nice. We first had to cross the river which was not quite fully frozen.
The route was then pretty rideable for the most part, the sand wasn't too deep. We were told in Villa Mar that the distance was only 30kms so we were looking forward to a quick easy day. We soon learned that Bolivians are quite terrible with distances.

After 50kms we eventually arrived in town and found ourselves a hostel with hot water that actually steamed.

DAY 7: Villa Alota - San Agustin

Without doubt, our worst day of the whole trip so far. Asking for directions in Alota was like asking Stevie Wonder to point north. We did the best we could with our Chilean maps but still found ourselves heading the wrong direction early on. After turning back and riding 10 pointless kms, we found our route north. The route wasn't easy with lots of deep sand and many rocks. Gemma's front tyre disapproved of our route and without notice, just erupted.

On with the spare tyre we continued cycling and pushing through ever deepening sand. During a short break a local guy appeared out of nowhere and chatted to us. No idea what he said but it sounded interesting. We did mange to decipher a few important sentences despite his lack of teeth, mainly that we were on the road to San Agustin (not to Chiguana as we originally intended) and that it was still 30kms over the hill.

A big, unexpected hill. Another 4,700m mountain pass to be precise. And this one was horrendously rocky, very steep and mostly unrideable. We pushed and puffed our way to the top hoping for some nice downhill into the next town. Unfortunately the road just worsened and the ride down was just as slow as going up.

The last few kms into San Agustin were through deep sand again. We arrived as day light was fading but just in time to find a local boy to show us the way to somewhere to sleep (there were no signs in this town). The boy showed us to a random door in a dusty alleyway and then he legged it.

We were a bit suspicious but desperate for a bed, so knocked anyway. The man who answered laughed as we asked for a room, this was not a hostel. Fortunately though, he had a garage with a couple of bunk beds in, we could sleep there. With his chickens. Luckily there were no pigs.

We slept very well.

DAY 8: San Agustin - Kolcha 'K'

And woke up cold.

The man came in to show us a map of the area, he drew it in the dusty floor with his pokey finger, telling us it would be only 45kms to Kolcha K with a slight hill along the way.

Our maps did not show any hills from here on but there it was, another nasty pass to tackle.

Expecting to arrive at Julaca about half way, we were disappointed to find it was much further than we were told. This rusty old railway town was deserted and we soon moved through to continue north.

From here the route flattened out and we quickened a little. Still, a long afternoon and nearly 20kms more than the 45 we were told, we arrived in Kolcha K and found ourselves a nice shop with loads of chocolate and fizzy drinks.

Day 9: Kolcha ´K´ - Isla Incahuasi (Salar de Uyuni)

Knowing that today we would get onto the salar, we rushed quickly through the last 20kms of sand. Not long after we were cycling on the biggest salt flat in the world. It was flat, firm and there lots of jeep tracks to guide us to the island in the middle of the vast sea. Much easier riding than anything from the previous days on this stage.

Reaching the island we shouldn´t have been, but were still amazed by the amount of jeeps full of other tourists were there. We headed straight for the restaurant and ordered big llama burgers - a wonderful change from our monotonous diet of rice or pasta with tinned fish.

Once all the tours had left the island we had a wander around, the island boasts stunning views wherever you go. We then asked to stay overnight in the refugio, definitely an experience we´ll never forget. A huge room with big windows overlooking the salar. The sunset, the night-sky and the sunrise were absolutely astounding.

Day 10: Isla Incahuasi - Uyuni

A big day. After signing the cyclists guestbook we headed out across the salt flats, took loads of photos and pushed on while the going was still flat and firm.

Near the eastern edge of the salar is a ´Salt Hotel´ obviously built from the salt. Much like the ice hotel in Sweden, it wasn´t as great as the hype, but they did have Snickers bars which made us very happy.

Back off the salar it was a further 25kms to Uyuni and a well deserved rest. The road was again very sandy and unbelievably bumpy. A sure sign of things to come as we head through Bolivia.

Knackered, filthy, hungry and in pain, we arrived in town after dusk following a 100km day.

While on this stage we had many encounters with the jeep tours. Here are some of our favourite questions posed to us: -

Are you guys cycling?
How do you go to the toilet?
Where have you cycled from? (Ushuaia) Wow, you must have arrived late!
Where did you cycle from? (San Pedro) What, in one day?!
How do you know where you´re going?

Unfortunately most of these idiots were English. What a shame.

Anyhoo... after our rest in Uyuni we head to Potosi and Sucre. With saddle sores and ripio rashes we will be busing it to Potosi as the road is rumoured to be in very bad condition.

Until next time,

love you all,

Ian and Gemma

xxx

San Pedro and Iquique (a week off)

2009-05-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

San Pedro de Atacama is a travellers hub. We have seen more English speaking people here in a couple of days than on the entire trip so far. Despite all the comforts that come with this, we realise we much prefer being in the wild away from anything, or anyone, that remind us of home. Strange, but we don´t want to be around English speaking people, most probably because we enjoy the reactions of locals when we turn up in some pokey one-donkey town.

Biting the bullet, on our first night in San Pedro we joined the herd and went out for a tour of the sky at night. The skies are nearly always clear in the Atacama, making it one of the best places in the world to star-gaze.

Alain, our French guide now lives locally with his 10 or so giant telescopes, most of which he built himself. We learnt about constellations, how to navigate using the stars (very handy for our next stage), about the moon and aliens and time travel and all that.

With his giant telescopes we saw close up views of the moon, of Saturn, gas clouds and star clusters. It was a fantastic night. Unfortunately we had to have our camera set to ridiculous high settings which makes loading them on here really slow. Here´s one for tasters...

On days off Ian likes to spend his time cycling. Now a fully gone nutter, the next day he headed off on his bike into the Valley of Death. It sounds just like a bit of a comical name to make a place sound interesting but the it didn´t take long to find out why. Here´s the entrance, the dust path on the right...

Straying from the main path he soon became lost. This wouldn´t have been so bad if the way was easily passable. Instead he had to crawl through holes, climb huge hills and cross massive sand dunes. Not easy when you have a bike with you.

Luckily other trails showed he wasn´t the only crazy that had been lost out here and eventually led to the way out.

After finding a safe place to store the bikes we headed down to Iquique, Chile´s premier beach resort, to take in some sun and relax before our adventures in Bolivia.

The beaches were very much like the kind you´d see on Baywatch but without all the people. A few surfers around and some kids made sure it wasn´t completely desolate. Oh and the occasional wildlife...

Being on the coast near an area of high tectonic activity means Iquique is prone to earthquakes and tsunamis. It was comforting to see the powers that be had thought out the perfect escape if such a catastrophe was iminent... RUN AWAY!!! HEAD FOR THE MASSIVE MOUNTAIN!!!

And so back to San Pedro de Atacama to prepare for what will probably be our craziest cycling of the whole trip. In just a couple of days we head into the South-western tip of Bolivia. Cycling across the altiplano at altitudes between 4,000 and 5,000m for a couple of weeks. Along the way we will pass many lakes, loads of sand, and cross the giant Salar de Uyuni. It is very remote and probably a bit dangerous but hey... we were born lucky remember... eeeh awwww!!!

Hopefully our next post will be in a couple of weeks.
If it´s not up in three weeks, somebody call the British consulate in La Paz and report two missing persons.

Love you all xxx

Salta to San Pedro de Atacama (Paso de Jama)

2009-05-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Resting in Salta for a couple of days gave us time to fix the wobbly tent pole. We´re just about back to normal now. Here´s Gemma in Salta...

Salta was cloudy and rainy while we were there. It was lovely after such a long period of 40 degree heat. Seeming more tropical, Ian was starting to get excited about the jungle already.

After finding a special place for Ian, we came across this special place for Katie...

the world´s biggest Armadillo. That´s "Armadillo" Katie, go on... say it out loud.. Armadillo...

Out of Salta we rode up a hill into a cloud forest and enjoyed a fantastic descent into the city of Jujuy.

While here we enjoyed massive steaks for the last time in Argentina. It was a sad meal but very filling for two hungry cyclists. The picture is a bit blurry as Gemma was laughing at the 4lb steaks put in front of us.

The road then took us up, quite a lot of up, until we got just to the edge of town and decided to stop. Our still full bellies were refusing to cycle any further. While having tea and cake at a hostel we bumped into a couple of dutch cyclists (Michael and wifey) who we last saw back in January in the south. What are the chances? About the same as being trampled by a donkey, some people are just born lucky.

While at this hostel, we had our evening meal with the French couple who run the place. Their hospitality was exceptional. Gemma was served "Rabbit´s head au vin" and for somebody who was until recently a vegetarian, the conversion back to carnivore is very much complete.

Digestion complete, the next day we continued up the hill to Purmamarca. This town is known for it´s hill of many colours. Apparently like a painters palet, we thought they would do much better making it into a biblical musical. Far more entertaining. More entertaining was our campsite host. An 80 year old man who spoke to us for ages about the good old days in the town, we will remember him fondly for wandering around his garden with a machete, a catapult and a pocket full of sticky tape, metal bits and small tools that could fix anything on his property.

Purmamarca, sat at around 2,500m above sea level was comparitively low. We spent the next two days cycling up Cuesta de Lipan. This beast of a hill rises to near 4,200m in just 31kms (21 miles). As the road is built into the side of a mountain we had to camp on an emergency escape lane for trucks. Luckily all the trucks had good brakes that night. We heard every single one go past as we struggled to breath, making sleep difficult. Note the switchbacks in the mountain in the second picture...

Down the other side we came across our first salt lake. Salinas Grandes was dazzilingly bright and a great introduction for what more is to come in Bolivia.

Out here in the middle of nowhere at nearly 4,000m it was brilliant to come across a random cafe serving nice hot tea and biscuits. The family are obsessed with TV soaps and waving at trucks. Llamas, guanacos and vicuñas also live around here.

The next town was Susques which is rather shabby and rundown. Here children and adults alike, play marbles in the dusty streets. Basically a truckers stopover, we were worried about the road ahead when walking into a shop to find 4 truck drivers drinking beer inside.

The following day we managed to cycle 120kms over another small pass, across another salt lake, over another small pass and with an afternoon tailwind, all the way to the border town of Jama (pronounced "hammer"). It´s a very good name. The buildings look as though they have been beaten with hammers, the cars look as though they are repaired with hammers, and the locals must have been hit on the head with hammers to think it is a good place to live.

It is a difficult place to survive in...

At 4,100m above sea level we arrived just before dark. The border guards told us there was no space to sleep indoors and that we could camp outside. With night time temperatures falling below -10C we decided not to. A lovely lady in a tiny wooden shack of a kiosk gave us a small room to sleep in. With adobe buildings (that have thatched roofs) there is arisk of catching Chagas disease (untreatable) from small ticks which live in the roof. So we put the tent up inside the room, on top of the bed. It was our funniest camp site yet.

The next day we went through the border formalities and left Argentina for the last time. Eric was especially very sad to leave.

Back in Chile, the road continued to climb to 4,400m. Not being a conventional pass, Paso Jama has 3 real mountain passes. The second pass we came to in extremely strong sidewinds. Reduced to pushing the bikes we searched for a sheltered place to camp. Unfortunately we were in a valley with no natural shelter at all. We tried unsuccessfully to put the tent up behind a large rock but the wind was still too strong.

Worried that we would end up with no place to camp, in the dark of night above 4,500m, we headed back down the valley to lower ground. It was here that Francisco pulled over in his pick-up truck and saved us from a potentially dangerous situation.

The empty and very windy valley in front...

Francisco took us over the final pass which reaches 4,700m and then in just 45kms descends to 2,500m into San Pedro de Atacama.

Here, we are taking a couple of rest days to clean and feed. Preparations for Bolivia are being put on hold as we intend to head to the coast (Iquique) for a few days on the beach.

No doubt we will post on here again before we head into Bolivia in a week or so.

Love to everyone back home.

Ian and Gemma.

Nervous nights - Chilecito to Salta

2009-04-23T13:21:00.001-07:00

With the tent back up and running, off we went heading north again. Since Mendoza we seem to have been ploughing through the miles with long, flat, paved roads most of the way. Heading back towards the hills we found oursleves in a small town called Londres (London). We couldn´t find the British Museum and tried to find the local mayor to complain. However, it was impossible to find anywhere in the town as this is that fabled town that U2 sang about , "Where the streets have no name".
God knows how the postmen deliver things round here???

Cycling on, we found some more ripio (unpaved hell!). The maps we have are shocking. Three hours of bum-bruising is not fun and we were very happy to find paved roads again. We are more aware that Bolivian roads are not very good, so we are trying to keep to paved roads as much as possible until then.

Camping out in the wild is still a nervy ordeal. Ian didn´t want to camp here (a good campsite if not for the donkeys!).

So he made Gemma cycle another couple of hours to the next good one we could find. Turned out this site had a lovely little troll-dog. His front feet were mangled and he was unable to walk properly. We guessed he must have landed badly having fallen out of the ugly tree and hitting the back of the bus on the way down.

Despite the ridiculous chances of being trampled again, we are both still suffering from fright whenever any tiny noise is heard in the night. Just a leaf falling on top of the tent made Ian get up and stomp around in his pants to make sure nothing was coming.

We came across a site named Quilmes (also the name of the very tasty local beer) which is a pre-hispanic site in which locals fought of the Inca and then the Spaniards for many years. Eventually they were overcome and now they just make loads of beer and sell trinkets.

On our way to Salta we stayed in Cafayate for a few days. This town is home to hundreds of wine producers. Vineyards everywhere and lots of tasting to be done. We needed a break and Cafayate was a beautiful place for it. It helped that we found the nicest empanada shop we have sampled anywhere so far. Those ladies were kept very busy indeed, yummy.

Since Bolivia is not too far away, we are feeding ourselves more and more. The orders of empanadas are getting bigger, the sandwiches are bigger than our heads and lots of ice-cream is being consumed, regularly. Oh and not forgetting the wine...

Because of this, we had some short days cycling through some more lovely hills to Salta. Many rocks in different shapes, like frogs, or castles, or bears were to be seen. The most spectacular was the "ampitheatre" in which some lads were playing guitars and flutes. It was an incredible place, but the music could have been left back in Cafayate.

Now in Salta we are hoping to find a new pole for the tent. Once rested and fed we will be tackling our biggest mountain crossing yet. All fun from here, we go up, up and then up some more to reach over 4,000m before flying down the other side into Chile (San Pedro de Atacama) where we will update with more photos.
Hopefully we will be there in just over a week. Any longer and we´re hitching.

Lots of love, Ian and Gemma xxx

"Oof!" - or should we say "Hoof!"

2009-04-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Following the donkey attack we have managed to get a few pictures for everyone to see just how much damage a crazed ass can do.
Be warned, it´s not pretty...

From the outside you can see where the donkey has torn through the fly sheet, just above where Ian´s head was.

Under the fly sheet the sleeping compartment was badly ripped as the donkeys hooves ploghed down towards Ian´s head.

The pole holding up this part of the tent was no match for the full weight of a giant ass.

Having stomped through the fabric and shattering the pole, the donkeys hoof thumped down on Ian´s skull. It´s amazing that it didn´t just pop. A hoof shaped scar has formed on his head, leaving Ian with no choice but to use a comb-over to hide it.

Despite a few headaches the cycling continued. Gemma amazingly rescued the tent with a full days worth of sewing (using dental floss - minty fresh!) and we fixed the tent pole using lots of duct tape and some of those plastic tubes you use to join two bits of hose-pipe together.

Here it is looking shiny and new again...

Camping in the wild since the attack has been a bit of an effort. Neither of us are still comfortable with it yet but it is necessary. Every little noise from a bird, a goat, a donkey or a vehicle leaves us hiding under the sleeping bags - obviously it´s safe under there.

We are well on our way to Salta and expect to arrive in the next week (after a couple of days off in Cafayate to drink more wine). We will post more pictures from the road when we arrive.

Lots of love from us both, Ian and Gem xxx

Whoop Ass!!!

2009-04-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

Back over the Andes in Argentina, we found ourselves in Mendoza once more. The wine was delicious and the steaks were enormous. We reluctantly left it all behind for our road diet of pasta and tomato sauce, mmm.

Out of Mendoza the roads were flat and straight for miles. Even with full bellies we clocked up big distances for several days. Not only our bellies, but our water bottles too, caused our bikes to be very heavy. Gemma´s even managed to damage the road...

Our first attraction out of Mendoza was at Vallecito. A shrine built for crazies who believe some story about a woman found dead (of thirst and starvation) but a baby alive at her breast. People now visit the place and crawl on their hands and knees to stick car licence plates to the wall in hope of receiving a miracle new car.

And you thought cycling for a year was crazy!!!

Back on the road we noticed a large difference in the environment. Away from the mountains we found ourselves pedalling endlessley through desert and 40C heat. Out here there wasn´t much to see other than sand, cacti, scary insects and dead stuff.

Rare small towns were welcome relief. They have kiosks with much less fizzy drinks than they had before we arrived. Some of them also had different wildlife to look at. The type you can approach rather than run screaming from.

Further into the desert we came across Ischigualasto National Park. Just try saying that after you´ve cycled 100km up a whopping great hill!

"Ishammmalaassti..... murrrrr.... where´s my burger!"

Anyhoo.... this park is famous for being like a valley of the moon. Fat rat couldn´t contain himself, everybody knows the moon is made out of cheese, even simple little rats know it.

As it turned out, there was no cheese. Pah. But there was plenty of rocks and fossils and stuff like that. It was quite possible to imagine dinosaurs running around eating each other, until you realised you were looking at the people in the tour group.

We were told the balls were formed by being pushed around the bottom of an ancient lake, erosion making them almost spherical. Sounds like a story made up by some clever scientist who knows all the facts after years of study.

Clearly that´s all tosh. They were in fact made by dinosaurs who became bored of eating everything and took up playing marbles instead. As you can see in the picture, there was a seriously big game on when the asteroid struck, probably it was the world dinosaur championships.

A couple of days later we got ourselves to the Cuesta de Miranda. This is a mountain pass taking us through to Chilecito where we are now. We have arrived following an absolutely horrendous ordeal which luckily we have both survived with little injuries. We spent the previous night camped in a a dry river bed. On arrival there we found ourselves with a little mutt that had followed us for 3kms from the last town. This dog took it upon itself to be our trusty guard.

And a fine job it did.

At 4am Ian was awoken by the dog growling and barking. Not much later a random donkey started up making loads of noise too. Unlike the approachable donkey already mentioned, this donkey went nuts and set off on a rampage. Listening to the events unfold from the safety of his sleeping bag, Ian realised the donkey was hurtling down the rocks and straight for the tent. Ian tried to save Gemma a trampling and rolled over onto her.

It all happened in a flash but the donkey stamped all over the tent, on Ian´s head and shoulders and put a big hoof on Gemma´s ankle and arm too.

Gemma eventually woke up screaming but not knowing what had happened. After some explaining with blood for effect, Ian had a nice sit down and Gemma packed the bikes up.

The tent is destroyed, ripped fabric, broken poles but amazingly the bikes are unhurt.

So after some breakfast we headed for the mountains and 70kms into Chilecito, stopping along the way for Ian to have his hair cut off and to have alcohol and iodine poured into his hoof shaped head crack. We only have a couple of photos, obviously we were rather busy and very shaky.

Luckily we are both absolutely fine so there is no need for our parents to worry. This isn´t meant to be a life changing trip, it´s a life threatening one, but we will get home.

A day or two to rest and fix the tent and then we should be back on the road to Salta.

For Andrew and Jack (you know who you are), the "Likely to die tour" is unfolding quite nicely for you.

Lots of love, Ian and Gemma

xxx

A different kind of milestone.

2009-03-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

The road over the high Andes was of course high and quite difficult. It could also have been avoided had we not wanted such an outlandish detour for our first big milestone on the trip.

Never mind thousands of kms or miles, Ian was turning 30!

To help make the occassion pass with as little worry as possible, Easter Island was booked up and off we went. Santiago being very smoggy and uninteresting deserves little mention other than having an amazing view from the aeroplane once it reached above cloud level.

Five hours West (by plane) from South America and you reach Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the most isolated inhabited place in the world. From here it is another 6 hours to Tahiti, 5 hours to Hawai'i, or 5 hours back to Santiago. Such an islolated place is bound to develop an interesting history but for descendants of other Polynesians, Rapa Nui managed to outdo them all by building giant monolithic figures to worship.

Hundreds of years later people from all over the world (but mainly from Japan) would come to visit these giants.

And also to see the endemic "Fluffeared Cow"...

During this lovely break we had the luxury of hiring a car for a couple of days to help us rest the cycling muscles. Ian first thought the jeep was a birthday present but soon realised it would be difficult to get it home.

To make sure Ian didn't forget he was getting old, Gemma found some candles to light for every meal he wanted. Ian made sure he didn't forget he was still a big child by monkeying around with the candles. To make sure nobody else found out he also ran around shouting childish obsenities at people - pooballs!

After 6 days on the island we had found ourselves out of places to visit. We packed up, still amazed and in wonder, and headed back to Chile to find the bikes.

It's difficult to explain the wonder of the Moai in words, the pictures are better but still nowhere near as amazing as seeing them up close...

The birdman cult eventually took over the island and led to crazies jumping off cliffs to catch eggs. The carvings on this rock look nothing like the giant pile of bones at the bottom of the cliff.

Once we get over our jolly we wil be back on the bikes and we will be starting again from Mendoza (Argentina) heading north to Villa Union.

We will update again soon, love to everybody back at home,

Ian (old) and Gem xx

Our first major mounatin pass.

2009-03-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Mendoza with the bikes on the back of a bus was no problem. Off we went straight to the vineyards to drink some wine.

As it turned out we had arrived just in time for the start of the annual wine festival which is a big celebration in such a big wine producing region. Gemma - after many bottles of red wine - managed to get herself involved with the dancing but without the fancy dresses. The costumes were spectacular and the streets were full with colour, music and drunks.

With little sleep we headed off the next morning to start our ascent of the first major mountain pass on our trip. The Paso de Libertadores rises to 3,200m over the Andes, the road passing the mighty Aconcagua along the way.

Using our trusty maps (which have been wrong everywhere) we headed off to Cacherhue which was along a road helping us cut out many miles of highway. Just a few miles from the end of this road, locals at a restaurant told us the road was no longer passable. We were close to ignoring the advice until an Ozzy member of staff translated for us; "The road is not passable because a huge dam has been built, a massive resevouir has been formed and the old road lies right at the bottom of this vast new sea."

After a quick meal and some lenghty discussion, we decided it would be best not to continue on this road.

Eventually (the next day) we passed the resevoir on the highway, it was no Kielder in size, but the road clearly went straight to the bottom where we would have found cycling very dificult.

The road gradually took us uphill - not very steeply - but it seemed to go on for days. Two days in fact to Uspallata. This town was just half way up the pass. It was in this town that Gemma experienced her first earthquake. The ground shook, the dogs howled, cats ran up Gemmas back to safety and Ian was later found hiding under a large copper pot - a trick he learned years ago in Turkey.

From Uspallata the pass became a bit more steep. Turning from one valley into another presented us with headwinds and blazing heat. We were forced to find shelter, a campsite smelling of death was not an option so we managed to find room at a random Army barracks. The guys were great hosts, feeding us too.

The barracks happened to be opposite a wonderful but bizarre natural phenomenon. Puente del Inca is a natural stone bridge overhanging the river here, coloured by minerals found in the thermal waters.

The next day we cycled past the valley leading to Aconcagua. This giant mounatin - the largest outside all those Himalayan ranges - didn´t look anywhere near as big as the one next to it. Eric was convinced that it was a giant termite hill and declared it to be"Antoncagua". He then mumbled something about being tired and not being able to climb up it, so off we went.

With just 20kms of uphill to go, Gemma declared herself to be a proper cyclist and donned her cycling jersey for the first time. The aardvark on the jersey caused all sorts of chaos in Ians panniers as Eric was jumping about and screaming wildly.

Eventually at the top of the pass, we came to the tunnel. The actual mountain pas is at 3,800m but some genius mind thought up building a tunnel at 3,200m because the last part was so steep. If only this genius had thought up building it from around 1,000m he would have saved us 3 days of hard work.

The tunnel was long. Because of this it was full of exhaust fumes from al the trucks, buses and cars that pass through every day. A nice man at the check post zoomed up in a mini van and threw our bikes on it. At the other side we were faced with a massive downhill stretch.

Around 20kms of looping switchbacks followed by about 40kms of still steep winding roads. It was difficult taking photos while travelling so fast and having sparks and fire flaring from the brakes.

The road is much steeper on the Chilean side and we were very glad to have changed our plans so as to cycle it this way. Cyclists going the other way looked absolutely exhausted.

We spent a night at the bottom of the hill in a town called Los Andes. Unable to find accomodation easily we ended up staying at one of those hotels where you pay by the hour. Needless to say we avoided the jacuzzi at fear of having to swap keys or go flashing car lights. We then headed for Valparaiso on the coast. We had heard and read great things about the city. It is a very popular place for Chileans to spend their holidays, by the sea in a colourful city full of character and charm. The road there soon came across a long tunnel; this was the PanAmerican Highway, very busy, loads of traffic and loads of drunk drivers. We turned back - cycling the wrong way down the motorway - because that was the safest thing to do.

This meant another stopover in a town called Llay-llay. With absolutely no tourist infrastructure whatsoever, there was not a single hotel, hostel, or park bench to sleep at.

On our parents advice (from yonks ago) we went to the local police. After lots of laughter and phoning all their friends to tell them of the stupid foreign cyclists, we were offered a night in a cupboard - or maybe it was a cell. Anyway, luckily some helpful fella had found us a room at the local bus depot, right opposite the big garlic processing factory. Yummy.

The next day we arrived by bus in Valparaiso. All those desriptions we had read and heard were clearly made up by somebody who visited here on a massive bender. The colour, charm and character left this place about a hundred years ago, being replaced with stench, stink and skank.

Because we are now waiting for our flights to Easter Island next week - we are lucky enough to have to spend a whole 4 days being diseased by this wretched pit. Maybe we should go on a massive bender like the guidebook researchers clearly do.

Our next update should be after our trip to Easter Island. We´re both very excited, Gemma more so, because she gets to laugh at Ian turning 30 while we are there.

We hope everybody is well back home, love to all,

Ian and Gemma xxxx

What a difference!

2009-03-04T07:48:00.000-08:00

Volcan Villarrica was the end of our stay in the Lakes district of both Argentina and Chile. With still a month to go until we need to be in Santiago (800kms north) we had some big choices to make.

We could either leg it up the Pan-American highway and see nothing, possibly choke or more likely get squished by a drunk trucker. We could be in Santiago in a week, leaving us plenty of time to relax and wash - maybe even a trip to the beach at one of the coastal towns.

Another option was to head to the Pacific coast and visit the many towns and beaches along the way. It would be safer than the Pan-Am but further and we have no idea of the road conditions.

So we decided to stick to our original plan which was to head back to Argentina for a few more weeks.

We had thought about going over Paso Icalma - it would have led us to a beautiful lake with some small towns along the way. We were close to taking this road.

From Villarrica we headed for a town called Cunco which was not far from the bottom of the pass. Arriving here after a very long day of more unexpected ripio (all our maps showed paved roads here) we were told that the road over the pass was under construction.

Road works in Chile are a nightmare. Tackling 50km stretches at a time, the labour-force of just 20 are clearly daunted by the massive task. So they hang around talking to each other, peer into holes, shovel stones around and wave at anything that goes past. We have rarely seen heavy machinery being used purposefully. And after cycling through probably 200-300kms of roadworks in Chile, we have not once seen them laying tar-mac.

Almost turning back on ourselves we headed for Temuco, a big city on the Pan-American highway. The plan was to then get a bus to Zapala in Argentina and cycle north from there.

Not a very nice place but it had everything you would expect from a city so we were quite happy.

Arriving at the bus station in the morning with plenty of time to spare we found our bus. So had the other 50 passengers. As soon as the luggage doors opened all hell broke loose. The boxes and bags being pushed in were getting bigger and bigger. Ian managed to grab the luggage-monkey and point out that he needed to put the bikes in soon and then put the other luggage around them.

Ignoring this advice the luggage-monkey carried on throwing luggage around and screaming wildly. Eventually all the luggage was loaded, the people were on the bus and the driver was revving the engine. At this point Ian had hold of the luggage-monkey and was pointing back at the bikes and asking what he was going to do with them.

"No possible. Mañana, mañana!"

This was immediately followed with a big arguement in the office. Absolutely nobody in that office had a clue who was saying what.

The bus left without us.

The following morning (at 3am!) we were back at the bus station - deja vu was setting in when the crowds descended on the luggage-monkey with more huge boxes. Luckily this monkey was slightly further along the evolutionary stages and was able to understand when told the bikes need to be in there first, luggage around them.

Off we went. Here are some monkey puzzle trees on rocks...

Ten hours later we were in Zapala. To celebrate we headed for the local swimming pool - it was a blisteringly hot day. After passing the medical examinations and nit-checks Ian jumped straight in and surfaced with icicles on his face. Gemma followed and could barely swim - it's not easy when you can't feel your limbs.

Cycling north from Zapala took us to Las Lajas and then onto Chos Malal along Ruta 40, one of the longest national highways in the world. In these three days (250kms) we had realised this was a different world to Chile. In the shadow of the Andes there is barely any water. The river beds were almost all dry, the wildlife was very different (snakes, spiders, scorpions!) and it was so hot! After the winds of Patagonia we had not wanted to encounter any more throughout the rest of the trip. Here in the heat we were relieved by the slightest of breezes as it cooled us down for all of two seconds.

Just before arriving in Chos Malal we were met by a couple of cyclists... Olivier and Caroline who we had last seen in Puerto Natales in December! We hadn't seen any other cyclists for quite a while so it was nice to be reminded we were not alone. And then all of a sudden, a couple of Belgian cyclists turned up. Bizarre how we all can meet in one place, absolutely miles from anywhere.

Mad Max style house - middle of nowhere in the pampa...

Through the "valley of the dinosaurs" we found these. Gemma reckons they're called Geodes???

Ian is positive they are fossilised dinosaur eggs, "you can still see where the yolk was, and look, a claw!".

Now, we are in Chos Malal. Some serious map studying has shown us that we don't really have enough time to cycle to Mendoza and then to Santiago in time for the flights to Easter Island. So from Chos Malal we will take the bus on Friday north to Mendoza. Missing out many kilometeres of empty Pampa. This leaves us with enough time to cycle from Mendoza to Uspalata before crossing the pass and back into Chile. Its a shame to miss cycling this part but we would rather bus it than miss our flights!

Gemma showing off her white bits; nice cyclist tan.

So the next post should be from Santiago, in a few weeks before we head off to Easter Island for Ians 30th!

Love to everyone

Ian and Gemma xxxxx

Volcan Vilarrica.

2009-02-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

The mean people in Pucon made us wake up at 5.30am to get ready to climb the volcano. After a couple of cocktails the night before, we looked so rough when we arrived that the tour guide had us transferred to a different party on "the special bus".

From Pucon the volcano looks high. From the start of the cable car taking us half way up, it still looks very high. Once we set off walking it was already really steep and the guide had said it would take us about 3 hours to reach the summit.

The first part of the climb was over old lava fields and loose rocks which Gemma would often stop to admire or pick up and stash for taking home. The guide re-estimated our time to summit as 4 hours.

An hour or so into the climb we reached the snow level. From here we would have to use ice axes to help us climb up the even steeper slope. After asking Gemma how she was going, Ian turned round to find her with a crazed look in her eyes and muttering to herself, "I´m not happy, I´m not magnificently happy".
So she´ll be alright then. Off we go. The guide just started swinging his ice-axe a bit faster to encourage her.

The reason for Gemma being terrified was the 45 degree slope near the top. Include the 2,000m drop behind, and the guide piping up with, "Whatever you do, don´t fall here. There´s a cravass just below us and if you go in there, you´re not coming out!".

Cheers guide. Thanks for that.

Eventually, finally, after just over 3 hours of staring at the ground just in front of our feet (it´s not easy to look up or down when you´re terrified of sliding off to be a human snowball) we reached the summit.
We were greeted by clouds of sulphurous gases making our eyes and lungs burn. This may have put many people off but we have become accustomed to these fumes after many nights in the tent when Ian has eaten giant steak and had a couple of beers.

After a rest and loads of photos of the surrounding panoramic views, we had to make our way back down. Going down is always more fun, that´s obvious. But when you have a special item of clothing to fasten to your behind, a big pot of bike oil, a 45 degree ice slope, 2,000m down and absolutely no fear of death whatsoever (Ian), you have a magical treat which will be remembered forever.

Guide: - "Okay, sit here, take your ice-pick like....

Ian: - WHOOSH!!!!!!!

Guide: - er... okay... next... sit here, take your ice-pick and hold it like this...

Gemma: - Arghrgrhgrhgrhgrhghaghghrghtghgghgfjhgfkshflkgjrj!!!!!!!!!!!

At the bottom of the ice there were phone calls from Pucon. Local volcanologists were wondering why they could see fire on the slopes and asking if lava was streaming down towards town.
Nobody could reply as Ian was wildly running about, shaking guides and shouting at them to get back up there for "round 2!".

Eventually he was calmed down and everybody was safely returned to town.
We had great fun climbing up the volcano and seeing the amazing views. The crater was also spectacular but it was the slide down that made the day extra special. It will certainly be one of the highlights of our trip.

We need to give a special mention to Fred (Gemma´s grandad) as he is 80 years old in a few days time. Sorry we can´t be there to help you celebrate Fred, and we obviuosly both hope you have a fantastic day, Happy Birthday!!!

Bariloche to Pucon.

2009-02-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Leaving Barichocolatey behind we had to cycle around a big lake. This road took us to the start of the "7 Lakes" route which would lead us eventually back into Chile. Our first stop along the way was a place named Villa La Angostura. Although it´s February, they still think it´s Christmas there.

Despite of their obvious lack of calender control, the town is very nice. We decided to make a days detour and ride out to Peninsula Quetrihue which apparently is home to the last forest of Arrayanes trees. The trail seemed to be made entirely out of the roots of these trees ,which Ian reckons he´s seen growing in Australia.

After the mini detour we headed north to San Martin de Los Andes. This 7 lakes route was initially unpaved and although the views were probably great from a vehicle with suspension and comfy bouncy seats, all we could see from our iron-donkeys were blurred hills, the insides of our heads and huge clouds of dust and gravel being kicked up by the numerous tourist buses.

Following a nights stay at a lake side campsite watching fish jump out to eat flies we got back to the road which then turned back to pavement. It´s amazing just how much difference it makes to your day - riding on tarmac makes us happy, makes us smile back at drivers who beep and wave at us, makes us take lots of photos, we talk to each other lots and it leaves us positive for the next days riding when we camp. However, on ripio, rubble, rubbish and rocks we cycle with our heads down, no talking, we gesture rudely to nearly all vehicles (well, Ian does), we curse even the slightest of gradients and feel terrible when we camp.

So the tarmac into San Martin was great, it also helped that the last 16kms (10 miles) were all down a very big hill. Happy, smiley, speedy fast, wonderful, everything was perfect until out of nowhere..... bbzzzzzz ..... whats´s that big black dot ... . . bzzzzzzzz ....... BANG!!!!

arrghrghghaghrhhrghgrgrhrghrhhrgrhgrhghrghrh!!!!!!

Gemma had managed to avoid speeding drunk truck drivers all the way, dodging huge rocks in the road, whizzing round pedestrians as they blindly meandered into the road. But after all this, she couldn´t avoid the meanest wasp looking for a fight on a hill while travelling at 40mph. The wasp managed to sting Gemma´s eye and leave her blind for a couple of days.

Another visit to another hospital (that´s 2 in just 3 months!) and this time poor Gemma was subjected to a cortisone injection right in her butt-cheek. Ian winced while taking photos - obviously we can´t show these, kids are watching too and we wouldn´t want to scare them.

Fortunately San Martin was a beautiful place to spend a day resting, made more entertaining by Gemma walking with a funny kind of limp and occassionaly bumping into lamposts.

Once Gemmas eye had reappeared we enjoyed a great day riding along flat roads with a big tailwind to Junin de Los Andes. The fun didn´t last long as from here we headed up (now with headwinds) to the Paso Mamuil Malal which at around 1,300m was our highest pass thus far.

A wonderfully clear day gave us magnificent views of the huge Volcan Lanin most of the way up. The road also went through a forest of giant monkey-puzzle trees. Ian was rather confused here. If monkeys can´t climb these trees, why are they not all jumping around on the floor, scratting each other, flinging stuff at cars and heckling cyclists?

Overnight the winds bought in colder weather and by morning the summit was gone, hidden in huge clouds.

Over the pass we found ourselves back on ripio, rocks and rubble. A swiss cyclist coming the other way had warned us the road on the other side was much worse. He was absolutely spot-on. On the Chilean side they are in the middle of major roadworks, (or is that ripioworks? - these shouldn´t be classed as roads!). Descending a major pass at slower speeds than you went going up was depressing. The gravel was deep. The deep gravel was deeper. The piles of gravel next to the deep gravel were bottomless. It was downhill hell.

The sufferring lasted for a full day. We arrived eventually at Curarrehue and camped in a nectarine orchard. It would have been great to try some after the hard days work but they had all been eaten by the cows, goats, sheep and wasps. We sat in the tent instead, eating chocolate while it hoofed it down. And hoof it down it did, all night, and all the next day as we cycled the last 40kms into Pucon.

It´s not that bad though. We found a giant empanada shop to keep us warm and full. Also, in Pucon we are next to Volcan Villarrica which is waiting for us to climb it. At the 2,800m summit we hope to peer down into the crater and have our eyes and lungs burned by sulphurous fumes coming from the red liquid hot magma. And when we´ve just avoided death by suffocation we will grease our bin-lids up and leave a trail of fire on the side of the volcano which Chevy Chase would be very proud of. Who knows, maybe the locals will think it´s magma coming down from the crater and we might end up having the whole town evacuated. Now there´s a plan....

We will update again before leaving, so lots of love to everyone back home. We could say we miss you but we´re off to go climb a volcano... woohoo!!!

"Rest days" in Bariloche.

2009-02-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

Having signed up for a weeks worth of Spanish/Latin American lessons in Bariloche, Gemma was busy for 6 hours each day, Monday to Friday. These lessons were all about helping Gem overcome the confusion with forming verbs and their gender etc...

Ian had decided that he didn´t need to do this because pointing and shouting was working rather well.

In total we spent 8 days in Bariloche. There is so much to do in the surrounding area we could easily have stayed for another week. However, the frequency of the visits to chocolate and ice-cream shops was increasing and so were our waistlines, yummy!

While Gemma was off being baffled with irregular verbs every day, Ian decided to "relax" on his rest days in the only way he knew how... bike rides!

Cycling up a mountain wasn´t enough, he then cycled to the bottom of another one and walked up it. Follow this up with a 50 mile ride out to a village with nothing there, due to boredom, and you have yourself a good candidate for admission to a special hopsital.

It was during this boredom that Ian realised there might be only way of getting out of Bariloche. Gemma had been dazzled by the lights in the chocolate shops so there was only one thing for it. A photo of Gemma was handed in to every chocolate and ice cream shop in town with a strict note not to sell her anything else.

We just might get out of here afterall.

To end our stay we both went out for the day in spectacular weather to scale yet another mountain. Cerro Catedral is the largest peak near Bariloche and a huge centre for outdoor activities year round. We decided the best activity was to ride the cable-car all the way to the top and save ourselves for the evening finale.

The views from the top of Cerro Catedral were nothing short of spectacular. Panoramic views in all directions of hundreds of lakes, mountains and volcanoes. Lots of photos taken.

Feeling adventurous Ian searched out a small remaining patch of ice and tried some butt-skiing.

There is a video of this event which the blog page does not seem to want to upload. We will keep trying and in the mean time we assure you it was in no way dangerous and that Ian would never do anything stupid without proper guidance or any safety measures in place. Having said that, can anyone donate us some new pants and trousers?

Once down the bottom the evening finale was to begin. Posters all over town had been advertising this event for ages - The Annual Bariloche Music Festival held at the Swiss Colony. With Bariloche being the premier holiday destination for thousands of people every summer, we arrived expecting Glastonbury, Woodstock, Rio Carnival even... it was potentially huge.

The bus dropped us outside a house with a nice garden. In the garden was a wooden platform, some speakers, a BBQ, a couple of portaloos and a beer stand or two. Approximately 500 people had managed to find themselves places to sit and wait for the acts. We were given a few starved looking drummers with something that could have been easily replicated by an infant school music class. At least they had some local food and beer to keep us occupied.

The next two acts were no better and within a couple of hours we were on the bus back to the tent. With Rio Carnival just days away, there was obviously a reason these acts were here and not there.

So tomorrow we leave Bariloche and begin our journey through the 7 Lakes route north. Lots of beautiful camping, great lakes and probably some hills. It´s suposed to be beautiful, it certainly looks it from the top of the mountains here.

Love to all xxx

Diets.

2009-02-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

Following the success of our little insight into our routines, and after many inquiries from back home about the food over here, here is a quide to what we generally eat in our new lives.

Breakfast: -

While on the road we normally carry a resealable freezer bag ful of oats, milk powder and sugar. A big scoop of this is magically transformed into hot porridge when you just add some boiling water. It´s not the tastiest thing in the world but it´s quick, easy and keeps us going for a few hours.

If we find ourselves in a town (or anywhere near a shop) then we can really go for it and have cereal for breakfast. Normally with yoghurt because UHT milk is not great when your so used to the delicious pasteurised milk. Oh what we´d do for a nice big glass of cold pasteurised milk. Mmmm.

Onces: -

That´s elevens´s in Enlgish. Something seemingly introduced by the German population, a good mid-morning snack of cake is great when cycling. We haven´t had many of these yet but now we´re in the Lakes District, it´s cake shops all the way!
Sometimes we collect our own food from the millions of trees providing lovely fruits.

Lunch: -

In Latin America the siesta can (and mostly will) last from 12-4pm. Lazy, but a great idea. We initially thought they just slept for 4 hours but it turns out that lunch is the most important meal of the day for the locals. And we thought it was only cyclists that could eat for 4 hours at a time!

Anyway, for us cyclists, lunch is biscuits, nuts, crackers (with peanut butter or Dulce de Leche - caramelised milk mmmmmm) and occassionally bread with sweaty cheese and warm mayonaise if we decide to carry it.

Afternoon snacks: -

Because we need to eat lots, we keep on snacking. 250g Chocolate bars are gone within seconds of the wrapper coming off. We can easily go through one of these each, each day.

On good days we find the empanada shops. These beautiful little havens are pretty common and they sell meat, cheese, ham and cheese, tuna, and sometimes others rolled up into a lovely parcel of pastry. Much better than Greggs, these shops are Ian´s most favouritest places. Yummy.

Dinner: -

While on the road, choices are quite limited for the evening meal. Most supermarkets provide us with packets of pasta with a few different flavour sauces like cheese, brocolli, meat or "have a guess". They´re not that great but pasta is good for us and is easy to prepare.
When we fancy a change we sometimes boil some rice up. Add to this a tin of fish and some tomato juice and you have an almost tasty alternative.

Evening meals get interesting when we´re in towns or when we´re not cycling. With easy access to supermarkets we can find all kinds of treats. This is where we splash out and buy ourselves giant portions of steaks, sausages, morcilla (blood sausuages are very tasty here), chicken etc. etc. All relatively cheap and supremely tasty. It´ll be difficult going back to British meat after this.
Vegetables are not as abundant as back home, we often find peppers and potatoes which are okay, the avocadoes are amazing, but generally the rest are not great.

With all the time in the evening, it´s becoming quite common for Ian to build fires on which we cook the evening meals. Many campsites provide firepits where Ian will be found piling wood as high as possible before emptying a litre of petrol onto it. Ray Mears made TV shows about making fires where he showed us all the blisters he got on his hands when rubbing wood together. He obviously doesn´t need to eat quickly.

For most meals we find ourselves being watched. Dogs appear from nowhere and sit by your side while scratching their fleas. Sometimes they look dreadful and are spared a few morsels. We´ve even seen some with fake limps or closing their eyes to pretend to be blind. They normally get rewarded just for entertaining us.
Other animals join us sometimes but we are more and more aware of the fact that some animals are actually watching us, hoping to eat us, especially when the roads are busy or it´s too far to the next town...

Drinks: -

On the road we will normally just carry water. We restock the bottles often at small streams and rivers. It´s clean and cold.
Any shop passed is normally relieved of a few bottles of Coke.
Other options are Tang, a powder (like sherbert) which when mixed with water gives you a litre of E-numbers in any colour or flavour imaginable.
Or, the local soft drink - Pap. It´s exactly that.

When it comes to evening drinks, Ian likes to try Quilmes a lot to make sure it´s still cold.
It never gets chance to warm up.

So there you go, our diets. We´re very well fed and watered indeed. So far.

The way to chocolate heaven.

2009-02-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

While at the hospital having those little hammers clunked on her knee, Gemma was told she would need 5 days rest. What the doctor forgot to mention was when those five days started.

So in strict mean fashion, Ian ordered Gemma out of her hospital bed and straight back onto the bike.

It sounds mean, almost cruel, but all for good reason. Just a few days away we could be back in Argentina and in a town called Bariloche. This town is famous in South America for being a bit of a party capital (not quite Rio though) but more so because of the main street on which every other shop is a chocolate shop. Chocolate makes Gemma´s very happy.

To get there we had our favourite day riding from Puerto Varas to Ensenada. The 50km road was pretty flat, paved, had a great view of Volcan Osorno and had little cake shops every few kms. They were very yummy. All of them.

At Ensenada we had our first relax sunbathing on a beach. No swimming though, the lake was baltic with freezing water from the volcanoes glaciers. Even Eric and Fat-rat got themselves out for some toasting.

We then pedalled through more road works, some lava fields and lots of rubble to get to Petrohue which was just a port. From here we put the bikes through yet another ferry - hill - ferry mountain crossing. This one called Cruce de Lagos is ultra touristy and normally only for people on organised tours with big shiny buses and huge amounts of cash to pay for the buses. Doing it on a bike is much cheaper but not very easy.

It was on during the hill crossing we made our first big error with border formalities. It was bound to happen somewhere and Chile seemed likely as they don´t signpost many things, or anything. From Peulla, we had cycled nearly 20km of the 26km border when we stopped at a guard-post to check in with the Carabineros. We had thought this was where we would get the exit stamps but much to the amusement of the guys in the cabin, the stamps were done back in Peulla. It seemed the guards did not take pity on us and so we had to cycle most of the way back before hitching a lift for a few kms.

Gemma doing the Timotei advert, they must have started doing hand creams.

Volcan Tronador - Thunder mountain.

The next morning we set off again with stamps in the passports. We guessed that nothing was signposted here because it seemed the crossing is completely designed for the bus tours on which everything is arranged for you.

Another volcano.

The last 6kms of the road is the mountain pass (Paso de Vicent Perez Rosales) and was unpaved gravel with lots of very steep parts. Just these 6kms took nearly 3 hours alone. It was very hard work and the relief of seeing the top is clear to see in Gemmas face.

Woohoo - downhill next!!!

Once at the bottom of the other side we had to take two more ferries and cycle another 25kms to get to Bariloche. It didn´t take long for the tent to go up and for Gem to hunt down the Chocolate shops of Bariloche.

As soon as Ian finds her again, he will get some pictures of happy Gemma and put them on here. Obviously there´s no need to tell you all that we are both well, we have endless chocolate on tap.

Oh and Gemmas knee has mysteriously healed very quickly... helped by the drugs given at the hospital and the chocolate!

The magical mystery tour - Chiloè

2009-01-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

The bikes only just made it to the island of Chiloè. After putting them onto the ferry first, the following 4000 cars, vans and trucks each took it in turn knocking them all over and scraping them up and down the wall. At least they now look well used.

Obviously after a tiring 6 hour ferry ride we were hungry. Ordering the local speciality "curanto" had to be done. A giant bowl filled with pork, chicken, sausages, salmon, potatoes, clams and mussels the size of your hand arrived and was finally finished after a couple of hours. Yummy!

Quellon, the first town was not that great. A bit shabby, with dusty streets and strange smells everywhere. We soon left and cycled to Chonchi which is apparently an old pirates enclave. We soon learned that people in Chiloè don't speak like other Chileans. We found it extremely hard to understand anybody and could only think that their language derived from some sort of secret pirate language years ago. The local people also seemed a lot shorter than anywhere else we´d been so far, we reckoned this was also a pirate thing as they may have let there wooden peg legs wear down too far.

While in Chonchi we managed to find a beach side hotel in which we had the honeymoon suite. Almost perfect, just no TV - oh how we miss little normal things!

All our theories seemed to be very possible when we encountered our first parrots flying around trees on the road to Castro. We arrived here and spent 15 minutes looking around the plaza before deciding to move on - in a bus - off the island to Puerto Montt.

We had cycled to three towns on the island and were quite dissappointed with the place. The people were creepily strange and the funny smells didn't go away. Ian had several showers here so it couldn't have been him.

We decided it would be best to get off the island and spend time in more enjoyable places than wasting time cycling in a place we don't like.

After Chiloè we will be entering the Chilean Lakes district which will be very beautiful - many volcanoes and lakes.

This also meant we could get Gemma to a hospital to get her squidgy knee looked at. After being pushed around on a wheelchair for an hour she made it out with both legs still attached and Ian made it out without being taken away by the police for questioning.

X-rays showed that her knee is perfectly fine and she just needs to eat lots of chocolate to make it better, apparently.

Cycling into a volcanic evacuation zone...

2009-01-22T12:12:00.000-08:00

The couple of days recovery for Gemmas knees was alright. Coihaique, as with other towns along the Careterra Austral, wasn´t up to much. Although it did have 2 giant supermarkets which were frequently visited. We cooked more with big fires. Only because the wood was full of insects and it was better to see them burn than run around in your tent at night.

We bought ourselves ferry tickets from Chaiten to Quellon on the island of Chiloe. These ferries don´t come often following the volcanic eruption and so we did not have time to ride the whole way there. Along with Tim and Kylie (our Aussie stalkers), we managed to find a bus driver crazy enough to have a go at strapping four bikes to his roof, and then negotiate 200km of road works through terrible ripio and bad weather. We also nearly managed to get a place for Stinky - a dog which kind of followed us around town for a couple of days.

The driver dropped us off at Villa Santa Lucia which was a small collection of houses at the junction with the road for Futaleufu - the road most people seem to be taking as it heads back into Argentina and avoids going through Chaiten.

A couple of days cycling later we had entered the outskirts of Parque Pumalin and found ourselves camping at the hotsprings near Amarillo. Around here we found ash all over the floor, all over the roads, all over abandoned houses and cars and there was quite a lot of damage.
We decided to spend 2 nights at the hotsprings as it meant we could stay nice and warm and clean, and more importantly it meant we only had to spend one night in Chaiten.

After leaving our details with the local police we cycled the 30km into Chaiten very quickly. The excitement was great and also it was mainly downhill the whole way.

As soon as we started to enter the town, the devastation of the eruption was clear. Houses were nearly buried, cars were almost completely covered in ash, the southern part of town across the river had all but been destroyed and the place was eerily quiet. A town of 8000 people was deserted except for a few, maybe 100, who decided to stay and continue as normally as possible. A couple of shops remain open and a few hostels also remain. Most other buildings were emptied and left. To top things off, the volcano was still pumping out a load of ash and dust, thankfully being blown in the opposite direction. Although tempted, we thought it might not be appreciated if we ran our fingers across the shelves in the supermarket and tutted.

It was fascinating to see and we are very fortunate to have seen a volcano being so active. At the same time it was sad to see the devastation caused by it and to see people try to continue as if everything was still normal. And people think we´re crazy!

After spending enough time coughing up dust balls and fighting giant horseflies we caught our ferry to Chiloe. That was the end of the Careterra Austral for us. It had been difficult cycling, bad road conditions and steep hills. Hopefully the experience will help us further north. At the very least we know that the bikes can be attached to almost any vehicle with a little rope and they can make it unscathed with a massive amount of luck.

Our next stage is the island of Chiloe and the Lakes district. It promises to be much better in terms of road conditions, frequency of towns, access to shops etc. But the mountains are starting to get bigger as we slowly enter the main Andes and therefore the passes are longer and higher.
We´re not sure if anything can quite top seeing the volcano but things always seem to happen when we´re around...

love to all xxx

Gravel traps, boulders, dust clouds and washboard - bruising a plenty.

2009-01-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

Four days in one small town (Cochrane) was a bit long for us both. We were starting to turn purple and red with our diet of fruit and berries only. In an effort to turn ouselves back to a slowly cooked-human brown colour we took to the road. Within just 2 kms we had been covered in the dust kicked up by a few trucks and so our colour was back. Ahhh.

Cyclists heading the other way had warned us of the road and of a hill just out of Cochrane. We decided to limit ourselves to 50km days. Following the beautifully coloured Rio Baker we arrived in Puerto Bertrand after many more than one hill. This quick stopover place was small but the surrounding area was just perfect. Lots of good camping, loads of good clean, freezing cold water and beautiful mountains all around.

Almost to tempt us into staying longer, Gemma´s chain had a small mishap on the way out of town. A link had broken and was causing problems with the gears. Two hours later the bike was up and running again. We hoped to still make the 50km into Rio Tranquilo that day. Just 20km later we had come across a road sign saying Rio Tranquilo was still 51km away. No problem though, we were very close to a beautiful campsite on the shore of Lago General Carrera where we spent the afternoon munching biscuits, rowing boats, killing flies and having Western style stand-offs with small herds of bulls.

An early start the next day was rewarded with nearly 15km of wonderful compacted road surface. Our bikes were happy and our faces were stretched back with the much-missed speed. This road took us around the shore of the great lake which gave us some amazing views too.

We sill can´t figure out why this particular stretch of road is so good compared to the rest we had encountered on the Careterra Austral. It was over all too soon. The bikes slowed down and our bodies were once again being shaken to bits by the rocks and washboard. X-rays of cyclists round here would probably show powdered vertabrae and mushed up hands and feet.

Gemma´s bike had obviously had enough of all this. While going down a hill the front wheel found a gravel trap and threw Gemma over the handlebars onto the rocks and dust. The truck coming the other way was very luckily still far enough away to give Ian a chance to rush back shift everything off the side of the road in time. Trucks don´t slow down for anything and this one didn´t prove any different.

With bruises on knees, hips, elbows and shoulders, Gemma bravely rode into Rio Tranquilo and headed straight for the empanada shop. Yummy.

Luckily there were no broken limbs but lots of swelling and soreness. An attempt to ride out the next day ended quickly when we discovered the chain we had fixed had broken again. Back in Rio Tranquilo we bought bus tickets to Coihaique to let Gemma rest her beaten body for a few days. The bruises continue to get bigger and darker and the same purpley red colour we were beginning to develop in Cochrane is returning nicely.

It´s not all rest and relaxation here though. We must find a way of getting ourselves and the bikes to the island of Chiloe without being too caught up in the aftermath of Volcano Chaiten. Recent reports of it still smoking and forming new craters are quite exciting. Not the kind of thing to be near if it goes off again though - and with our recent luck it most likely will.

Carettera Austral - Villa O´Higgins to Cochrane

2009-01-05T13:51:00.001-08:00

Following hot showers, good sleep in beds and lots of relaxing with books and tea, we set off for the beginning of our time on the Carettera Austral. We had been told of the lack of wind, which seemed to be true. We had been told of the amazing scenery along the way, which appeared to be true. And we had been told of the lack of any real road, just gravel tracks, which was also true.

Our first day went well despite some rain and hail. We managed a whopping 50kms before retiring to our roadside woodcutters hut for the night. Fortunately the woodcutter wasn´t around so we had a nice spot next to river under a mountain with a huge glacier hanging off the side. Rather nice.

The next day was New Years Eve. No time for partying just yet though, we had another ferry to catch. The road slowly became more rubbly and nobbly and we were faced with our first big pass on this route. Some pushing was involved due to a lack of chocolate and biscuits. Luckily once over the pass and down the other side, the ferry took us to Puerto Yungay. This port was barely 5 buildings big.

One wonderful lady had managed to stuff her little hut full of chocolate, bread, cakes, nuts, sweets, more chocolate and coke. After spending all our remaining cash in her hut we headed off down the beach to start our big New Year party.

Obviously after cycling hard all day we were rather tired. We decided it would be better to celebrate New Year on English time which was 9pm for us. Full of sugar and bread we were snoring and dreaming by 9.06pm.

Our sleep was disturbed all too soon when the ferry staff decided to find us just before midnight. After much shouting they left us briefly. Just enough time to set up a firework display right outside the tent which was nice of them.

With sugar come-downs we woke up and headed for Cochrane. The road again worsened. Some parts looked as though they had just planted mines in the floor, detanated them and then declared it a road. Cyclists who travel here find bruises in places they really shouldn´t be bruised and may never have children.

The scenery along here was absolutely fantastic. Mountains, lakes, waterfalls, tracks through forests, a great feeling of isolation, skunks and hoards of horseflies.

We arrived in Cochrane expecting neon lights, skyscrapers and people. Just cold beer and steak would have been good enough. We managed to arrive just after closing time though. The bank had shut, the shops had shut, the restaurants were shut and the ATM did not accept Visa. Due to the weekend this left us waiting until Monday to be able to change any money. An English couple came to the rescue and changed some US$ for us, enabling us to buy enough food for the weekend. Our hungry tummies were also pleased to find a cherry tree, a raspberry bush, a redcurrant bush and a beer tree next to our tent in the campsite. Yummy.

The weekend is now over, we have once again got Chilean cash and a pannier full of food (chocolate and biscuits). Tomorrow we leave Cochrane and make our way over some hills on reportedly horrendous roads towards Coihaique. This could take us a week so we will be in touch when we get there.

Lots of love, Ian and Gemma.

Ooh.. massive thankyou to all the family who sent us emails from Naomi´s Christmas bash - thanks for the photos - but where are this years head measurements?

An unusual border crossing.

2009-01-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

We had heard about this border crossing from other crazy cyclist nutters back in Newcastle (Richard and Sarah). The route makes its way through 27km of nowhere to a lake (Lago del Desierto). This is crossed by ferry.
Nutters are then subjected to 7km of mud, up a big steep hill where the track isn´t wide enough for the bikes and the panniers. It´s worth a try though isn´t it?
After this you are faced with 15km of downhill rubble track cut into a mountain side with some other obstacles like fallen trees, broken bridges and sand.
After you´ve had your passport stamped in the middle of nowhere you have to cross a second huge lake (Lago O´Higgins) by ferry to reach Chile and the windless paradise of the Carettera Austral. This ferry only goes twice a week, if the driver feels up to it.

We had just two days to make it to the second ferry, otherwise we may be stuck in the middle of nowhere for another 4 days. Our boxing day start didn´t go too well...
We woke up to horrendous wind and rain. Just getting out of Chalten was a struggle involving a quick stop-off in the bread shop for cakes. Mmmm.
The road was terrible too - gravel and loose rocks or boulders. After just 10km, Gemmas rear tyre had gone flat. A friendly Dutch couple were cycling by as we were fixing this in the cold, wind and rain. They were very keen to find out where we were going, where we were from, how far we had cycled etc... Not one for small talk at the best of times, Ian was beginning to fume under his raincoat hood.
Luckily Gemma managed to deal with the guys and a few minutes later we were back under way.
Progress was slowed by the wind which refused to die down completely and when just 5km from the ferry port, Gemmas rear tyre was flat again! With no time to repair the flat, we cycled on, risking damage to the wheel but limped to the ferry just in time to board it safely.

That night we camped by the side of Lago del Desierto and following a tyre change, a tube change and an all round check, Gem´s bike was back to being roadworthy. It´s just a shame that we won´t be riding on good roads for the forseeable future.

The next day we were to tackle the mud and rubble to the next ferry. It was fantastic luck that we arrived the evening before to be met by Ricardo. Ricardo lives in a hut between the two lakes during the summer and helps nutter cyclists by carrying their panniers over the pass with his horses. Obviously we couldn´t refuse such an offer.

Even without the panniers the mud tracks, the fallen trees, the lack of bridges, the swamps, the random dis-used air strips and the scary sheer drops down the mountain side were tough going. Despite all this we did make it to the next ferry without any problems. The ferry however, well, that didn´t show up. We camped by Lago O´Higgins following promises from the border guards that the ferry will arrive the next day.

The ferry did turn up in the morning and our 2.5 hour crossing to Villa O´Higgins began. Two hours later we were parked up next to an island watching several guys abandon the ferry on a dinghy. The boat captain told us we had to wait 4 hours for them to round up sheep. At least we were assured that this was the scenic boat.

Four hours later the shephards returned to the ferry with a couple of dinghy´s full off sheep. We then headed off to Villa O´Higgins and arrived 10 hours after leaving in the morning. Very scenic.

Once in Villa O´Higgins we treat ourselves to a hostel with showers and beds.

Christmas - we made it to El Chalten!

2009-01-05T11:55:00.000-08:00

Firstly, merry Christmas to everyone back home. We hope everybody has a great time without us, but we will understand if you are all miserable and missing us.

We managed to make it to El Chalten. We were rather fortunate for a couple of days of little wind, encouragement from random Dutch people in cars handing out empanadas and coke and random cake shops.

We were however always worried about the turnoff for El Chalten. This turnoff leads to a 90km stretch straight into some of the fiercest winds imaginable.

We certainly weren´t let down.

Just turning the corner was difficult enough and following 500m of wobbling, 3km of pushing and half an hour of road side sitting, we were treated to the familiar "two buses at once" we so commonly get back home.

Bus 1 just waved back and the driver laughed as he scorched past. Bus 2 however was being driven a more sympathetic ´Juan´. This bus took us and the bikes the remaining 86km in just over an hour - saving us a possible 3 days of torture and a quick end to the marriage.

Chalten was fantastic. The camp site was just under the beautiful mountains around Fitz Roy and more importantly there was a great empanada and bread shop nearby.

We met up with old friends once again - Derek from Scotland, Tim and Kylie from Sydney and Kristoff from Germany.

For Christmas day we enjoyed a beautiful BBQ which involved giant steaks, huge sausages, all manner of roast veg and a mushroom cloud probably visible from space. Mine and Tims eyebrows are still growing back. The day also involved beer and axes which is much better than watching the Queens Speech.

We must thank Santa for making special efforts to get the reindeer down the road to Chalten - it must have been tough - they did a fantastic job and helped deliver some great goodies. Christmas isn´t really Christmas unless you get chocolate coins.

During our few days in El Chalten we walked into the mountains a couple of times but the clouds were rather low and so we didn´t see the whole range. The views were still magnificent.

Our Crimbo rest was soon over and following a slow (hungover) start to boxing day, we managed to make our way out to the border crossing to Villa O´Higgins. We have been promised that on the other side (the Carettera Austral) the winds are much less severe. It will be more hilly and possibly rainy but it must be better than the wind.

Routines

2008-12-22T06:29:00.000-08:00

After a month on the road we are noticing our own little routines more and more.
We thought it would be fun to share some of these so you have an insight to our life day by day.

The alarm is normally set for 6am but this doesn´t necessarily mean we´ll be up. Ian normally gets up first - we have to take turns because there´s not enough room in the tent for both of us to swing our limbs around.

Gemma then gets up and rolls up the sleeping mats and clears out the tent. Meanwhile Ian will be making hot porridge for breakfast.
Hygiene can be a problem when cycling. Regular washes with wet-wipes seem to work but Ian´s bellybutton has gone out of control.

The tent comes down and we load the bikes up. This lot can take anywhere from one to two hours.

Early morning cycling is normally fairly quiet as we both slowly wake up. The roads are quiet and the wind isn´t as strong. The bikes tend to feel heavier and more difficult to ride in the morning.

We have started to stop for breaks every 10 miles (16km). Our snacks are any combination of biscuits, nuts, crackers and chocolate.

Lunch is just an extended break. We may sometimes have bread with us and crack out the emergency peanut butter or Dulce de Leche (Gem´s new found fave).
If we are really lucky, in the middle of nowhere, many miles from anywhere, there are random buildings selling empanadas and cakes. These places house cats, dogs (that follow you for miles), chickens, foreign photographers and baby guanacos.

During cycling we are overtaken by many cars, buses and trucks. It is common to see people hanging out of these with cameras to take photos of us. Many of these people may be surprised to see not too happy faces and rude gestures. The reason for this: -

We start to look for somewhere to camp at about 6pm (if we´re not in a town) and cook pasta or rice. Bed time is quite early - between 7 and 9pm - we need lots of rest to do the same again the next day.

If we are lucky enough to arrive in a town in the evening we can indulge ourselves with cake and chocolate, fresh veg, meat and possibly some Quilmes (the local beer). Occassionally we find fajita wraps and make our favourite yummy dinner.

We both find cycling easiest from here: -

Perito Moreno Glacier

2008-12-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

Following a big shop where we prepared for a possible 5 days on the road we headed into the mountains to find a gi-hyoooge glacier. Sounds easy doesn´t it?

Well, 40km (that´s about 25 miles back home) of slogging into the ubiquitous head wind, we had to end our first day at Estancia Cerro Buenos Aires. A lovely place sheltered from the elements by a big mountain behind. Following a chat in broken Spanglish with Jésus we ate and slept well.

Luckily the next days 40km were a breeze as the mountain protected us from the winds. On the way the scenery was spectacular and we were very excited when we got our first glimpse of the enourmous ice-field. We arrived with hopes of putting the tent up, having a bit of a rest and spending the rest of the day there. Unfortunately our map (showing two campsites) was out of date by two years. As was the map we were given by the guards at the entrance - there were no more campsites!

Obviously we wouldn´t let a little thing like being 60km away from the nearest campsite ruin our day. So we headed for the glacier lookouts and spent a few hours listening to the thunderous cracks of ice breaking and watching them splash into the lake. It was nothing short of amazing and beautiful.

After we´d seen this and done that, we had to find shelter. None of the guards were helpful and were quite clear about us having to leave the park. Yeah, right!

A few miles up the road there was a nice hidden spot off the road which was the perfect size for a tent and two bikes. Off we sneaked and hid away for the night. Gemma slept really well after such a long day and I would have had it not been for the giant clump of rubble under my half of the tent. Tsch!

The ride back to Calafate (70km / 45 miles) was great, the wind was very calm and slightly behind us.

The ride was only really finished after being circled by approximately 30 condors and Gemma almost falling off the bike when we passed a gauging station.

Next... on to El Chalten. About 220km (150miles) into reputedly very fierce winds and we have only 6 days until Christmas.

We´ll be in touch when we get there, loads of love to everyone xxx

Other crazies...

2008-12-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Tomas and Celine: - www.argentinavelo.over-blog.com

Jules and Jess: - www.julesandjess.com

Jean and husband (who´s name we forget - sorry): - www.gonewandering.co.uk

Olivier and Caroline: - www.georouteandine.fr

Tim and Kylie: - (last heard of in Punta Arenas - still cycling?)

Torres del Paine

2008-12-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Following the battles with the wind we took a few days "rest", trekking around Torres del Paine. This meant we had to ditch the bikes and the gear in Puerto Natales and hire some rucksacs.

As it turned out it would probably just have been as easy (and less painful) to use plakky carrier bags from Abu-Gosch (big supermarket).

Our aim was to see Glacier Grey, the French Valley and the Towers themselves (at sunrise).

It only took us 5 days to squeeze these in. Why they built all these things so far away from each other is bewildering. Also, the treks were endless miles of up-down, up-down, up-down which Gemma reckons is what happens when walking in mountains. Personally, I came here for the bike ride and was therefore expecting cable-cars at every hill.

The highlights were brilliant, we enjoyed some good clear views on most days until the last morning. Back in Puerto Natales we were assured that the trip would not complete without waking up at 4am to start the 1 hour walk up loose boulders and rocks to sit in the freezing cold surrounded by other shivering folk. The sun came, rising above the mountains behind us, everybody excited about the prospect of seeing the awe-inspiring towers light up in magnificant pink and orange and gold and allsorts of lazers and tooting. Anyway, the cloud up at the top of the mountains made sure that all we saw was lots of scrambling back down the loose boulders and rocks to get back to the bus first. The sunrise was still nice but just not the postcard picture we´d hoped for.

A couple of notable sightings included watching 3 kids chase a rat with a sharp pointy stick and watching a man trying to cut the grass of a field the size of Yorkshire with a strimmer. He apparently started in 1985.

Next we are going to be in El Calafate (back in Argentina) where we will be heading out to see the absolutely massive Perito Moreno Glacier. No waking up at sunrise this time though!

Lots of love Ian and Gem xxx

Penguins!

2008-12-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

We finally got to Isla Magdallena to meet our penguin, Edwina. We think we spotted the right one after one of them came racing over and tried to eat Ians shoelaces, however there were 160,000 of them....

The penguins were amazingly cute and we had a great time over there looking at the babies in the burrows and watching them diving in and out of the sea.

On our last evening in Punta Arenas I dragged Ian to stand in a big queue, we weren´t entirely sure what it was for, but you never know. We stayed in it for as long as Ian would let me (about 10 minutes as he was ready for his dinner). Went back an hour later just as the presidents of Argentina and Chile arrived. We had no idea why they were in Punta Arenas but everyone else was very excited. Except for the poor army band and 100 troops that had been stood for 2 hours doing nothing.

The following day we set off to start cycling to Puerto Natales. We decided it would be a fantastic and fun idea to start cycling at 4am. Which was nice. Fortunately this meant there was no wind and no traffic. We made good progress for a a fair few miles but after a short break the winds arrived. Struggling to cycle at just 5mph was not much fun so we gave up and camped at some abandoned estancia. We had a lovely view over a lake and a friendly fox to entertain us. The following morning was another 4am start and we should have talked about this more quietly. The winds obviously found out and started promptly at 4:01am. It took us 4 hours to cycle 17 miles and then a nother 8 hours to push them a further 10 miles through 100mph winds.

During this torturous time Gemma had decided to go home, to divorce me, to kick the hell out of the bike and to have few tumbles - which made me laugh. I was punished for this by being quite literally thrown off the bike and dumped in a heap on a nice pile of gravel. Gemma laughed back.

After being punished enough we were rescued by "Juan Tres". This lovely man drove us all the way to Puerto Natales in just 2 hours. Saving us about 8 days of pushing, crawling, dragging and cursing.

Having finally arrived in Puerto Natales we have decided not to tackle the wind any more, there is no point. We are now going to spend a week trekking around Torres del Paine and then try to hide our bikes on a couple of buses to get out of here.

Thanks for all the comments!

Lots of love gemma and Ian x

Tierra del Fuego

2008-12-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

After assembling the bikes in Ushuaia and having some good chats with other cyclists at the same campsite, it was time to start this crazy bike ride.

Starting at the "End of the World" seems a strange place to begin but we were really excited.

Excitement can soon turn to despair...

Once fixed, we headed into the first challenge of trip, crossing the Fuegian mountains. The scenery was wonderful and the sun was also shining. However, a second punture forced us to camp just below the first major mountain pass.

We slept through heavy rain and woke up to snow - and a dog in the tent. Reality really hit us. After such bad luck on the first day we were picked up by a random guy driving a really old battered car. We managed to get all the gear and bikes into it before driving off into the snow and through to a gas station. On the way certain parts of the car fell off, luckily all were found.

The next day we had more punctures, it seems the tubes we are using are not cut out for heavy loads. We end up on the back of another truck taking us to Rio Grande where we wait 5 hours to have the bikes sorted out.

From Rio Grande the road to the border was fairly flat but cycling was almost impossible due to strong head winds. However we still managed a respectable 35 miles.

There is nothing to see in the picture because everything has blown in to the sea.
The border crossing at San Sebastian was the most bizzare frontier we´ve encountered. Having slept on a waiting room floor with two French cyclists and two German mountaineers we went through the formalities before heading for Chile. It took us nearly 3 hours to cross the 10 miles of No Mans Land, once again due to the wind. Gemma was nearly blown into a river and possibly all the way to Namibia. Once in Chile it was not possible to continue. After camping for the night we managed to arrange a lift on a bus returning to Punta Arenas. This saved us the likelyhood of 5 - 10 days of camping in nothing with nothing amongst nothing. Why did people ever want to come and live here?

The wind promises to stay with us (or against us!) for another few weeks. Maybe we should have bought this bike in Ushuaia!

We plan to spend the next couple of days relaxing in Punta Arenas. We will finally go to meet Edwina our beloved little penguin on Thursday, so tomorrow we are going shopping for fish.

Love Gem and Ian x

Photos from the first week

2008-11-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

We have managed to find a computer new enough to load up pictures!

Both us and the bikes arrived ok yesterday morning in Ushuaia. Spent yesterday at the campsite putting the bikes back together and checking that it was all working ok. They seemed to have survived all 4 flights with no damage at all.

I´m currently trying to do two things. Find 4000 pounds to go to Antarctica and persuade Ian to come with me! So if anyone had 4k they don´t want we´d love it please.... We´ll have to come back another time but I am checking everyplace just in case there is a last minute bargain.

Ushuaia is a bit odd. Its very beautiful on Tierra Del Fuego surrounded by mountains with amazing views over the Beagle Channel. however not one building seems to be finished and there is a distinct lack of tarmac. But the campsite is nice. So far we´ve spoken to a few of the other happy campers- a couple from Heaton (you can never escape from home!), a swedish cyclist heading north too and an Aussie couple cycling too. We told you all that there were others!!

We should be heading off on the bikes on either Thursday or Friday- although to be honest neither of us know what day it is today!

To everyone that asked about the pics- yes that was me chowing down on a huge steak! There is no way that you can keep away from the meat over here. There has been a couple of occassions that I have tried my luck on vegetarian dishes in menus only to find them stuffed with sliced ham. But now that we are cooking for ourselves I can keep away from some of the meat. Obviously trying to keep Ian away from steaks is like trying to herd cats.

To those water geeks that have asked here´s the info on Iguazu...

Discovered in 1542, there are 250 falls with a width of 2700m, 65m in height and a mean flow of.... 1500cumecs!

SO here´s the first lot of pics... hopefully there will be more following.

Gem and Ian xxx

La Boca, where we nearly got mugged!

Iguazu falls and a Coati (they love bins!)

More of Iguazu!

First Week

2008-11-24T10:27:00.000-08:00

Well we made it here in one piece and we are hoping that the bikes did too!
We´ve had a great week in Buenos Aires so far. Done a lot of wandering around in the sun, managed to have an attempted mugging on day three! Luckily there was no harm done but its made us a little more cautious of aimless wandering in the dodgy areas- maybe we shouldn´t have been there...
On Friday we took the 20 hour overnight bus north to Iguazu. It was amazing and we are hoping to be able to post some pictures on here, once we can get past all the error messages. The falls are incredible and we spent a great two days wandering around taking hundreds of pictures of both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides. Saw lots of odd little animals too- Ian, a little bear thingy called a Coati, tons of butterflies and birds and Vizcacha. no doubt when we got on the bikes Ian will try to catch them for food!

Flying to ushuaia early on Tuesday morning and we´ll make a start on trying to rebuild the bikes, fingers crossed that everything is in one piece and that Ian can remember where all the bits go.

Fingers crossed that the bikes survive another flight and that soon we can get some pictures up here. We´ll keep trying...

Love Gemma and Ian

Wedding

2008-11-05T04:03:00.000-08:00

We managed to get some of the wedding pics stuck on the blog very quickly before we moved out of the flat and cancelled the internet. Here's the words that should have come along with it!

Ian and I had an amazing day and enjoyed every single second of it. We could not have asked for anything to be different or changed. The whole day was prefect from start to finish.

I guess firstly we need to say some BIG thank- you's.
- Thanks to everyone who came- it would not have been the party that it was without you all!!
- Thanks to the parents (Lynn, Sue, Andrew and Pete) and Julie and Alistair for all their support over the past few months. Big thanks to Julie and Alistair for being our witnesses too. Huge thanks to my mum, Lynn (aka Mum-2) and David for getting the Town Hall looking jaw droppingly amazing!
- Thanks Dad (Dad- 2!), for giving me away and your incredible speech and well done for making a good half the room cry! Not even for your dancing!
- Thanks to Katie and Darren for being the best bridesmaid and best man that a bride and groom could ever want. Darren- your speech was fab!
- A MASSIVE thanks to Jed for his services as "official" wedding photographer. We can't wait to see the pics.
- Thanks to Graham for being a great DJ and putting up with our odd music requests. I still think that "Young Hearts Run Free" and "Kung Fu Fighting" should be played at ALL parties. They are disco classics! Also thanks for the unforgettable end to the night. I will never forget looking round to see everyone giving it some on the dance floor to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". It was a surreal but great moment!
- Thanks to Allyson and Matt for all their amazing work on the invitations and place cards. They were super!
-Thanks to my grandparents, Fred and Audrey, for finding the best cheeseboard ever!
- A HUGE thanks to Steven, Joss, Terese and Kirsty who made all the amazing food and let Ian have a free run in choosing and ordering all the food.
- A big thanks to the staff at both Durham Registry office and the Town Hall that made the whole day run without a hitch.

Ian and I had the most amazing day and we are both still smiling now. It was great having so many of our loved ones together for our special day. Thanks to everyone who has sent photos and videos (although some of the dancing ones are quite special!). Its a day that we will just never forget. The ceremony went so well and we were both very emotional, thanks to Dave and Frances for their readings (and to Dave especially for holding it together!).
Our pedicab ride through Durham was amazing and something that I don't think I will ever forget. The meal and the evening reception were brilliant too. Its just a shame that we couldn't have kept dancing for a while longer (not really applicable for the hard core group of us that ended up in Love Shack!).

So really just thanks to everyone who came- it was an amazing day for Ian and I because you were all there to spend it with us! We will never forget it. Thanks for all the messages in the guest book (Mrs Wyemes gets the prize for the best one!), but Alistair, yours made me cry and for all the cards and gifts.

I imagine that the next message will be from Buenos Aires in less than 2 weeks time as we set up for a cracking honeymoon. We will miss everyone- so please do keep in touch!

Lots of love from the new Mr and Mrs Nixon!! xx

PS, we'll try and get some of the comedy dancing video on here when we get a chance!

Wedding photos

2008-11-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

Wedding photos

2008-11-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

Wedding photos

2008-11-02T14:20:00.001-08:00

Wedding photos

2008-11-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Final Countdown - Tour of Northumberland

2008-10-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! Only a month to go until we head off now. As final preparation we both loaded the bikes up with as much stuff as possible and headed out for Northumberland. The plan - to cycle 200 miles in 4 days to get an idea of exactly what we were letting ourselves in for.

Day1: -

Home - Alnmouth (~50 miles)

Barely twenty minutes into the trip and we hit our first major incident. Cycling along the River Tyne we were faced with two men shouting Geordie. Luckily Gemma deciphered the rant as something close to "Help!". Some crazy had managed to land himself in the river floating downstream, heading for Norway, until I sped off shouting after a rusty old tug to come back and rescue the poor chap. Luckily the captain heard the screams and ignored the "cockney" accent. Back he came and saved the drunk who was out for a morning dip.

"Well, this should be an eventful trip" we thought. And off we went, heading for the coast...

Luckily our plans took us along the coast all day so the route was fairly flat. The bikes felt heavy and the speed was slow. Still, it was a nice day and we met a guy outside Asda in Blyth who was more than happy to hold us up with tales of cycling in Germany, during the war. Apparently the bikes were very different in those days.

Here's Gemma going up a hill. Face cracking as she tries to smile.

Just moments later I got chatted up by another bloke with tales of cycling with his mates in Scotland.

2-0 to Ian for number of crazies.

I may get into trouble for this because this is the Cycle Tourers secret Prayer Dance. To be performed three times each day you ride, it ensures tail winds, no punctures and long downhills.

Day 2: -

Alnmouth - Alwinton (~35 miles)

Sadly, the dance didn't save us from poor decisions.Here's a picture of our way across the river. The stepping stones are normally easy to find. Following major floods they become a bit more difficult to navigate.

This led to an even worse choice of following 'Ian's recovery plan' which menat pushing the bikes through extremely steep fields of knee high grass.

It's supposed to be an adventure!

So after a quick chat with some cows, we found the road again and headed off to Alnwick.

Following a spot of lunch we went straight into the hills of Northumberland. The hills were extremely steep and Gemma was quite close to turning back. Fortunately half way up a big climb the mood changed when a white van sped past and some young punk tossed his half eaten jam sandwich right onto my back.

Clearly happy to see me suffer, Gemma pushed on and we made it to Alwinton.

Our hotel was in beautiful surroundings and the food was excellent. However, we stayed in the garden, in the tent.

Day 3: -

Alwinton - Langley-on-Tyne (~40 miles)

Unfotunately, day 3 was met with rain. Lots of rain. We headed south which meant traversing many valleys and so there were many hills. The ride was very beautiful in places but quite uneventful due to the bad weather. Following a very tiring day we were meant with a monstrous climb from the Tyne valley floor up to Langley. Another badly chosen short cut took us through a very muddy, very steep field which meant lots of pushing and mean faces.
Our efforts were well rewarded with a fine meal at The Carts Bog Inn. A beautiful pub with lovely local ales and absolutely delicious food. Our camp for the night was in the beer garden which was a bog. Ah well.

Day 4: -

Langley - Home (~35 miles)

Again, no pictures of this day. Another huge climb out of the Tyne valley into the North Pennines meant we were both very tired. Especially after the huuuge goats cheese and olive sandwiches (from the pub) we had for breakfast. Yummy! Anyway, as soon as we made it to the top, the road back into Gateshead was downhill, along the Derwent Valley path for a good 10 miles. Along the way I was met by a guy screaming in Dutch out of his car window. As he ground to a halt he baffled on while I looked on in bewilderment. Clearly confused, the guy asked if I was English. "Of course", I replied, much to his amazement. "But you are riding Dutch bikes!?".
"Er.. yeah."

3-0 to Ian for crazies.

Overall, the ride was very good for finding out what to expect. Unfortunately the weather was not great but a good test for us. Gemma says she enjoyed it and the flights haven't been cancelled yet, so hopefully she'll still be coming to South America. She even managed to overtake me on two hills. I was distracted by the llamas of course.

Next time we post on here, we'll be there. I can't wait.

Training is a bad idea....

2008-08-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

With six months to go before the big trip it was time to think about getting into some sort of reasonable shape. Luckily, working so close to the great mountain biking country of the northern pennines, it was no great deal to find places to clock up precious hours / miles / scars / insurance costs.

A great friend and crazy cycling buddy (Tristan) had convinced me that taking part in a 5 man team for a 24 hour mountain bike race through Grisedale Forest in the Lake District was good practice for tackling the Andes. Foutunately, said race was six months before our leaving date because just 15 minutes into my first lap I caned it around a loose stone corner and slid off the track. Luckily, the small drop of about 50ft was broken by a collision of helmet vs tree stump.
Bizarrely the whole event has stuck clearly in my memory. As soon as the corner came I realised I was going way too fast and tried to correct my line. My actions may have worked had the track been at least just slightly sticky. It just so happened that my timing followed a two week dry spell and therefore there was lots of loose shale. The front wheel did not grip and the corner passed by...

After being dragged out of the bushes it was clear my shoulder was nowhere near where it was supposed to be. Doctors first guess of 6 weeks out proved to be extremely optimistic.
About 10 weeks of physio and many slow, careful rides later, the practice for Los Andes began.

Another reason to celebrate our big trip.

2008-05-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Some time in March (can't remember the exact day), Gemma foolishly agreed to marry me. We just thought that organising a year long bike adveture wasn't quite enough. So, the big day is all penned in for 31st October 2008 (Halloween ! Woohoo !!) just a fortnight before we're due to fly off. What was once a bit of a jolly trip is now our honeymoon, wahey! Little does she know this is only the start of crazy idea bike trips..

Gemma is obviously very lucky that she's being treated to such luxurious accomodation, food, drinks, clothes and relaxing time. Nothing but the best, eh?!

Nice People

2008-05-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

So far in the course of our preparation for this trip we have met loads of really nice and helpful people.

Andre and the rest of his team at Swiss Air have been fantastic and very helpful in waiving the cost of transporting our bikes to the other side of the world and increasing our luggage allowances. Thank you very much!

Ben Winnard at Cotswold Outdoor has been great at advising on which bits of geeky technical equipment we will need and providing a much appreciated discount! Thanks Ben and we'll send you an extra special postcard from somewhere great.

We would like to recommend both businesses for being utterly fab and if you ever need any camping equipment or flights somewhere we recommend you check them out!!

Practice ride - C2C Workington to Sunderland

2008-02-17T10:47:00.001-08:00

Following the purchase of our spangly new steeds, it was decided that we should go for our first proper bike ride. Off we went, pedalling to the train station.

While standing on the platform we had our first freaky moment. We were approached by a couple who seemed very fascinated with our bikes. It just so happened that Richard and Sarah had not long since returned from a crazy bike ride in South America and they had used the exact same bikes. It was good to know that we weren't the only insane people round here.

Here we are looking for alternative ways of getting to South America.

All we need are really long straws to help us breath as we pedal across the ocean floor.

After deciding it might be more comfortable catching a plane, we begin our bike ride home.

The coast to coast bike ride is approximately 140 miles which would take us three days to complete. Along the way we would encounter the biggest hill in the country and also the highest road. To keep our spirits high we had cheesy smile competitions.

Our map reading skills were terrible. We were supposed to be heading east, back to Newcastle, which is obviously in England. Somewhow, we managed to cycle thousands of miles in completely the wrong direction. Maybe we were so excited we just had to get to South America straight away. Here we found llamas and alpacas. Luckily we managed to find the right map and found our way back to the C2C route.

Gemma had never really done much cycling before this and after finding out she had more than one gear on day two, she tackled the monstrous Hartside hill. Amazingly she made it all the way to the top without hitching a lift from the numerous lorries whizzing past. Maybe it was because she saw the gi-hyooj cake in the cafe at the top.

After Hartside there were many steep hills through the northern pennines. Although none of these hills are as high as some we will tackle in South America, we certainly had our thighs tested. To ease the pain we ate more chocolate and cake at the Crawleyside bank cafe before the last long hill all the way down to the coast at Sunderland.

Finally we reached the end. It suddenly occurred to us both that we didn't live in Sunderland and that we were still miles from home. We might have just cycled across the country but we certainly weren't going to back track. Many thanks to Gemmas mum for coming to rescue us with her lovely warm car.

Satisfied and confident, we figured we didn't need any more training. The bikes went into the spare room and haven't moved since. Maybe we'll have one more ride before we go, especially now we have the worlds bestest tent ever.