“Beautiful, but harsh,” is how a resident of the area described Patagonia this time of year. Indeed we have found that to be true. While we were elated to have arrived in the mountains after a long stretch in the Argentine desert, we knew that the fall weather could spell the end to our cycling. Indeed a storm spell rolled in and set up shop, sleeting and snowing, leading us to our decision to end our trip. We only had a couple hundred kilometers between us and Puerto Montt where we have bought return tickets to fly out May 2, READ MORE
Category: Bike packing
Living the High Life
We climbed up to the Altiplano (the second largest high plateau on earth) a few hundred kilometers south of Cusco in Peru, and have been riding high on the plateau through Bolivia. We have not dropped below 3,600 m for over a week now and have been enjoying the impressive geographical features of this area: lake Titicaca, high alpine desert, impressive views of different nevados and the Salar de Uyuni. The mostly flat terrain has made it possible to put in some longer days. We rode 206 km one day, which is our longest day yet on this tour. We READ MORE
Waiting in Huaraz
I forgot to publish this post! It was originally written February 15th, we have long since passed Huaraz. See our Strava here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/markandnic See our Google photos album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8sK1ryrupSjneZ9BA Despite the title of my last blog post, we are indeed waiting in Huaraz. We arrived well before our tires are expected to show up, hoping that they would arrive early and we might be able to keep moving. No such luck, however, and we are instead expecting to wait for five days for them to arrive. We are a little anxious being off the bike, but excited to take the opportunity READ MORE
Highs and Lows
Peru has quickly become one of our favorite countries. Since we left Huaraz we have enjoyed many more incredible mountain vistas, good ají, met lots of friendly people, and been blown away by some of the best riding we have had on this trip. We have arrived in Cusco, excited to get some new bike parts and enjoy some of the luxuries the tourist city has to offer. While we have been reveling in the beauty of these incredible places, we have had to put in quite a but of effort to meet our physical needs here in the rainy READ MORE
No need to hurry up and wait
See our Strava here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/markandnic See our Google photos album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8sK1ryrupSjneZ9BA *I had trouble loading photos onto this post, so check out the link above for all our most recent photos!* After hours of WhatsApping bike shop owners and searching online for weeks, Mark found a bike shop that was willing to order us tires. We are expecting to show up to the shop well before the tires, so we’re taking it easy on our way to Huaraz, Peru. Our first few days in Peru were challenging: getting eaten by flies, I caught another stomach bug, and we found READ MORE
Funny stories
We are unfortunately sick again. We are very unclear what the culprit is, but some sort of stomach bug or food poisoning took me out for the count last night. I slept only two hours in between the stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. Mark too has been hit with some gastrointestinal distress this morning, and with nothing but a big day of climbing ahead of us on our route, it was an easy decision to take the day off. We stayed at a cyclist specific accommodation last night: a spare room in a housing complex with a clean bathroom, shower, READ MORE
All the way through Ecuador
We crossed through Ecuador in just 8 days, but enjoyed our time there greatly. After an overload of fried food in Colombia, we were happy to find the markets in Ecuador well stocked with delicious fruits and vegetables. We stayed in several hostels with well equipped kitchens, which we took advantage of to cook ourselves some much needed nutritious meals. On top of that, we found the restaurant food, although similar to much of what we have eaten in all of Latin America, to be higher quality than we had seen for the past few months. Rice, beans/lentils, eggs and READ MORE
Code Brown
Despite our best efforts to “really get up and after ‘em, tomorrow,” we have found many more reasons to keep our slow pace as we meander through Colombia. In the last 5 days we probably visited 12 bike shops as we searched for the perfect replacement tire. We have not found our dream tire, and instead decided to carry a spare (an added weight that we are not taking lightly, ha). It’s not exactly inline with our usual packing routine, but it does provide significant peace of mind. Beyond our hunt for tires, we have chosen to trade in some READ MORE
Big Slow Down in Colombia
Our usual pace has taken a serious change here in the northern portion of Columbia. A combination of national holidays, mechanical issues, route choices and sickness, has forced us to change up our normal schedule. We are certainly enjoying ourselves however! The riding has been fun, the food has been great and we have met so many kind and friendly people in the last week! January 1st, Necocli, Columbia: Kilometers ridden: 0 We rung in the new year in the touristy town, lazily drinking coffee while we waited for the bike shops to open the next day. We enjoyed rich READ MORE
Happy New Year from the Other Side of the Darien!
Mark’s Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/markandnic Google Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8sK1ryrupSjneZ9BA Mark and I are in Columbia! We made it from Puerto Carti, Panamá to Necoclí, Columbia by boat over the course of two days. We need to make some repairs to our bike, so we’ll be taking today off while we wait for the bike shops to open. In this post, I’ll write a normal update first and then below share our experience in detail of taking lanchas for other cyclists who might be taking the same trip. Y a la termina es mi esfuerzo cumpurtir esta información en español. We left Puerte READ MORE