More problems posting! Originally written for publishing on April 5th. After 6.5 months of traveling just the two of us, Mark and I are being joined by one of our close friends. We did not actually get a third seat, but instead, Noël packed up her bike and flew in from Colorado to join us for the last month of our trip. Yesterday we met her at the bus station in Mendoza and today we’ll start riding. We are really excited to have some new energy, since we have still been battling the post-dengue lethargy. The last few days of READ MORE
Category: Bike packing
Down with Dengue
See our Strava here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/markandnic See our photos here:https://photos.app.goo.gl/8sK1ryrupSjneZ9BA I did not take much time to blog as we rode through the rest of Bolivia and into Northern Argentina. We were coving lots of kilometers, enjoying the fast riding in the remainder of the altiplano and here in the desert of northern Argentina. Our time in Argentina has offered many luxuries: good camping, some incredible vegetarian restaurants, wine, and espresso. The proliferation of Argentinian beef is certainly impressive (although of course not much a treat for us, though the cheese is much better here). Not only is it on almost READ MORE
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