Mark and I landed in Albuquerque to be greeted by the warm, dry air and my parents outside of the aptly named Sunport. Noel had flown in on a different flight the day prior, and after a month traveling together, we missed her in the final days getting back to the US. Mark and I were tired from the hours of being on planes and in airports, but we were happy to see my family and start our reintroduction into our social and work lives. Right now we are back in Carbondale, and I am happy to have a few READ MORE
Category: ABQ to Argentina
Not Over Yet
Long days on the bike gives us lots of time to pontificate the meaning of life and entertain one another with dumb what if questions. A classic has been, “what if our bike breaks irreparably?” Would we buy single bikes and continue on? Return home? Continue the trip by backpack/bus? Set up shop in a cool city and take Spanish courses for a few months? Thankfully, we have not ever had to answer that question. Mark has spent countless hours maintaining our bike to keep it runnable, but since we decided to ride a clown bike for seven months through READ MORE
A Change of Pace
We knew that the pace we had settled into after more than 6 months of riding would not make sense to keep when Noël joined us; not only do we make different decisions with another person in the group, but Noël would be just getting acclimated to life on the bike. “This is more of a Mark touring pace,” Mark declared as we settled into the cabaña we rented for the day at 3 pm. We have been using the extra time off the bike to enjoy some wine, coffee, some good cooking and some bad cooking. Mark and I READ MORE
The Tandem Gets a Third Seat
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
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
Fast and Flat in Nicaragua
After pedaling our 100 lb bike up and over impossibly steep hills in Guatemala and El Salvador, we have found ourselves enjoying the break in the mountains more than usual. At my last blog post, I wrote about getting over a bout of food poisoning as we continued from Guatemala into El Salvador. While it was true we were over the vomiting and diarrhea, I was not quite back to 100% when we got back on the bike. I was still getting over the cold I had gotten the week prior, and had not fully recovered my appetite either. The READ MORE
Sick Days in Guatemala
A heads up: now that we’re out of Mexico our regular cell service isn’t working like it used to. The easiest way to contact us is on WhatsApp. You can look up our phone number to contact us there. We had taken a day off in San Cristobal when Mark came down with a little cold. We were glad I hadn’t gotten sick as we rode into Guatemala, but simultaneously worried that he might have gotten dengue since it didn’t seem to be contagious. We rode into Guatemala with two other touring cyclists who we met that morning and then READ MORE
Coffee, not Nescafé
We have arrived in the southernmost state in Mexico, Chiapas, where we have enjoyed trying some of the locally grown coffee and cacao and taking on one of the most challenging climbs of this trip. We spent our final night in Oaxaca with Rodrigo, who must be the most popular Warm Showers host ever (so many people have stayed with him!) and we too enjoyed his company and beautiful family and huge garden to pitch our tent and bathe ourselves. After sharing breakfast with Rodrigo and his wife Lupita, we got back on our bike, rode in heat of the READ MORE
What do you say when someone is walking the United States?
After enjoying the cool air of the high elevation of central Mexico, we have made it to the southern end of the state of Oaxaca. Back at sea level, we are feeling the heat and humidity. We had an incredible stay at a small mezclaría, the brand of which we tried back in Todos Santos. We stayed with a variety of Warm Showers hosts who made us feel welcome in the bike touring community in Mexico. We met some other bike tourers heading to Argentina. We did some super fun mountain riding, winding up and down the volcanic terrain in READ MORE
On the Move and in the Mountains
I have been slow to update my blog the last couple weeks as Mark and I finished up Spanish courses and struggled to get back in the groove of bike touring. Here are links to our photo album and Marks Strava if you’d like to follow along in between posts! Mark’s Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/markandnic Google Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8sK1ryrupSjneZ9BA After finishing our last day of Spanish classes, Mark and I packed up and rode away from Mazatlan and the coast on Tuesday. We were happy to be back on the bike after basically two weeks off (except a few days of riding READ MORE