Travel Blog Posts
Mtn biking, Bolivia styles...
Published: February 8th 2009South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz
February 8th 2009
As we settle into life here in La Paz, we have given up our travelling ways, our camera has become burried somewhere in one of our packs, and our days have been filled with job training and food finding. We almost have a room sorted, as we wait for one of the old guides to leave, as we endure the last round of musical beds, we long for desparately to unpack. We have managed to get out and ride and explore, on tracks so much more adventurous than the World´s most dangerous road, which has been amazing. We have almost become quite use to getting shuttled to the top, as you would never consider the enourmous ride uphill here, and KJ is getting quite use to the full suspension bikes we have been using. The scenery ... read more
Finding Peace in La Paz
Published: January 27th 2009South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz
January 27th 2009
Bus travel is of an extremely different standard to that in Argentina, definately not helped by the state of the roads. Very few roads are sealed here and when the ripio - dirt road - gets too muddy or corregated it appears many drivers just go cross country and make new ones. Unfortuantely we didn't time it ride for the smoother train rides, so bus it was. Villazon to Uyuni, a mere 350km, took 11 hours. We climbed an enormous mountain pass that made us glad we weren't attempting it on bikes, endured another very close electrical storm and then had to wait while the bus driver built up the courage to cross the thick choc milk coloured raging fords. Uyuni was in mad street night market mode when we arived, we found out public transport ... read more
a brave new world....
Published: January 25th 2009South America » Argentina » Jujuy » Quebrada de Humahuaca
January 23rd 2009
We left the heat of Cordoba on Friday night without a hitch along with our bikes after a weeks separation, and arrived in Salta in the cool early morning. Salta was lush and green and old buildings abound. We decided to bus to San Salvador de Jujuy that arvo to begin our ride to avoid the main busy road. After waiting over an hour at the bus depot getting more and more anxious, we realised once again we´d been caught out by the confusing time zone changes here in Argentina. Lucky it wasn´t the other way round! Tropical Jujuy was dark by the time we reached our campsite. We are obviously not used to the much shorter days up this way, and Phil had to replace some broken spokes by the light of a head torch ... read more
January 15th 2009
AAAaaarrgh!!!....just when we thought we had it sorted, we found ourselves up against The Way Things Work Here. 5 minutes before the bus left for Salta we discovered that we couldn´t take the bikes on the bus, despite the assurances from the ticket office. So we watched in despair as the bus pulled away from the terminal without us. We had to arrange for the bikes to travel separately to Cordoba, as far north as it was possible to send cargo from Rio Gallegos. A full refund was not possible, so we transfered our tickets to Argentina´s second largest city to wait for our bikes, which will apparently take 5 days to arrive(!). A very stressful and costly experience, plus very worrying to be separated from our biciclettas. While waiting in Rio Gallegos we met other ... read more
January 10th 2009
El Chalten was a great reintroduction to vibrant Argentina after the sparsly populated southern section of the Carretera Austral. A magnet for climbers and other adventuous travellers, there are few cars on the streets, but tents and backpacks abound. We enjoyed chatting with climbers at the free campground and other cyclists, including the American couple who had a trailer like mine, carrying much more important cargo. They had been cycling for 3 months already, with their now 5 month old daughter fast asleep in the BOB. I (Phil) also ran into a motorcyclist called Doug, a character I met when I was working in Brisbane. Funny really because I only worked there for 5 days. After a couple of days exploring and admiring the many epic peaks, we blew out of town, the wind propelling us ... read more
To the middle of nowhere and beyond
Published: January 5th 2009South America » Chile » Aisén » Carretera Austral
January 5th 2009
2009 began in fine style for us. After seeing in the new year with the family who run the hospedaje, some entertaining yanks and a couple of dutch cyclists in Tortel, we dragged ourselves out of bed after not enough sleep to take a boat through the fiords to join the Carretera Astral further south. We joined Carson, a cyclist from Germany, and together we rode three abreast on roads in much better condition than we were led to believe, safe in the knowledge that the road was ours alone until the next ferry 5 hours later. The temperature was perfect for cycling as the tailwind helped us on our way through a spectacular valley almost untouched by man save for the road flashing by beneath our wheels. Cycle thouring heaven! Just when we were thinking ... read more
December 29th 2008
After 3 days of feasting in Coyhaique we departed feeling rejuvenated with bulging panniers filled with our xmas treats. We left with a howling tail wind and almost sunshine. Just before we left town we popped into the ´Aysen - Reserva de vida´ information centre, to learn more about the ´SIN REPRESA´battle, and were lucky enough to find a very passionate American woman to answer all our questions in english. It´s such a emotive topic with the locals of Patagonia we have had many lengthy conversations about the dams but alas in Spanish and we were struggling to peice it all together. Chile lost ownership of it´s water rights when Pinochet had power, and now multinational companies plan to dam many remote and untouched rivers, including the captivating Rio Baker, a river we followed from it´s ... read more
christmas rewards....
Published: December 27th 2008South America » Chile » Aisén » Carretera Austral
December 27th 2008
Just a few photos, we might sort out a few words shortly. We are in the wee town of Cochrane, after some wonderful diverse days of riding and are keen to have our rest day at a interesting sounding isolated refugio down the road. So next town Totel - the town with no roads, well up until they went and built a road for us to cycle in on. On second thought only two photos, its painfully slow! We´ll do better next time promise. Christmas was great and all is good. Better hit the road.... read more
don´t expect much, you´ll be impressed
Published: December 21st 2008South America » Chile » Aisén » Carretera AustralDecember 21st 2008
When we first arrived in Chile 10 days ago, we were perhaps a little dissapointed as our expectations didn´t reconcile with what we found in Futeleufu. With our pantry almost empty we hoped to restock with food and fuel, but found shops to be few, small and with limited supplies. We talked with some Americans who were faced with the prospect of a 150km drive to the nearest petrol station on a near empty tank. Days later and still not with much in the way of maps and food, we met a British cyclist heading in the opposite direction. When we mentioned that we found the Chileans to be more reserved than the outgoing and friendly Argentinos he replied "yeah, they´re all c**ts down there" and all the towns were s**tholes. Armed with this knowledge we ... read more
December 17th 2008
Well we obviously jinxed our vegetarian luck, with proclaiming our vegetarian sucess. That very night we had "lenteje and tocino" soup according to the picture filled with lots of veges, we found out afterwards tocino is pork fat! And it´s continued on that way as we blindly select foods from stalls and restaurants. Oh well! Waking up in a saturated tent and putting on yesterday´s soggy clothes, in order to ride another 60km´s of muddy roads in relentless rain isn´t a particularly enthusiasm enhancing experience. Things aren´t too bad once moving, but this sort of weather isn´t conducive to the long leisurely lunch breaks we have become accustomed to. Riding up a steep and rough hill, for 10km´s in the driving rain and glacial winds might not be the high point of our trip, but the ... read more
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