Hello folks. Well, after driving from our home in Colorado to Southern California and catching an overnight flight from L.A., we finally found ourselves in Auckland on NZ's North Island with boxed bicycles in tow. To backtrack a bit, it was great to see some old friends and neighbors in San Diego, and we really appreciate the hospitality of our friends Dennis and Xu for putting us up for a couple of days while we were there. So, we flew out of L.A. on a Tuesday and somehow arrived in New Zealand after a 13-hr flight on a Thursday. I've done the maths; it checks out, but still seems a little fishy to me. After spending a couple of peaceful days at a small hostel in the agricultural countryside south of the city, we set out ... read more

Hi everyone! I know we promised that you wouldn't have to endure any more travel blogs from us, but we've realized that many of you have no idea where we are these days, so we wanted to fill you in on what we've been up to since early December. And we may keep these blogs going after all, if only for our own enjoyment! Well, our last entry found us in La Paz, Bolivia, where we decided to end the bike ride after clocking up just over 4,100 miles since we started out in Montana last July. We then spent a great few weeks travelling in Bolivia without our 'appendages', as we had affectionately named our trusty steeds by that point. We enjoyed being able to travel around on Bolivian buses (never thought I would use ... read more

Hello folks, from Salta, where Fi and I are taking a few days off and enjoying the city. With about 700,000 residents (all of whom seem to be walking or driving on the narrow streets at any given time), Salta is the most Spanish colonial city in Argentina, with beautifully preserved architecture and well-manicured garden plazas. A lot has happened since our last update, including being awoken in the middle of the night by a minor earthquake; an apocalyptic rain and hail storm that dumped over 4 inches of golfball-size hail chunks within 1 hour, turning the streets into rushing rivers; riding through nearly 500 miles of windswept desert (who knew that Argentina had so much desert!); and a bad day resulting in a trip to the emergency room for me. But we've also experienced some ... read more

Hi everyone, this is Fi, finally getting round to giving Ken a well-deserved break from the blog writing! We've had a pretty adventurous 10 days or so since leaving the pleasant city of Chillan. Some of the highlights include: cycling past the stunning snow-capped volcanoes of the Malalcahuello and Conguillio national reserves; passing through the longest tunnel in South America, which doesn't permit cyclists, resulting in us having to load our bikes and gear into the cramped minivan of a very kind Chilean businessman; an adrenaline-fuelled sprint of some 50 miles along the busy Pan-American highway; and, as always, being overwhelmed by the kindness of complete strangers - one lovely lady caught up with us in the tiny town of Quilleco to gift us a large bottle of water and box of chocolates! We've ridden almost ... read more

We made it to Mexico! Last Wednesday, after 2400 miles and 123,000 vertical feet of total ascent, Fi and I finally crossed the border from Columbus, NM into Palomas, Mexico. Within 5 minutes of rolling into town, we pulled up to a storefront that sells souvenirs and also serves as a bar and restaurant, where a woman working there saw us coming and immediately thrust a beer and margarita into our hands. "You made it from Canada!" she exclaimed. "You deserve a drink, first ones are free!" We didn't have the heart to tell her that we had started out a little south of the US-Canada border, lest we jeopardize our newly awarded free drinks. Our path to Mexico led us south from Silver City, through the sleepy desert town of Hachita, NM, where we met ... read more