Two Wheel Tiki Tour

Hasta Luego Sud America

2010-10-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

Our Argentine friend, Agustin who is based in Buenos Aires, generously invited us to stay in his apartment for the rest of our time in South America. So a couple of nights turned into a couple of weeks which was brilliant. Agustin’s apartment is in one of the better areas of the city and very handy to the subway into the city center.

Downtown Buenos Aires had a number of impressive old buildings. We spent time exploring the bustling pedestrian only avenues that were lined with many of these old buildings and their shops on the lower levels.

La Casa Rosada (the pink house) - the President's office

A trip to Buenos Aires would not be complete without viewing some tango. We headed to a well known area called La Boca, home of Maridona’s Boca Juniors. It was a public holiday so there were a number of tango dancers performing on the streets entertaining the crowds.

Street tango performance

Relaxing in La Boca

We had a couple of other mates to catch up with who both live in Agustin’s home town of Mar del Plata which is about 400km south of Buenos Aires. We headed down to Mar del Plata for a weekend with Agustin to catch up with Javier and Fransico.

Mar del Plata is a coastal city and a popular summer destination for Argentines. As it was still late winter the beaches were relatively empty but we took the opportunity to dip our feet in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. We also enjoyed some incredible seafood at a local restaurant followed by a great boat cruise that, with the help of Agustin’s friend, we were able to stowaway on.

Mar del Plata

Taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean

Seafood Pialla for lunch

Upon returning to Buenos Aires we only had a few more days to fill in until our flight home. After almost six months of travelling light with very little room for extras we spent a bit of time shopping and exploring more of the parks and buildings of city.

Professional dog walker in action

As a small token of our thanks to Agustin for having us to stay we booked a table at a highly recommended restaurant called La Cabrera. We had one of the best meals of our trip here, some incredible steak which came with a countless assortment of side dishes. It was a great note to finish on.

Last meal in South America

In the end our trip was better than we could have imagined. Travelling by bike made it a truly unique experience and took us to some places well off the beaten track. The effort it took to get to these places made them all the more rewarding. The last month was also great when we kicked our feet up and travelled by bus to places we did not have the time to ride to.

Hopefully that is just part one of our South America travels, there is so much more to see and do. But for now, it's back to work...

2010-08-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

Three weeks have flown by since we posted our last blog! With no more riding, our bodies did feel a bit strange for a while, and the change in our usual day took a bit of getting used to. With Phoebe and Nico we decided to leave the city of Cordoba for awhile and explore the surrounding areas. We tried to leave Cordoba by bus to get to a small village, La Cumbrecita, but arrived at the bus terminal to find nobody around, and soon learnt that all bus drivers were on strike over a pay dispute. So after a surprisingly cheap taxi ride, we at least made it to the next small town of Alta Gracia.

Alta Gracia is the childhood town of Che Guevara, and they have a really interesting museum in his old homestead.

The "Motorcycle Diaries" motorcycle

The next day, the buses where running again and we stopped in an old German settlement, Villa General Belgrano, in the middle of their annual chocolate festival! Awesome timing! Although it was getting a bit cooler, we all had our camping gear, and wanted to use it. We set up at the campground and found we were the only ones in tents, the rest were in big trucks decked out for camping. There seem to be a lot of Europeans driving around South America in big 4 wheel drive camp trucks, and we spotted one that had passed us on the bikes a couple of weeks earlier.

Another day and a small bus ride took us to the edge of La Cumbrecita. This town is pedestrian only for most of the day, and you are only allowed to drive a car between certain hours in the early morning and evening. We had thought of camping originally but it had snowed a week earlier and there was still snow on the ground. It was such a cute relaxing place, with many trails to walk or run, so we decided to stay almost a week! The four of us found a nice warm Cabana, with a kitchen and good heating and a view of the town, so we made it home for 5 nights. We were lucky to find a place to stay, as the month of July and part of August is holiday time for Argentines.

View from our house

Our walking friend

Phoebe and Nico

5 litre botella of vino tinto

Next stop was another small town, La Cumbre. We camped again, but this time, it was really getting too cold, so on the last night here, we warmed ourselves with a nice meal out and the help of the campground owners bar. There did not seem to be too much to do in this town, so after a couple of days we had walked all over, including up to the biggest statue of Jesus we had ever seen. Too cold to continue camping, we returned to Cordoba, and said goodbye to Phoebe and Nico as they were continuing on north. It has been awesome to be able to hang out with such good friends from NZ, in the middle of Northern Argentina. Feliz Viajes Phoebe and Nico!

Now it was just the two of us again, we had to get a few chores done, like find boxes to pack the bike up. Easily done in NZ, but in Argentina no one seems to keep boxes, as men with horse and cart come around collecting them for recycling. We filled in another couple of days in Cordoba, and had a nice meal cooked for us at the hostal by an older Colombian gentleman who had been staying there the same time as us. He had just retired and was circumnavigating South America by motorbike over 3 years.

The next stop was the capital city, Buenos Aires. We have 3 amigos from Argentina, who we met while working on a ski field in the States a few years ago. Agustin is now living in Buenos Aires, so we arrived to meet him and had the pleasure of staying with him in his apartment in the Palermo area. Buenos Aires is an impressive city, with so many places to wander and explore. We had a couple of days there before heading up to see the famous Iguazu Falls. But we will be back in Buenos Aires to explore and soak up the atmosphere!

Iguazu Falls are amazing. The bus ride from Buenos Aires was 17 hours but everything we had heard about the overnight buses was true. Great big seats, full cama, so easy enough to sleep on, dinner, wine, movies. We arrived in Puerto Iguazu to hot humid weather, and had the afternoon planning what we where going to do, which wasn’t hard, as all you have to do is catch a bus to the falls. A short walk from town takes you to the triple frontier of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, all separated by river.

The water falls are spectacular, there is an incredible amount of water, and it is hard to describe the atmosphere in words. The ‘Devils Throat’ is the main water fall, we managed to time our day well, and were amongst the first few people at the lookout point in the morning. Later in the day we returned to the same place, and the platform was chocka block full of people. There are enough trails and waterfalls to keep you there all day, and some interesting wildlife and birds. We will let the photos explain themselves.

Garganta del Diablo (Devils Throat)

Now we are back in Buenos Aires, and will have the chance to explore the city as we count down the final 2 weeks left of our travels!

Final days of cycling

2010-07-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

From Salta we planned to ride to the Northern Argentina town of Cafayate, a well known wine region. Once again we were greeted with a cool morning but a clear sky and the day quickly heated up as we left Salta. The first day of riding from Salta was the warmest we had experienced in weeks. After 70km we saw a sign indicating a camp ground next to a lake. We headed town a dirt road for a few km’s and found a great spot on the waterfront to spend the night. The facilities were very basic but the cheap beer and incredible sunset made up for that.

The third and final day of riding to Cafayate was one of the best days in terms of scenery we have had on our trip so far. The road continued to gradually climb but now the rocks around us took on incredible colours and formations. There were many tourists along this route although the traffic was never too busy.

"The Devils Throat"

We had a great tail wind for most of the day until the final 10kms when it changed direction and intensified. As a result we ended up being slammed by a sand storm just before Cafayate. It delayed our arrival but eventually made it to the central Plaza in one piece.

Sand storm

Some friendly French people directed us to the only budget hostal in town that allowed camping out back underneath the grape vines. We had five nights there relaxing and exploring some of the surrounding vineyards. The Germans met up with us again here after surviving the rest of their trip across the Salar de Uyuni and the Atacama desert of Chile.

Camping amongst the vines

Green parrots lining the vineyard

From Cafayate we rode with the Germans for a couple more days to Tafi del Valle. This was another very nice little town still high up in the mountains. On the way we had the last hill of our journey to conquer. After 32km of climbing and 3.5hrs later we coasted the rest of the way down to Tafi del Valle in time to watch the world cup final.

Rest stop on the final climb of our trip

The next day was always planned as a rest day for Ben’s birthday. As luck would have it the weather was absolutely horrible that day, wet and freezing cold. Terrible riding weather but great for sitting next to a fireplace and doing very little. That night we had an interesting birthday dinner at a very popular parrilla (bbq) restaurant. We were served a mountain of various meats including pork, lamb, chicken, liver and intestines!

Intestines and liver

From Tafi del Valle we only had three more days of cycling left on our trip before we planned to stop cycling. Thankfully the bad weather had passed by the morning and we headed off on the bikes again. We started at 2000m and 50km of downhill later we were 1600m lower on the plains of Argentina.

"End of the world"

A highlight of the final few days was a campground we stayed at near at the thermal town of Termas del Hondo. It had a large swimming pool filled with the 40 degree thermal water. Low lights were the headwinds (something we had very little of in the trip so far) on the last day to Santiago del Estero combined with an incredibly busy road with no shoulder to ride on which we had to escape by taking a 20km dirt/sand road that was only marginally ridable.

Terrible side road on our last day

Everyone had mixed emotions finishing on the last day of riding. It was one of the most challenging rides so we were stoked to get to the end although a bit disappointed that the biking was now finished for the trip. Having never been cycle touring prior to this trip we had no idea what to expect. It was definitely an adventure and better than either of us could have imagined. There were times when we wondered what the hell we were doing but so many more times when travelling by bike was unreal.

The rest of our trip will be via bus and train. We caught a bus to Cordoba where our friends Phoebe and Nico from NZ met up with us. We had our last couple of days with Carmen and Renate before saying goodbye as they were finishing their trip and heading back to Germany.

Our plans are very vague but at this stage but we will explore some of Cordoba's surrounding towns with Phoebe and Nico for the next little while. We have one month left in South America and plenty of things to do in that time.

Bolivia ends, Argentina begins...

2010-07-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

We had our last complimentary pancake breakfast in the hostal in La Paz, and made our way to the bus terminal. We had planned to skip most of Bolivia’s roads between La Paz and Uyuni to save time, and avoid the painfully long gravel stretch. After 3 hours we arrived in Oruro to board the train for Uyuni. The daylight section of the train ride was great, we passed several small salty lakes, full of pink flamingos, and watched the sun from the train window. We made it to Uyuni at 10.30pm and disembarked to find ourselves in the freezing cold.

We spent a day looking around Uyuni and planning our mission out onto the Salar de Uyuni with Carman and Renate, who arrived there the same day. We had some awesome pizza for dinner, possibly the best so far, especially the spicy llama, mm mmmm.

The ride towards the Salar was bumpy and sandy, but thankfully only 25km. Then, the salt! The salares in Bolivia are the result of a huge dried up salt lake at 3653m altitude, which back in the day apparently covered most of southwest Bolivia. We rode about 30km out onto the Salar, surrounded by bright white. The salt is quite rough in places and forms large pentagon shapes on the surface. There are a few holes in the surface, and water underneath.

Renate, us and Carmen

The beginning of the Salar is a bit of a highway, with jeep after jeep of tourists heading out on the popular 3 day tour. The four of us veered off the main tracks later in the day to find a spot to camp for the night. After setting up camp, we had dinner and red wine while watching the beautiful sunset over the Salar. After the sunsets here, it gets really cold, really quickly. Some other German cycle tourists we met on our way to La Paz had stayed a month earlier on the Salar and recorded -15 degrees during the night. The morning was perhaps the coldest of all, but we managed hot porridge and coffee, while wrapped up in blankets until the sun warmed us up. Our friends then left, heading towards Chile, and we cycled back to Uyuni.

From Uyuni we caught the overnight train to the border town of Villazon. From the train station we set the bikes up and cycled across the border into Argentina in the freezing cold at 8am. After finding breakfast and stocking up on camping supplies we rode to our first camp spot in Argentina on one side of unused train tracks, well hidden from the road. The next day we had to get to a town to watch the All Whites play Paraguay, and found a television just as the game started. The next camp spot is worth a mention, as it was beautiful and sunny when we arrived, well hidden from the road, and in view of the sunset. Although because we were still at a bit over 3500m altitude, it got really cold, and we woke to find frost on our sleeping bags and on the inside on the tent, and a frozen contact lense! That was hopefully the last of that, as from there we made about 1000m descent through changing surroundings and past hundreds of tall cacti, to a town with a camp ground! A day off in Tilcara was relaxing, warm and sunny. A cute wee town, although a bit of a tourist hub and so a bit expensive.

Freezing cold border crossing into Argentina

Campspot next to unused rail tracks

Huge cacti

Lunch break in El Carmen

Breakfast with the dog that guarded our tent at night

We arrived in the first Argentine city, Jujuy, to find no cars on the road and most shops closed. We soon found Argentina had beaten Mexico in the football, and after the game, the streets exploded with partying Argentines. From Jujuy we rode and camped for another couple of days. This ride took us over rolling hills, through beautiful forest and past lakes. There is a lot more green vegetation around, a sign we are definitely off the altiplano and back to a reasonable altitude, although still a bit over 2000m.

Beautiful roads through forest

One of a few lakes

As we rode into Salta, quite a big city of half million people, we passed beautiful big houses on big sections with gardens, trees and grass. This is something we have not seen in Peru or Bolivia. The roads are good, the streets are really clean, there are malls and boutique shops and plenty of restaurants and cafes. The city has several plazas, with well looked after impressive historical buildings, monuments and statues. Today we explored one of he many museums, the main attraction at this one being the mummified children. In 1999, three frozen mummified children, from the Inca period, were found on the summit of a nearby volcano at 6700m. These children were sacrificed to the gods in Inca times surrounded with other sacrificial items including gold llama figurines, as part of religious rituals that took place on the top of significant mountains.

Plaza

We decided to stay in Salta relaxing and exploring until after Argentina played Germany, and have had a nice relaxing time. We watched the football while having our first Argentine barbeque with a bunch of people at the hostal. Unfortunately Argentina lost and the mood in Salta is evident of this. But it is a beautiful place, and would easily be able to spend more time here. But, tomorrow we start our ride towards the wine region of Cafayate…

Adventures Around La Paz

2010-06-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

As planned we had one night in La Paz before catching a local mini van to Sorata. The hostal in La Paz was great as we could leave our bikes and unwanted bags there free of charge. We had heard really good things about the mountain biking in Sorata so we were both keen to get there. After a 3 hour drive with a very long and windy final descent into Sorata we immediately bumped into our German friends who had arrived a day before. They recommended a great hostal that had no vacancies the night before for them but fortunately for us we were able to secure a room for the next few days.

Views of Sorata from hostal roof

We had a day exploring the town, the landscape was totally different from the last few weeks, warmer and greener, as we were now 1500m lower than the altiplano region. On a clear day the town has great views of two nearby +6300m peaks. We also managed to book a ride with a local mountain bike company for the next day.

The mountain biking in Sorata definitely lived up to its reputation. We did two incredible runs in the surrounding hills, the majority of which was on hand built single track trails with some scree slopes and old farms tracks thrown in the mix. Both runs had approximately 2000 vertical meters of descent each. The full suspension downhill bikes were a nice change from our touring machines although all four people in our group managed to loose control of them at least once!

Unloading bikes at 4700m

Leanne at the start of the descent

Top of 2nd run

Scree slope

Leanne on the scree

Ben hoping this is covered by travel insurance

After a couple days recovering from the downhill expedition it was time to get back to La Paz. We had a couple of kiwi mates returning from the jungle so we caught up with them over some of the hostal’s brilliant home brew. A very last minute decision was also made that night to tag along with the German girls on a three day trek starting the next day.

Slightly worse for wear we meet up with the Germans the next morning and headed off to do the Takesi trail. Our attempts at finding a local bus to the start of the trial failed but we found a taxi driver willing to make the 1.5hr trip out of La Paz for a good price, his poor station wagon bottomed out a number of times on the very rough road but he did not seem too concerned.

Road to start of Tekesi trail

Heading towards the pass

View from summit

The trail climbed up to a 4500m pass before dropping 3000m over the next 2 days to the tropical Yungas valley below . Again the Bolivian scenery was awesome and the weather couldn’t have been much better for us. The first day was spent ascending to the pass then descending on an ancient inca path to a camp spot next to a river in the valley below. We were momentarily in the mist with the llamas and sheep but that disappeared by the time we reached camp.

Entering the fog with the llamas and sheep

Local village

Camp spot

Day two we continued walking down passing a couple of villages, a precarious river crossing and an aqua duct before arriving in a town with a hostal. The final day was a couple of hours walk to the ’main’ road where we waved down a bus headed back to La Paz. We all soon realised looking out the window was not such a good idea as the narrow, one lane dirt road, weaved up the valley with the drop to the side dramatically increasing in size every minute.

Everyone’s legs were destroyed from walking downhill with packs on as opposed to coasting down on bikes so the next day or two were spent relaxing in La Paz. Once the pain had dissipated I (Ben) was keen to hit up some of the mountain bike trails around La Paz. The guide who took us in Sorata recommended getting in touch with a local Bolivian who knows all the best downhill tracks and was someone he described as a very good rider. I meet up with Mauricio the next day and soon found out he was not just a very good rider but one of the best in South America and races on the mountain bike downhill world cup circuit! I had an awesome day riding with him trying my best to stay on his tail but inevitably losing sight of him until he waited up for me.

More mountain biking in La Paz

Sunset over La Paz

Staying in a very touristy hostal it seemed everyone who visited La Paz was either raving about having ridden down the “World’s Most Dangerous Road” or couldn‘t stop talking about how nervous they were because they were about to. We wanted to see what all the hype was about and figured since we already had our touring bikes in La Paz we could give it a go on them and save a bit of money by doing it ourselves.

So early one morning we waved down a station wagon taxi who was more the happy to throw our bikes in the back and drive us to the start of the ride about 45min uphill out of La Paz. We felt a bit cheeky getting dropped off next to at least 5 tour operators and 50 punters.

Initially we had a freezing cold 20km tarseal descent before stopping at a toll gate to buy tickets for the world’s most dangerous road. After a short climb it was onto the famous off road downhill. The scenery was spectacular, the road was narrow at times, there were some big drops off the side but to go off the edge you would have to seriously stuff up. Leanne and I rattled our way down on our touring bikes as groups speed past on nice full suspension downhill rigs. Although, it was satisfying beating most of the groups to the bottom as they all had to stop for their slower less experiences riders.

Start of "The World's Most Dangerous Road"

The valley below was stinking hot as we have dropped from 4700m to 1200m. There was an 8km uphill option to the town of Coroico where buses back to La Paz depart from. Being so hot we took a chance and followed the river downhill for another 6km to another town. As luck would have it a bus was making a toilet stop for its passengers, they had a couple of spare seats and room below for our bikes so we jumped on board for the 3 hour trip back to La Paz on the ’new’ road. We both agreed someone has done a fantastic job marketing the ride as a “must do” in Bolivia. It is nice to say we have ridden the world’s most dangerous road but in terms of “real” mountain biking it has nothing on the Sorata or La Paz trails, having said that, it is still a ride we would recommend for the scenery even if you had no off road experience at all.

Having spent at least 5 days longer in La Paz than we expected it is now time to leave. We have a bus booked heading 3 hours south to Oruro where we then board a train heading 6 hours further south to Uyuni. Uyuni is one of the gateway towns to the Solar de Uyuni (salt flats). Our plan to ride out and camp for a night. We’ll see if that is possible once we get there and no doubt our next blog will explain how we got on…

Cusco to La Paz

2010-06-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

After what turned out to be 2 and half weeks off the bikes, we rode out of Cusco. The plan from here was to ride to Puno, on the edge of Lake Titicaca and then on to Bolivia.

We had a nice dinner in Cusco before leaving as it was my birthday the next day, and we didn’t like out chances of finding anything other than chicken for dinner in the next town of Urcos. We rolled toward the outskirts of Cusco for about 40min before my front brake cable snapped, and not wanting to turn around we decided to try our luck at finding a bike shop on the edge of Cusco. No, we didn’t have a spare brake cable, as we had already used that up in Ecuador. So, thankfully we found a bike shop within 10 min of breaking the cable, a bit of a relief as the next few towns were pretty small.

Local bike shop

With that sorted we continued on to Urcos, a very small town. The main feature seemed to be the lake with a fountain in the middle and swan shaped boats floating around, interesting. And of course we had chicken for dinner!

Peruvian strong man

The next day we slowly climbed towards the altiplano, very gradual and pretty easy going with a nice tailwind. We stopped for lunch, chicken again, and met a French cycle tourist heading in the opposite direction. Over lunch we exchanged information and stories and continued on. While we had been enjoying tailwinds, this poor guy had been riding into headwinds for the past few days. We got to the next town a few hours later, just in time for Ben to get really sick. It had to have been the chicken, so with that we had a day off in Sicuani for him to recover.

Tail winds

As we rode out of Sicuani we noticed a shape ahead that looked like a cycle tourist. Sure enough it was, and we caught up to him. Unai was riding with another cyclist up ahead, Thomas. They had met each other in Trujillo at the Casa de Ciclista, and had been riding together since then. We were all heading to the same place so rode together for the next two days until we got to Puno.

We had a big 110km day to Ayaviri, with a gradual up hill over 40km to a pass at 4338m altitude. The best part was, we had a tailwind the whole day, and a huge gradual downhill as we continued on to Ayaviri.

The original plan was to ride to Puno over 2 more days from here, but as we hit the road, and got the tailwind again, we all decided to push on to Puno. This would turn out to be our biggest day yet, and probably of our whole trip, 145km. The ride was beautiful along the sparse altiplano, brilliant weather, many small farms and friendly people. Although, we had to keep our wits about us with crazy overtaking vehicles in the oncoming traffic, running us off the road a few times.

Altiplano

Local kids on the way to school

We will not forget the numerous dogs that decided to chase us several times a day, but thanks to the tailwind and flat road we could get away. Dogs can not run fast for too long, thankfully, but the sprints left us a bit out of breath at this altitude. So, the day was awesome, until the last 5-10km where we hit the one and only hill into Puno and got caught by thunder, lightening, rain and hail all at the same time! We got to Puno freezing and soaked to the bone, but had a few days off to relax and recover.

Storm approaching

Puno is on the edge of Lake Titicaca, and close to the Bolivian border. It is quite a big place but not much to do except visit the reed islands. We just relaxed, wandered around and found good coffee.

Puno

Our German friends Renate and Carmen arrived after a couple of days and we planned to ride to Bolivia with them. After a couple more days in Puno, we were all glad to leave and get on the bikes again. We rode to Juli, a really friendly little town further around Lake Titicaca, for our last night in Peru! Again the riding was beautiful and the people in the small villages on the altiplano are really nice and friendly. Peru has been an amazing experience, the vast contrast of this country, the people and the landscape is something we will never forget.

We had a relaxing ride for our last day in Peru, taking in the sights of the lake along the way. The destination for the day was Copacobana, Bolivia. The border crossing was easy and peaceful, the policemen friendly and interested in our travels, he even asked as to pose in a photo with him.

Boarder crossing to Bolivia

We had a day off in the relaxing little town of Copacobana, on the edge of Lake Titicaca. This place is the nicest lakeside town we have stayed in, and so cheap! Welcome to Bolivia! We sat in the afternoon having a beer at a café and realised we were listening to NZ music, after asking the barman about it he rattled off 5 or 6 NZ bands. We stayed a little longer at this café, it was so nice to sit and listen to some homely music, and relax in the sun.

From Copacobana we rode for two days to reach La Paz. Copacobana to another small lakeside town called Huatajata was probably the most beautiful ride we have had so far in South America. We climbed a bit over 10km out of Copacobana, and crossed the peninsula where we had to ferry across a small section of the lake.

The views of the lake and the mountains where unbelievable, we will let the photos speak for themselves.

As well as this the road was new and smooth, with very little traffic. By the time we made it to Huatajata, we had seen a total of 6 other cycle tourists heading in the opposite direction, again into a headwind.

As we rode the final day into La Paz, Carmen and Renate turned of to head to Sorata. We will see them again in a few days. La Paz is a city with 1.5 million people, and as we got closer to the edge of the city we passed through a part called el Alto where the traffic was thicker and the streets dirty and poor. At the edge of El Alto we could see the city of La Paz, deep in a valley below. To get down into it we took the auto pista, the equivalent of a motorway, for 10km of downhill. It felt a bit strange to be riding on a motorway, and we did see one ‘no cycling’ sign, but had been assured this was the best way to go. We safely made it to our New Zealand owned hostal in La Paz, with its own home brewed beer, good food, delicious chocolate brownie, wifi, and really hot water…luxury.

Road to La Paz

From here we plan to leave our bikes and take a bus back to Sorata to hopefully do some mountain biking, then return to the same hostal and explore La Paz for a while.

Cusco and Machu Picchu

2010-05-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

We left Hauraz at 10pm on board our first overnight bus ride. Being late we both fell asleep within half an hour and 8 hours later we woke up already entering Lima. After a painfully slow 9 hour transit at the bus terminal it was time to board the bus for Cusco. This was a 20 hour bus ride back up into the mountains from the coast. The bus was a double decker and we had front row seats on level two which was great, although at times nerve racking as we could see the chaos of South American roads unfolding in front of us.

View from front row of bus

We arrived in Cusco feeling very jaded. Fortunately the bikes survived the rough treatment from the bus luggage handlers and we loaded them up and headed into the city with 1 hour to find a hostal before night fall.

Cusco is another picturesque, ancient South American city. What immediately struck us was the number of tourists swarming the streets. This is by far the most ‘touristy’ city we’ve visited, so therefore prices are inflated for everything and the streets are lined with incredibly annoying street vendors selling anything from sunglasses to massages.

Plaza de Armas - Cusco

It took a couple of days to recover from the bus ride before we were ready to make our way to the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. There were countless agencies in Cusco selling packages to Machu Picchu but on the recommendation of a friend we decided to make our own way there at a fraction of the cost. It turned out to be quite the adventure. It took 14 hours but after 2 buses, 2 taxis, a flying fox and a 3.5 hour walk along some train tracks in the dark (with a group of other cheapskates we met along the way) we made it to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu.

Very budget bus - dogs & chickens welcomed aboard

Not the widest of roads

Flying fox - awesome!

3.5 hr walk along the train tracks

The next morning we were up by 4am and climbing the hill to the entrance of Machu Picchu in time for sunrise. We were some of the first people inside and captured some rare photos of the incredible ruins before all those who caught the buses up the road flooded in. The ruins were truly spectacular and we spent the day exploring them until our legs could not take anymore walking.

Our return trip to Cusco was by the ‘normal’ train route. The train used to run all the way to Cusco but due to rain storms earlier this year the tracks are still under repair after some sections were washed into the river. The train currently only goes about one third of the way back then the rest is covered by bus. We were back in Cusco in less than half the time of getting there albeit at over three times the cost. The money saved getting to Machu Picchu was put to good use that night catching up with a group of seven kiwi mates and experiencing some Cusco nightlife.

We have had a few more days cruising around Cusco visiting the local markets but after a couple of weeks break from the bikes we are both eager to get back on the road. Tomorrow will start riding towards the Peru/Bolivian boarder taking in the sights around Lake Titicaca along the way.

10 Days in Huaraz, Peru

2010-05-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

View from hostal roof

After a couple of days in Caraz we rode the final 75km to Huaraz. By this time another cyclist we had met in Trujillo, Enrique, had also made it to Caraz and we rode together. We had our first robbery experience on this ride, although not our stuff. Enrique somehow dropped his camera on the road about 20km from Caraz, he spun his bike and bob trailer around to pick it up off the road, but was too slow. In a matter of seconds, a truck heading in the opposite direction stopped, swiped the camera off the road and took off again. Unreal, such an opportunistic crime. Enrique went back to Caraz as some locals thought the truck would be heading to the markets, but he had no luck.

Local school girls

The road from Caraz to Huaraz was riddled with potholes of all shapes and sizes. The most nerve racking thing along this road was the constant stream of swerving traffic, busily avoiding potholes, and thankfully avoiding us as well. Other than that it was a beautiful ride, there where hardly any clouds, and we had views of beautiful mountains in the Cordillera Blanca. Ok, so the beautiful day lasted until the final stretch into Huaraz, where we hit a lightening and rainstorm, thankfully it was only 10km.

We met up again with Carmen and Renate (the German girls) who had managed to ride into Huaraz (from a town just past Caraz) on the same day. They arrived before the rain, lucky them! We all relaxed for a few days, then organised a mountain expedition together. After much shopping around various guide companies we booked in a trip up Mt Pisco, a 5800m peak, with no technical climbing involved.

Climbing group (Pisco in the background)

Trail to basecamp

Donkeys that lightened our load

Pisco was a 3 day expedition in total, the first day involved a long bumpy taxi ride into the national park.. From there we walked about 3.5 hours to base camp. We had beautiful weather and tremendous views of the peak we were to head up the next day. The next morning we were up at 1am, walking over tricky rocks and boulders by 2am. By 4am we hit the glacier, put on our helmets and crampons and started clambering up. We had 2 groups of 4, Ben with 2 guides and another Brazilian tourist, me with Carmen and Renate and one guide. I don’t think I have ever had such cold fingers in my entire life! Thankfully we warmed up a bit as we climbed, but as the sun rose we could see clouds up ahead that were not there the day before. After several hours of very slow arduous walking Ben’s group made it to the top, not that you could tell it was the top due to terrible weather conditions. Us girls decided to turn around, (we found out later we were only about 50m from the top!) but the weather was terrible and we could not see a thing. Then began the slog back to base camp. We all made it back unscathed, however on reflection we had a few concerns about the safety of the operation and made these points known to the guides. We all had some much needed rest and good food again in Huaraz!

Early morning

Bad weather

After a couple of days rest Ben and I booked a mountain bike trip with a great local guy, Julio. Julio started his mountain bike business in the early 90’s, and has had several kiwis ride with him over the years. After meeting at his shop and setting up the full suspension Specialized Rockhoppers, we taxied up another bumpy road for a hour. We rode a mixture of gravel road and single track, also passing through small villages, with amazing views and brilliant weather. The lack of oxygen in the air made itself known and the lungs got another good workout. We rode for several hours eventually making it back to town. Overall a really fun day, and something we will definitely do again in Peru and/or Bolivia.

Bike trail through someone's backyard

Julio (guide) and us

So, as I write this, I find myself tired, again! Tonight we bus to Lima, then onto Cusco, which will be our first long haul bus ride. We will say goodbye to Renate, Carmen and Christian (Carmen’s boyfriend, who is also cycle touring, and planning on riding into and around the Cordillera Blanca, insanely hilly and on gravel roads!). Hopefully we all meet again in Cusco as the girls are also heading in that direction. We hope to start cycling again from Cusco, we will keep you posted.

And then there were 3...

2010-05-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Petr was heading the same way as us, so we rode with him till Caraz. The three of us rode 15km out of Chau before taking a private gravel road for 50km.

Early morning riding in the desert

This road belongs to a Brazilian energy company and is gated at either end. The guard kindly opened the gate for us and off we went. This road was uninhabited apart from a few construction areas and aqua-ducts.

Start of private road

We joined back up to the public road and had 8km of tarseal to the next village of Chuquicara. Petr speaks fluent Spanish so he was fantastic. Since there were no hostals in this village (our original plan had been to camp on the private road before the village), Petr made friends with a restaurant owner who had an empty kiosk which she said we could sleep in for the night.

Restaurant/accommodation provider

Cosy and cramped but perfect. The ladies of the village invited us to play a volleyball match, and to our surprise they put money on the line, one sole (NZ 50c) per person to play, winning team takes all (which was not us).

Our ´3 person´cabin for the night

Washing off in Rio Santa

We left the next morning knowing we had a section of bad gravel road for a few kilometers. What we did not know was the bad gravel lasted the entire 55km of the day. This made the day before seem easy. Although not so far in distance, the day turned into a 7 hours of riding!

Through this canyon, there are several carbon mines, we heard a number of bomb blasts over the day, and saw a few miners along the way. The structures around the mines didn’t look very stable, and the miners were not wearing masks and were completely coated in black dust.

We slowly made our way through the canyon, and just as the energy levels where nearing rock bottom and the water was getting low, we hit a 5km hill into the village Yuramarca.

An exhausted Leanne

The next morning we rode to Caraz, through the Canon del Pato. This road was one of the highlights so far, we passed through 35 one lane tunnels over a 10km stretch.

This was a fantastic ride, with many stops to take photos. A little hairy at times when confronted with traffic in the tunnels, but all went well.

Happy to arrive in Caraz

Upon arriving in Caraz we met the 2 German girls from Trujillo. They had bussed to a village just before the Canon del Pato and rode up the same day. We still cant believe we have been with in 30 minutes of each other again! After dinner and beer with Renate and Carman (the German girls), we hung out with Petr for the rest of the night. He headed off early the next day whereas we are staying in Caraz for a couple of nights to rest and look around.

Next stop for us will be Huaraz.

2010-04-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

After six days in a row on the road it was time for a few days off. We found a hostal in Lambayeque that ticked all the boxes, hot water, TV, wifi and no cockroaches. We did very little for three days besides eat and rest.

Center of Lambayeque

We meet a very friendly local named Oscar while wandering through one of the markets. Oscar was a university student and gave us a tour of the local uni. He was also a very proud Rotary member so we had a tour of the local Rotary hang out too.

Our mate Oscar

A few days later we had a short 20km ride into the city of Chiclayo. From Chiclayo we caught a bus 3 hours south to Trujillo. Besides this stretch of road being nothing but desert it is renowned as being very dangerous especially for tourists, even some Peruvians we spoke to said they would not stop along the way due to the number of muggings.

After arriving in Trujillo we rode from the bus depot to the most famous hostals among cycle tourists in South America the ’Casa de Ciclista’. For the last 15 years Lucho has welcomed passing cycle tourists to stop at his house. We were visitors 1302 and 1303. Along with a full workshop were Lucho repairs bikes he also had a wealth of information about cycle touring in South America.

Lucho

Having seen no cycle tourists in our travels so far it was great when there was a knock on the door and another one would show up. We meet to German girls and a guy who had been travelling a very similar route to us over the last few weeks. It turned out for 3 days in a row we were only half an hour ahead, people kept telling them two people had just passed through but we never crossed paths. While we are proud to have knocked off our first 1,000km another guy, Petr, from the Czech Republic had just ticked over 22,000km over his 10 month ride so far that started in New York city, crazy!

Our planned two night stay at the Casa de Ciclista turned into four nights. From Trujillo we plan to ride back up into the mountains over 5 days to the popular tourist town of Huaraz. Petr was heading the same way so we will travel together. Lucho offered to guide us out of town and ended up riding the 66km to the town we spent the night before saying his goodbyes and turning around to ride back home.

Casa de Ciclista

Day trip from Trujillo back to the Pacific Ocean at Huanchaco

Ceviche and Pollo - amazing feed

Tambo Grande to Motupe

2010-04-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

We left Tambo Grande after a wee sleep in in our nice cool accommodation.

The plan was to ride a dirt road out of town for 30km, which would eventually join back up to a sealed to Chiclayo, about 90km shorter and with less desert than the main road. The dirt road only lasted for about 15km, a nice surprise. There are little villages all along this route, so we where able to buy a few cold drinks.

Traffic jam

The plan had been to camp between the villages somewhere, and push on to Olmos the next day. The problem was we rode about 75km and did not really see any well hidden camp spots. We followed a couple of dirt tracks off the side of the road but they either lead to dense bush or other people. It was beginning to become a long day, and then we had the first puncture of the trip, not such good timing. Then as we stopped to change the tube, we must have irritated a hornet’s nest! They took a liking to me, I did not like them, they stung me on my legs a few times. While I was leaping around trying to get away from them, Ben went about fixing the tube, they didn’t sting him at all, the only reason we can think of is that he smelt too bad.

So that probably was not the best hour of our trip so far, and with too far to go to the next main town, we asked a local farmer if we could camp the night in front of their house as it looked very secure. This was fine, and we pitched out tent amongst the chickens in front of the house. We chatted with the ladies of the house, and had a wee cuddle of a 2 month old baby, cooked a big pot of pasta, beans and tomatoes for dinner, and went to sleep.

Our host

Camping with the chickens

We said our goodbyes in the morning to this lovely family, and hit the road, making it to Olmos close to 100km away. We are feeling good that there are no more mountains to ride for a while, but are starting to feel like we need a rest day. We could have had a rest in Olmos, but the town smelt aweful and we had too many cockroaches and other creepy crawlies in our hostal, so we left early the next morning for a short 30km ride to Motupe.

Now, in Motupe we are resting and have the last decent ride tomorrow to a town just north of Chiclayo. So far Peru has had two sides to it. We have met some really lovely people and had some good riding through some interesting green desert areas. We have also had to learn to deal with more intense attention than in Ecuador, with more loud tooting, whistling and people who just cant help but yell ‘gringo, gringa’ at us.

But, all good so far, will have a few days off the bikes in a couple of days and plan the next cycle section of the trip.

Pedalling to Peru

2010-04-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

We have not had sore bums from any days of biking but we were feeling the affects on our backsides after only four hours on a horse.

We left Loja via a medium sized hill (1.5 hours of climbing) and after a 20km descent we decided to call it a day in Catamayo. We stayed in our cheapest hostal yet at $4 each, you can see why from the pictures below.

aka - Hotel Alcatraz

Sugar cane fields leaving Catamayo

Start of the climb

Near the summit

Lunch mate

We left Catamayo at sunrise as there was a big hill to get over and we wanted to avoid the midday heat. After 3 hours of uphill we finally made the top, we slightly underestimated how high we had to go. A few hours later we rolled into Catachoca. Catachoca was a friendly little town so we decided to have a rest day there. Judging by the locals interest in us this was obviously not a common tourist stop.

Catcacocha town centre

Above the clouds on the way down from Catacocha

Day 6 of riding we clocked up another 100km to the grotty little boarder town of Marcará. The highlight of this town was dinner, it’s amazing how the quality of chicken, rice and beans can vary from town to town. And we did find the best pan de chocolate we have had so far.

The next day we headed a couple km’s down the road from Marcará to the boarder with Peru. Ten minutes later we had the stamps needed in our passports and we were back on the road. From what we’ve heard this is a very quite little boarder crossing compared to the main one on the coast, and it was pretty easy.

Boarder crossing from Ecuador to Peru

Road in Northern Peru

Ecuador has been a really beautiful country to travel through. The people are generally really friendly and quietly polite. The riding has been amazing, with beautiful scenery and nice wide roads with good drivers who give you plenty of space and a friendly toot and wave.

We are now in Northern Peru, we have some gradual down hill roads to enjoy for the first time as we head back to sea level and the desert. We managed another 100km almost 1.5hrs faster than the previous day. To our surprise we stumbled across some great accommodation on our way into Tambo Grande. We splashed out ($20) for a private bungalow, our first room with air con since being here. We chatted with the owner over dinner, pulling out our world map to show him where we were from. He was surprised at how few people live in New Zealand.

We are about to get on the road again now. Hopefully some more camping over the next few days as we make our way to Chiclayo.

The biking begins

2010-04-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

Finally the cycling of the ‘cycle tour’ has commenced. We have now notched up three consecutive days of riding. So far the only flat pieces of road has been the few bridges at the bottom of valleys we’ve crossed, everything else has either been slow, steep climbs or fast descents.

We started in Cuenca (c.2500m) and finished three days later in Loja (c.2100m). What those elevation numbers do not illustrate is the c.3000m of climbing in between.

Leaving Cuenca in the rain

Day 1 we rode for 4 hours climbing up to 3500m from Cuenca. We set up camp on an old farm track tucked away off the main road. It absolutely poured down during the night and we woke to a cold drizzly morning.

Leanne making friends with the shop owners in Cumbe
(they smiled before and after the photo)

View from our campsite at 3500m

Not a very nice start to the day

Day 2 was another 4 hours of riding with our first taste of Ecuador downhill, with a 15km decent before the uphill, climbing c.700m over 12km to a tiny little town called Oña. We started in drizzle then roasted for a couple of hours before finishing in a down pour. Being soaked we decided to stay in the one and only ‘hotel’ in Oña. It was very basic but suited us fine.

Great roads with virtually no traffic

15km descent to the valley below

Day 3 - 104km to Loja, piece of cake - yeah right. We knew this day was going to be tough. The distance was not overly long but there were at least 3 big hills/mountains to tackle plus a couple of minor ones. We started at sunrise with a 2.5h climb out of Oña. This was followed by a fast 15km descent before another 2.5h climb. A few ups and downs then a great 10km descent dropped us to c.2200m. The final climb of the day took us up again to c.2800m before another 15km descent to Loja at c.2100m. We were both absolutely shattered on arrival. All up is was a 12 hour day with 9 hours of riding and over 2000 vertical metres of climbing. Thankfully our hostel had hot showers and we found a good pasta restaurant with creamy cabonara.

Start of the 9 hr ride to Loja

Taking a rest on one of the many climbs to Loja

We have just had a couple of rest days. The first one was spent checking out the city of Loja. Today we caught a bus to a nearby town called Vilcabamba. The place is renowned as a relaxing town and is famous for having inhabitants who live forever. We bumped in to a Kiwi guy who owned a horse trekking business and has been living there for 27 years. He set us up with a guide and we headed up into the hills to a medicinal waterfall on horse back. The track was steep and Ben had the only tumble of the day when his saddle came undone and he slide off the horse while heading uphill, no harm done though.

Tomorrow we are back on our bikes with 200km to travel to reach the boarder with Peru. We will do this over a few days as there is still a number of passed to tackle along the way.

Last days of relaxation

2010-04-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

We have just spent the last week in Cuenca, Ecuador’s third largest city (pop 420k). The days have disappeared with more Spanish lessons, sightseeing around the city, Easter and a ride to a nearby town for half a day.

We took our bikes in their boxes to the central bus station in Guayaquil and got on a bus headed for Cuenca without any issues. We were not regretting the decision to bus to Cuenca one bit when the bus started to head uphill. Cuenca sits at 2500m but we knew there was a 4000m pass to go over beforehand. It was hard to image how high a 4000m pass is from sea level but it was only about 80km of continuous and super steep uphill on the bus - not something we wanted to tackle first up on our bikes.

Cuenca is an incredibly old looking city. It has narrow, one way cobblestone streets lined with whitewashed red-tiled buildings. The streets are immaculately clean, it is hard to spot a single piece of rubbish on the ground. The streets in town are also lined with abogados (lawyers), there are too many to count, one street alone next to our hostal has seven lined up side by side. Our Spanish teacher said not so long ago they stopped all enrolments for law and medicine at the university in Cuenca for five years as the city was saturated in both professions.

It has been pretty cool to be here over Semana Santa (Easter week). As most of the population here are Roman Catholic, the whole town shuts down on Friday and Sunday, with parades and singing around the streets. On Friday we ventured inside the biggest cathedral in town, pretty impressive. No easter eggs or hot cross buns though, instead there are people selling candyfloss, icecreams and other random sweet things outside the church.

In the last couple of days we have done some more in depth planning and studied the elevation profiles from here to Peru. The bikes are loaded and ready to go. The plan is to start at dawn tomorrow and head out of town, can’t wait…

Sand, Surf and Spanish...

2010-03-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

We got back to Guayaquil last night after spending a week in Montañita. It was a fluke we arrived in Montañita on Sunday as the Spanish school has classes a week at a time, Monday to Friday. So 8am Monday morning we were into it, 2 hours twice a day of study, plus homework! Pretty intense for the week, but it was really good.

View from our classroom

Looking up the beach towards the point break

Our accommodation - not too bad for US$8 each per night

Montañita is a crazy little place, pretty chilled out in a way, but also a party town, parties every night till all hours of the morning. We at least had one day there where we did not have to be at class at 8am! We had originally thought we would hire boards for the week, only the swell was huge for most of that week! Huge as in 8-10ft waves, with maybe a few bigger ones. The point at the end of the beach has the best break, crowed with amazing surfers, we sat for hours several times just watching, it was like watching a live surf dvd. Pretty much no wave goes to waste, and everyone is ripping! We saw some guys getting full stand up barrels. We got out there a couple of times (when it was a bit smaller!), such a novelty for us to surf in water +27°.

Would you believe we have already bumped into several people from NZ, even a pack of 9 ex Dunedin Uni boys, carnage. Some we knew from Dunedin too. They were definitely making the most of “cocktail alley” were some very tasty/strong cocktails started at US$1.5!

"Cocktail Alley" by day...

and by night.

Yesterday we got a bus down the coast to Playas, where we had planned to stay for a few days. Only we got there and it was bigger than we thought, and not really what we wanted so jumped on a local bus back to Guayquil, and have decided to head to Cuenca earlier. I think we are just keen to get cycling soon! We will bus there tomorrow, hope to do some more Spanish lessons and set up the bikes. We thought best to avoid the insane roads/drivers out of Guayaquil, and the 4000m pass within 3 days of riding if we were to ride to Cuenca. This will also give us time to acclimatise in Cuenca at 2530m.

Next update to come from Cuenca, Ecuador.

First couple of days...

2010-03-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

After 16 hours in the air and a 3 hour stop over in Santiago we made it to Guayaquil, Ecuador. As soon as the plan touched down and the air con was turned off we could feel and see clouds the humid +30C outside air rushing in - welcome to the equator.

We had pre booked a hostel and the google maps print out was able to translate to the taxi driver where we were headed although, surprisingly to both of us, Leanne managed to get a price out of him before we took off. From the outside the hostel, with its high walls and electric fence, looked more like a gang pad. Inside felt safe and secure though and the caged parrots and monkeys lightened the mood.

After a good nights sleep it was time to make a plan about where exactly we are going to go now that we have arrived. Our trip has always been based around a start and finishing point and a very vague route in between.

After tossing around many ideas we‘ve decided to head east to the coast to Montañita, a surf town with a Spanish school where we can do a crash course. After experiencing the taxi ride and seeing the chaos on the roads of a city with over 2 million people (half of whom drive demolition derby cars), we think the safe option is to take the four hour bus ride out there. The hostel will mind our bikes and in a couple of weeks we’ll return before catching a bus west out of the city to begin riding.

We don’t plan for this blog to be a day by day account of our trip but here are some highlights from day one in Guayaquil.

- Using our very basic Spanish to ask questions in shops and not understanding a word of the reply.
- Watching a middle aged man casually jump out the open door of a bus in front of us as it was accelerating out of corner.
- Security guards at the banks armed with pistols, similar to what we saw in the States, but to see guards with pistols outside McD’s, the stationary shop and even a mall car park toll booth was odd. The most intimating guard however was the one standing outside the Sony shop with his pump action shot gun!
- The baby monkey hanging at the hostel with one of the owners, its about 7cm long, cute.
- Exposed wiring in the shower.

Until next time.

Time to go

2010-03-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

After a 5 day delay due to the recent earthquakes in Chile our bags are now packed, bikes have been boxed and we are ready to go.

We fly out tomorrow afternoon (19th) to Guayaquil, Ecuador via Santiago, Chile.

Will keep you posted.