After 18 months and 4 days we finally rolled our pedal bike up to what would be our final stop of our bike trip across the Americas.   I said “rolled” and not “pedaled” on purpose, because our wheels had finally said “no more” as we slowly worked our way down the last hill into town.  The spokes were popping and snapping, the brakes would no longer clear the wobbly rims, and things were generally on a precipitous decline.  We stopped at a random street corner, shared a hug and a smile and pushed our tandem around town to find a place to call home for our 3 days in Ushuaia.  It was a good time for the bike to break.

Sitting now in a cafe in Madison after 2 weeks back in the northern hemisphere, I already look back at the final days of pedaling with an obvious nostalgia and the kind of vague remembrances that typically come only after years of separation from an event.   Indeed, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego seem a long way off.

The highlights of the far south for were many.  To start, we got to see penguins for the first time in the wild around Punta Arenas.  They are quite endearing and remarkably odd creatures, seeming to be an unlikely mix of seal and bird.  Their awkwardness on land is amusing, something like a fat man in a business suit with no knees hurrying across town to his next meeting.  But once they dive into the water, they are like torpedoes.  But playful ones.

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We also got to meet some really great people.  Because our bike wheels were so weak we had to try and hitch across a gravel section after crossing to the island of Tierra del Fuego.   As is so often the case when you put yourself out looking for the help of others, we connected with some wonderful souls who were willing to go out of their way to  give us a hand.   Max and Helen and their children and parents took us into their RV and fed us lunch and made us feel like family as we slowly meandered across the bleak, windy, and rough stretch from Porvenir to the border with Argentina.   This is despite the fact that there really isn’t room for more than 6 people in their little RV, and their parents were only with them for a short time.  They are travelers, and instantly set to work on finding a space for us and our bike before they even knew our names.  If there is any justice in the word, they have some serious road Karma coming.

No sooner than we separated ways with Max and Helen and found our way to the nautical club in Rio Grande, we were showered with more hospitality.   Normally the club offers camping outside, but there was no one around to run the camp.  So, they invited us in to stay inside and use their kitchen and even eat a delicious feast of lamb in white wine and a few bottles of wine.   The atmosphere was celebratory, as we were two of five travelers who were staying there that night.   There was also a German woman who is paddling her kayak around South America (here’s her website)  and a couple of Argentinians who were doing a three trip around the southern tip of the continent (cape horn).  Again, we were treated like family, talking and laughing long into the night.

The next morning we were reminded once again of the intensity of the wind in the far south of South America.   The first 4 miles took us nearly an hour and almost knocked us over multiple times, and then we turned a corner to head southeast, and we did the next 40 miles in an hour.   Apparently, the gusts were over 70 mph.  The non-gusts were pretty insane, too.  Luckily, we mostly had it with us.

As the day wore on, the sun came out and we climbed a steppe and into rolling terrain with trees.  It was absolutely perfect biking, and beautiful with the afternoon light and mountains all around us.  Just for a moment on a downhill I began to lose it thinking about the wonderfully simple lifestyle that we had been enjoying and how amazing it is to travel by bicycle.   I just cried by myself as we coasted down to a river crossing, only reaching back to grab Erin’s hand for a moment not wanting to distract her from her singing along to Bjork on our headphones.   It was our second to last day, and right at that moment I said my goodbyes to our trip and our reality.

But the show wasn’t quite over, so we pedaled the final few kilometers to “La Union,” the most famous bakery in all of the Americas (at least for bike tourists).  Why is it so famous?  Well, first off, it’s huge.  the selection is amazing.   And, the owner is a long time cyclist and has a room where bike tourists can stay on their way through.  For many cyclists, this is their last stop before Ushuaia, and the end of the road.   We received a warm welcome and some free pastries which we gobbled up directly.  It was a great place to feel good about being a bicycle tourist as we read through the guestbook of all the other cyclists that had passed through in the previous year.   We even took other cyclists’ lead (and cavemen before them) the time to do some personalized graffitti on the wall (see pics).

With our bellies and hearts full, we rolled out for our last day at the crack of 10:30.  As it turns out, we weren’t quite done biking, and there are a couple of mountain passes to take care of before dropping back to the ocean and Ushuaia.  Perhaps because of that, but also because we couldn’t imagine being done just yet, we decided to postpone the finish and camp for a final night along a river about 10 miles before Ushuaia.  It was one of those brilliant strokes of improvisation that not having a schedule allows us to make.   We spent the evening watching the river flow by, catching and releasing a bunch of brown trout, and cooking up some lentils as the sun set.   It was truly the perfect last night.

The final stretch into Ushuaia was unbearably short, and fairly unemotional.   It almost felt like a morning commute.   Just as we saw the city for the first time, we heard a pop.   There goes a spoke on the rear wheel.  A couple of kms later, another one goes and the rim begins rubbing incessantly on the brakes.   By the time we finally get into town, the tire is rubbing on the frame and we can feel the whole bicycle pulse with every rotation of the rear wheel.   The tandem, it seems, was ready to lie down and get some much needed medical attention.  Fortunately, we could accommodate that need.

I fully expected that we would feel the gravity of the situation come down on us and have a little breakdown or something, but we really didn’t.  After a few laughs over the pathetic state of our bicycle and a quick hug, we found a place to stay and went on about our business of enjoying Ushuaia and letting people back home know that we were all done pedaling.    We got some great eating and some good hiking in during our stay.   We even hiked up to a glacier and got to slide down on our backsides (see video).    Overall, Ushuaia is a pretty cool place.  Just bring lots of money.

We also were lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Buenos Aires before leaving Argentina.   It was a really great time, as we stayed with a couple of Americans that we had met back in Mendoza, Argentina (Abby and Will – thanks heaps!).   They were leaving on the same day as us, so the whole affair was quite celebratory.   We went to an awesome cowboy market where we saw live tango dancing and ate some sausage, walked around the streets downtown, went to some great places to eat, and  saw a really opulent cemetery, among other things.  It was a great way to ease into the holidays and the trip back.

And how does it feel to be back home?  Well, so far it has been quite easy.  We got back to Madison, and it felt like we were just gone for a long weekend.   The same goes for seeing family – it felt pretty much like a normal holiday get together.  It feels natural to be back here, and all of the possibilities of starting fresh are really exciting.

Since it will probably be interesting to reflect on the trip after a bit of time goes by, we plan on writing up one more entry in a month or so to let everyone know how the reintegration process is going.  During that time, we’ll also update our gear and stats pages to their final state.

Thank you all so much for being a part of this journey.  It absolutely helped to know that there have been folks out there watching and wishing us well along the way.

The final 10 kms were kind of dicey and entertaining, as  our rear bicycle wheel was literally breaking apart as we coasted into town.   Flesh and bone has outlasted the steel and aluminum.   It is time to put the bike in a box and give it some much needed TLC back stateside.

Anyway, we feel great and are positive and hopeful.   We’re reflective, but looking ahead to the next adventure.   Speaking of which, if you are looking for a couple of smart, good looking, eager employees, PLEASE send us an email!!!

We’ll do a final trip post in a week, after we’ve had a chance to soak in Ushuaia and Buenos Aires.

Thanks heaps everyone who has helped us along the way! your comments, encouragement, etc. has meant a lot to us.

More in a bit.  Now off to hike up to a Glacier.   Happy holidays!  Much love!

Strange to say it, but we’re almost done. We have 3 days of riding left, maybe 4 if we have a wheel that can ride on gravel. This one wheel has been the defining element of the last two weeks of our trip.

The story of the wheel begins with us getting on the ferry to cross O’ Higgins Lake. First off, we didn’t realize that you can’t pay the expensive $80 per person fee with credit card (even though they have the capacity to create a very nice website and $80 per person is a lot of money) and there are no cash machines for miles, so we had to change all of the dollars and Argentinian pesos we had so we could pay for the ride. Secondly, as soon as we got off the ferry on the other side of the lake we realized that the rear wheel on our bicycle was about to explode. The braking surface on the side of the wheel had gotten thin with breaking and the bumpy riding on the Carreteta Austral had caused the side of the wheel to peel off, therefore making the bicycle unridable.

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They drove us to El Chalten, home of the famous and awesome Mt. Fitz Roy, where we found a bike mechanic to help us out. The big problem with our wheel is that our rear hub fits 48 spokes. Normally a bicycle wheel fits 36 spokes. But since a tandem carries double the weight, we had gotten these beefy wheels that, frankly, lasted us a a really long time–since northern California. We haven’t had a single problem with these wheels this whole trip. But any wheel can only take so much.

What we had to do then, is take apart the front wheel and build it around our rear hub and then build a new front wheel that used a normal 36 spoke hub (which you can do with the front wheel, but not the extra-wide back wheel.) No problem. We found a guy to do it; granted, he only had two slightly bent rims, so there’s a little wobble on the front wheel–but it goes! We rode out of El Chalten an hour that evening with an INSANE tailwind. Finally, we were experiencing the renowned Patagonian winds. And thank goodness it was a tailwind. However, that night as we were camping in a gravel pit, the wind changed. We spent all night up with the loud flapping of the tent and eventually, the stakes couldn’t hold out any more. We tried to move it to a less windy spot at 3 am, but such a thing was no where to be found. We gave up. Took the tent down. And slept under the stars, which was incredibly peaceful after all of that.

We woke up with the sun beating down on our faces at 10:30 in the morning, packed up our things, and rode for 2 hours before our rear rim broke again in the same way the first one had. Time to sit on the side of the rode and wait for some helpful, happy person to give us a ride back to El Chalten.

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From there, we caught a bus to El Calafate. There we found a mechanic who could build us an unorthodox wheel that involved our 48 spoke hub with a 36 spoke rim (a very unstable thing) and that got us 230 more kilometers down the road until that broke…another hitchhiking moment got us to the Argentinian border where a super-nice, smooth-talking border patrol guard got us another ride to Puerto Natales, Chile (which is a really nice place, by the way) where the only mechanic in town was not in town and so we had to catch a bus to Punta Arenas where we are right now.

And that’s the story. It’s not quite how we envisioned the end of our trip. At first we were really disappointed that we haven’t been able to ride as much as we want, but then we thought, well, it’s still a heck of a lot of adventure. And we have more time to eat the really great seafood down here.

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We are having the wheel rebuilt right now, but no matter what, it won’t be very stable. There are 100 kms of gravel after Punta Arenas that we won’t be able to ride because it will destroy the wheel and so, we’ll have to hitch again. That will put us within 3 days of Ushuaia and then we’ll be done. Crazy to think, but it’s pretty much it. The end of the world. And we just road a bicycle to it…mostly.

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This last stint of riding has taken us down the second half of the Carretera Austral (southern highway) and to our last little town in southern Chile.   We have a day off for some much needed rest before we catch a ferry and push our bikes over a horse trail to Argentina to continue southward.

And quite a stint it has been.

Further up north in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, we met a number of bikers that were heading north and had passed through here on their way.   The Carretera Austral always came up in conversation as a really challenging “must do”  in South America.   After pedaling it’s length, we can say that it certainly lives up to that reputation.  It’s been tough, but we’re glad we did it.

The first half of the road seemed somewhat tame compared to what we were expecting (see last post), but further south it gets quite rugged.   Most of the road has been constructed in the past 30 years, and this last stretch has only been here for 12 years.   It’s basically a single lane dirt road that climbs and descends steeply as it winds between snow capped mountains and glaciers.  it’s hard riding, but beautiful.  Pretty much every night we have camped next to a trout-filled river with waterfalls and big snowy mountains surrounding us.

Topographically, it’s amazing as the pictures will hopefully show.

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While the road is difficult at times, the real challenge for us has been the weather.   We’ve had a couple of sunny days, or at least parts of days, but overall this has been a very wet 10 days.   A couple of times we didn’t see the sun for 3 days.  We have also gotten a couple of good doses of sleet, hail, and even snow. This makes things a bit harder than they would otherwise be.

Here’s a quick video of a minute or so of our Thanksgiving day, which turned out to be just about the most challenging day of our whole trip:

Thankfully, all things are temporary and we made it to our final destination of Villa O’Higgins to find a fire burning and many upbeat souls at the “El Mosco” hostel.  We took long hot showers and got a good nights sleep, and today, everything is practically forgotton.

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Our overall impression of the Chilean Patagonia is that it is truly an incredible place. It is one of the most impressive landscapes we have seen to date.  It is, however a place in transition.   There is a very frontier feel here with scattered homes inhabited by gruff horseman and their dogs and cattle.  It’s a wet, cold, and rugged place with very few people and sparse infrastructure.

While the mountains and rivers are amazing, and the people are few, this is not wilderness.  At least not what we could see from the highway.  The few people that are here or have passed though here have managed to cut almost every big tree down and put a cow on every square foot of land.   Almost all of the land surface that we could see from the highway was visibly abused by highly unsustainable logging and ranching practices.   We can totally understand that this is about the only to make a living out here, and that Chile probably wants this land to be populated.  But from a global perspective, consciously using this landscape in this way seems a bit like scribbling a grocery list with magic marker on a Monet or a Van Gough.

And now it seems likely that massive dams are going to be built throughout the region to power mining in the far north of the country.  Because of the dams, and maybe even more because of the power lines, this will dramatically alter the Chilean Patagonia.  It’s really not a popular decision with most Chileans, but it seems like there is too much money at stake to stop it.  Just google” Baker River dam” if you want to find out more.

Enough on that, and back to the trip.

At this point, we are feeling like we are getting very much to the final stretch.   Now, we measure things in weeks instead of  months.  We still have great energy for biking and exploring, but I guess that it’s a good thing to be nearly done, as pretty much every piece of equipment we have is starting to show serious signs of wear.  I can patch up the bicycle and our bags, but things still don’t work like they should.  Our dry bags are no longer dry, our shifters no longer shift, our tent no longer zips, and our tires don’t hold air.   It’s time for a major overhaul, but we’re trying to limp to the end and do that in the comfort of home.  3 weeks left!

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Biker notes

-first and most importantly, get all the cash you need in Coihaique.  that includes money for the ferry out of villa o’higgins (40,000 pesos chilenos pp!! – no credit cards) AND the ferry once you get to Argentina (100 pesos Argentinos pp with bike).

-Smooth, rolly riding out of Coihaique.   We found a great campsite right after km marker 50, on the right along the stream.

-nice riding through NP cerro castillo.  Tough climb, awful road, after the town of Cerro Castillo.

- Trout fishing is great along the Baker river, after Pto Beltrane.  A nice free camp spot about 7kms out of town (but exposed to wind), and another around 10 kms or so, where there is a big gravel pit and access to bushes to shelter from the wind.  Store in Pto Beltrane, down on the lake.

-The last 40kms into Cochrane are a bear.  steep and slow.

-Stock up really well with food in Cochrane, as there is only a small and expensive store in Pto Yungay that may or may not be open.   But, the owner Francisco is really nice and you can knock on his door in town, house # 4 (there’s only 4)!  we bought an open bag of rice from him.

-camping spot about 20 km south of the ferry exit, look for a road to left providing river access.  This is in between km markers 10 and 11 that start at an intersection about 10kms south of the ferry.

-by those same markers, kms 15 – 40 or so are really tough.  Hang in there, it’s fairly flat after the 3rd big climb.  rollers along the lake and river to Villa O’Higgins

- Hostel el Mosco in villa o higgins is really, really nice.  not cheap, 8000 pp in dorm or 5000 to camp with access to all.  but HOT showers, full kitchen, wifi, and good company.   Jorge, the owner, is very accommodating will change money for you at a fair rate.

We’d sincerely like to see the numbers go up on our Nature Conservancy donation site.  It’s looking a bit grim right now.  As of the time of this appeal, we’ve collected $1,130 of  our $20,000 goal.  If you equate that with our biking, that would leave us somewhere in the southern Yukon Territory or northern British Columbia.   Pretty much no way that we’d make it to Ushuaia by December 17th for our flights.  And let me tell you, it is probably REALLY cold right now in the Yukon….

OK, so before we get to why, let’s do some math to figure out what we’re asking you.   Each month, there have been an average of 1,500 UNIQUE visitors to our site.  If each of you  were to give $20, we’d exceed our goal.  It’s that simple.  if half of you give $10 and the other half gives $20, we’d still make it.   Here’s the link:  EnA’s TNC site!!!

Here’s why we think its important:

Part of the reason why we’d like to see some donations is because we’d like to say that something connected with our trip has had a positive impact.   We feel sorely worthless on the “here’s how we’ve helped society” front.  But, the bigger reason is that we want positive change and active management on the countless amazing landscapes we’ve passed through.

We have covered some ground in the last 18 months and 15,000 + miles of riding.  With the potential exception of the Arctic tundra, the hand of humans in modifying the environment is obvious to the casual observer in every square mile of the land that we’ve passed through.  [The thawing tundra and the increased number of landslides caused by climate change may put the Arctic's status in doubt.] This is as true in the US as it is in Bolivia.  As humans, we have had a huge impact on our only planet, and we need to work to bring sustainability and long-term viability into focus across the globe.

Giving $10 or $20 to the Nature Conservancy is certainly not going to take care of the issue, but it is a positive step.  As a global organization, the Nature Conservancy does much more than simply purchase private lands for conservation.  They also collaborate with local and international partners to provide the tools, technology, and science to help landowners such as loggers and ranchers to make informed management decisions.  They are able to identify priority areas for conservation, and find ways to protect those areas and create and implement regimes to balance production and conservation.  In short, they are experts that can help landowners improve their management techniques.  And they do it across the globe, which allows them to focus on the most crucial areas and to work across borders.

OK, enough on specifics.   If you want to read more about their initiatives, check out their site.  http://www.nature.org/

Please donate if you can.  Again, here’ s the LINK!!!

And thank you for helping make this journey about more than just us.

EnA

km total: 24,500

wow…that went fast.

Because we’ve decided to make it home for the holidays we had to take a bus from Mendoza to Bariloche, Argentina, which ended up being the right decision for us. It cut off 1,200 kilometers and we skipped over all of the terrible ash that  is being carried northward from the Puyehue volcano in Chile. It has been spewing ash since July and the landscape and air are filled with a fine, gray soot.

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In a nutshell, the riding has been incredibly beautiful. Southern Argentina and Chile are known for that. We are in the heart of Patagonia as we speak. We were a little surprised at how populated it has been. I guess we had started out with the impression of it as an unspoiled wilderness, but the Southern Highway (Carretera Austral) will be fully paved in a couple of years and so far it has been mostly lined with small cattle farms.

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We’ve seen lots of cool birds because it’s now spring here and the big birds from northern Brasil have migrated down here for the summer. It’s strange to think about that; birds migrating south for the summer . We’ve seen lots of bandurrias which we call “honky birds” because they’re are always making this honking sound (and we could never remember their name in Spanish.) Here is an excellent example of a honky bird. It is about the size of a chicken.

The weather has been cold and rainy which is to be expected for the western coast of Chile; that combined with the snowmelt coming off of the mountains makes for an incredible number of waterfalls. We see dozens of them every day.

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We’ve also met a lot of really interesting people down here; many Argentinians and Chileans who are looking for a different way of life. People who are looking to get away from the city, grow their own food, or simply just spend their time enjoying the amazing scenery while fishing the trout and salmon-rich crystal clear rivers and lakes. There is a great sense of independence and self-sufficiency here. That probably has to with the fact that it is still a relatively wild and isolated place that requires those traits, but it also seems that the place inspires it as well. We were lucky to receive an invitation from a young couple, Juan and Mercedes, to camp in their yard in Trevelin. They moved there from Buenos Aires and are living a simple but, for them, rewarding life growing their own wheat, baking their own bread, making their own wines and jams, and raising chickens and rabbits.

It was impressive when riding through the Cholila Valley, home of the last hiding place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It is a beautiful area filled with small towns and mountains that are rich with gold and other mineral ore. The only reason why those mountains haven’t been whittled down to little hills is that it seems that everyone you talk to who lives in the area is against the mines. And every time another international mining company wants to come in and mine it the local citizens protest and put up road blocks shutting down all of the roads to traffic for weeks. They say that as soon as a mountain is stripped the water that comes from the snow melt will no longer water their valleys and they realize that they will be left with the lakes of chemically-laden water used in the extraction process.

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One thing that has been remarkably striking for us is that, since we crossed over to Chile, everything feels, well, northerly. The houses are made of wood and every one of them has a wood burning stove. We haven’t seen either of those two things since the U.S. And being from Wisconsin, the wooden houses and stoves certainly make us feel like we’re closer to home even though we are the furthest from it that we’ve ever been on this trip. It’s as if we’ve gone so far south that we are now in the north.

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Biker notes

-Bariloche to the Fufu pass is excellent riding and highly recommended during this time of year, but beware of holiday traffic if you are coming through in Jan – March.

-We went through NP los Alerces, and it is good riding, but the road is not great and it is slower than the pavement.   Lots of cows, but nice lakes.  the campsites are exceedingly expensive (30 pesos pp), but were all shut down (free!) in the off season.  Food in Cholila and Rivadavia.

-Get lots of cash in Argentina (Trevelin) before crossing over.  Futaleufu has an ATM, but it accepts only Mastercard.  After that, it is until Villa Manihuales until there is an ATM.  You can change money in Fufu.

-Be careful trying to sneak produce or animal products into Chile.   they THOROUGHLY searched us, after making us make a declaration that we didn’t have anything.   dunno what they’d do.

-Grocery stores accept credit cards in La Junta, but otherwise not.

-There’s a great bakery in Puyuhuapi.  ”Pasteleria Teresita.”  Lots of hot stuff coming out in the afternoon.  Their apple empanadas are amazing.  So are their panes de chicharon.

-you can eat the huge leaved plants called “nalcas” on the side of the road.  pick the small flaccid shoots with unopened leaves.

-the “agua mineral” on the side of the road after Villa Amengual is really good, and seemingly safe

-Coyhaique is very expensive….well, all of Chile is….we stayed at Hospedaje Mondaca, 5 blocks south of the square at 571 Ave Simpson for 5k pesos pp, by far the cheapest.   There’s a spot to camp at the 400 block for 4k pp with WIFI, showers and kitchen.

kms so far: 23, 800

Hello from the Mendoza, wine capital of Argentina!

The time and the kilometers are passing by quickly now as we inch our way down the map a little bit every day. Since our last post, we’ve been working our way down the east side of the Andes on highway 40. That has translated into lots of flat riding through long stretches of desert, interspersed with a few climbs through the foothills. There are some loney pieces of road out here, but every one eventually leads to a welcoming town or city with plenty of nice people, shady parks, and tasty (cheap!!) wine.

In the context of long desert stretches, I have a confession to make. MP3 player: I love you. You have made our lives infinitely better.

I also have a comment to pass to the eons of evolution that have preceded our passing. Desert plants: your adaptations are very effective against passive pedal bikers.

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On the latter point about the spikey desert plants, this has been a most record breaking stretch for us. Our previous “best” for flat tires was 4 in one day in southern Bolivia. At the time that seemed quite impressive. However, last week we shattered that day with a whopping 7 punctures in 24 hours when heading over the Cuesta de Miranda west of Nonogasta. Not willing to let the dream die, we managed 7 more over the next 2 days. At 200 mini-pumps a piece, that’s almost 1,000 pumps per day for 3 days straight. Finally,some good cross training for our pewny T-Rex arms.

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The main reason for the flurry of flats is that almost every plant out here has approximately one million trillion thorns. Every time we exit the highway, we run a big risk of running one over. The 7 flat day was primarily because we pulled off the road onto a semi-informal roadside camping area only to realize afterward that the whole (seemingly clear) 100 yard stretch we rode across was literally covered with little bits of thorny branches that the local goat herd had chewed and left to lie in wait for future passers by.

The next morning (after patching a flat, naturally) we spent a couple of kilometers pedaling across the landscape and discussing the number of potential flat tires suspended in the great expanse around us. First, we aimed high and estimated maybe it was close to the number of stars in a galaxy. Then, we aimed low and thought perhaps it was merely a crapload. As in most scientific estimations, the truth probably lies somewhere in between.

Erin even got a flat tire

Apart from punctures, and a considerable amount of headwind, Argentina has been quite enjoyable and relatively easy in comparison with the rest of the Americas. Grocery stores are well-stocked and town parks give us a chance to relax in the shade and chat with the remarkably friendly Argentinians. Also, there is always good camping, either in a town park, or alongside the road somewhere. We even camped at a gas station once. They had a greenspace next door with picnic tables, and bathrooms WiFi, all offered free of charge.   Additionally, there are often improvised picnic tables on the side of the road where there is a nice shade tree, or a shrine for someone who has passed away, or a grotto for the much revered “Gauchito Gil.”  The infrastructure here is probably due to the incredible culture of camping travelers in Argentina, and our lifestyle seems completely normal to most folks we meet.

The tandem bicycle, however, continues to amaze our fellow humans. Lots of folks stop to take pictures and kids often ask if they can climb on and pose for their parents. All that’s great and pretty normal for us, but we did witness a new high for tandem love when we arrived in Mendoza. While sitting down to have a tasty beer, we watched a drunk guy wander over by our bike, take a look around and give it a big fat hug before moving on down the sidewalk. I cannot think of a more earnest display of affection for a pedal bicycle. If only I could have been quick on the draw with the camera….

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The city of Mendoza, site of the hug, is remarkably beautiful and famous for trapping cyclists en route to the south (our cyclist friends Erich and Laura with whom we rode in Panama warned us that it’s impossible to leave here!). The streets and sidewalks are all very wide and absolutely filled with trees. Many streets actually run their course under a complete canopy of leaves. Under those trees are hundreds of open air restaurants where people hang out to drink tea, or more likely wine, and eat some incredibly tasty and varied food. We just went out once, but we got homemade pasta, an excellent bottle of wine, and a chocolate mousse for dessert for $30. We could get used to that.

Most things here are quite a good value compared to US prices, but we have managed to spend what for us is a small fortune in the past 3 days. We’re treating this as a kind of vacation from biking before one more long push to the end. This is the point where we have decided to take a bus. So, we are going to make the jump to light speed on an overnight bus and end up in Bariloche tomorrow. From there, we’ll skirt the Andes for a few hundred kms on the Argentinean side before crossing over to Chile and riding the famous Carretera Austral (southern highway). It promises to be a return to the kind of remote biking and lush forests that we haven’t experienced since southern British Columbia. So we are eating some good food and enjoying the city life before heading out to the woods to ride, camp, and not take showers. Life is good!

Until Patagonia…

Biker notes:
-about 10kms south of Belen is Londres, where there is a wonderful free campsite (complete with a pool filled with cold natural spring water) that we heard about afterward. Apparently, it’s a good place to get stuck. Londres has plenty of stores.
-There’s a long stretch of desert before Chilicito (~70km) with no services. Fill up your water bottles in San blas de los Sauces.
-Villa Union has a YPF gas station where you can camp for free.
-Guandacol has free camping at the town entrance, 1km off ruta 40.
-Mendoza is a bit spendy, but great. We stayed at Hostal Itaka at 480 Vllanueva (west of the center). Very nice and helpful folks 150 pesos for a double room. Restaurant 390 (tres con noventa) across the street is excellent and totally reasonable. Go there.
-As a second warning, be very careful exiting the highway on this stretch. Crazy thorns, including goat heads.

So we took a train from Uyuni to the border which at first felt a little bit like cheating, but then we thought, hey, biking 29,500 kilometers out of 30,000 isn’t so bad.

Arriving to Argentina after Bolivia was like arriving to the land of milk and honey. We found an excellent bakery within 15 minutes of crossing the border, something we haven’t seen since Columbia. Within 24 hours we found fresh pasta, great wine, and good cheese. AND the weather is much warmer and temperate compared to the Bolivian altiplano. We’d found paradise! It makes for wonderful riding and eating. So wonderful in fact, that one afternoon we didn’t get any further than 30 kilometers and took a hint from the folks hanging out on the corner drinking the Salta, Argentina’s most popular beer; after which we bought ourselves a piece of famous Argentinian beef, biked three more kilometers to a campground and called it a day.

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That is another great element in Argentina, all of a sudden, there’s camping! Argentinians themselves camp, so there are private campgrounds you pay a small amount of money to stay at, or there are municipal parks that you can often camp at for free in the towns themselves. There are a lot of young people who travel around Argentina and South America (we’ve met a few in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) making macrame jewelry and doing things such a magic tricks and juggling to make just enough money to keep traveling. It seems that many people here have an adventurous spirit.

The look of people changed dramatically after we crossed the border. Argentina is largely settled by European immigrants. So we are no longer the whitest people around. Admittedly, it’s a little nice not to be stared at as much as we had been in Bolivia. And people here really do like their meat. There are many restaurants that serve parilladas (grilled things) and we went grocery shopping in a store that actually had four rows of seating for people who were waiting for their cuts of meat.

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We are riding on the eastern edge of the Andes right now, so we are riding in the rainshadow of the mountains; which means, lots of desert. We got to see some amazing rock formations, much like Utah in the United States. And we’ve survived some INCREDIBLE winds. We don’t know what it is or why. We had heard about the terrible winds in Patagonia further south, but nothing about the winds here. At one point, we were being pushed up a hill and we weren’t pedaling, but were still going about 20 km per hour. It was crazy. We’ve never seen wind like this before. Unfortunately, two days later it turned into a head wind and we went about 15 kilometers in around 3 hours. There were no towns and virtually no houses. Sometime around 9 pm we found a house that had a sheep shed they let us sleep in. It was great to be out of the driving wind, and a kind of gross to be camping on a couple inches of dried sheep shit. But some days are just going to be like that.

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We’ve also taken to naming the dogs that seem to be our constant companions during our snack/lunch stops. We started with Bagley (named after a cracker we’ve been eating) and General Lee, both of whom we did not get a photo of, but there will be others to follow.

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Crossing the desert and surviving the numerous violent dust storms that left sand in our ears, eyes, noses, teeth, hair and numerous other hard to get toplaces, we landed in the tranquil little town of Belen. Here we are staying with the Avar Saracho family, a weaving family that is internationally known for the ponchos they make. They have five great young kids who are all very warm and welcoming. Their six-year-old, Lila, who is an avid cyclist and does laps around the patio on her tiny little bicycle, came up to us this afternoon and intently asked if we would consider a trade: her bike for our tandem. We had to decline on the grounds that her legs wouldn’t reach and Alan wouldn’t fit on her Hello Kitty cruiser.

Lila and her ride

Hello there from weird and wild southwest Bolivia. We´ve managed to just about cross this landlocked, cold, poor, desolate country from north to south since last post and are on the verge of crossing into Argentina.

let’s start with something tasty. The Saltena. it’s like a bolivian Pasty.

For many bikers that bike the Americas, this is their favorite country on the whole trip. It is so wild and unrefined with many wide open spaces and crazy natural phenomena. However, for a variety of reasons, Bolivia has been difficult for us. I think the main hitch is that we have had many disagreeable interactions with people. More, actually, than we have had in the entire rest of the trip. We got a really bad first impression with border officials that blew us off for 3 hours and then literally laughed in our faces for having to wait. From there, it seemed like every other person we met really didn´t want anything to do with us. That includes people whom we bought stuff from. A number of times we´d say thanks and the reply would be a nasty glance, a head shake, and a “for what?” So much for common courtesy. That kind of general manner repeated itself over and over for the first week or so that we were here. On 2 occasions the person at the hotel refused to give us our change untill we harassed them until they finally, begrudgingly gave in.

This all really affected our mood and hammers home exactly how important it is to be surrounded by kind people. We are pretty much of out here by ourselves sometimes, and the short interactions that we have with people have been really energizing throughout the trip. We´ve been spoiled with wonderfully warm and generous people on a consistent basis. Until Bolivia.

Some of this has to do with the fact that many Bolivians live a hard life. It´s the poorest country in South America, with aweful social services, education system, and infrastructure. On top of that, the areas that we have biked through have been always over 11,000 feet, cold, windy, dusty, and desolate. Shephards huddle tight in their blankets and hats. Towns are dingy with dust and trash blowing in the wind (there is an awful amount of trash here). This is not exactly a recipe for good cheer.

But it hasn´t been all bad. There is certainly a beauty to the high and cold places of the Bolivian Altiplano. The open expanses seem to go on forever and the sunrises and sunsets are incredible with this backdrop. The days are filled with the bluest skies we have ever seen. That will be our lasting memory from Bolivia: the incredible blue skies. Sometimes you have to blink and check your eyes to believe that those colors actually exist.

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And there is a certain chaotic vibrance to the larger towns and cities that we have passed through. We had to spend a day in LaPaz to buy a new camera, since I smartly decided to wash our previously functioning camera with my pants in the bathroom sink. Let me tell you, this is the wildest human jungle that we have ever experienced. The stores spill into the sidewalks and beyond, into the streets. Seemingly anyone can just throw down a tarp in the road and start selliing candy and toilet paper (bright pink TP in Bolivia!). People scurry about making purchases and ducking behind stalls as traffic comes speeding by, honking constantly at the sea of people in their path. I was doing just such a duck to narrowly avoid a minivan when I very slightly brushed up against a sweater that was hanging in the traffic lane. Wouldn´t you know, the woman in the makeshift store yelled at me to walk around her goods. I calmly peered back under her sweater and said, “it´s kind of hard, lady, your store is in the street.” She looked away and tried hard to ignore me. Ah, Bolivia.

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The southern part of the country has treated us fairly well. Potosí is an intriguing city because of it`s amazing history as one of the world´s most important mines. Spain pumped so much silver from here that people say you could build a bridge of silver from Bolivia to Spain with it´s riches. People in Spain still say “it´s a Potosí” when something is extremely fortunate or worth a lot of money. Unfortunately, you could probably also build a bridge across the Atlantic with the bodies of the literally hundreds of thousands of miners that have died, first as slaves and later as workers, in pursuit of fine metals.

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The other highlight for us has been the area around Uyuni. We took a nice little pedal out on the famous salt flat (salar de uyuni). It was a surreal experience to crunch along the salt surface and take some pictures where distance is skewed from the lack of contrast and beaming sun from all directions. The roads to get to the salar are famously bad, and we definitely had our challenges in doing the 25kms in each direction. Actually the road is so bad that no cars go on it. they all wind through the desert and ancient corals on jeep paths that vaguely parallel the road. It took us 5 kms or so to figure that out, but even after we found our way to the paths, we got marooned a few times in deep sand and even crashed twice when the surface gave way beneath our heavy tandem tires (first crashes since Guatemala!).

In other, more global news, our trip has officially headed into it´s final phase (though there will be many chapters yet). We have purchased our flights home to be home for the holidays. That´s only like 11 weeks away. It involves some compromises in terms of what we do from here on out, but we were both feeling like it is the right move for us. We won´t be able to do the famous (and famously difficult) lagunas route into Chile from here. Also, we are going to have to hitch a bus or two to make the distance more manageable. To start the push, we are going to catch a train from here to the Argentina border, 200kms south. From there, we´re going to ride hard in northern argentina and see what happens. Wish us luck!

Big party in a small town with a bunch of teenage boys running around in homemade costumes.