The final push!! It rains all night and the wind howls through the now broken tent zip, which means we’re awake early, and inside the campsite refugio warming up and drinking tea. We can’t get going until 10am as we have to pick Chris’ blood glucose reader up from the post office (we left it …
Villa O’Higgins to El Calafate
It’s starts with a mini adventure within an adventure! On the Tuesday night before our ferry crossing on Wednesday, we go to the booking office to fill out our immigration forms and we’re told our 8am ferry crossing will now depart at 4.40am due to the predicted strong winds coming in! It’s a 7km cycle …
Chiloe, a long ferry ride and into Southern Patagonia.
Chiloe is Chile’s second largest island and yet it definitely still has that sleepy island feel, at least off the main Ruta 5 that sweeps down the middle. Everything seems to slow down, the locals are friendly and there’s always that seaside seaweed smell where ever you are. Our perfect new years wild camp on …
Heading for Patagonia!
We get a bus to Temuco. It takes 8 hours overnight and suddenly we’re in central Chile surrounded by green forests, flowing rivers and glaciated volcanoes! Our other option would have been to weave in and out of built up areas for two weeks to get here, and we’re at the point now where we …
Cycling the Calchaquies valley
We head south on the main road for twenty or so miles before turning right and heading upwards, doing a loop of the Calchaquies valley, which is meant to be an uphill climb with some hairpin bends, beautiful vistas, and a nice off-road hill section. We could carry on south on the main road and …
Argentina
The first thing I notice on crossing the border are trees, it’s been a while since I’ve seen any! We’ve only dropped maybe 200m in height but already Argentina seems greener. I’ve really missed running rivers and trees! There are still llamas but now there are also cows, sheep and donkeys. There’s more life here …
Bolivia!
We cross the tiny border at Kasani and head five miles along the shores of Lake Titicaca to Copacabana. It’s a small town with a seaside feel. Restaurants line the front with multiple small piers for the tourist boats to moor. There’s a beautiful huge white church in the Plaza de Armas that stands out …
Cusco – along the shores of Lake Titicaca into Bolivia
I’m sitting in one of the many beautiful courtyards in Cusco, Peru, enjoying the morning sun with a coffee. After almost three weeks in the stunning high altitude mountains it’s feels really good to stop and relax. Although easier said than done, when you’ve been going for so long it’s not that easy to unwind! …
Cotopaxi National Park, Ecuador
After 10 days rest and recovery, we finally pack our bags and bicycles and once again head off south. Our route will take us up and into Cotopaxi National Park, where we’ll hopefully catch a glimpse of the majestic Cotopaxi volcano. At 5,897m high it’s glaciated cone shaped peak is highly active and looks beautiful …
Ecuador!
The last two days before crossing the border into Ecuador turn out to be fairly tough, both mentally and physically. There’s been a huge landslide on the smaller road we wanted to take to the border and so we have to stay on the main road. It’s uphill for almost 25 miles! But we eventually …