I pity those folk who forgot to check the prevailing wind direction when they booked their tickets to the bottom of the world to start pedalling north. Our encounters with northbound cyclists go along the lines of 'is it this bad further north?' wincing at the mere thought of it, and, 'But I just didn't …
Continue reading Tailwinds and trespassing: Puerto Natales to Ushuaia
Winding through formerly remote parts of Chilean Patagonia, the Carretera Austral has a reputation bigger than any other road among cyclists and roadtrippers in South America. The project to connect these small and inaccessible communities began in 1976 and the most southern stretch wasn't completed until 2000. For a few years it must have been …
Continue reading Into the funnel: Coyhaique to El Chalten on the southern Carretera Austral
South of the heavy hitting tourist highlights of Bariloche and around we slowly returned to the welcoming embrace of the less tourist laden Argentina. Supermarket queues, bumper to bumper paved roads and angry honking horns were replaced with small shop chats, enthusiastic waves and quiet dirt roads. Trevelin is a former Welsh settlement and still …
Continue reading Clouds of hell-death and other fun: Trevelin to Coyhaique
One of my favourite aspects of The Very Long Bike Ride is how seemingly few decisions are left to make once you're on the road. It's a beautifully simple lifestyle. One decision always remains though, at times blindingly obvious but often not, and a thoughtful decision or a careless one can shape the following days …
Continue reading Bliss and bustle on the national park shuffle: Pucón to Trevelin
On a particularly hot and dull afternoon of cycling, somewhere in northern Argentina, we sat in the shade of one of the few available trees with our new friend Charles and dreamt of the Chilean Lakes district. Around Christmas we figured we'd be there, and we loosely decided a Christmas cabaña in Caburgua was in …
Continue reading A christmas comedy of errors: Chos Malal to Pucon
Mendoza felt like a milestone of sorts: Half way-ish down Argentina. Except when we got there I looked at the map properly and realised it was more like a third. This is a seriously large and long country. We have long known that this next stretch of riding would be testing in ways we had …
Continue reading Parrilla powered pedal pushing: Mendoza to Chos Malal
For the first days of low altitude life after descending from the Puna I am too hot, too bug-bitten, agitated and feeling I am not cut out for this style of touring. Give me the -10c nights over this any day. After weeks in the harsh desert though, it's just a matter of time before …
'But, why?' We're standing at the corner, where our direct route to Fiambala branches off the main road, chatting to couple of Argentine gentlemen who are full of questions. A sandy track signposted '4x4 only' leads into a more deserty looking area than the desert we're already in. 'Una aventura?' we offer, uncertainly. There is …
Continue reading Argentine aventura: Antofagasta to Fiambalá
The Puna de Atacama is a windswept, arid, high altitude, desert-like plateau on the border of Chile and Argentina. If you think that sounds a little inhospitable, you'd be right. But when it is not blowing a ferocious gale and exfoliating your already dry and leathery skin with airborne sand, it can be stunningly bright, …
Continue reading The Salt Road: Trails through the Argentine Puna
We develop a gluttonous olive baguette and goats cheese habit in San Pedro and when we make our early morning escape, freshly baked loaves are secured to the handlebars and an extra large slab of cheese slowly sweats in the rising temperature. A departure from 'civilisation' demands packing in a few treats you won't be …
Ten nights in San Pedro de Atacama pass us by while we swing in hammocks and eat like cyclists, though it's weeks since we've cycled. The package (Andy's new Porcelain Rocket framebag to replace a broken Ortlieb one) was due to arrive 2 weeks before us and is still MIA. On our daily pilgrimage three …
We’ve ridden into La Paz from the north twice now, and this last run couldn't have been a starker contrast to the first, as illustrated in the following figures. Figure 1. September 2016. Main road + vicious Giardia + lying on the ground for 5 minutes out of every 15. Figure 2. September 2017. The …
Continue reading The backdoor to La Paz: From Lago Titicaca to La Paz via Condoriri basecamp
Almost exactly a year ago we stood at the turnoff to Ausangate for a good 20 minutes, agonising over whether to take it. We'd had every intention to, but a solid day of overdoing it on the Salkantay trek a week before had left my knees in bad shape. Fine when walking, but barely able …
Continue reading Bikepacking Ausangate: Suckers for punishment and singletrack
With our brains full of verbs from two weeks of Spanish school in Arequipa we were itching to do some riding. A route to Cotahuasi Canyon was on the cards, but there were two good options. The answer (obviously) was to do both, forming a loop of sorts, beginning and ending in Arequipa for more …
Continue reading A loop of southern Peru: High roads, canyon hopping and baby volcanoes
"Culipampa (4,770m). A shepherd we met just before the village told me ‘Tiene de todo!’ which I thought was a bit of an exaggeration as it only has about 20 houses, but there was accommodation, restaurants and shops." – Andesbybike.com route notes Despite having been fairly warned by this description, in my mind Culipampa is …
After 5 months of riding, the bikes were due some replacement parts and some gear was showing signs of wear. Having to return to New Zealand for a while allowed us to reassess our gear. This is an updated list of All Of The Things. It's pretty nerdy, you've been warned. I've detailed the main …
Continue reading All of the things: Our South American gear list. (Version 2)
San Pedro is at once delightful and shocking. A small, cute, desert town creaking under the weight of tourism. After a slog through the Lagunas we happily throw our weight in the mix and make the most of it – eating, drinking, lazing and even taking a tour. It's a disconnected experience, travelling in an …
Continue reading Northern Chile to Argentina: Paso Sico and the end of the line
This is a day by day description of the exceptionally beautiful Lagunas route from San Juan in Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. View the route on Google Maps Download complete GPX file from San Juan to San Pedro de Atacama The route from San Juan to San Pedro de Atacama We rode this …
Continue reading Cycling the Lagunas in South-West Bolivia: Practical notes for cyclists
We try to use our brief time in the relative metropolis of Oruro to download podcasts and kindle books. Digital entertainment is running dangerously low but the wifi is predictably shit. But happily we stumble upon a health food store near the main plaza and it’s like finding Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, only instead of …
Continue reading The Bolivian Altiplano: Back in our high, dry, happy place
La Paz is a hard place to leave, but vaguely southward progress was calling – to the barren but beautiful Altiplano (volcanoes and llamas, two of my favourite things) or to descend into the lushness of the Yungas (coca plantations, villages, warmth), that was the question. We had our sights firmly on the famous, and …
Continue reading La Paz to Konani: Dust and sweat in the Yungas (and yes, we rode the Death Road)
It's downhill from here 