Arriving in San Rafael!

The last pictures of the bike trip are here!

All of a sudden we are at the end of a lot of kilometers pedaling (click here to see our final statistics). We still are a little bit surprised by it, after three days in the house of Kat's aunt in San Rafael. We have been looking forward to arriving here for a while, but felt like “what now??” when we were finally here.
I guess the end of such a long trip always comes a bit as a shock, a surprise. The sudden change of daily habits, of our travel routine: of buying the daily food supplies in a small village, filling all water bottles an hour before the day's end of cycling; of looking for a camp-spot in the afternoons, setting up the tent, cooking on our little camping stove, crawling in the sleeping bags by 8-9pm; of getting up with sunrise, packing the 6 bags each again, and pedaling pedaling pedaling...; of cleaning bikes, fixing punctures, consulting maps for the next day's planning, reading route descriptions of other bike travelers, calculating distances.

And now... no more of all this for a while: we have a bed, a room, a roof, a house, a shower, a fridge full of good food, a TV, and all the other usual commodities of everyday life. We were warmly welcomed into this – for us – “new” life by Kat's family – her 2 aunts and cousins living here whom Kat herself hadn't seen for 8 long years. So now the bikes sit in the storage room for the moment, waiting for their last big deep-clean. We will get them out again soon and strap them to the car when we begin our road trip south in a few weeks.

We left you off in the last post in Salta, a nice town in northern Argentina where we had rested for a few days. We left in the afternoon, after spending a last couple of hours in a coffee-shop with WiFi on the main plaza to email to friends and family.
Now northern Argentina has a lot of desert, long stretches of flat, sandy and rocky plains full of thorn bushes, with the occasional sand dunes, rock formations and little villages appearing out of the otherwise monotonous scenery. It looks a lot like the southwest US. We got hit with a lot of strong winds, mostly coming straight from up front slowing us down to seemingly crouching speed, making the anyway never-changing landscapes appear even more endless and unforgiving.

It was no wonder we spent the last 2 weeks in the habit of cycling some stretches, hitchhiking for half a day to get a bit further, cycling again a day and a half or so, hitchhiking again a part etc. But there were some highlights on the way worth mentioning: around Cafayate, a small touristic oasis a few days from Salta, astounding rock formations and outcrops in all shades of red-orange-purple-rose appear in the desert, giving rise to a spectacular scenery of martian beauty. A bit further south the many vineyards in the dry warm valleys with the backdrop of the mighty Andes behind were a pleasure to cycle through. Another highlight was Kat throwing up after going crazy and eating a few platefuls of meat at one of the famous Argentine grill restaurants, eating meat for the first time in years! (But it tasted so good!)

And finally Mendoza, which we reached in a 600km overnight bus ride when we had enough of monotonous deserts once more, was a very pleasant town to celebrate our near-arrival at the end with lots of local red wine (80% of Argentina's wine is produced in this region), good food, a jazzy concert in the chic Teatro Independencia and long strolls through its parks, plazas and gardens.

Kat's mom spent most of her childhood here, she emailed a small list of places we needed to visit – the parks, the hills she used to run up with her sister, the old neighborhood where we chatted with the elderly shop owner on the corner who still fondly remembers the Gabrielidis family, telling us of things distant relatives used to do. It was an extremely interesting and happy time for Kat to learn more about where her mother grew up and imagine what it must have been like for her 50 years ago. We also were able to surprisingly meet up with 8 other cyclists, who by some strange coincidence were all in Mendoza at the same time, 7 of whom we had meet and cycled with before in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and even Mexico so long ago! It was a nice reunion, we went out for wine and pizza, discussed routes and cycling experiences since our last rides together, and future plans. For the moment, it appears we are the only ones getting off the bikes: some go to New Zealand or Asia, some continue south towards Ushuaia. Maybe we'll see some again someday in Europe... who knows, the cyclo-touring world isn't too big!

We were ready to leave Mendoza after a few days – it seems like now we have a habit of quick, intense visits, we'll have to wait and see how we handle this new pause! – but not quite so ready to finish our bike trip that abruptly, having another 10 days anyway until Kat's mom would arrive. So we decided to make a small side trip on the final stretch south to San Rafael: to have a last big mountain pass on a dirt road, see the snow of the Andes once more on bikes, and maybe even get a glimpse of the highest peak of the Americas, Mt. Aconcagua on the Argentine-Chilean border.

Instead of south we headed off north to the town of Villavicencio, once more going for 50km through the well-known thorn bush desert. From there we cut across a range of the pre-Andes, climbing a last time on a dirt road from 1700 to 3200m (5,100ft to 9,600ft) altitude in 27kms (~18 miles). We camped half way up the endless switchbacks in a loop of the road, the only spot for many km/miles with a few trees and a flat spot – and great views. It was a windy night, and the next morning turned out even windier still, so that the next ~20kms to the top were quite a hard ride and push against the gusting winds. It took us forever to get to the top and turned out to be one of the slowest average speeds we had all year (26km in 4 hours). Once there we had to eat our lunch sheltered by a small crypt, and riding down on the other side required strong pedaling to get down the hill against the wind – it was nearly impossible to stand still holding the bikes, we got nearly pushed over several times. And of course it was still headwind regardless of all the twists and turns in the road (Murphy's law for cyclists)!

Finally we made it down into a huge broad desert valley, the snow-covered peaks of the central Andes in view, to the small town of Uspallata, passing through the region where the movie “Seven Years In Tibet” was filmed (so, it was not filmed in Tibet … we wonder now how many other movies we may have seen thinking it shows the landscapes of this or that place the movie is about, while it actually was filmed on some other continent ... do movies make us stupid and ignorant in this way too??).

In Uspallata we splurged for a rather upper-class hotel with WiFi, towels, shampoo and conditioner in the showers, and an all-you-can-eat (and we can eat a lot..) breakfast buffet. So we started off rather late due to the buffet, heading finally south towards San Rafael – but had to stop cycling after 10km. The winds were even stronger than yesterday, and it was just impossible to keep riding. We got blown off the road onto the side a few times just by the wind, and again each time a semi truck passed. It was nearly impossible to stay on the bike and road. Yesterday we were on a lonely dirt road which was bad enough but today we were on the major highway in between Chile and Argentina, and quickly realized how dangerous the trucks could be if we tried to continue. So we reluctantly caught a ride with a friendly baker. We were really disappointed; it was a shame we had to stop because of this wind – we were going through a gorgeous canyon in the car, wishing we could have pedaled all the way in these last biking days.
But 80km further the winds subsided finally, so we could get out of the car and continued south on our own power. We made it all the way to a small village called Paraditos, with a now light back wind we were going fast and reaching our best average ever, doing over 100km (>60miles) in just under 4 hours. It was our last night of camping, our last night of a long trip, a last night with the bikes attached to a tree next to the tent in a public garden full of barbecues and little tables.... the end. sniff, sniff...

A few more hours of pedaling against winds through thorn bush deserts brought us the next day quickly to San Rafael, to the house of Aunt Neni. Showers, a few washing machine loads of dirty clothes and a lot of relaxing being fed home-made gnocchi and pasta while catching up on family goings-on with Neni, Aunt Silvia, cousins Tuti and Gregorio, meeting new cousin-niece Renata. And here we are, impatient for Kat's mom to arrive in 2 days. We aren't totally sure when we will begin our trip south, we're taking it day by day and will try not to get sucked back into the luxuries of bed, couch, and kitchen!

how far, how long, how high, how fast??

Yeah!
We have arrived!
And after a near year of cycling, here are the raw facts of the trip:
statistics we have carefully collected over the year...

	Kms	Miles
Total distance traveled	22,853	14,283	Total distancia viajado
By bike	12,589	7,868	En bicicleta
By hitchhike	4,594	2,871	En autostop
By bus	4,663	2,914	En bus
By boat	1,107	629	En barco
Countries visited	13		Paises visitado
Total days traveled	349	11/11/08 - 21/10/09	Total dias viajado
Total days cycled	190		Total dias ido en bici
Average days cycled per month	17		Promedio dias viajado por mes
Average distance biked per month	1,095	684	Promedio distancia ido en bici por mes
Total hours on bike	775:54:00		Total horas ciclando
Average weight of baggage (without food)	Swen: ~25kg / 55 lbs	Kat: 20 kg / 44 lbs	Promedio peso del equipaje (sin comida)
Number of flats	13		Cantidad de pinchazos
Rims replaced	3		Aros quebrados
Cyclists met on the road	57		Cuantos ciclo-touristas encontrado en el camino
Highest speed	101 km/h	62 mph	Velocidad maxima
Fastest average speed in a day	102 km in 4 hours	63 miles/4 hours	Promedio velocidad mas rapida en 1 dia
Slowest average speed in a day	26 km in 4 hours	16 miles/4 hours	Promedio velocidad mas baja en 1 dia
Longest distance traveled in a day	136 km	85 miles	Distancia mas larga viajado en 1 dia
Highest point reached by bike	4830 m	14,490 ft	Punto mas alto llegado en bici
Coldest night	-10 °C	15 °F	Noche mas fria
Hottest day	50 °C ?	120 ºF ?	Dia mas caliente

Chile to Argentina

look at the high deserts here

and don't forget to look at the pictures from La Paz to Potosi that we finally were able to upload here!

After a short break of one night in Chile in the warmness of the Atacama desert oasis it was time to get back up into the cold, high Andes to cross to Argentina together with our Swiss friends Christelle and Manu. We had to get back up to over 4000m and climb the 2000m altitude we had rolled down the afternoon before, but quickly decided to stop any available transport to get back to the point we had been at yesterday, as it would have taken us whole day riding back the way we had come. We got lucky with a ride and little later started cycling again up at 4000m.

For 4 days we didn't pass any village, no houses, just deserts in all its possible shapes, forms and colors: sand, stone, rocks, canyons, in red-orange-gray-brown-yellow. It often looked like photos taken on planet Mars, or a painting from Salvador Dali. But it was incredible – every few kilometers, every curve in the road brought new surprises and beautiful scenes to admire, it kept on getting better and better. It was still very windy, especially in the afternoons, luckily it wasn't always headwind!

The forlorn border post of Argentina half way was the only human sign of life we saw, and we were greatly admired by the border officials for coming through here by bike. The winds were very strong the whole way, but luckily mostly from the back. One day the back wind was so strong that we broke our speed record going down a long straight slight downhill: we went at 101km/h (65mph)!!! The same day we reached a new maximum altitude as well: 4830m (14,500ft). However finding a campsite with some sort of wind shelter was difficult – we tried to find little ditches or holes on the side of the road, anything to get out of the wind and cold. But this part of road led us really through some of the most impressive landscapes we have seen since the beginning of our trip – so out-worldly and different! Just look at the photos...

Finally we had reached the eastern edge of the Andes, and dropped down 2000m (6000ft) in just 30km down into the valleys of Argentina. We stayed for a night in the small touristic town of Purmamarca in a hostel, surrounded by the colorful rock walls that make the village a tourist destination. From here the road followed river valleys, dropping further down towards San Salvador de Jujuy and the village of El Carmen, were we got for the first time into the comfort of using the famous and bike-traveler-loved municipal campgrounds that abound in Argentina. We were the only guests on the huge campgrounds, enjoyed sitting on tables for cooking and eating dinner under the large trees, and not freezing while doing so as temperatures were again like summer! The climatic changes we often rapidly go through on this trip are really extreme...

One more day of cycling finally brought us to the big town of Salta. We are lucky to be hosted here by a nice Argentinian family in the “Casa de Ciclistas”, where we can relax and enjoy being back in a developed country and its luxuries and pleasantries. We enjoyed two good bottles of Argentinian wine last night with a pizza to celebrate our arrival in the last country on our trip, and thus leave you all with a big CHEERS till we reach Kat's aunts in Mendoza in a few weeks!!

End of Bolivia to Chile

click here for the pictures of the trip to Chile

We were excited to leave Potosi and get to Uyuni: we would be one step closer to the Salar de Uyuni which we had been dreaming about for a few months, but the 4 day journey to get there over a horrible dirt road tempered that excitement a bit. We were again with Chloe and Nicolas, while Manu and Christelle, our new Swiss cyclist friends would be meeting us in a few days as they were recovering from some (surprise!) stomach problems in Potosi. The first day and a half were fine, but then we got hit hard by a strong headwind, this in combination with the uphill bad dirt road made for a miserable few hours. There were no cars or trucks on the road so we couldn't even hitchhike part of the way. Halfway through the 3rd day the two of us decided we didn't want to suffer anymore on this road and flagged down the only truck that had passed all day. The others decided to tough it out – fine for them, but we were very happy to get out of there. We rode the last 65km to Uyuni in the truck and checked into a hotel, had hot showers and good food.

The next day we spent organizing the trip into the Salar for the 6 of us. After a few hours we found a decent tour operator who was able to work around our special needs (traveling with 6 bikes!) and booked things, got our Bolivia exit stamps for the passport and did some shopping. The others arrived exhausted a few hours later, telling horror stories of the wind, bad road and steep climbs. Phew! We were all the much happier to have avoided another 1 ½ days of wind, dust, rocks and dirt. So we had a nice dinner together after they cleaned up, all excited for the journey to come.

We organized the trip so that we were able to cycle out to the Salar, sleep in it for 2 nights and the third morning would be picked up by a Land Cruiser at the “island” (a sort of oasis 80km into the salt flats) and continue for the next 2 days up to the Chilean border. We didn't want to ride the whole way: some cyclists have done it but it requires you to carry food and water for about a week, and even then you wouldn't be cycling much – you would be pushing the bike through deep sand or over washboard, struggling to go about 40 km a day. Not our idea of fun, especially as we wanted to be able to put our attentions on the scenery and not on the ground! From before the border we would get out with Manu and Christelle and cross to Chile, to San Pedro de Atacama, then make the 7 day ride, crossing over the Andes (thankfully!) for the last time and arriving in Salta, Argentina. Chloe and Nicolas would go back to Uyuni with the tour and continue their journey on a different route.

So we happily set out in the morning on a descent semi-paved road to the edge of the Salar de Uyuni. To the left of us the edge of the salt flat emerged already from time to time on the way there, and the vast openness of it enveloped us when we finally drove out onto the Salar. Large parts of Bolivia and northern Argentina and Chile used to be covered by a huge pre-historic ocean, which dried up and left behind the Salars, huge salt flats hundreds of square kilometers large and up to tens of meters deep. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat (nearly half the size of Switzerland!), and it is huge and flat and white and bright and barren. On the edge of it some salt mining was going on, but a few kilometers into it no more signs of life – animal, plant or human – remained. And you can see the curve of the earth on its horizon very clearly, things just disappear after a few kilometers...

We rode some 10km into the Salar, then stopped at a ex-hotel built out of salt, now mainly functioning as a museum due to environmental constraints. Camping in the middle of this nothingness was an interesting experience, and especially sunset and sunrise were spectacular! The next morning we had 65km more to go to get to the “island” in the Salar, and it turned out that cycling on the Salar for an extended period makes time pass really slowly, it seems we didn't advance at all as nothing changes and there is nothing to look at – it was like we were riding the wrong way on a moving sidewalk, getting nowhere. The island was visible for hours, but didn't seem to get any closer no matter how hard we were pedaling against the strong head winds.

Finally we made it, and due to the winds decided to take shelter in a sort of school room in a house on the island. We made a very nice group dinner and slept well. The next morning after breakfast we packed up and took lots of (surreal) pictures before getting picked up to start our tour.

There were too many to put into our normal slide show, so to see these pictures click here

We loaded the car with our things and drove south, exiting the Salar and entering the “Ruta de las Lagunas” (lake route) which took us past salty lakes filled with pink flamingos, through the “Salvador Dali Desert,” the “Arbol de Piedra” (stone tree), the Laguna Colorada – the water bright pink due to organisms in the water. We went to some sulfurous hot springs – only Swen, Manu and Christelle got in (the algae grossed the rest of us out) and some bubbling, muddy geysers. We saw rock formations carved by the wind, and at the end of the second day we arrived at Laguna Verde – bright turquoise green due to mineral deposits in the water. Apparently without the strong winds the lake wouldn't have the same color – for the green to appear the winds need to stir up the water a bit. In all it was a surreal desert landscape full of volcanoes, lakes and rocks in weird colors and shapes at 4000-5000m altitude (12,000-15,000ft). We were thankful we were able to stay in a hostel the last night – it was sooo cold and windy camping; even inside the house it was 5ºC / XºF!

In the morning we said our goodbyes to Chloe and Nicolas and our driver and the 4 of us headed towards Chile. The road was still unpaved but rideable here. We quickly made it to the border where we checked out of Bolivia and unfortunately (as we would have to climb back up next morning!) had to roll down 2000m to the town of San Pedro de Atacama for our Chilean entry stamps.

We arrived by noon in the super touristy little town at the north end of the Atacama Desert – the worlds driest desert, it was really very cute and nice, and it was warm here, so good after all the cold of the last weeks! We found a nice hostel where we took hot showers and again set upon the work of preparing for the next few days – it never ends!

This time we had to shop for the night's dinner ingredients, and also for food for the next 4 days. The stretch from here to Salta would take about a week, but for the first 2 days there would be no water and no food for the first 4 days. We found a nice shop, bought all our supplies and divided them up between the 4 of us, leaving just enough room for the 8 liters of water each was carrying. A fine bottle of Chilean wine drunk on the plaza of the cute town finished our evening.

Bolivia: La Paz to Potosi

more photos have now finally been uploaded... they are here

After some nice days in the crazy bustling city of La Paz we left again with Chloe and Nicolas, heading east towards Cochabamba. But La Paz lays in a deep valley, it was quite a drop down on a big motorway from the Altiplano into town, and we were all not very keen to spend half the day cycling through heavy city traffic on a motorway uphill. Therefore we spent a bit over an hour on the morning we left looking for a truck who could take us and the bikes the 20kms and 700m up out of town, back onto the Altiplano. We were lucky to find an affordable and nice one that saved our day, saved us probably 2 hours of climbing – and our lungs from the city pollution. The cycling was easy on the flat Altiplano, we were refreshed from our rest days and happily moving on. However, we quickly got bored of the landscape – it wasn't the idyllic serene Altiplano we had crossed in Peru, but a brown, dusty, trash blowing around sadness – so we decided to hitch a ride in a truck to get a bit further. A few hours and 150kms later we arrived in a disgusting and filthy town where the 4 of us shared a hostel room, cooked our dinner and tried not to touch anything and use the bathroom only if absolutely necessary. From there it was a nice 2 days ride to Cochabamba over a 4460m pass, through a beautiful canyon area and into an agricultural valley. We arrived on Cochabamba's Anniversary so there were parades and parties at night, everyone was out and about.

We only spent one day in town before heading off again as we were anxious to get to the village where Kat lived during Peace Corps times 8 years before. So it was time to say goodbye to Chloe & Nicolas, and cycle for the first time in a long while by ourselves again. It took us a bit to get out of town and its suburbs, but the area continued to be densely settled and accordingly trashed and dirty for the next 50km. So again we decided its not worth spending our time cycling through ugly areas, besides there was a heavy wind and storm clouds coming up behind us. We ended up in another truck for some 100km till the little town of Epizana. Kat spent the whole night here unhappily on the toilet, and thus was totally exhausted the next morning – therefore she needed to rest in our room till midday and then was still feeling weak so we hitched a ride again, this time in an old semi-truck that broke down less than half way to our destination. Luckily we got quickly another ride on a totally overpopulated truck till late at night, and luckily again some of the other “passengers” shared their warm blankets with us as it got freezing cold after dark. We got stranded in a small town hotel for the night, where Kat recovered over night from her toilet visits so that the next morning we could get back on our bikes towards Vallegrande.

Vallegrande is the next biggest town to the village of Pucara where Kat lived years ago, and she had come here for market supplies every couple of weeks. So lots of memories came back up while we walked over the towns nice plazas and through the little alleys and revisited some of the places she had stayed at and the market she had shopped at. Unfortunately her favorite restaurant at the time is now only open at weekends, and it wasn't a weekend, but the town is lovely and we had a good time strolling around. From here it was a days ride to Pucara on difficult and very very steep and windy dirt roads that made us push the bikes a lot of the way. Still we got there in the late afternoon.

It was such a shock for her to see the old village suddenly (if you can call 8 years suddenly), changed from a town of 250 people with no electricity or running water to a prosperous town with electricity, plumbing (flush toilets!!), water, a new hostel and several restaurants, a new hospital, a new school house, the plaza was being rebuilt as well as a new “stadium” and 3 big greenhouses with many plants filling them – Kat had built the first and smallest of the greenhouses and it was still there but a little run down. There were even trash bins on the plaza. So after getting over the initial shock, she got a warm welcome by some friends who were still there and invited us to coffee and cakes. We got all the news on those who Kat knew back then – the high-school kids are now mostly studying in the University in Santa Cruz (departmental capital) or have finished studies and are working, married and/or having their 2^nd or 3^rd kids, the husband of a friend is now the mayor (responsible for the improvements in the town) and the parents and teachers are still around. It was a nice surprise to see how well everyone was doing.

We took the next day to walk about 10kms to the small town of La Higuera to visit the Che Guevarra museum/shrine that an Argentine volunteer had been working on during Kat's time there. This was the town where he had been captured and killed in 1967. It had been finished and the volunteer long since gone, the museum was extremely well done and interesting. The log book shows many tourists arriving daily to visit and the walls full of little notes from admirers and fans of the revolutionist and guerrilla war-farer. Fortunately we got a ride back into town where we quickly packed up our stuff, had some more coffee with friends and said goodbye – Kat didn't want to get stuck here for another year and a half we decided to make it a quick trip – as the bus arrived to take us to Sucre – another improvement! In Kat's day there was no transport besides a big truck that could take you to Vallegrande and now there are daily buses going from Pucara to Sucre. We thought we would have had to bike the horrible dirt road out again but were pleasantly surprised to learn we didn't have to back track and could go direct on the bus.

It was a good decision to take the bus. The trip on bike would have taken several days and been a bit rough, and we were glad to arrive in Sucre more or less rested and able to appreciate the colonial town and Judicial Capital of Bolivia. We quickly found a decent hostel and explored the city with its many nice plazas, got our clothes washed, did some interneting, called home, traded books, and even watched movies in a local gringo bar in the evening. They were showing one night an interesting documentary called “The Devil's Miner” on a 14-year old boy working on the silver mines of Cerro Rico in Potosi, our next destination.

The road to Potosi climbs a lot, as we had to get back to the heights of the Altiplano, leading mostly through more desert canyon landscapes constantly up and down, and so we were accordingly exhausted after 112km in the mountains on the first day back on the road. We only really pushed ourselves to get that far as the tiny dirty village of Betanzos is the only settlement on the way to Potosi with a hotel. And it was Kat's birthday next day, we thought it nice to be able to sleep in a bed and prepare a nice birthday breakfast next morning with fresh supplies from town. And so we did, with fried eggs and tomatoes, good bread, a nice tea and some apple cake from the local bakery.

Swen had a throbbing headache though, maybe from being back at the altitudes, and so we stopped cycling after the first 10km on the road and boarded a bus for the last 35km to Potosi. Once we arrived we found a hostel recommended by other cyclists we met on the road (valued for it's ground floor rooms – meaning no lifting the bikes up any stairs!) we rested and cleaned up, did some shopping, walked around the plaza, had some coffee, traded some books, and in the evening met up with our French friends for a special birthday dinner for Kat and Nicolas (his was the next day) which included a bottle of wine and champagne!

During the 16^th and 17^th centuries Potosi was the biggest city in the world, bigger than Paris or London at the time. It lays on the foothills of Cerro Rico, the “Rich Mountain”, which contained the richest silver veins in the world. Over the years of Spanish rule hundreds of thousands of TONS of silver were extracted from the mountain, around 8 million people, most indigenous slaves, are believed to have died in the mines during these years. By the locals it is still called “the mountain who eats men alive.” A few thousand miners continue working in the mines today under medieval conditions and non-existent safety measures, many of them being children. We experienced the mines the next day on a guided tour.

Today mainly Zinc, Lead, Copper and only some low quality silver are extracted from the about 400 mines crisscrossing the mountain. Our guide was an ex-miner himself, who had us buy some coca leaves, dynamite, cigarettes and sodas on the miner's market in town before we headed off. Before we entered the Rosario mine, exploited for over 250 years, he showed us how to use the dynamite outside – it made a HUGE blast, crazy!! In a small group of 5 people we headed into the tunnels. We followed the rails a few hundred meters into the mountain, when all of a sudden we heard shouting and metal grinding on the rails. Our guide made us all run back a few meters in the tunnel to a little opening where we all crouched to the side just in time for four men speeding past, hand-pushing a wagon containing two tons of mineral rubble. Quite exciting!

The tunnel system was huge, lots of little shafts branching constantly off up and down and to all sides; we would probably have gotten lost in there instantly without a guide. Temperatures varied from below freezing on the first few hundred meters, with icicles hanging from the low ceilings, to above 35°C (95°F) on the lower levels and further inside the mountain. We crouched through low tunnels – luckily we all had helmets – climbed through holes in the ground to the lower levels, waded through water and mud, froze and sweated. We penetrated nearly a kilometer into the mountain to finally see some of the miners at work, shoveling rocks into the wagons, hammering the walls, showing us little glittering pieces of mineral traces in the stone. The coca and soda we bought were for them – and it was all very gratefully received. We visited as well the temple of the “god” of the miners, the “Tio”, a devil mud figure with horns and a giant penis in a side tunnel, adorned with coca leaves, cigarettes and lots of confetti. We all gave him our offerings of coca, cigarettes and alcohol, praying to not get buried here. Shortly after a very muffled blast left us all shocked. Our guide assured us that the explosion was way off our way and no danger to us. Still, being deep inside a huge mountain in a very narrow tunnel and hearing dynamite explosions isn't the most reassuring feeling... we were worried our offerings to the Miner's Devil hadn't been sufficient. So we were glad when after over two hours in the mines we emerged eye-blinking back into the sunlight.

The rest of the day we spent relaxing some more and preparing for our morning departure to the Salar de Uyuni (the famous salt flats) which would take us 3-4 days to reach and another few to cross, then through the Lagunas Coloradas region and on into Chile. This time we would be 6: the 2 of us, our 2 French friends again, and another French-Swiss couple we met as well. The more the merrier because the next 10 days or so would be rough cycling.

We'll write more from Chile or Argentina! Until then!

Cuzco, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia

for more pictures of the last days in Peru and Lake Titicaca click here

We left Calca after a nice pancake breakfast with Andreas and goodbyes to our new friends. The road was flat, the sun was shining, we were clean and rested, we would be on paved roads for the next few weeks, and we felt good. It was great to get back on the bikes again after such a nice break and we were excited for new adventures. We had only one last climb over two days to a pass of 4300m/12,900ft before we would reach the Altiplano – the high Andean plains stretching from southern Peru to Bolivia and northern Chile. We would still be at or above 3700m/11,100ft for the next 800km/~500miles or so but it would be mostly totally flat. Although the ascent was extremely gradual and we were rested and eager to be moving again we felt slow – it seems that after breaks of longer than 4 days your butt forgets about the bike saddle and you have to spend a few days breaking it in again.

We had noticed that with the exception of a few days, during our nearly two months in Peru we had traveled with other cyclists we met along the way – a much different way of traveling for us than the previous 7 months of cycling pretty much by ourselves. It had been nice and fun, but now we were also enjoying being the two of us again. That changed the 2nd day out of Calca – we stopped for the night to camp at some hot springs along the highway and met a French couple traveling on recumbent bikes who were also heading towards Bolivia. We rode together the following day, enjoyed each others company and so happily accepted that Peru would be a group-cycling experience for us. And it is for the better because with Peru's steep and constant climbs it feels much easier in a group to tackle and get over these mountains. And after the initial confusion mixing up French and Spanish, Kat was happy to know she hadn't forgotten all her “francais” 1.5 years after leaving Africa!

Once over the pass into the Altiplano the scenery changed incredibly. We felt open and free in these high plains, the riding was easy, the weather was nice and we were happy. The Altiplano is a special place. There is this feeling of loneliness, of a land without boundaries, of wide open spaces in this general scarcity and barrenness without trees. It reminded Swen a lot of the Tibetan plains he had cycled through many years ago. We marveled at large flocks of pink flamingos along the high altitude marshes and lakes.

We visited ancient pre-Incan and Incan burial towers made of large stones on a little peninsula in a lake off the road. The Incas frequently adopted the beliefs and traditions of the people they conquered, and continued them in their own way. A stark contrast to the destruction of the Spanish conquerors. Finally we made it to Puno, and had our first glimpses of Lake Titicaca – a massive body of water 230km long and 100km wide (130x60 miles) at 3800m/11,400 ft altitude!

From a small city on the coast we took together with our French friends Chloë & Nicolas a very slow boat the 35km over calm blue waters to Amantani Island – no electricity or running water, no cars or motorbikes, we only saw one bicycle on this island with no roads only stone-paved walkways.

Along the way we stopped briefly at the famous “floating islands” - Aymara speaking natives created these islands out of reeds that are tied together really tight, and then fixed with rope anchors to the ground of the lake floor. Some little huts they live in are made out of reeds as well, and the boats and firewood are reeds as well. They seem to use reeds for everything, they even eat it and called it the “Lake Titicaca Banana”! Today these islands are mainly a tourist attraction, but it was still very interesting to see how these people really still live on these floating islands that can be moved around the lake with wind and water currents.

We stayed 2 days on the non-floating island of Amantani with a family recommended by Andreas to relax and experience the Quechua island life. It was beautiful and calm, the only nuisance was that whatever intestinal bugs Kat had before came back again for what seemed like the 10th time in two months.

Returning to mainland, the 4 of us shared a room at the hotel where we had stored our bikes the past few days and prepared for the 4 day ride through Copacabana on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca to La Paz. Unfortunately Swen's intestinal bugs came back as well and so the two of us were in bed most of the afternoon, hoping to be able to head off the next morning.

Luckily that was possible, and so the 4 of us were cruising next morning at high speed in a Tour-de-France like racing line over the flats over the Altiplano. Our last night in Peru after nearly 2 months in this mountainous country we camped on the shore of the Titicaca lake, with great views of the Cordillera Central of the Andes on the other side of the lake in Bolivia, with lots of snow on it. We woke up to perfect sunshine on the shore, had a nice breakfast, and headed off towards the border to Bolivia.

The border formalities were quick and easy, but the $135 visa Kat had to buy made a big dent in our monthly travel budget (only Americans are charged that much, in revenge against US border formalities towards Bolivians). In the small beach town of Copacabana just after the border we stopped for a fried trout lunch, then had to climb over the mountains of a big peninsula in the lake towards the ferry to mainland Bolivia.

It got late that night on the climb, and we had a very hard time finding a camp-spot. It was all just open grasslands, and mostly quite steep terrain. The few flat spots were all very visible from the road, and we don't like camping somewhere were we can be seen from the road. So we headed on and on, starting to get tired and frustrated of not finding a spot to camp, thinking of having to ride in the dark till the next village with a hostel. We disregarded camp-spot after camp-spot as none of them were ideal, and pushed on till the start of dusk, when finally we found a small dirt road leading off to the left onto a ridge. There we could camp, as we were far enough off the main road, and had a great view with the lake to both sides of the ridge. We fell to bed without a proper dinner that night, being too tired to cook...

Early the next morning we reached the ferry at the narrowest spot of the Lake Titicaca, only 600m wide here, and crossed on an old wooden boat just big enough for the bus that was with us on it to mainland Bolivia. We continued following the lake shore, the sun was nice and warm, very nice riding.

It took us another 1 ½ days to get to La Paz, the crazy capital of Bolivia nestled in a steep gorge that cuts abruptly through the plains of the surrounding Altiplano. Already on the plains we had to head through kilometers of ugly suburbs, till reaching the sudden drop-off to the city with some crazy views of crowded city center and snowy mountains surrounding it.

We are housed here in La Paz in another Casa de Ciclistas, we have met our old cycling companion Max from Austria again, we cook lots of good food with Chloë & Nicolas (they make great crepes) and have hour-long breakfasts to put on some extra kilos (Swen is 4 kg down for the first time in 15 years!!! He was shocked about it. Kat on the other hand...).

La Paz is a bustling, busy town with street markets all over, a big shaman market where lots of Llama fetuses are sold (you have to bury one under the first stone of the house you build for good luck), abounding artesania shops all over, and a modern banking and shopping district. We enjoy the rest, the city, strolling around and getting sucked into the bustling street life. In 2 days we plan to get back on the bikes and head towards the small town of Pucara, where Kat lived 8 years ago.

all around Machu Picchu

wanna see Machu Picchu???? Click here

HeyHo!! He we are sitting again in Andreas' & Marianne's house in El Valle Sagrado del Inca. Ten days have gone past since we arrived, and besides resting and cooking lots, we have made an adventurous 4 day trip to Machu Picchu and a 2 day visit to Cuzco.

Our house has a nice garden, and steps to sit in the sun and watch the bit of snow left on the rocky tip of a mountain, the afternoon sun shines on the agricultural terraces built by the Inca centuries ago. El Valle Sagrado was the main agricultural zone of the Incas to support Cuzco with its 200,000 inhabitants, the capital of the Inca empire stretching from southern Colombia to northern Chile and Argentina. Calca is a nice little town, with 2 plazas next to each other, a lively daily market, and last week its town party for one of the many saints. We saw one of the many processions for the saint, his giant statue being carried by about ten men through town, with a marching band following, and further on groups of dancers with wooden masks and great costumes dancing to drumplay. The whole week there was a big fair around the plazas, with a small ferris wheel and a pottery market selling lots of huge pots and vases burnt in the fire – a pity we can't take some on the bikes, they were great. We feel all around comfortable and are sooo happy Andreas and his family welcome us so nicely into their house with pisco sours – especially as we hadn't ever met before! (Andreas is a good friend of Swen's brother, they met 5 years ago traveling in Peru.)

After 3 ½ days of rest here we started off to visit Machu Picchu. In order to avoid paying the incredible fees to get into the area we took a less traveled route to the site. Most travelers either hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, a 4 day hike and then to the ruins, then a train back to Cuzco, or take a train there and back; the whole thing could cost anywhere from $300 to $500 per person! It is prohibited to hike the Inca Trail without an expensive guide, meaning we couldn't do it on our own, so we decided we would take a bus several hours to a small village where we would hike down the valley for 8 km then along the railroad tracks for another 11 km to get to the town of Aguas Calientes. We would stay there the night and in the very early morning (3am!) make the 5km steep hike up to the ruins, stay until around noon when we would hike back down and along the tracks and up the valley to the town again. Then the plan was to stay there that night and the next morning would take the bus back to Calca.

Well, it almost worked out that way! We had a couple of strange adventures and pleasant surprises along the way to extend the trip by a day and a half. It all started on the bus to Santa Maria. We flew along a windy, steep mountain road over a high pass (4300m) then back down to the jungle-like valley (1500m) where we began our hike. The bus trip took longer than we thought because only half was on paved road so we only had time to hike 2 kms down to the river to some hot springs we were told we could camp at.

Tired, head still spinning from the nauseating but beautiful bus ride, and dusty we arrived to the most beautiful, peaceful, relaxing thermal baths and were greeted by Peru's most friendly workers. What a treat! We soaked in the pools – several very large stone pools with hot water coming out of the rock to fill them, with a little cold water waterfall spilling into another pool to cool off under it. A large green field was just across the pools waiting for us to sleep on the soft grass. Felix, the guard we made friends with, told us about a lesser known back entrance to Machu Picchu that we could take in order to save a little money on the outrageously high entry fees.

Happily and excitedly we set off in the morning towards Aguas Calientes. It was a nice, peaceful walk along the train tracks, huge flocks of parrots squawking as they flew overhead. We didn't carry much, the two small backpacks we borrowed from Andreas were all that we had, mostly filled with snacks, water and food.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes in early afternoon, quickly found an affordable hostel to shower and organize. We would only take a small bag full of sandwiches and water with us to the ruins. It was a quaint, picturesque town, filled to the brim with foreigners and restaurants and bars competing for business with 4 for 1 drink specials, free appetizers, etc. We strolled around town for a while, taking in the sights and drinks, but had to go to bed early because of the planned 3 am departure to arrive just before sunrise at the ruins and avoid the majority of crowds.

The alarm woke us to the sound of a big downpour – it was raining like crazy. We decided to wait it out a bit, but by 4:30 it was barely sprinkling so we set out with a faster pace to still arrive by or close to daybreak. Sweat had completely soaked our clothes by the time we were about 2/3 of the way up the steep 3 mile (5km) climb, but then we didn't have to worry about smelling bad because it had started to rain again. Slipping and sliding, clutching on to plants and trees, scrambling through dense bush to get through the back entrance, light was coming and we hurried to get in. After what seemed like an eternity we made it through, albeit a little muddy, sticks and leaves in our hair, with torn pants (Kat's) and completely soaked through. The sun couldn't break through the rain and clouds, so we shivered as we walked in the fog around the amazing stone buildings, apparently the only ones who didn't have rain ponchos.

Finally around 9am the sun conquered the clouds and rain – being able to dry off and warm up, we could finally fully appreciate the outstanding beauty of the ruins and its location on a high ridge, and take some amazing pictures. It was such an impressive sight to see as the clouds faded away and we found ourselves surrounded by mountain peaks and the neighborhood-like network of Incan houses and temples.

Happy to have experienced this world wonder, we started the hike down to pick up our bags in the hostal and set off on the ~19 km (~12 miles) hike back to the hot springs. There is a train we could have taken part-way but unfortunately they stop selling tickets 30 minutes before departure – we arrived just a few minutes late. Not even offers of bribes or tearful explanations of 'how tired our legs were to walk anymore' succeed in getting on. So we had to walk. It wasn't that bad, we made it half way more or less quickly, with a quick dip in a small river to cool off, and then took a taxi the last 8kms to town. After early dinner we walked the 2kms back down the hot springs and practically dove into the hot pools the second we arrived.

It was amazing how sore our legs were – apparently biking uses completely different leg muscles than hiking, and we had walked over 25km (~15miles) today! The hot water helped to relax the calves a bit, and massaging each others legs even more. Still, the next morning we could barely walk, the legs were still so sore. So we treated ourselves to a taxi ride to the town, then waited for a few hours for the bus, but ended up hitching in a big truck when we learned it would still be a few hours more to wait for the bus. Again we were on the narrow, winding mountain roads with crazy bus drivers. We got into Calca after dark, stumbled home and crashed out quickly. What an adventurous 4 days these were!

It took another day relaxing for our legs to recover sufficiently to make a 2-day trip to the city of Cuzco. And what a wonderful time we had! It definitely renewed our faith in our youthfulness! We have been feeling like we are getting a little old: waking up early, eating healthy, in bed by 9pm.... we haven't lead such an exciting night life lately! We got off the bus about 10km out of town in order to walk past 3 other major archaeological sites. The ruins were interesting and impressive – one called Saqsaywaman, or, to the local 12 year old boys “sexy woman”. We didn't go in them as the tourist ticket required to get in is pretty expensive, but got good peaks from along the walkway.

Cuzco is a very easy city to wander around, there are many things to see: museums, artesania markets, food markets, plazas, european style restaurants – and most of all just the narrow cobblestone streets wit its old Inca foundation walls and colonial building on top. We stayed in a wonderful hostel with a great terrace view of the city, and even the Plaza de Armas could be marveled at from our room window.

Cuzco used to be the capital of the Inca Empire, so when the Spanish conquered it they had a lot of work to do to try to destroy as much of the old temples of the Incas as possible, and built their own churches right on top of them. Luckily some of the structures of the Incas are built with such massive stone blocks, that the Spaniards had some problems destroying it all, and thus just had to built on top or around certain parts – they are now the main tourist attraction and their precise stone-masonry work is really impressive.

The town has lots of good cafes and restaurants, a nice nightlife, lots of art and music, and lots of travelers and “alternative” folk. So we had a good night out in a little bar with live jazz-funk music by great musicians, and went to bed after midnight for the first time in months. Are we getting old or not???

Before taking the bus back to Calca the next afternoon, we wandered more through town, saw some Inca mummies in a museum, and had a HUGE and delicious falafel pita in one of the steep stairway alleys. By late afternoon we reached “our” house in Calca, and had a nice night with our friends. We will enjoy another day or two of rest here, before we will get back on our bikes to head towards Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian border. It's been a great break from the bikes and we feel refreshed and very happy to be out of the mountains – at least for now!