Author Archives: Jason

Leaving the altiplano and entering Peru

This past week we’ve been moving quickly towards Cusco. We had an exiting exit from La Paz, a beautiful ride along Lake Titicaca, and have entered our 7th country: Peru!

Country number 7: Peru!

After taking a day to let our legs recover from our hike, we got up very early to leave La Paz before traffic picked up. Unfortunately, Daisy got a flat tire 3 blocks down the street! We changed the tube on the sidewalk while avoiding a couple puddles that were probably urine, based on the smell. It seems that people just pee all over the place in this city.

Flat tire in downtown La Paz

Crazy traffic in El Alto. We dodged cars, trucks, buses, and minibuses, and all the people trying to get rides or walk across the street!

After escaping the traffic, we found ourselves back in the flat altiplano. Soon enough, we were riding along the famous Lake Titicaca. We took a short ferry (actually a small wooden raft) with a couple cars and then climbed our way up and over the hill to get to Copacabana. The road wound along the ridge and we could see the lake on both sides. It was beautiful!

Back on flat roads in the altiplano

These guys pushed our ferry (aka raft) off the dock before turning on a small motor. We shared the boat with 2 cars, although it looked like 3 or 4 could fit.

The road wound up the hills and we got great views of Lake Titicaca.

Our bikes get a break

The next day we entered Peru, and we felt the difference immediately. The people are very friendly! A lot of people smile and wave to us as we ride by. Also, there are a lot more bicycles, cargo tricycles, and motorcycle taxis. In general, people seem to be a bit happier and a lot less reserved. When we stopped for our picnic lunch the first day, a woman with 4 cows sat down nearby and chatted with us.

The wheat was cut and set to dry

One of many motorcycle-trucks

A fishing village along Lake Titicaca.

Cut reeds drying in the sun. Along the road there were ladies tying them together to make mats.

Our first city in Peru: Puno.

Many of the small towns have municipal sports stadiums. Most of them have livestock inside!

Cargo tricycle traffic in Juliaca

Meeting Erik and Garbi, a friendly Spanish couple that have been heading south since Mexico.

Alpacas along the road

Snowy mountains as we head up our first Peruvian pass, very gradually. Peru is known for having low grades and many switchbacks.

“Summit Lake” — or at least that is what we called it.

Our first summit sign in ages.

We got a little rain near the top

We are excited to arrive in Cusco in just a couple days. We will meet up with my parents and visit for a week – we haven’t seen them since San Francisco! We will also do the 4-day Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. I think after that we’ll be happy to retire our hiking boots until after the bicycle trip is over.

They are serious about their guinea pigs!

1 Year on the Road

It has been a a full 365 days since we’ve left State College, PA, and we have come a long way. To help celebrate, let’s look back at how far we’ve come…

We really have cycled a long way this past year!

Distance cycled: 13,614 mi (21,910 km)

Countries entered: 6

Degrees N/S traveled: 94

Time zones crossed: 6

Nights camping: 209

Our favorite camping spot

Showers taken: 150 (each)

Family visits: 8

Touring cyclists ridden with: 10

The blog: 73 posts from the road, 22,719 pageviews

Flat tires: 11

Jason’s favorite puncture – a rusty nail

Chains replaced: 4 each

Mexican states visited: 20 of 30

Chilean regions visited: 13 of 15

Rides taken in car: 2 through construction areas (less than 50 mi)

Big fights: Just 1!

Most small fights are resolved by eating, preferably ice cream!

Money spent: $12,480 on the road (not including flights)

Coldest night in the tent: -6 deg F (-21 deg C), at 15,600 ft (4,755 m)

Highest altitude: 16,220 ft (4,944 m), Paso Sol de Manana in Bolivia

Hardest climb: Hito Cajon in Chile, a pure 7,000 ft (2,000 m) of climbing at high altitude

Largest earthquake: 5.8 near La Serena, Chile

Jason’s keychain for Bolivia

Keychains for Jason’s trip collection: 15? We’re not really sure…

Week 2 on the Carretera Austral

During this stretch we hit the 10,000 mile mark! And also 782 miles from Punta Arenas.

Daisy started a new ‘tradition’ for writing blog posts recently – eating chocolate while typing! Since there are no bears here in South America, we can eat in the tent. The chocolate sure helps make typing a little easier, hehe.

Week 2 on the Carretera Austral

The past week we’ve cycled another 213 miles, from Cochrane to Coyhaique. We found an alternate road, enjoyed exploring the Marble Caves by canoe, saw more incredible mountain vistas and river valleys, and found some pavement. It has been an exciting week!

Many of the southbound cyclists we pass express doom and gloom about the upcoming gravel road and how terrible it is. Sometimes, they are right – it is like riding your bicycle over an old-style washboard. Often we find the road not nearly as terrible as they claim. For the road north of Cochrane we heard particularly bad reports. However, we also found out there was an alternate route for about 20 km.

Raft-like ferry powered by the river’s current.

If you’re thinking: “An alternate route to the gravel road at the end of the world? That can’t be good, Jason!” Then think again! The road was great. We crossed a river on a tiny two car raft-ferry, climbed a mountain, and saw plenty of horses and cows but absolutely no cars. After all the dust we’d been breathing, it was a welcome break. And, of course, the scenery was stunning.

Climbing up the alternate pass. It was so steep Daisy had to push her heavy bike.

Up top was very pastoral.

River crossing back to the main route.

We rode along several lakes in this region. We’ve seen many shades of blue!

The next day we ended our ride near Puerto Rio Tranquilo, which is known for boat tours of the Marble Caves. We stopped along the road next to a dirt driveway that went down to the lake where you can rent kayaks and there is free camping. As we started down the steep grade, we quickly learned that we had to walk our bikes and began questioning whether the trip down the super-steep grade would be worth the trip back up the next morning.

The texture of the marble reminded us of a golf ball.

The answer to that question was yes, the “caves” were awesome! It also helped that we found a nice couple from Colorado that agreed to take our bags up the driveway in their truck the next morning. Although we arrived at the boat dock around dinner time – which you don’t want to delay after a long day of cycling – we rented a canoe, threw in a bunch of cheese and crackers, the waterproof camera, and set out on the 15 minute paddle to the attraction.

Paddling out to the Marble Caves. Those islands are it!

From the advertising campaign, we were expecting a huge swath of marble caves. In reality, it was the base of about 3 and a half small islands. Although smaller than expected, they still provided plenty of entertainment as we maneuvered the canoe through rock tunnels and examined the unique golf-ball-like texture of the marble. It was fun to explore with the autonomy of our canoe. The boatloads of tourists also provided plenty of entertainment: like the girls who jumped in the freezing water to get their picture taken between two rock arches, or the guy who climbed the 25 foot cliff to jump from the top!

We shared the space with many tour boats.

A very unique geologic formation!

We enjoyed quick baths in the cold rivers to wipe off all the road dust.

For several nights we were lucky to find wild campsites along different rivers. Water is plentiful, and the combination of the sound of the river running and the beautiful setting made for great campsites.

Camping by a river

One of many beautiful river valleys

Side road with a ranch

A Patagonian cemetery

It is really steep sometimes! Here we think they took a downhill sign and turned it sideways.

These cyclists had a stray dog run along with them for several kilometers.

Yesterday, after winding along up and then down another mountain, we finally hit our first stretch of pavement! That is right, part of the Carretera Austral is paved. Actually, we’ll be hitting more paved sections going north, and a lot of roadwork. We’ve heard that in 5 years the whole route will be paved, which will certainly change the experience for future travelers.

Selfie with Cerro Castillo

In any case, we definitely enjoyed the break from the bumpy road surface. We completed the longest climb of the Carretera Austral – about 2500 feet. During the climb, the road winds up the side of a mountain to enter a high river valley. The climb was pleasant, and felt just as easy as going downhill on gravel. When we got to the downhill paved section, we thought we must have entered heaven.

Looking down at our sinuous climb (on pavement!)

Up top with rocky mountain slopes

A high river valley

Now we’re in a campground that is actually just someone’s yard that lives in the town of Coyhaique. A few hours ago we were excited to do our shopping at the huge Unimarc grocery store – where just the aisle of cookies was larger than any single supermarket we’ve been in for over two weeks. We’re looking forward to rest day tomorrow before we continue our ride northward.

They sure know how to pack in the tents.

San Cristobal and on to Palenque: from mountain pines to low-land jungle

The language classes in San Cristobal were a success! After spending most of a week there, we headed “downhill” to Ocosingo and onward to Palenque. The trek took five days, although we could have easily done it in half the time. We saw two different Mayan ruin sites and made it past a road-block protest. However, Daisy took her turn at being sick.

San Cristobal de las casas to Palenque

Jason with instructor Laura and fellow student Carmen

The Spanish lessons were well worth the time and cost. In case you’re wondering, it is relatively inexpensive – for US standards. I signed up for 15 hours of group class over 5 days, and the total was M$1320, or US$90. I had a class size of 1 or 2, and had two very different but both knowledgeable instructors. I enjoyed the opportunity to practice speaking — and I’m sure Daisy enjoyed the break from giving the lessons herself!

This tarantula is out of the cage at the bug and insect museum!

So what did Daisy do during the week? Yes, she was busy too. The first couple days she took care of our hostel choice and related things while I was still sick. Then, she finished a final(?) draft of a paper. Impressive, no? All this while sipping coffee along the pedestrian streets and people-watching! It was strange to see the many, many tourists wandering around in hippy-style clothing. We called them the ‘raggedy-baggedies’ since they reminded us of the alternative-living-surfer-dudes that we saw in Tofino, British Columbia. The mornings were for studying and work, and the afternoons for recovering and wandering the streets or going to museums.

Raggedy-baggedy pants in this one!

We love the festive streamers on the pedestrian streets

When it came time, we were very excited to get back on the bikes and out of town. However, it was then Daisy’s turn for gastrointestinal distress. On day 1 out of San Cristobal we made it about half way to our intended destination – through a lot of up hill, menacing dogs, and way way too many speed bumps! We stopped in a town of 40 thousand-plus people, which was (of course!) in the middle of a large fiesta. After a bit of asking around (and difficult navigation) we arrived at the other side of the fiesta and finally found the two small hotels. Unfortunately, there was only one room available. It had dirty sheets, no electricity, and no hot water in the shared bathroom. There wasn’t even space for the bikes! After an unintentional detour on a dirt track to get back to the highway, we collapsed at the local medical center and they allowed us to camp there. It was a night filled with typical fiesta sounds, but we were tucked away safely.

This dirt track got really steep before we found the highway again. Needless to say, it didn’t end up being a shortcut!

Our resting place for the night – boxed in by tables, benches, and vehicles!

On day 2 we made it to Ocosingo (no uphill actually…) and got Daisy parked in a hotel to help her feel better. I spent a few hours in the afternoon taking a collective bus out to the ruins of Toniná. They were great – 7 terraces of buildings and pyramids built up and into a hillside. You were allowed to wander wherever you wanted. I even made a few Mexican friends!

Model of the ruins at Toniná

Looking up at the hill and 7 terraces

Looking down from the very top

I really was up there!

Jason chillin’ with two new friends. Apparently my blue eyes were attractive…

On day 3 we thought we were going to leave Ocosingo, but soon found out we weren’t going to make it anywhere. We left our hotel and biked about a mile to a large grocery store. From there we went up a couple steep hills on our way to the edge of town. Daisy was really feeling the stomach pain, so we decided to stop. I checked out the nearby hotels, which were all more expensive than the one from the previous night. We limped back to our hotel and were happy to move back in before they got the chance to clean our room! The internet was functional there — until the power went out for the whole town. We spent all afternoon and evening reading our kindles in the dark.

On day 4 we successfully exited town. Part-way through the day’s ride we ran into a looong line of parked cars. Immediately we wondered if there was a road-block ahead, as there was when we left Oaxaca. Sure enough, there was! The reason for the protest was that the Mexican government has taken Agua Azul out of the hands of the locals, so they are no longer getting the tourist revenue. In any case, we were able to barely sneak through. As we walked through the barricade, one guy was stopping us but a few others told him to let us through. Whew. The good news was that the traffic was really light afterwards! We decided to skip Agua Azul, and head on to Misol-Ha, another waterfall in the area.

Back-up from the road block

Jungle and farms. The blue river down in the valley is the one that agua azul gets it’s name from. It is blue.

Daisy enjoys a coconut water “to go”

Jungle converted to corn fields

Misol-Ha waterfall

On Christmas Eve (day 5) we arrived in the tourist town of Palenque. It was bustling! We did our food shopping, and then went to the hippie-ish enclave of hotel/hostels called El Panchan on the road to the ruins. We got the last room at the Jungle Palace. Although we didn’t see any monkeys, we sure got our share of jungle rain! We spent that afternoon at Palenque viewing many, many pyramids and other structures. The tourist load was a bit lighter than usual, but the stone staircases were definitely a bit more treacherous! The sheer number of ruins (and Mexicans hawking their wares) was very impressive.