South America
-
End of the Andean Mountain Passes, Peru
This morning finds your correspondent in the Starbuck’s in Cuzco sucking on a triple shot latte having just had a huge breakfast at Paddy’s pub. Am surrounded by ever-so-serious looking designer tourists talking earnestly of their impending adventure to Machu Picchu. They seem to have no idea that they are in the company of bicycling…
-
One Year on the Road
Forget the Olympics! In the history of human endeavour July 2012 will be marked not by beach volley-ballers bearing their collective firm buttocks for country and ratings or synchronized swimmers doing whatever the hell it is they do for reasons that still elude this author. It will, rather, record that on the 27th of July…
-
Huascaran National Park, Peru
Well Peru has cranked up the volume on the scenery another few notches as the road cuts through the Huascaran National Park and the magnificent Cordillera Blanca mountain range. The ride across the range is one of the highlights of the Peru part of the trip and the Punta Olimpica Pass that crosses the range…
-
Canyon Country and ‘The River of Instant Death’
Regular readers of this blog will understand how it pains me to ‘big-up’ any of the incredible feats of dering-do that I am somehow able to perform as part of this bicycle trip. They will therefore appreciate that this posting is going to be complete and utter torture for me because the road running South-East…
-
Buff3y and ‘The Battle of The Big Hats’, Peru
Guide books usually kick off an introduction by saying something nice about the population of the country to be visited. In the case of Peru this appears to have been a bit of a challenge and the best that my edition of Lonely Planet could muster is to describe the people as “stoic”. They obviously…
-
The Valley of Instant Death
With the crossing of the Maranon River negotiated via the good ship ‘Not Very Good’ I decided to head off on a circuitous route to the south-east into the Amazonas region. Chachapoyas, the capital of the Amazonas Region is a charming highland town with a lovely central square. There are many tour operators offering to…
-
Southern Ecuador
June 14th Cuenca – Ona (106km) (1,850m) June 15th Ona – Loja (106km) (2,480m) June 16th Loja – Villacamba (40km) (612m) June 17th Villacamba – Palanda (80km) (2,101m) June 18th Palanda – Zumba (50km) (1,719m) June 19th Zumba – San Ignacio (73km (2,000m) Cuenca is a belter of a city with charming hole-in-the-wall bars and…
-
Part Thirty Eight – Central Ecuador
6th June Quito – San Miguel Salsedo (104km) 1,144m 7th June San Miguel Salsedo – Riobamba (86km) 1,389m 8th June Riobamba -Alausi (92km) 1,282m Today was everything good in a bike ride. The beautiful highland meadows of the Ecuadorian Andes. The roadside villagers reaping away merrily as they have done for generations. A helpful following…
-
Part Thirty Seven – Northern Ecuador
It appears that since I threatened to appear nude on buff3ysbicyclingblog that the click figures have taken another huge spike. There can be no other possible explanation. We now have hundreds of people each day enriching their lives through following the adventures of Buff3y the hardcore solo adventure cyclist. The town of Bolivar (about 70km…
-
Part Thirty Six – Leaving Colombia
It is with a heavy heart that I now bid a fond adios to Colombia. I’ve tarried here far longer than originally planned, but somehow even before arriving suspected that this place would be as beguiling as it has turned out. Oh, there are of course the lovely ladies, and the women folk are also…
buff3ysbicyclingblog 