Hobobiker.com: Randy and Nancy's Big Bike Trip blogs

New (free) E-Book on Cycling Bolivia

rfay — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:11:20 +0000

Wow, I just got an email about an incredible new information source about cycling in Bolivia. Excellent, detailed, with great references to other info sources. If you want your wanderlust to kick in or you're interested in Bolivia, Cycling South-west Bolivia at http://www.tour.tk/.

Our Sweden week's trip

rfay — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:12:22 +0000

We'll try to write a bit more later, but here's a quick glance at the delightful Sweden trip from the last week:

View Larger Map

Colombia: One of our favorite countries

rfay — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:47:16 +0000

We got this video in our email today, and it reminded us of how great Colombia was, and what great people we met there.

A story about artists and their art who we meet along the hobobiker route: weavers, painters, carvers and so much more

nancy — Sun, 03 May 2009 04:34:46 +0000

photo of Ed Frank - Tahltan mask carver near Telegraph Creek, Canada

One of the special interests I had while traveling through 14 countries was seeing the different regional art. Art tells about the culture, values and links with the history of the people or a connection with the past. Much of art through out the world are traditions that are passed on from one generation to the other. This is especially true with the indigenous people of the Americas.

During the nearly three years of our trip, I would often stop and talk with the artists I met. I wanted to learn as much as I could about their art, techniques, materials and themselves.

Some of the people I sat with were First Nations Canadian wood carvers and Inuit leather workers. In the United States, I learned how to blow glass along the cost of Oregon I visited ceramic studios and fine tapestry studios in Mexico.

Magdalena weaving with a belt loom

In Guatemala I spent months visiting women who hand-weave tradition Mayan fabrics using a back-strap loom. A back strap loom attaches to the waist by a strap; the artist kneels on the ground keeping constant pressure on the weaving in order to weave yarn though a forest of parallel threads. During the weaving process, symbolism seem to magically appear. These design and patterns can convey information about the weaver's village, marital status, culture or personal beliefs which often represent thousands of years of the Maya civilization. (More information on the women of Guatemala including the little downloadable book we wrote about them is here.

A long time ago when I was in college, I worked part-time a gallery which sold art from all over the world. One of the art forms I loved and ended up owning was a mola. The mola originated in the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. It is said that the Kuna women used to paint their bodies with geometrical designs, using available natural colors; in later years these same designs were woven in cotton, and later still, sewn using cloth bought from the European settlers of Panama. The women now decorate themselves from head to foot with colorful molas and jewelry. As a side note, the Kuna people use coconuts a form of money to trade and buy goods. If you ever visit one of the many tiny islands, do not e touch the coconuts because it belongs to someone and that would be like stealing money.

A hand woven rug by Hernan Bajalqui Tenorio from Ayacucho

In the middle of the high Andes mountains in Peru, I roamed around a neighborhood in Ayacucho called Santa Ana. This neighborhood high up the hills is well known as an artist district with over 250 families creating Peruvian art ranging famous high-quality tapestries, stone carvings and Peruvian ceramic religious arts. I visited 6 homes. In the home of Hernan Bajalqui Tenorio, the whole extended family produces fine woven rugs from hand dyed threads. The rugs I saw ranged from 2'x3' to 5'x7'. The quality is top notch and much attention is paid to the the design, the weaving and the finishing details. I have been corresponding with Harnan on a regular basis. It is my intention to help him export this fine work. The cost is amazingly reasonable. If you are interested in purchasing any please contact me.

In Bariloche, Argentina, a very lovely tourist center, there were several organized art centers where artists could setup a booth and sell their art. It cost the artist three dollars a week for a permit to set up a booth. They hardly made enough to feed themselves but they somehow eke out a living selling to the tourists that stroll by. I tried selling my art work on the streets for 4 days and did not sell one. It was a humbling experience.

Finger painting by Rider

While staying in Bariloche for a month, I met one artist, Dardo Rider Ortega who manages to support himself by creating and selling his hand painted tiles on the street in the main tourist street. He does wonderful Patagonia landscapes on ceramic tiles. He literally hand paints each one. He starts by smudging a little color on the tile, rubbing it around, adding more color, removing some of it, and three minutes later there are mystical landscapes depicting the mountains, lakes, trees, meadows and glaciers of southern Argentina. I filmed Dardo "Rider" Ortega creating his craft on the streets of Barloche, Argentina. He was also a great sales person that always took interest in everyone that stopped by his table. Take a look at the short video below.

A sampling of hand woven rugs by Hernan Bajalqui Tenorio from Ayacucho

I told Rider and Harnan, I would try to find new markets for them when I returned home. As mentioned before if you are interested in purchasing any of the work featured here, please contact me.

Nancy's Art

nancy — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:50:00 +0000

A bunch of roses

Click here for a slide show of my art.
Often during the bike trip I created small watercolors using a Winsor Newton traveling watercolor kit. I would either work out in public at busy markets, plazas, dockside, or quiet, secluded places like along the seashore, river banks or on top of mountains like Machu Picchu. I also painted in our hotel or temporary apartment from prints of photos either Randy or I took. While working outside I would often have a crowd looking over my shoulder watching each brush stroke. If someone was a little to close like the young kids and teenagers, I would start drawing them. They usual shied away from this and I would get some breathing room. Other times I would worked from a computer display or the small display on my camera. A trick I discovered to view a particular photo was to make it the last one on my memory stick by copying it. It would then be the first one I viewed when using the view feature on my camera.

Naples beach with interactive colors

I would then take a photo of the finished studies and post it on our photo collection on flickr.com/hobobiker.

Self-supported bicycle touring requires effective use of limited space. Therefore I did not carry much but I carried a watercolor kit, 5 brushes, a sketchbook/journal and a 4"x6" block of Arches #140 watercolor paper with 20 or so sheets, some drawing pens and masking fluid. When I ran out of a paper, I found I could not purchase a block of paper in South America, so I made them. A block of watercolor is basically many sheets of art paper bound together on all sides so when it is wetted with watercolor it dried flat. I would slice around the edges to remove the painting and unveil a new clean sheet underneath. When my collection of art work accumulated, I would give my watercolors as a gift to the kind people or families who put us up along the way. It was a way I could thank them for their hospitality. Once and a while I sold a piece or two. I tried selling my art in the streets Bailoche and Salta, Argentina but I did not succeed in this endeavor. I shipped a collection home on several occasion.

Peruvian woman

My current goal is to create watercolors in larger formats and paint as much as I can. I have been creating some new exciting pieces while I have been in Florida for the last several months. It is my intention to submit my work to juried shows and galleries for exhibition and sales.

I would love to hear your comments about my art work. If you would like to purchase one, I would be pleased to talk with you. If you have a special request, I do custom work.

Enjoy
Nancy Lewis

A Map of the Whole Trip

rfay — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:32:52 +0000

Here's a map of the whole trip. To explore in more detail (via Google Maps), click on the map or below.

Click for a bigger interactive map to explore

Some details of the trip:

We went almost 14,000 miles (22,000 kilometers)
Starting date: June 9, 2006
Return date: January 14, 2009
Biggest mileage day: 89 miles (143 kilometers)
Number of lifelong memories: Uncountable
Amazingly wonderful, gracious people: Uncountable
Number of times we were threatened by bad people: 0
Number of petty thefts of our stuff: 3
Sets of bike tires we went through: 4

Back in the US of A

rfay — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:57:38 +0000

We had an uneventful flight from Santiago, Chile to Miami and a delightful ride through the Everglades to Naples, Florida, where we'll be living with Nancy's dad for a couple of months before returning to Colorado. We'll put up some more pictures before long, and Nancy's editing some videos from the trip as well!

Just wanted to update you on where we are. No, we didn't fall off the edge of South America!

Requesting help for a worthy cause in Nicaragua

rfay — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:20:46 +0000

When we were in Rio Blanco, Nicaragua, volunteering for Agua para la Vida (aplv.org -- See our stories here) we met one of the key guys there, Esteban Cantillano, and he told us about one of the side projects that he´s involved with. He´s a member of the lay order of St Francis associated with the local Catholic church, and this group tries to adopt a small group of boys who are not going to school and to try to provide what they need to get going. Lots of kids end up not going because they can´t afford the basics: uniform, notebooks, and maybe a backpack.

When we were there we gave him $400 that various people had entrusted to us for something like this, and he used it to purchase 15 school uniforms and shoes for the 15 kids (he even send a scan of the receipt).

There are pictures of the kids here and a little note about Esteban that we wrote here.

Anyway, the kids need funding again this year, and they will in future years. It´s such a fantastic thing for a grass-roots local group to make a little dent in the future of the town by getting 15 or so kids into school. If you are interested in helping Esteban´s group, let us know and we´ll start an email conversation, and I can translate for you. We can help with the logistics of getting the money to them.

Just wanted to let you know about a good opportunity! Please let us know if you can help with part or all of this. Maybe you are part of a community group that could take this on for future years?

Thanks,

-Randy and Nancy

Torres del Paine and the Perito Moreno Glacier

nancy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:07:52 +0000

Oh by the way, did we mention we have finished our bike ride? Yep, we rode the last bit from Bariloche, Argentina to Puerto Montt, Chile. After over two and half years and pedaling over 22,000 Kilometers (almost 14,000 miles) we have reached a place we consider a final ending point of our north-to-south journey.

After spending a wonderful month in Bariloche, Argentina cycling unloaded, hiking, Randy working remotely and Nancy drawing and exhibiting her work, we headed out for out final trip bike trip but not our final adventure.

We celebrated the end of this trip and the beginning of the new year in a tiny campground in southern Chile and rode to the end of our trip. On January 1st, 2009 we rode our loaded metal steeds to Puerto Montt, Chile and retired our bikes to a closet for a couple of weeks.

We were told by many people that if we came all this way in South America we could not miss the dynamic sights in southern Patagonia, Torres Del Paine National Park and the still-growing Perito Moreno Glacier. So as the good travelers we are, we took a vacation from our bike ride and headed the very bottom of South America, to Punta Arenas, the southernmost city on the continent of South America. But we went by plane this time.

The logistics of travel arrangements were more complicated than riding our bikes there because it's the high season, with thousands and thousands of tourists, but with lots of planning ahead and patience and a bit of money, it's great. It is a backpacker's paradise but can be explored without lugging the world on your back.

After travel by plane, buses, more buses, tours, and boat rides we reached the first of our travel goals, the Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate in Argentina. I don't have the words to describe the wild place full of turquoise lakes, unusual flora and fauna and glacier-clad mountains that rise straight up to the turbulent Patagonia skies. We got to visit the glacier and even hike on it with crampons. It was a very impressive sight. even though we saw glaciers in Alaska and Canada, the Perito Moreno glacier is tremendously impressive. You can see it flowing down from the huge Patagonian Icefield above, and it's one of the few glaciers in the world that is still advancing, not receding. As a result, it's all white, not the dirty color of many of the receding, melting glaciers. It was amazing.

Click here for our favorite pictures from the Perito Moreno Glacier

We then returned to Chile and did three days of day-hiking in the incredible Torres del Paine National Park. The lakes and mountains of this district are deservedly world-famous. We should have backpacked at least the 5-day "W" circuit, but instead we stayed in a lodge and did day hikes, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The views are amazing. Click here for our favorite pictures from Torres del Paine.

And now we're in Santiago, the capital of Chile, packing up our bikes for the plane ride tomorrow. We fly to Miami via Bogota. Then we're going to bike from Miami through the Everglades to Naples, Florida as a strange little postscript to the trip. There we'll spend a couple of months with Nancy's dad, Frank Lewis, and Randy will continue working and Nancy's going to do a lot more painting. She's getting an article ready to post with some of her favorite watercolors she's done on the trip. We'll still be posting catch-up articles for a few weeks, at least. There's so much to remember aobout the trip. We're considering going through all our pictures and posting our favorites for you.

Hasta tarde,
-Nancy

Updated website - let me know if there are problems

rfay — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:37:03 +0000

We've been hiking the last several days in far southern Patagonia, and visited the amazing Perito Moreno Glacier.

I've just updated the website to a new version of drupal, so please let me know if you have any problems with the site or there's anything I've messed up.

Thanks,
-Randy

PS - We have a flight to Florida on Wednesday!