rfay's blog

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 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

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!

Hola desde La Patagonia

rfay — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:08:34 +0000

Saludos a todos nuestros amigos en Latinoamérica - hola desde Bariloche, en Patagonia, Argentina.

La última vez que mandamos una actualización fue a principios de Septiembre, y en ese entonces nos encontramos en Huánuco, Peru, pedaleando las maravillosas pero difíciles montañas del Perú. (Disculpe que no hemos mandado nada desde entonces!) Aquí está una actualización sobre lo que ha pasado desde entonces.

Pasamos una semana en Huancayo y Tarma, Perú haciendo trabajo como voluntarios para Kiva.org y Microfinanzas Prisma. Kiva fue el primer persona-a-persona website de microfinanzas en el mundo que ofrece la oportunidad a personas en el mundo desarrollado que puedan hacer préstamos directamenta (mas o menos) a micro-empresarios en el mundo en desarrollo. Pasamos la semana viajando por bus, taxi, 4x4, y a pié a lugares retirados en los altos y selvas altas del Perú para entrevistar a clientes. Fue divertido y aprendimos mucho conociendo un poco de que están haciendo Kiva y Prisma Microfinanzas.

Entonces continuamos por bici de Huánuco a Ayacucho, Perú, pedeleando por paisajes increíbles de montañas altas y valles de desierto. Pasamos campamentos de minería, pastores con llamas y ovejas, y muchos pueblitos abandonados, un resultado de la violencia del tiempo del conflicto entre en gobierno y el Sendero Luminoso de los años 80 y 90. Nos pareció un lugar muy pesado para vivir: sin agua, no fértil, sin sombra, y con un montón de moscas.

De Ayacucho continuamos por bus a Cusco, para evitar un tramo de ripio y polvo que cruzó cinco pasos muy altos por las montañas. Saliendo de Ayacucho, fuimos a comprar pan afuera del mercado y alguien robó la cámara de Nancy cuando estábamos allí viendo! (Ella compró otra para reemplazarla y está tomando muchas fotos lindas otra vez.)

Nuestra próxima aventura fue a la famosa Machu Picchu cerca de Cusco, donde pasamos por bus el Valle Sagrado de los Inca y por tren a Machu Picchu. Para experimentar completamente el empacto del sitio, subimos a pié del pueblito de Aguas Calientes, partiendo a las cuatro de la mañana. Y el sitio merece su designación como una de las siete nuevas maravillas del mundo - verdaderamente es un lugar de magia. Randy subió a Huayna Picchu mientras que Nancy se sentaba y capturaba todo con su equipo de acuarela.

Desde Cusco montamos por un paso y mucha tierras altas - el altiplano que queda cerca del lago Titicaca y la ciudad de Puno. Como todos los turistas visitamos a las islas retiradas de Amantaní y Taquile y pasamos una noche en la casa de adobe de una familia en la isla.

Continuando por la orilla del Lago Titicaca y nos encantaron las vistas de el agua de verde-azul - seguimos el lago casi hasta La Paz, Bolivia. Durante la semana que nos quedamos en La Paz, vimos manifestaciones por los campesinos exigiendo una nueva constitución. Las manifestaciones fueron completamente pacificas, pero no había ningun forma de transporte ese día. Tenían éxito - será un referéndum sobre la nueva constitución en Enero.

Nancy no podía quitarse de dolores de cabeza y corazón en las regiones montañosas, y por eso decidimos continuar en Bolivia por bus y tren. Fuimos al Salar de Uyuni, una maravilla que fue un mar y ya es un desierto, y visitamos muchos lugares - lagos de varios colores, terrenos extraordinarios con flamingos, termales, y paisajes extraños que inspiraron a Salvador Dali.

De Uyuni tomamos un tren a la frontera con Argentina donde montamos otra vez las bicicletas y seguimos (¡bajando de 3600 metros a 1300 metros de altura!). Por cuatro días pasamos tierras encantadas de formaciones de rocas coloridas, pavimento!, y muchas llamas y ovejas. Todo se hizo mucho mas fácil que en los otros países de los Andes: agua potable en la llave, agua caliente, vinos fabulosos, y buena carne. Acampamos al lado de una iglesia abandonada y detrás de unos árboles para escapar el viento. Cuando Randy se hizo enfermo con bronquitis, descansamos unos días en Salta en la casa de ciclistas allá (¡gracias, Ramón, Tina, y la familia Marín!). También pasamos dos noches con Tomás y Nadia (una pareja que se lista en Warmshowers.org). Por fin llegamos en el pueblito cerca de San Lorenzo, donde nos quedamos mas de una semana al Hostal Tatata, un verdadero paraíso. Randy se recuperó y hizo un poco de trabajo por internet (para diversión y también para ganar un poco de plata.) y Nancy hizo un proyecto de mucho dibujo y acuarela.

Por fin salimos de Salta y montamos 4 días al sur al centro de vinería famoso de Cafayate, y de Cafayate montamos solo un día mas antes de que tomamos la decisión de tomar un bus hasta Bariloche, en Patagonia, donde estamos ahora. Pensamos que este lugar tan bonito es mas o menos en término del viaje. Hemos llegado a Argentina, al sur (aunque una gran parte de Bolivia y Argentina fue por bus) y vamos a descansar aquí un rato - hasta enero - y proceder a Santiago de Chile para regresar a los estados unidos.

Como siempre, tenemos muchas historias en hobobiker.com - y hay una traducción automática de todo.

Y tenemos un montón de fotos, mucho mas que hay en el website:.

El Sur del Perú (o como slideshow)
Bolivia (o como slideshow )
El Salar de Uyuni (o como slideshow )
El Norte de Argentina (o como slideshow )

Muchas gracias a todos ustedes por seguir con nosotros! Siempre sentimos su amistad.

Gracias,

-Randy y Nancy

Bolivia Wrapup

rfay — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:14:27 +0000

Our pictures for Bolivia are up on flickr - Here's the slideshow of Bolivia and here's the slideshow of the Salar de Uyuni. Also, all our route maps and elevation profiles are updated.

Since we've been in Argentina for weeks, I guess it's time that I wrote a little something to wrap up our time in Bolivia!

We had a delightful time in Bolivia, despite the fact that we were lazy and only rode the bikes two fairly easy days (from the Peruvian border to La Paz). After that we took a bus to Uyuni, a tour of the Salar de Uyuni, and then a train to the border at Villazon. (We did get back on the bikes to ride to where we currently are in northern Argentina, in Salta).

Something is always going on politically in Bolivia, and our time there was no exception. You've probably heard about the tension between Bolivia (and Venezuela) and the U.S., and just before we arrived the US Ambassador was asked to leave the country because he was accused of instigating demonstrations in favor of breaking up the country. The current president, Evo Morales, is a campesino (he started his career growing coca!) and is clearly a populist leftist, and has lots of challenges ahead of him. And he is often poking at the US, along with his compatriot Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela.

Of course, the US is poking back, as always. Maybe they were involved in those demonstrations. Probably they were involved in making Bolivia look bad by pulling the Peace Corps out of the country and shutting down airline flights and acting like they were going to evacuate all Americans when there really wasn't taht much happening. You may have seen the headlines about American Airlines canceling all its flights... But did you see any headlines when they started flying just two weeks later? Or any analysis of why they stopped flying? There wasn't any.

Anyway, when we were there, there was nothing very radical going on. There was a huge campesino march on the capital to support a referendum about a new constitution. And it was all peaceful. Nancy went out to talk to the folks and take some pictures. We saw parades. La Paz was just a very nice, very tourist-friendly place, with an enormous number of services for tourists. We were astounded. Bolivia probably had more tourist activities available than Quito, Ecuador, and was probably on a par with that Disneyland of all Latin American tourists, Costa Rica.

Some prices of things:

Hotel - nice room with private bath and cable TV: About $14
Internet - About $0.30/hour in La Paz, more expensive elsewhere.
Set meal for lunch or dinner: About $1.00. However, we ate a delightful meal at a Middle-Eastern restaurant for less than $5.00 for the two of us.

Our route notes and pointers to route resources and maps are on the Bolivia Route Page.

Bike-Dreams: A Supported Ride from Quito to Ushuaia

rfay — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:56:47 +0000

If you want to ride the length of South America, you don't have to do it self-supported! We ran into a group, Bike Dreams out of Holland riding from Quito, Ecuador to Ushuaia at the tip of Argentina. They are fully supported and having a grand time. For just 8,900 Euros (about $11,400 right now) you could do the entire ride without having to carry gear. It sounds like a pretty good deal. They also do Paris to Dakar.