tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31511427483708281832024-03-05T23:50:41.407-08:00To the End of the EarthTo the End of the Earthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03898896516999216525noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-74336136018728393442016-03-08T04:31:00.002-08:002016-03-11T12:25:55.668-08:00From the End of the Earth!After our big move to Puerto Natales, we were thrilled to start the final leg of our adventure. Officially no more busses or hitches unless we had a serious malfunction. Only, us, the road, and the end of the earth. Riding out of town, the excitement began immediately. The weather going south was undoubtedly the most sporatic and confusing I´ve ever encountered.
Literally, every five minutes it Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05055953436408988122noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-17772182962722882842016-02-22T14:32:00.005-08:002016-03-11T12:25:09.115-08:00Patagonia Adventures Continued!
Our nice cabin on the day off proved to be even nicer than
expected. That night, our Russian friend Timor offered to cook everyone a
traditional dish for dinner called borsch. We sat around and feasted on
a hot soup of boiled chicken, beets, cabbage, onion, and carrot for
hours. To make the night more animated and truly Russian we drank
chilled vodka in a very specific order: make a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-48372789519792165452016-02-11T14:32:00.000-08:002016-03-11T12:24:32.113-08:00Chile and Patagonia Adventures!Ending our stay
in Mendoza with a good home tasting meal of grilled cheese and tomato
soup, the next morning Doug picked up a rental car to help us make up
miles. When a four door compact car rolled up to his place, I have to admit
I was a bit skeptical. Five good sized guys, four bikes, and four sets of
touring gear all packed in for a 15 hour ride? Not a problem with
creative packing. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-4315058704606644582016-01-26T13:06:00.002-08:002016-03-11T12:24:08.477-08:00New Terrain
Waking up bright and early after our day off, we divided
up cooking breakfast, checking the bikes, and buying fuel for our stoves
to speed up our departure and avoid the heat. For the first time in
Argentina, we had a decent climb which gave us a couple beautiful views
over the desert and sparked a debate whether or not it counted for Cody
and Ryson's first mountain. Eventually it was Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-28601202696178926302016-01-15T13:01:00.003-08:002016-01-15T13:02:24.303-08:00Argentina Part 2– The Long Stretch
After taking a not so restful rest day (since we tried to last until bar
time), we spent one more night before rolling out of town. Not
realizing that Saturday is even more of a party night than Friday,
I slept with my earbuds in to mask the noise of singing, yelling, and
even a steady box drum. Overall, I think it's safe to say none of us had
our best night's sleep but were still ready toAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-26905985363791859332016-01-12T07:25:00.002-08:002016-01-12T07:25:53.257-08:00The First Days with Five
What fun would traveling be without a hiccup or two? With Cody and Ryson
both in Argentina, all we needed was Ryson's bike to get pushed
through. His box had been removed from his plane to lighten the flight
and Ryson spent the next two days calling various people trying to get a
promise his bike would eventually find its way to us. Thankfully, it
all worked out and we were able to roll Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-68084699070968687352016-01-04T14:28:00.002-08:002016-03-11T12:26:47.767-08:00Christmas, Machu Picchu, and More Adventure Buddies!
Christmas was a bit different this year, but we did our
very best to make it as special as possible. Realizing our culinary
limitations both in terms of ability and kitchen accessibility, we opted
out of a traditional Christmas Eve dinner in favor of American comfort
food. Feasting on mac and cheese as well as pancakes, we had just enough
energy to check out the downtown scene, but not Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-33606192391272221182015-12-24T14:45:00.000-08:002015-12-24T14:45:31.147-08:00Riding Through Peru!!!Leaving Ayacucho was not quite as smooth as we had hoped. As soon as we were all packed, Kai realized his debit card was missing which meant he suddenly had a to do list of canceling and ordering a new one. Really not the end of the world, but when you've sat on a bus for 36 hours and the time finally comes to get leaving again, sitting in the hotel room is not an ideal way to spend the morning.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05055953436408988122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-33892078447165093952015-12-14T07:28:00.003-08:002015-12-14T07:31:07.310-08:00The Journey to Peru
Leaving Cuenca, I was caught in a bit of a debate. I
could bike all the way to Loja and potentially have Kai and Jon waiting
for me, or I could try to hitch and save some time and energy. Opting
for a bit of both, I rode about 60 miles and found a truck to bring me
the rest of the way. Grabbing a hostal near the bus terminal, I waited
for my friends and picked up a couple treats to Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-39276141501274844332015-12-04T06:59:00.002-08:002016-03-11T12:26:32.769-08:00Ben's Solo Adventures
For the first time in over 2 months, I was left alone. Sure we'd
spent an occasional day or afternoon apart, but this time Jon and Kai
were headed a different direction for over a week. Crazy to think this
should be our longest time apart over a 6 month span. Probably a good
thing to finally have the opportunity to miss one another.
As
I waved goodbye to Kai, Jon, Emily, and Katie forAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-27879827857747969162015-12-01T08:59:00.001-08:002016-03-11T12:26:16.845-08:00South America!Our
last few days in Panama City were almost like we were just students
again. We woke up, ate breakfast, headed to class, combined learning
with joking around, scrounged up a cheap lunch, did some sort of hike or
activity, went home for dinner, completed our homework, and went to
bed. Jonathan even had a migraine one morning so I got to re-live him
skipping class, even if it was a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-42768176841292053882015-11-20T13:42:00.000-08:002015-11-20T13:43:20.705-08:00Adventures in Panama City
Leaving David, we put in some decent miles and ended up
sleeping behind the police station of a small town. That night, we
looked at the rest of the map and realized we could either dramatically
draw out the next few days before catching a flight on November 23rd,
or we could make a huge push for Panama City and try to find something
fun to do. Opting for the latter, I decided to make the Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-14486869906455010692015-11-13T13:13:00.002-08:002016-03-11T12:27:11.918-08:00Costa Rica and Panama
Waking up to an early morning
filled with oats and chai tea, we were ready to seize the day. Cruising
to the nearest town on the coast called Jaco, we stopped in a coffee
shop to indulge in some WiFi and feel like less than super dirty
travelers in desperate need of laundry. Jon went off to find a bike shop
to see if he could find a way to remove a grinding sound, and by the
time he was Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-36120833664123328442015-11-04T14:07:00.003-08:002016-03-11T12:27:24.697-08:00Turtle Saviors
Back on the road, we kept rolling until a couple people
made the worst mistake in the world--looked friendly and waved. Needing a
place to stay, we circled back and once again got a yard to camp in.
These peoples were way easier to understand and incredible hosts. A
perfect combo of Spanish and English, curious but still gave us our
space, and super helpful offering chairs, water, a place Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-38206644080579192052015-11-04T13:55:00.002-08:002016-03-11T12:28:10.299-08:00Steep Climbs and Beautiful Views
Leaving our little piece of paradise
at Greensurf was a little bittersweet, especially when we remembered
there wasn't any breakfast food left in our panniers besides coffee and a
couple tortillas which we gratefully ate on the beach. Fully
caffeinated, we took advantage of the first store we saw. However, the
selection was incredibly limited so breakfast turned into Oreos and off
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-30374217913266767812015-10-26T14:45:00.005-07:002015-10-26T18:58:34.220-07:00Nicaragua Bound!
Sometimes stumbling upon adventure is just as wonderful as
planning it. After a couple days of relaxation at Lake Atitlan, we were
ready to get moving again. Our morning couldn't have been much better,
complete with a thick stack of pancakes and reading an email from a
Luther student who has become inspired enough from our trip to study
abroad in Costa Rica. Probably could have chosen Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-23167047360752768152015-10-15T14:27:00.000-07:002015-10-15T14:27:06.132-07:00Hello from Guatemala!
Hello from Guatemala!The morning we left Mexico, we were all pretty intimidated by the looks of the mountains. We'd biked over long hills before, but the steep and rigid peaks of Guatemala looked like a whole different monster. Ready to tackle the day, we sucked it up and started to ride. Luckily, we weren't too focused on the road in front of us because we barely noticed the building to turn Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-78130279265327071752015-10-13T06:26:00.002-07:002015-10-13T06:26:59.968-07:00One Month In
Sometimes your body tells you when you need a break. Knees
start to hurt or there's just an overwhelming lack of general energy.
This time, however, we took a rest day I didn't realize we needed. We'd
been building our miles up steadily and feeling strong but riding that
much takes a physical toll, especially when we're still pretty new to
the whole process.
Walking around Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-18442406932366147232015-10-07T07:10:00.001-07:002016-03-11T12:27:47.452-08:00Fighting Fires and Finding the "Garden of Eden"
One of the
many great things about bikes is they allow your body to become slowly acclimatized to your surroundings. You can only travel so quickly and so
far at once meaning, as the air gets warmer or there's less oxygen while
going up mountains, the change is gradual and essentially pleasant.
Unless of course you bypass the biking for a bit and take a bus.
Coming
out of Puebla, Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-86395150323361872902015-10-02T06:48:00.000-07:002016-03-11T12:27:37.653-08:00Pyramids, Birthday Tequila, and Mexican Wrestling
My how days fly by the further you go south! After our kind
breakfast in San Juan with the mountain biking friend, the three of us
decided to try out a new part of our adventure with the bus station. You
might be like us and think "busses? How hard can that be? People use
buses everyday!" However, what we needed to focus more on was taking a
bus with bikes. We were able to buy three Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-87566853079581853472015-09-29T14:42:00.003-07:002016-03-11T12:28:24.450-08:00Road BumpsWe had the longest day yet on bikes yet from the town of Teotihuatan to
Puebla, covering approximately 78 miles at about 8300 ft of elevation.
Not a bad day considering the bikes alone weigh about 30 lbs with an
additional 50lbs of gear strapped to them. After spending two weeks on
pavement, covering distance I realized bikes are a fantastic form of
transportation; it turns food objects suchAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-65555233666394438202015-09-24T17:56:00.001-07:002015-09-29T09:56:56.200-07:00Distance Makes the Heart Grow FonderWaking up on our rest day in San Luis, we spent the morning apart from one another. The few hours of separation caused some serious anxiety since we hadn't been more than about 10 feet from each other for an entire week, but it was probably helpful to smell something besides the stench of Kai and Jon's Luther riding jersey. I spent my morning blogging, finding the best flavor of ice cream (Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-33680793435997367502015-09-19T18:52:00.004-07:002015-09-29T09:56:49.828-07:00Finally on the Road
After our Independence day celebrations, we had a bit of a late start to the morning. Getting back on the Trolls, we made our way to the road and immediately went through a 2 km tunnel to pass through the mountain. The other side had a stunning view of the valley, complete with low hanging clouds. The next 25 km was all downhill, but the road was made of a dense cobblestone that made us wonderAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-92092495174585445912015-09-19T18:11:00.001-07:002015-09-29T09:56:36.805-07:00The First Few Days
Training
Well... I think it´s safe to say we've found adventure!Our journey south in the car was about as ridiculous as you might expect. About 3 too many bags of chips, infinite brownies, and loud singing of the Spanish alphabet as a final attempt at learning the language. Talking with our Spanish guide, Laura, we quickly learned we are in fact not fluent, and spent more time emphasizing keyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3151142748370828183.post-60453936163396073512015-09-11T06:28:00.000-07:002015-09-29T09:57:11.995-07:00The Final Countdown
Jon
We are finally within the 24 hour countdown to crossing the Mexico border and thus the beginning of our adventure. It seems like a long time ago that I propositioned Ben the idea to take bicycles down Central and South America. We agreed to go even if we had to work crap jobs and pick up extra shifts to make it happen; knowing we would be leaving friends, families and, at least Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0