After reading about Paul’s experience on his route between Cajamarca and Cajabamba (he and his friend were detained by mistrusting villagers for 18 hours in Santa Rosa) it was with some doubt that cycling the dirt road via Jesus was a good idea. However I had the good will of the ‘teniente’ in Cachachi and I could…
It’s hard to know what’s round the next corner on this journey so it was without much surprise that I found myself one evening dancing with a large number of strangers two feet smaller than me at a mother’s day town party in hot Perico (Northern Peru). With thirst and tiredness at a non-trivial level it was the last…
After crossing several fields, running low on water, negotiating a massive wall and locked gate, a few days with an upset tummy (again) and passing through several tunnels on a old scenic railway I found myself at the Dammer farm for some much needed rest. Another spectacular section on the Dammer / Gilbert route.
INTO ECUADOR!! Yes I’ve finally left Colombia. During my final three days of my 180 day Colombian visa I managed to climb the awesome Volcano Azufral (4070metres) … Under a bit of time pressure and after a couple of weeks of late night dancing in Cali it felt quite hard!
Huila – The Kindest People in Colombia … and that’s a bold statement in a country that seems for the most part, to be full of love and friendliness. Until I reached San Agustín 10 days later I was offered a bed in someone’s house virtually every night. Sometimes before they’d even spoken to me….
After finally stamping out of Costa Rica for the third time it was time to cross back over the Divide. A back route alternative was hard to find. I was told of a hiking route but no biking route; that’s not to say there isn’t one. Huge areas of wilderness in Panama seem to be…
My plan was to get to Cahuita that evening after finally arriving in the Caribbean. Unfortunately my puncture that took me an hour to fix (see last post) delayed me significantly and it was fully dark and I was still 10km from my destination. Locals warned me that it was dangerous to travel at night…
This post describes my first attempt to cycle la linea de tren from Siquirres to Limón on a fully loaded bike; crossing the bridges was an unnerving yet exhilarating experience. After arriving from Turrialba in Santa Cruz I didn’t feel like losing more altitude so I took an alternate route which climbed back up via…
Searching out decent back road routes can be exciting and adventurous but often the quality of the route can be unknown. While that can be part of the fun, when a route has been carefully mapped out and used for a race that proclaims itself as ‘one of the toughest mountain bike races in the…
After saying goodbye to my new friends in Corbin I set off at around 10am well fed and rested; an unusual feeling on this trip. I had been advised of a lot of grizzlies in this section and that it was extremely remote so I planned to stay in a cabin en route that evening.…