Keep going you lazy ****. Just find the damn groove. Don’t blow yourself up by going too fast but equally don’t stop altogether; find the sustainable pace that’s not overwhelmingly painful that allows you to keep making progress. Even if you’re hardly moving it’s better than stopping and making no progress whatsoever. If you know you can’t…
It can be complicated to go after what we truly want so it was impressive to meet someone who has swum against the current for a consistently long period of time to fulfill their vision. Charlie Good of Llanganuco Mountain Lodge (introduced through the legendary mutual friend Steven Ruhl) gave up his safe career with…
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…
With its lower altitudes this may not win the award for being the most dramatic section of the TEMBR but it is still a fun ride and a good way to get down to Peru… I made the mistake of deviating from the main route on the penultimate day onto a rather gnarly horse track…
Our adventure took us down various twists and turns as we followed the back roads into the hot foothills of the Cordillera Oriental…. With the rise in FARC guerilla activity in Colombia (such as the recent and bewildering environmental damage caused by the oil pipeline attacks in Putumayo, near the border of Ecuador), there was initial concern as to whether taking to the back roads was a good idea…
Riding a horse felt a bit like riding a bicycle with a brain. Let me explain. Whilst riding my bike over rocky terrain, I have had to constantly pick and choose my way through uneven surfaces. On the horse I felt I could just urge her in the general direction and trust her to pick the way (although…
After a few pleasant excursions in Boquete it was time to head to Panama City. I took a side route via Sona which a good alternate to the Panamerican Highway for a short stretch; I cycled it with an awesome couple Janet and Brian for a day or so. I could barely keep up with…
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…
As I left Puntarenas and I headed left up the unpleasant Panamerican Highway, I chuckled that I was heading back towards Nicaragua where I’d come from. Would I ever manage to leave Costa Rica? I’d already clocked up 3 months and I hadn’t even traveled a third of this small yet beautiful country. [If you’re…