Mendoza

We were in Mendoza for two things: bikes and wine. However, as we rolled into town in the middle of the afternoon we weren’t sure about either of them. The area surrounding Mendoza is a desert, though technically it is classified as semi-arid. We’d had plenty enough experience with desert in Peru [...]

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Salta Pt. 1

We went to Salta somewhat begrudgingly, but we accepted it out of convenience and feeling responsible to be thorough. Salta is the largest city in little visited northwestern Argentina and serves as a transport hub for travelers entering from Bolivia. Upon arrival we felt the stark contrast of culture, dress and genetic heritage between [...]

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Magically Delicious!

Okay, I know it sounds like a stretch, but stick with me on this one.
Yesterday morning I had a flat tire when I woke up.  Not the best thing to happen right before a big day of riding, but completely fixable right?  So I flipped the bike over, removed the wheel, got the tube out, [...]

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And she’s back!

My poor bike has had some trouble adjusting to my massive watt output.  Can you blame her?  After all, I am a beast ya know. 
First, the rear shifter broke straight out of the gate.  I spent our first ride spinning like a donkey downhill and suffering through sludge uphill with only one gear.  [...]

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Mission accomplished!

Writer’s note: to fully appreciate the sentiment of this post, I will ask you to push your chair away from your desk and stand up (unless you’re using a mobile, which in that case just continue standing). Now, jump up and down a do a dance of joy, the more spastic the better. [...]

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Salta: the beginning of the end

Drum roll please….
We have arrived in Salta safe and sound…even though our bus broke down for 5 hours in the middle of the night making a 22 hour bus trip stretch to 27 hours!  For those in the know, Salta could well be the last stop of our South American Adventure.  We’d like to stay [...]

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Cochabamba

Cochabamba was a nice surprise. We hadn’t planned on staying there long – the reason for our visit was that it is the jumping off town for Torotoro National Park – but we ended up staying almost a week. A group of Couch Surfers were kind enough to open their apartment to us. [...]

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Road of DEATH

Once in Bolivia, our to-do list was pretty brief but included a lot of good stops. If we wanted to get to Patagonia by December, we had only about two months to explore Bolivia.
First on our list was a La Paz institution: “The World’s Most Dangerous Road”. We heard about this ride and [...]

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Bienvenidos Fish, Sue y Alexa!

We would like to welcome the Fischer-Tkach family to South America!  For those of you who aren’t in the loop, Chris and Sue were our cycling coaches at OSU for the past few years.  Alexa is their adorable 19 month old girl.
They arrived Wednesday night and we have already begun our whirlwind two week tour [...]

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Return to Trujillo

After leaving Huaraz, we returned to Trujillo to visit a friend, Lucho.  Lucho runs a Casa de Ciclistas.  We met him our first time through Trujillo back in December.  That time we actually spent most of our days in Huanchaco, only staying with Lucho in Trujillo one night before heading to Lima.  Our first impression [...]

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