life @ 13

The idea:

- ride with a group of 4-8 around the hills in upstate NY/ west CT / south MA

- 3 days, 80-90 miles...pretty much anyone who can commute to work can do the ride

- http://bit.ly/ai3jNS

- preferably leave on friday morning and back sunday night, but if not enough people can take off work then we can shorten it to just 2 days

- maximize scenery, maximize time camping and hanging out around campfires (in state forrest), minimize traffic, maximize feeling of "getting away"

Needs:

- a bike with gears, preferably a rack too

- sleeping bag and sleeping mat

- tent...maybe. i think the ride will only happen if the weather is good, in which case the tent is not necessary

- sunscreen, bugspray

- metro north bike pass. $5 and takes like 15 minutes to do the paperwork in grand central

Proposed date for first ride: June 11 in AM to June 13 afternoon

saddle sores to bed sores and back

hiatus #2....slightly more permanent....

bang!

from the top...

pictures are up

the ride to Caraz was what i expected more of this trip to be like...lots of mountain roads, getting guards to open gates, safe camping on the side of the road...ramen noodles and gallons of water as fuel. what i hadn't expected before and what i have come to overuse is other biker's journals...not only are the roads and distances between towns described to a T, but for most of my recent rides i even have accurate elevation profiles. this does kill a small amount of the fun of discovery, but i can't imagine what kind of trouble i would get myself into without them.

briefly...left chao not so early (8:30ish) due to a flat in the rear...a hole in the middle of an old patch and nothing in the tire. strange. 15k on the panamerica, then i turned off into the wild on a private road which cuts a good 40k off the trip to Caraz. the road is unsealed but in pretty good shape...i was able to hum along at 16k/h without pushing much at all. there are a few climbs along the way, but from chao to caraz is about 160k at a steady 1.5% grade...as is to be expected when climbing up a river valley. on the private road there were a total of 6 cars in 3 hours. beautiful scenery (look at the pictures, as usual they tell a better story).

after the private road, a few k on the pavement, a little town to stock up on water and food, and then the road gets about as bad as they come for about 70k. or, at least, the worst i've done without a mountain bike. riding a road like this is, in fact, a lot like mountain biking. not only are your legs always spinning at a furious pace, but you have to use a considerable amount of upper body strength and stay completely focused, else you lose your line and thus your balance and thus the bike. when you hit a good line it feels great, when you miss and the bike skids and you have to put a foot down and start over, it's incredibly frusturating...amplified by the 70lb bike and 90 degree sun.

the first day i made it about 15k on the crap before i was completely worn out...found an excellent camping spot by the river and slept pretty well....the river is so loud you can't hear anything around.

next day was uneventful...50k in the crap, lots of heat, only a few cars an hour. found another good campspot on the side of the road just a few k short of huallanca

---

taking a brief aside...it occurred to me earlier in the trip that people with UC probably, typically, don't do these kind of things. it's not really the kind of problem conducive to being out in the middle of nowhere with poor sanitation and spotty medical services. i was well aware from the beginning that this could potentially be a problem but i tend not to heed these kinds of warnings, internal or otherwise

---

woke up the next day feeling ungreat. spent most of the next 3 hours staring off into space and pedaling the last few k into huallanca. i knew that i had a little more rough riding, then 25ish k of smooth road into caraz....so i decided to continue staring off into space until a little after noon, then i bucked up a little, shut my brain off, and finished off the leg, knowing that the end was near. Caraz was a pretty little town, unfortunately i didn't get to see much of it. made friends with the local firefighters, though.

i'll probably give y'all one more post with some thoughts after i get back. right now i'm surprisingly content with the decision to return. i mean, it really wasn't much of a decision...some decisions are just too obvious to be called decisions. would have very much liked to keep going, both for me and for any entertainment i might have been able to provide. but i'm looking forward to feeling better, eating all the things i haven't been able to eat, and hanging out with y'all gringos.

finger on the trigger...

made it to Caraz, no major problems, but i'm completely wiped out. lots of pictures and a real post soon.

atrophy

apparently, for a brief moment, i was a wanted man. i managed to evade capture and would have gone on blissfully unaware had Lucho not told me that when i was making my second pass at Paijan (the cyclist's black hole) the police were looking for me, as apparently they feared i would wind up robbed, kidnapped, or killed. but at that time i, slippery bug that i am, slipped onto the cheap yellow bus and was dozing off, staring at the scenery for the second time.


i had the casa de ciclistas pretty much all to myself for a few days while Lucho was on his little vuelta with Abuelo, our 68-year old chilean friend. not much happening...just more bulking up (more later) and reading. Went to a fancy Trujillo wedding with Lucho where he was playing drums in an 11-man-1-woman band...good times, but my plans to leave the next day were squandered by free food, cerveza pilsen, and staying up till 5.


i generally try and keep these things to myself, but in all fairness and honesty i should say that i was quite flattered by the women of Trujillo. eventually i figured out that i had done nothing in particular to attract so many stares and so much attention (a nice reversal), and that many peruvians are looking for a ticket out and, so they think, up. i now understand, in part, what it feels like to be a women walking by a construction site.


anyways...after 5 weeks of rest and some spectacular hospitality at the casa, it was time to go. last night i threw a new tire on the back wheel...a schwalbe marathon....something a little wider and more durable, in part for the crappy roads ahead. i also find myself quite a bit heavier...not just in body (good) but in luggage (good and bad).

Lucho escorted me to the edge of the city, where he left me to go pay his water bill. I forgot that the first hour after a long time off is a little, well, scary -- realizing that the comforts and conviences of a city and good home are being left for the uncertainty of the road. i found my legs trembling a little, however i have to chalk this up to the 5 weeks of doing absolutely nothing active, save the vuelta de paijan. for a while i was thinking about our friend Lance A., whose rise to the top was supposedly aided by his little vuelta de cancer, where he was able to rebuild his body in the image of a tour de france champion (and not a whole hell of a lot else, really...although he's put his texan mouth to a good cause). however, my body has been rebuilt in the image of someone of a much greater body fat percentage, as is what happens when you eat for two and excercise for none.

the ride today was dominated by strong coastal headwinds, the heat of the day, and the desire to ride as slowly as possible. 67 flat k in 4 hours. i'm very content. tomorrow i turn off the panamerica and on to 200k of almost entirely dirt tracks up to the cordillera blanca. there's no internet in the middle of nowhere, muchachos.

back.

peru pictures

not surprisingly, it's easy to lose track of the days when you're travelling. recently i've been quoting my time off the bike at 3 weeks....however looking at the blog, damn, it's been a month. more on the fix for that below, but first where i left off.

south peru was good. having company was excellent. learning the true meaning of tours and tourists...well...was educational. the sky of the altiplano is spellbinding. the south coast is like nothing else...desert sandwiched between mountains and endless ocean. had some classic peruvian travel experiences: bus breaking down in the mountains in the middle of the night, bus trying to leave when your friend is in the station bathroom, being told to get off the beach because it's too dangerous, train to maccu piccu is not running, hopelessly lost in towns where the street names change every block, sunburn after 20 minutes outside, cab drivers changing the price, etc, etc. experienced the other side of lima, miraflores, where all those of means have relocated to over the years. damn, the food was good there.

decided to eschew the $4 cab ride to the bus station in lima (the bus to trujillo was $10...$4 seemed extravagant to cross town) and took a local bus. when i told the driver and conductor where i was getting off, one laughed and the other made the point-finger-gun-at-head-and-shoot gesture. apparently the bus station was not in a great part of town? turned out to be one of those parts where you're OK as long as you don't make the wrong turn.

now, back in trujillo, with the casa de ciclistas all to myself. Lucho and Abuelo (a 68 year old cyclist from chile) headed north to Chiclayo.

to make up for all the road i skipped to get to trujillo, i decided to ride with them for a little while...in the opposite direction of my trip. first time on the bike in an entire month, and it felt great...at least until my insufficient eating for the day caught up to me. no big deal. did 45k in about an hour and a half, helped by some kind of massive tailwind. the bad news is, this will be a massive headwind when i leave for Huaraz/Caraz in the next couple days. the good news is, it's only for a day. not only did i ride with them TO Paijan, the most infamous town in peru for cyclist-robberies, i rode past it, then back through again (at almost half the velocity), then stopped right in the middle.

i guess the most salient news is that for the first time in damn near 7 weeks i'm feeling 100%. most importantly, i've decided that whether i like it or not, my body is apparently not capable of fighting off little infections that the locals all resist and most all travelers grow to resist. this in and of itself does not bother me much...it's the fact that i have to be the whiny white kid who is always telling restaurants to leave things out, not eating/drinking anything remotely suspicious, and worst of all turning down offered food. but, this is. much better than sending myself home.

still trying to decide how to slice up peru. first i'm up to the cordillera blanca and huaraz. from there, i either stay in the andes all the way to cusco...a very, very slow but probably highly rewarding trip...or i descend back down to lima (could spend a lot of time there), zip down the coast for a while, then take some good paved roads to cusco. from there, i have much gana to hop over the andes again to the amazon-ish region, cross to bolivia by boat, and high-five all the people descending the "worlds most dangerous road" on their downhill bikes as i work my way up to La Paz.

peru, part 1

the past week has reminided me that travelling by bicycle is really a compromise. the uncontested best way to travel, if you're looking to get as close as possible to a country and people, is to go by foot. hands and knees might be a little too much. but by foot, you see everything, you are vulnerable to everything, nobody misses you and you miss practically nobody.

what reminded me of this? i was dumped in an "underprivileged" part of Lima at 6am, with nothing to do but wander around. one of the great things about the bus, besides being an excellent place to think, is that it often drops you somewhere strange and unfamiliar -- whereas on the bike you always ease your way into things.
i had a good 6 hours to catch the next bus onward to Cusco, and once the bus terminal security woke me up from my uncomfortable nap (head on top of arms on top of chair in front of me) and said that the only reasonable way to catch my next bus was to take a $4 taxi, i knew the best way to go would be to walk. every person i asked for directions along the way said i should be in a taxi. excellent sign. only had to turn around once because of shady looking blocks. i was looking for one of the largest avenues in the city; half the people i asked directions from claimed not to know how to get there. i was tired and got a little heatstroked again, looking like a total fool with my 2.5L bottle of water in one hand, red fleece jacket in the other, cowboy hat on top and beard protecting my cheeks. every little store and bakery i stopped at had a separate person at the cash register, all behind bars so thick you could not even be certain there was a person behind them. 90% of the shops i passed were selling car parts or small repairs. Lima is spotted with some big supermarkets, all playing a jingle based on "mambo #5" with the recurring theme "you must buy". I was in a good enough mood to actually make conversation with a guy on the street who started off with the typical "hey! gringo! tourist! lots of money!". i still feel that those who have the privilege to wander the world with a working bank card have an obligation to make cultural exchanges where possible.

going back a little, i spent 5 good days relaxing at the casa de ciclistas (google it), a guy named Lucho allows all travelling cyclists to crash at his little house/shop for free for as long as they want. an unparalleled hangout. the sad part is my body needed those 5 days to relax.
Trujillo has the worst traffic i have ever encountered. not as blazing fast as medellin, but at a maximum degree of anarchy.

and now i'm in Cusco with my gringo pal Miranda, both of us taking it easy for the first day at 11000'. a little touristy, but like most gringofied towns, you can always walk a few blocks away and find some locals to befriend.

the camera is back

an early hiatus from my hiatus

i had already planned to meet some friends in south peru and northern chile at the end of the month, so when things were not healing on their own, i decided to cheat a little, take a bus to northern peru (trujillo), and do whatever i could to get better. a couple weeks ago, my desire to keep going manifested itself in riding through being ill...now the desire manifests in rest. i look the last day riding into Loja with almost 8 hours on the bike and 2400m of climbing and wonder how i didn't collapse mid-ride

details would be a little off-topic, but i have found much, much better help here and expect to be in good shape in a week or two...but not back on the bike for almost a month. i'm worried about bike withrawl more than anything else.

the plan is to hang out here in Trujillo for about a week, then head down to Cusco, hang out for 10ish days around there, then down to the Atacama desert for a chunck of days, then back up to Trujillo to start cycling again, La Paz being the goal for completing leg 2.

i've learned not to speak for a country as a whole based on a few days and one part, but so far i'm very pleased with this border crossing. the peruvians have impressed me with the combination of energy and manyana that i enjoy about latin america. this part of peru seems both poorer and more developed than ecuador. shit is damn cheap. the 3.2:1 exchange rate highlights just how cheap...the number value of items in soles are similar to dollars. the weather in the northern peruvian desert is spectacular...dry, windy and 90 during the day, cooling off to the 60s at night. just a few miles from the ocean.

blah

still in Loja. there is a new rule now....when you're sick, particularly with respiritory infections, do not ride. even though i was clearly well enough to cycle from cuenca, it was not a good idea. just because your legs can carry you doesn't mean you should let them.
much better now, but i'm still on for a couple more days of rest.

The Sprit Catches You and You Stop at Page 60

man's best friend is going down for the count

pics updated

i admit that i did not explore very much, and it clearly had a certain kind of charm (a unesco world heritage site, whatever that means), but by my standards cuenca fell just on the other side of awesome...and this is with lots of awesome ice cream and real coffee. without those it would have fared worse. maybe i'm being unfair (note: search blog, i seem to say this a lot), but when i walk into a store and someone shouts to the back "ingles!" as if because of mywhite face and hands and red hair i cannot communicate in spanish. this happened twice. but i got some good things done...the bike has the correct number of teeth, there is a dreamy new $50 .25" of padding between my ass and the seat, and i'm a little leaner and meaner -- 7 lbs less crap, and apparently 10 lbs less me.

so i left the city on time...but after 6 crappy hours sleep. and i'm still near the depths of a cold. and my body is only about 80% as far as the food processing goes.

BUT

for the first time in a couple weeks, i have SPIRIT. it feels good to turn the cranks. the legs are flowing with ease. once the morning food goes down, i'm actually generating some real power. hell yeah.

the road is flat and busy for 20k, then it turns off and even though it's still the panamerica, it's quiet....like a car a minute quiet. quiet enough to listen to mozart quiet. then is climbs 800m at a fairly severe 8% grade...and near the top of this ascent are two big ass dogs, one of which gets a mouthhold on your pannier. you are not pleased, and for a few moments you are not at all one with the world.

then you reach the top....the road is brand spanking new concrete, you get a 10k cruise along the top of the ride, the view is excellent on both sides, the carfee air is delicious, it's a pleasant 60 degrees -- feels like freedom. hell yeah. ups and downs for a while, wait out some rain, descend 1000m, ascend 400, and you're in oña, hanging out near a peace corps volunteer from minnesota who is at least a little drunk and is more interested in talking to the people she has seen every day for a year than you. no big deal, at all. then the family invites you in, makes a bigass meal of soup and rice/lentils/chicken/salad, says they have a bed for you (no hotels here), let you spend the night, make coffee and eggs in the morning and send you off with a shot of whiskey. only notsoawesome part of this is they are running a business, and charge you a slightly steep $10 for all this. oh well. 105 km and 1700m of climbing, a sportsman's day

got up early today and was on the road by 7. road went up right from the start, from 2000 to 2900. i'm really not a morning climber. afterwards, it's pretty much a day in the office....if the ecuadorian andes are your office. thank god for the ipod...it really helps on the climbs, which can get particularly boring. the descents and scenery were spectacular today, though. another climb from 2150 to 2850, down again, some upward blips on the descent, up from 2275 to 2450 at 9%, down to 2300, then up to 2700. i really flew up the last climb, took just over 40 minutes of wheel-spinning time (14 minutes per 100m is average, 11 is pretty fast....when i was sick coming out of ambato i was struggling to climb 100m every 30 mins). lots of wind at the top of the ridge, a couple little climbs which tried to finish me off, then 800m of descent into Loja...a university town, maybe my favourite kind. 69 miles, 7:40 on the bike, and 7800' of climbing, not a flat spot the entire way.

taking a rest day to kill the cold and eat lots, then 2 more days and i'm in the desert in Peru. Unless plans change, i might not see the andes again until late march (going to take a vacation from the "vacation").

new wars, new enemies

the lows are OK

i'm sure everyone has this expererience at some point. when one or two things stop going your way, it's usually not a big deal, and you keep going and wait for them to pass. but if enough things happen and you reach the critical mass of bullshit, i think it's only natural to fall down a little

and fall i did. if we ever got into a deep conversation about cycling saftey, i would certainly point out that since i, personally, have made pretty much every mistake there is to be made on a bicycle, i am better off than most because i am pretty well aware of just about everything that can go wrong. but i found a new one (or a new combination).....a fairly rapidly-deflating front tire, moving at low speed, distracted by the little village i just entered, sand, and a turn. in my experience, most cycling accidents involve the bike sliding out from under you. this time, i'm moving pretty slowly, and the road rash was pretty minor. take out any one of those above circumstances, and only my feet touch the ground.

the bad news was the fall wasn't the bottom. i was up and running soon enough, the only real problem was that one of the scrapes was on my palm which did not make for much riding comfort (i'm really missing the bike shorts now, too). the next day, even though i could tell that my body had finally turned the corner and was going to start accepting and processing food in a more normal way, and i had done 1200m of climbing at an average 5% grade on a shitty road, and had met a couple good characters along the way (someone forced me to take $1), and had figured out how to deal with the endless dogs (bark loudly and carry a big stick), the real enemy appeared. the fucking clouds and rain.

i'm sure at the time i came up with numerous justifications for this, but i think in the end it was worth bruising my pride to keep the depression away...i took the bus out of the clouds. no big deal, really.

the good news is that i'm already regrouping. the bike has been slowly eating away at its chain, hopefully this will be fixed. i'm going to get rid of some stuff i'm not using...always feels good to be travelling light. i will get some bike shorts no matter what the cost. i met a dutch cyclist going the other direction on the way to cuenca...been riding with the same stuff for 25 years and had a really good spirit. somehow, i'm enjoying the constant bombardment of water balloons.
ecuador, in its humble way, is slowly growing on me, although i have to admit i miss the electricity of colombia. i have almost completely fixed my riding position on my little bike. my body is finally hungry like it's supposed to be.


pictures soon

the world IS flat

unforatuanately, the flat world is not really full of great things to blog about. me, i'm definitely a mountain person, but it's good to take a break from the religion once in a while. there are many months of the andes ahead of me

some have mentioned that it looks like i'm having too much fun....there is a case to be made, but it's worth noting that i leave a good amount of the crap out of this (bastard descents in the rain stay, though), because the shitty side of travelling makes for poor reading.

on that note, the weather is so fucking perfect here, you can swim in the 78 degree water in the very late afternoon in all your clothes (an easy way to wash), walk around the beach for a little while, eat a tasty and filling $2 fish dinner, be dry by the time you finish eating, and not be the slightest bit chilly once. seriously, you can descend from the high mountains to the beach in one day on a bike here (no the route i took a few days ago). maybe not THE life, but it's definitely one.

was an easy ride from guayaquil to Playas...the city is absolutly dead on sunday as everyone is at the beach. not that i needed to ask, but the locals confirmed that everyone comes back sun night, so i left a little after noon, cruised about 100k and arrived well before sunset. was really flying once i left the city, averaging 27 k/hr, but my body reminded me that this is not sustainable in 95 degree weather. rained the second half of the ride, but in ths climate it's welcomed.

gave the bike a nice tune up today, evened up the number of spokes and trued the wheels...even cleaned the caked grease out of the drivetrain, which i know is largely pointless, but this time it revealed that, holy shit, i'm missing two teeth from the middle chainring and the tooth bearing all the load is badly sharkfinned. this explains the shifting weirdness from the granny ring to the middle. will have to look for one in guayaquil tomorrow (only reasonable way back is go pass through)

looks like i'm going to spend less than a week down at the coast here, but i'm glad i came. i'm reminded again that with great spirit comes incomprehensible spanish, but with incomprehensible spanish comes personal growth. in a couple days i should be back in the clouds, above 3000 yet again.

(PS more free internet for network and PC troubleshooting at the internet cafe)

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
the experiment in liberty must be photodocumented

pics up

sheet up

tuesday
first day cycling alone in a long time was from latacunga to ambato, 42 highly unintimidating kilometers. just to keep things interesting, someone pointed the wind in my face, put up a couple 150m passes, took away my shoulder for a while, and threw in lots of traffic. whatever. Ambato turned out to be much bigger than i expected...the guy who owned the hotel i stayed in lived in newark for 20 years and drove a truck. apparently almost all ecuadorians who go abroad to make money come back (i´m guessing a little here, but people from mexico tend to stay)

wednesday
left early in the morning, felt OK but not great...good breakfast of croissants and yogurt. climbed 400m just to get out of city. road never went down...but this was expected because according to the book the climb was to fourthree. my energy level was slipping rapidly..legs giving less and less. took a nap on the side of the road, which helped but not totally. i notice i'm short a spoke on the back wheel
stopped by little indigineous town, made coffee in a little farm house, decided to stay the night there because i was at threesix and any higher it would be cold. eventually a boy came by, shy, asked him if i could stay but he didn't really respond...later on dad came by and was very friendly and said it was OK to stay...boy came back with brother and more fam and asked for dollar. this would not happen in colombia, then again i wouldn't feel as safe doing this in colombia. an act of faith??
slept pretty well...almost cold but OK. crappy sleeping bag...NEVER wash nice down bags by hand.

thursday
left really early, spectacular morning. quiet road, started to get views of volcano chimborazo, felt much better, more climbing, practically next to volcano, great views, etc, etc, cross four, down to threeeight, through the altidessert, cross the pass at a little over fourone (thirteenfive).
downhill from there. descent starts off cold, then in really heavy clouds, then road gets worse and worse. first 1000m decsending are NOT FUN. then i'm below the clouds, still crappy road but i make it to guaranda in one piece. lunch, then i decide to keep going. something is drawing me to the coast. 5 weeks in the mountains and i want a change. my brain wants the kitch value of descending from 4100+ to 0 in the same day.
and so, with 80k and 4100 m of descending, you think this would be a pretty easy ride. hm.
the road goes down a little, up a little, down a little, down some more...ok with me. only 60k to the coast and 2600 to drop. climb 100m as the google terrain view predicted, then down to 2400. steep climb out of the town, 2500. notice that there is a wall of mountains, no pass in sight. screaming, raining, unhappy. there was nothing, NOTHING on the map that indicated a climb like this. only the deaf in San Vicinte did not learn a new word today. put on the pixies. climb to 2700. no pass in sight. can't see anyways. feeling incredibly strong (probably from the heavy air) and incredibly pissed. road turns shitty. 2800. lady says there is lots more climbing. 2900...in the clouds again, light rain, top of the pass finally. still can't see though. start descending. 11 degrees C, raining, i'm fucking soaked and pissed. road sucks, descending slowly, rain in eyes and can't see well, using every ounce of concentration i have to keep from hitting the big potholes. down to 2500, guy at gas station says it's all down from here, lady on horse says more climbing. unfortunately the horselady is right. mostly push bike to 2650, almost crying from extreme frusturation. down to 2400, rain and road get worse....in patches it is OK and others i'm descending a 5% grade at 15 or 20 km hr, using all my concentration and every bike handling skill i have. then back up to 2450 and now i'm in total disbelief...feeling very cold but just miserable, no real core temp danger. keep thinking that i need to descend at lesat below 1500 and dry off in order to be comfortable. finally, the descent i have been waiting for, 16k straight down to 800m, see sign for hotel, $5, done deal. mud everywhere, everything is wet. "the life of bees" is soaked, camera display is not working, "zen..." is OK, body not happy but in one piece, sleep 12 hours. 137k, 1250m up, 4100 down. hell of a day.

friday
wake up late, warm and still a little wet. hung up all my clothes in the room last night and in the morningnone of my ultra-drying synthetics are dry in the least. pack up, using much more plastic to keep everything dry.
really crappy descending the next 800m...unfortunately did not tie down my cycling shorts and the are gone with the wind and i'm still too pissed-hungover from yesterday to care. 35 flat, flat, flat k to the next town Babahoyo where i eat and charge the ipod and start sketching the blog post in shorthand....much of which i left in shorthand. the sign says 70k to Guayaquil, the biggest city in ecuador, not recommended by any guide book or person i've met, which means my interest is piqued. the road there wasn't bad...busy but mostly with a good shoulder. i haven't cycled without shorts in a long time and it's bitingly clear why.
still not feeling great and haven't eaten much in the past few days so i'm not entirely sure where my energy is coming from, but i'm able to hold around 23k/h for a few hours. cross over two massive bridges to enter the city....lots of traffic but for me it was much easier than quito.

saturday
i LOVE the city right from the get-go. to me, most people here on the coast have a certain gusto that was mostly lacking in the andes. entirely different people. there are very, very few tourists in the area, a huge plus in my book. My guide book sings highly of quito and damns guayaquil with faint praise (and very few pages), probably because there is "nothing to do" here, but, for me, this trip is intentionally very light on things to do (not counting the bike) and heavy on trying to get under the skin. guayaquil feels even more citylike than medellin.
the way i speak and understand spanish is improving too. very few improvements to grammar and vocab, but i'm speaking and asking questions with much more confidence, and ignoring the fact that my pronunciation sucks, because it changes so much from place to place there really is not much of a center to adhere to, anyway.
a day or two here, errands and things (definitely new shorts), then off to the pacific for a day or two....i've been pining for a swim there for weeks now.

learning and sleeping

we left off in quito, right? originially i wanted to leave friday and julian monday, but he moved his day up to saturday so i stuck around to ride out with him.
we did a fairly good job at one of the harder parts of the trip (for me)...getting up early after several city days. the good news was that the only way to beat the crazy quito traffic is to leave before the sunrise, which is more or less out of the question on the bike -- so we got going a little after 7. once we got away from the center there was a well-graded road out of the city...only 300m, which doesn't register as a climb around here. the andes in our legs? anyway, shortly after lunch ran into a swiss lady who was cycling the other direction...very friendly lady, who was clearly a lifelong traveller and sportswoman and just had a very good air about her. she let me take pictures of her nicely detailed peru and south ecuador map.
kept going...knew that the top pass was 3500 from our low point of 2700. nice 1% grades up to 3100, then we got some steady rain, the grade increased, and our shoulder disappeared for a while. at arond 3200 i started feeling the altitude (a little strange....i've been much higher without feeling it). anway, it's happened before and i know that if i take it very easy for 30 mins i will return to normal, which i did. got some spectacular views of the 5900m volcano copotaxi just at the top of the pass. one of the most rewarding descents of the trip...first 300m down were steep and straight and i stayed above 60 km/hr for 5-10 mins. then the grade drops to .5-1%, which allows you to cover spectacular distances very quickly. on flat ground i average about 24-25 km/hr, but at a 1% descent this goes to about 38.
Anyway...made it to Latacunga really early, even with a long stop talking to the swiss woman. not too much to say about the town...it's seemingly engulfed by a large market, where i got hat #4, pictures to come. Julian was to climb the volcano the next day and i was planning on splitting, up and over the mountains and then down to the coast. but met a couple kids in the hostel who were going to a volcanic lake Quilotoa and decided to tag along for the day.
The lake was very cool, pictures to come..only drawback was one that i have noticed quite a bit in ecuador, that the locals tend to look at you like walking money and treat you as such too. i sympathize, but that doesn't make it much less annoying. this was almost nonexistant in colombia. One of the kids, Eli, was planning to hike the next day...which goes halfway around the rim of the volcano then descends into the local towns. i decided to tag along. we stayed at one of the little guesthouses at the top of the volcano, but didn't sleep entirely well at 3850 (12, 500).
started off early the next morning, and the big challenge of the day was instantly apparent...we were in the clouds, and couldn't see much more than 20 fet in front of us. the other big challenge was that the main path was not entirely clear...sometimes the side paths were bigger and more worn. and, to top it off, it _seems_ that someone removed all the signs from the signposts, which _may_ be related to the fact that everyone you enconter is offering to guide you for a price. anyway, we got a little lost, found our way back, etc, etc...but missed the main turnoff that would lead from the top of the volcano to the next town. we got a break in the clouds, could see a fairly clear descent into the valley, as well as a road, and jumped on it. but because we had walked to far around the rim, after descending the mistake was amplified....to keep this short, what was supposed to be a 4 hour 11km hike turned into a 9 hour 23-ish km hike with well over 1500m of vertical. the good news was that after the town on the rim, everyone was very friendly, giving us shelter from the rain and good directions to the next towns.
Found a good hostel in Chuchilan, dried off by the fire, ate our first meal in 11 hours, and enjoyed some beers (i, um, realized that it was just a couple hours to my, um, birthday). woke up at 2am to catch a ride back to Latacunga with the hostel owner...quite an interesting experience riding in his large delivery truck, with your face right up against the front of the truck, driving in the dark, in the clouds, with debris all over the road, mud, sharp curves, narrow passes with oncoming traffic, etc, etc. my kind of fun.
said the goodbyes to julian (again) this morning...heard about his conequest of the 5800m volcano and all that good stuff. he's got a damn good plan...descending today to a town at 1800 with hot springs, then a few days riding in the amazon region, and then taking a boat for 5ish days, crossing into peru. we made a pretty damn good riding team, and the first couple days will probably be a little strange. one thing that made him different was the fact that he was not at all a cyclist before starting his trip. we balanced each other out...i helped him with tips and tricks about efficient cycling, and he helped remind me that the trip is not about the bike.
i'm going to Ambato this afternoon, a short 40 k. then, what should be an interesting day...climbing (with ups and downs) from 2600 to 4300 (above 14!), around Chimborazo (6300m) and, according to my book, about 30k of alti-desert.
as always, pictures soon.

Leg 1 -- Cartagena to Quto -- Welcome to the (alti-) Jungle

final colombia pictures are updated

created a new album for ecuador pics..also updated

sheet is updated.

thoughts on leg 1 of the trip a little later, then off on a "vuelta de cuencua" tomorrow, most likely without company. curently bleeding money in quito, the first and last good chance for a while to buy gringo-style and -size clothes, shoes, camping gear.

south of the equator, and then some

sometimes i wonder if travelling like this is entirely selfish -- it's a feeling that's hard to resist after spending most of your life in school or working. maybe it's because most of us are so used to being in some kind of structured environment, working as a group toward some kind of progress or goal. when you're travelling there is no such goal -- all your time is clearly your own and your time is entirely what you make of it.
but the past week helped remind me that, quite possibly, it's the other way around, that not only does travelling tend to augment the individual, but it's a pretty damn good way to enhance the group as a whole.
anyway, the past week or so was well spent. for me, it was lots of good food, good sleep, good spanish practice, and more than a little glimpse into an entirely different culture. in exchange, i made lots of food for lots of people, helped watch and entertain 5 kids, did some typical household and bike repairs, played some violin (so far nobody i've met has heard a solo violin), and provided the best glimpse i could (in broken spanish) into life in the US.
i can't remember too much detail off the top of my head, but when i update the pictures later today or tomorrow i'll give some narrative in the captions

to quito was a good long day, over 100k and 2100m of climbing. we started as 4: me, julian, claudio, and enrique (the father). enrique rode with us up the first pass, from 2500m in octavalo to 3100 at the top...pretty impressive for someone who usually just bikes around a farm. claudio wasn't feeling great so at the top of the pass he let me and julian go ahead. the road descended down to 2000m, up to 2300, down to 2000 again, then up to 2850 into the Big City (as always, there are dips in the climbs). we ran into the owner of a bar we visited twice in octavalo along the way. with a week off, it took the heart and lungs an hour or two to get back into the swing of things, but once they did the body was in full force, flying up the climbs a good 1.5-2 km/h faster than usual -- aided by spectacularly temperate weather and cloud cover all day.

still not entirely sure how long i'm going to stay in quito...might be just a couple days or i might stay through the weekend. as i'm sure you've noticed, there hasn't been a whole lot of biking recently....but we here have decided that if all you care about is the biking, you might as well just stay at home, away from the microbes. (PS despite some opposition to them, i must admit that modern antibiotics are pretty damn close to a miracle drug)

octavalo

so, not 10 minutes after the last post, i (we) ran into yet another fellow travelling cyclist freakshow...Claudio from Modena. we stopped at the gas station, filled up the stove bottle, made some tea, then decided to continue on together to octavalo, just 20k away. and then, not 10 minutes after that, we ran into another freakshow...didn't catch his name, but he was a big dude from switzerland who had been travelling around s america for 3 years (and looked it). he was going the other direction, so we just stopped to chat for a few minutes about this and that.

the last few days, the three of us have been living with the indigenous family that we met in cali. so far, a very cool experience. i'll write some more about them later. it's been very good for my spanish, because that's the only language everyone understands. we're planning to spend the weekend here, ride to quito monday and, for me, find all the crap that i didn't get at home or have already lost or destroyed.

sombered

back to posting on the road. in ibera right now, going to stay with a family in octavalo tonight, just 25k or so away. tomorrow to quito.

yesterday....woke up early. still not feeling too great, but after 3 days rest it was time to move on. leaving colombia was quick, only 5 minutes wait. not quite the same for ecuador...waited almost 4 hours to get our entry stamps.

ecuador was off to a very bad start. slow border, shitty police asking how much money we had a few k later, a cold cimb to 3200m, and no decent food on the road.

but after lunch things turned up, some nice decents for a while, then rain, then up a little more.

once we climbed back to 2800 the scenery was as spectular as anything. huge valleys, open roads, good weather, spectacular light (you'll see in the photos later), and 1300m of descening (video of this later too). at almost the same time, we both blurted out ´this is freedom!´saw some strange dioramas of mammoths, saber tooth tigers, and snoop dogg. ecuador, fuck yeah!

so what was going to be the story of a shitty day turned great eneded very quicky when we were going up a little climb, heard a siren behind us...around the next corner there was a crowd of people, streams of blood, and a body with a blanket over it. we only stopped for a few seconds, not really wanting to find out what happened (an accident, somehow). a very quiet next half hour riding. i guess as travelling brings you closer to life, it also brings you closer to death (philosopically speaking)

anyway, descended down to a little town (everyone was black, a little surprising for ecuador), couldn't find a hotel..but 5k later found one, chilled out, ate some spectacular grilled chicken, and slept.

comments, cool.

so i had all the settings right before, but apparently i had to change the template in order for the link to comments to appear. originally, i picked the one most likely to induce seizures -- white text on black -- but in the end i had a little mercy.

y blah blah blah....

shit (pictures updated)

the curse of the blog. if it's not updated regularly, not only do people stop reading (ok by me) but if lots of stuff happens then you have to make a very confusing and slightly epic post. so this is what we're going to get. deep breaths.

Cali

we all really, really liked Cali. Medellin was like a bone-crackling puppy, growing and developing at a seemingly stupendous rate, not entirely full of culure but flush with interesting people and felt like a "real" city. Cali was the opposite, fairly quiet, seemingly stuck in the past, and seemingly devoid of city people. but it had a great vibe, great music, great clubs, very friendly locals, and a coolness matched by few other places.
we made the mistake of not making reservations at a hostel, so when we got there every hostel and hotel was booked (except in the very undesirable center of the city). we ended up talking our way into one of the newer ones...which has the potential to be a great place, but the owner was more than a little batshit crazy and there were more than a few tense moments.
anyway, we passed the new year there, had a couple of really great days with lots of alcohol and dancing and meeting people from all over (including some ecuadorians we plan on staying with in a day or two). fabian and i met quite possibly the craziest man in Cali and left some good english and german quotes for him to dwell on. if you scan through the pictures, you'll see that we even made it into the local newspaper. etc etc.
so fabian continued on his quixotic way back to medellin and up to venezuela. julian and i left early in the morning, hoping to make the 130k to popayan. leaving the city was pretty easy, fast and flat for the first 50k, but soon after the road turned up, and the new year's residue began to make itself known. unbeknownced to us, this was the beginning of the endless (ENDLESS) ups and downs..up 100m, down 100m, up 150m, down 120m, up 75m, down 50m, etc, etc etc. mentally unfun. took a long nap in the middle of the day, so by the time we got to piendamo about 105k from cali it was already getting dark, we had climbed 1500m and were ready to stop. stayed in a gas station with a very friendly and businesslike owner.

piendamo - mojarres

one of the things that most anyone who has spent an entire day riding a bicycle notices is that when you have a good, long day it feels like you get to experience a miniature version of your life within about 12 hours. extreme highs, extreme lows, love, sadness, infinite happiness, unforseen problems, new friends, new enemies, etc, etc. this was one of those days. 161k with 8:15 on the bicycle and over 2000m of climbing. left really early in the morning knowing we were in for a long day...we were feeling whipped just a few k into the day by the ENDLESS ups and downs...after 20k these calmed down and we had some really, really great cycling descending to and around popayan. good roads, nice grades, a seemingly infinite number of cyclists. leaving popayan, already a couple hours into the day, the sign said we had 121k to go. more of the ENDLESS ups and downs for 40k, then down to about 1300 (from 2000?), and a climb back to 1800. i stopped at the top to wait for julian but he must of passed while i wasn't looking...after 20 mins waiting i couldn't decide if i had really sprinted up the climb or if he was ahead of me. after 3 people concurred that there was in fact a tall cyclist with a black shirt in front of me (one lady said one hour in front...) i realized i was goign to have to push pretty hard the next hour or two to catch up (still not entirely sure if he was in front or behind). a big descent down to 900m, then a hot, shitty climb up to 1300 to get out of the valley.
eventually caught up with julian along the way, there were another 25k or so of ENDLESS ups and downs. stopped in el bordo about 45k short of mojarres where we ran into a group of 10 cyclists (and these people were REAL cyclists) from bogota cycling to quito. took some pics, exchanged the typical chit-chat, then decided to ride together to Mojarres...our final destination but they planned on going furthur. was lots of fun pedalling with them...got to lead the group for 8 very fast km. then our weight and long day caught up with us and they were all pretty far ahead of us...however they stopped near a scenic river and i played some violin for them and took some more pictures. they pressed on...we searched for water and juice (funny story, somewhere in the picture captions). but as it turns out, they decided to stop in mojarres too. all had dinner together, stayed in the same hotel with a well-negotiated price, and drank a few of the best beers of the trip. a very memorable day

mojarres was at 600m, so we knew the next day would be hot. ok, fine, we leave early, we know there is a climb around 35k so as long as we get above 1200m or so by 9am we should be fine. and we were doing well, until we realized that we had very little cash...and it was sunday morning in the desert and there were no stores and nothing was open and we had little food and water. after 8k on no breakfast we stopped at a tiny pueblo with no stores, but somebody let us in their house for water, which we filtered to drink and cooked up some pasta for breakfast. really, the biggest problem was not that we were still hungry afterward but that we were losing time, it was already 90 degrees at 8:30 and it was going to get worse.
more ENDLESS ups and downs for 35k, stopped in a town that finally had food, spent some of our rations on lunch (but filtered water from the tap), and began one of the shittiest climbs yet...starting at 500m and well over 95 degrees with a 7% grade, it was a very slow and water-intensive first hour or two. bought some more pasta to cook along the way (cheap empanadas for lunch), climbed to about 1600m and descended down to about 800. ever since we left cali, the people have changed almost completely...almost everyone we see on the road is of indiginous descent. lots of them sitting on the road asking for money (people throw coins from cars sometimes). they were very bitter and verbally agressive with us...really the first time I had experieced this sentiment in colombia.
anway, climbed back to 1200m, knew there were no cities around which was OK because we didn't have anything close to the money for a hotel. camped just off the main road, overcame stove problems to finally make some dinner, crammed into julian's tent when it started to rain, woke up to nice mountains and questioning sanity...the campsite was less than 2 feet from a pretty sheer drop.
next day to Pasto was a climb all day from 1200 to 2700. met a local cyclist on the road who was really friendly and talkative...invited us to his sister's house near the highway for juice and coffee. me the whole family, hung out for a while, and of course, played some violin in exchange for hospitality. the rest of the day was uneventful, except for the fact that we were completely wrecked from the past few days and the end of the climb was not technically difficult but a little bit of a mental challenge. rain near the top, temp dropped to about 50 degrees. descended about 300m into pasto leaving victory cries in our wake. greeted by some friendly but aggressive festival-goers who promptly sprayed us with "snow in a bottle", threw powder in our face, and painted us black. pretty endearing, really.
the rest of our stay in pasto went pretty much like that. we were there for the last couple days of the festival de blancos y negros, quite possibly the greatest party on the planet at the time. lots of drinking, dancing, random spraying and face painting and powder throwing. stayed in a nice but expensive hotel ($12 each per night). helped a randon guy on the street who was fairly brutally assualted by a taxi driver. ate something i shouldn't have.
leaving pasto, i knew it would be an interesting day. i was feeling 80% at best. two flat tires on the way out of the city for me. my legs felt good but my body not so on the climb from 2400 to 3050 out of the city. very cold on the descent...julian got pretty far ahead because i kept stopping. by the time i got to the bottom of the descent at 1700m i realized that my chances of making it up to ipiales at 2900 were nil, as i couldn't eat anything and could barely hold down water at the moment. took a nap on a restaurant table over a little bottle of water. woke up a couple hours later feeling a little better, worked up the motivation to unpack the bike, stop a bus, and ride about 40 mins up to ipiales, shouting at julian when the bus passed him.

so ipiales is where we are, a pretty cold city at 2900m, but it's a good size, nice and cheap...the perfect place to take a few days off to get better, reflect on colombia (a fairly big task) and plan for ecuador. in the hostel in cali we met a really friendly and fun dutch couple, Loes and Joop, who we also saw in pasto and ipiales, who just left for quito this morning. lots of good times with them. don't have my camera with me right now, but went to one of the most spectacular churches just a few k away from here...pics coming...eventually (maybe not till quito).

we're going to leave sunday morning with the hopes of an easy border crossing (heard some horror stories of 12+ hour waits), going to stay with the ecuadorians we met in cali for a night or two, and should be in quito by the end of the week.

one last thing. (i'm getting a little tired typing this much....unless you're desperately bored at work i'm sure you're getting a little tired reading too. check the pictures, they're more interesting anyway.) i'm going to leave most of the numbers out of the blog and use this instead, mostly for me (i can't imagine why anyone would be that interested) but also for you number freaks out there. reading over other biker's travelogues i'm realizing it's easy to slip into a fairly uninteresting narrative of distances, terrain, and cities. not entirely sure how i'm going to counteract the tendency, but at least know that i'm thinking about it.

mark.
lots of cycling, scant internet, ran out of cash, having too much fun at the greatest party in the world, etc, etc. post and pictures soon.

discriminating

fast ride to cali, 65k at 22km/hr. all hotels and hostels are full for the new year, but we managed to talk our way into one (NY eduaction is paying off).

sensuatinal

since we left off....the three monos (monkey is a term of endearment around here) had a nice christmas dinner of minature turkeys with arepas and rice and beer. not much different than any other meal, but we ate with as much christmas gusto as we could find.
leaving Riosucio we had a fairly steep 400m climb to 2100m, but the rest of the day was fairly flat riding along the mountain ridge, finally descending to about 900m in Cartago. spectacular scenery all day, riding through the clouds and new and carless roads in the morning, then a gradual descent through the river valley where we pushed 30 km/hr for about 10k. we stopped by the river for a swim with the locals. at some fire-cooked carne de cerdo (pork) late in the afternoon, climbed back to 1200m, then had a spectacularly fast descent (max 71 kmh for me) into Cartago.
Cartago was about as uninteresting as a city of 150,000 could be, but we stayed in a very friendly..umm...hotel. there was a sign reminding everyone that anyone brought back to the hotel must be of age (which is about 14 here). met a nice couple on the street who invited us back to their place for wine, coffee, and pastries.
Last night i made sure to point out that after three good days cycling, we were due for a shitty one. and a shitty morning it was...drizzle and rain, crowded highway, and all three of us punctured before noon. brilliant. but the rest of the day was good....for a stretch we averaged about 24 km/hr. totally flat riding through the valley, 110 km. drafted a truck that was going about 22 km/hr for 15 minutes -- just like taking a break but we were covering ground.
I've been feeling much better the past couple days, and starting to feel really strong on the bike. tomorrow will be a short, flat 65 km day into Cali...a few days off there, then off to Ecuador. I'm realizing that i haven't had much to say about the country recently...most likely because everything is starting to feel very familiar. all the thumbs up on the road, the insanely aggressive city traffic, the somewhat skeptical but overwhelmingly friendly people, the strange stories and history, and the highly varied and beautiful scenery, have become more internal than external to me. in short, Colombia is a spectacular country, through and through. one could spend years here and never get bored. like most other countries i've been to in latin america, everyone tells you that there is danger around the next corner (partly out of habit, partly to feel better about their own turf), but to me it seems as safe as anywhere here.
Oh, and i bought a violin. i would like to say it was a spur of the moment thing, but it was in the early plans. a guy at the hostel in medellin knew of a luthier in the city. so on monday we paid him a visit....unfortunately he had no instruments of his own, but he sold me a very, very nice chinese-made kit that set me back very, very little as far as violins go. the police in particular seem to enjoy listening.
pictures, videos, seranades to come soon. i just spent an hour working on them here, but the computer is just not cooperating enough.

tres monos

we're a little bit behind schedule, but otherwise everything has been going as planned. we left medellin early tuesday, heading towards cali. yesterday we had a little 700m climb to get out of the city, then almost 2000m of descending down to la pintada. the temperature near the top was about 65 degrees, at the bottom well above 90. total distance was about 75k with 1200m of climbing. not much happening at night, we were all wasted (tired) and slept almost 12 hours.

today we cycled along a river for the first 45k, then the road turned up and climbed from 700m to 1800m. about 70k total. i was feeling the heat in the middle of the day and had to go very slowly, but was very fast for the last 300m of climbing. now we're in riosucio, about to eat our christmas dinner.

pictures soon

also

those of you with a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket (i.e. you are not decimated by the current economy) should run, not walk to this website, get this camera, and carry it with you everywhere.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120251

stymied

so here i am, back in medellin. maybe i just really like this city, or the hostel and the people it contains, but the decision to turn back was not entirely difficult.

since the last post, there was some really good cycling on good roads for about 40k, but then things took a turn for the worse. i came to a T in the road...in one direction it was a good road that was a dead end, and in the other direction i would have had to cycle or walk 34k over some really, really nasty dirt track. there was a guy with a little store at the T and he laid out all the options, most of which involved going back through medellin. i figured i would average 3-4 km/hr over the dirt -- not appealing to me. it's probably going to be a good long trip, and i'm not quite ready to push myself like that. not to mention i was having some issues with a bike 1-2 sizes too small and am starting to feel the effects of living in a part of the world where hygiene is definitely not king. this is most definitely not a race

So with the help of the very helpful and hospitable guy (he gave me advice and coffee and showed me his handbuilt welder and i promised him a postcard from the US) at the T, i flagged down a bus, threw the bike in, and backtracked to the city.

that's the bad news

the good news is, i'm having a good time at the hostel, relaxing, hanging out, enjoying the international company and friendly city. the other good news is that, come monday, i will be cycling with not one but two companions (maybe more...i'm getting better at converting backpackers to bikepackers). one french chap who has cycled down from mexico city and a high-spirited quixotic german who will be testing the cross-country cycling waters. just as i like to spend quiet weekends at home, i've been spending the last couple days fixing up everyone's bike for the trek down carratera 25 and a side highway to Cali.

no pictures at the moment, but tomorrow i'm going to ride into the center of town in search of bike parts and post cards. if you guys play your cards right, i'll slap the video-capable camera to my handlebars and give you a glimpse of how positively insane it is cycling down the streets here. i'm fairly sure your reactions will run the gamut. will take some pretty church photos to balance things out. and some good pics of my john mcenroe hair, too

i'm thinking about ditching the machete too. in the heat of excitement at the home-depot-like store here, i ditched the much cheaper and effective dog-repelling wooden stick in favor of the shiny bush clearing weapon. but my better judgement is telling me it's more of a liability than anything else.

escape

finally, truly, escaped from medellin. i'll have to watch myself in the future -- it's easy to slip back into city mode. forged an alliance with a couple kids at the hostel based on distributing little pocket notebooks to kids in poor areas.
getting out was pretty rough physically as well. didn't get out until after noon, then the next few kilometers were straight up with grades from 10-17% for 400m of climbing. once i hit the highway the grades slowed to about 6% but there was still another 850m of climbing for the day. only covered 37k.
i decided to get off the main road for this leg, which looked particularly car-oriented (they even call it the autopista). so far seems to have been a good move, as the cycling is pretty awesome. lots of roadies out here. i'd heard that colombia was pretty fanatical about cycling, but not until recently did i actually see any cyclists.
rode until 20 minutes before dark...saw a lot of halfway decent camping spots by the side of the road but didn't feel like the area was quite remote enough for this. eventually came across a seminary school of sorts and the guy i saw called a couple of people and they let me string up my hammock between the goal posts on the soccer field. not bad sleeping at all....i'm starting to get used to this semi-wild camping.

loosening and lightening

no good updates today. been having a little too much fun in medellin exploring the city and gearing up and down. the spanish here is much easier to understand and i'm slowly starting to feel comfortable. fixed a downed computer at the hostel for a free night and some beer.
definitely leaving tomorrow towards manizales.
gearing down, i cut out almost everything that is not necessary: extra length from straps, labels, extra backpack pockets, plastic bags, flashlight (my cell phone has one), guide book (took 500 + pictures of all the pages), and two of my bicycle bags, probably 10 lbs in total.
gearing up, i got some new socks, lightweight pants, fishing hooks and line, headphones for the ipod, alcohol for the stove and, well. this. it serves a rather utilitarian purpose, but i think it's best to let your mind run wild.

pre-developed

pictures are updated

spent most of today doing boring stuff like laundry, shopping for socks and trinkets, and eating. non-stop eating.
i went out to the city for a few hours, just to get a little lost and get a feel for the place. i haven't been many places, but i guarantee you there is nowhere quite like medellin. moving on from its cartel days, there has clearly been a massive investment in infrastructure -- all the roads are new, the metro is fairly new, and they have a couple cable cars that run over and into the poorest neighbourhoods. but despite all the new stuff, the city center functions like most other poorer cities i.e. it's a giant market of small stands and shops, full of loud busses and oodles of exhaust.
it's been a nice day and a half off, but except for finding alcohol for my stove i've found all the little stuff i was looking for and am ready to keep going.

medellin

thought it would be a nice easy descent, given that medellin is 3300 feet below santa rosa and only 67 k away, but the mountains had their last hurrah of the first leg and had me climb another 2700 feet on the way down. i cleared the computer again by mistake, but it was about 75 k at 21 km/hr. drafted a truck on one of the descents and hit 68.5 km/hr on my aerodynamically challenged white donkey of a bike. i strapped my camera to the bike and took a video of one of the steeper parts of the decent. it's 250M so i need to cut it some to make it fit on the internet.
staying at a nice clean hostel with lots of backpackers. can't say i'm a fan of spending a lot of time at these places, but here and there they are quite nice. there's a mega-lo-mart a few blocks away to stock up on rice, sugar, and oatmeal.
i'm going to try and find someone on couchsurfing.com who can take me in and show me the city. i'm not much of a fan of doing touristy things.
i need to work on my spanish too. i can communicate just fine, but conversation is pretty much out of the question.

i enjoy getting emails from y'all, keeping me updated on what's going on at home. so keep them coming and i'll try and keep this thing updated.

the mountains in my legs (reprise) / how do you say fing knackered in spanish??
i'll warn you that i'm a little worn out and hungry and feeling the altitude right now, but here's my best

the pictures are updated. everything since the one captioned "cockpit view"

i think we left off in caucasia. the rest of the ride into taraza was uneventful. for the day i think it was 133k at about 22 km/hr. stayed at a little hospedaje (guesthouse) there which was fine, but i had a little bit of a funny feeling about it, so i took the oppertunity to take my us cash and spread it out all over my clothes and bike. the town was a little dusty but very amenable

the last couple days went as follows (the number is altitide in meters, multiply by 3.3 for feet)

125M
started off in taraza, climbing slowly. pretty scenic, following a big river, lots of shade, ate a gigantic lunch around 45km

200m
after lunch, crossed a bridge and noticed that the rode tilted somewhat drastically upward. no big deal, i switch over to one of the tiny gears and keep going. it's very hot, by the way

400m
the grades are between 6 and 10 percent, and i'm feeling it

800m
holy shit, i'm tired. when i cough i feel it down my entire leg. stopped a whole bunch of times to drink and eat fruit. it's getting slightly cooler, though

1000m
wow, 1000m. take a picture of the altimeter

1200m
reached the first town...seems like the top of the range. medellin is 200-ish km away and at
1500m, so i should be good from here

1600m (like 3km later)
what really gets me, besides the fact that i'm tired and pushing the bike now, is that you can't see any switchbacks here...every 10 minutes you round a corner that is 100m higher, and as soon as you round that one there is another. i'm, in the clouds. everyone is giving me a thumbs up and smiling.

1700m
i'm clearly not near the top. not that i can see much because i'm in the clouds. it's 20 minutes from being very dark. there are lots of shabby looking shacks around here, but i find a decent looking house and ask if i can stay there. the lady says i have permission to stay, but this is in one of the uninhabited shacks. i'm so tired i don't care. i lay out all my stuff, set up the hammock inside, filter a few litres of water, and make a dinner of rice with tomatoes (delicious). read some dostoyevsky in the hammock, and i'm pretty sure i hear footsteps around me. i ask if anyone is there, and no response. this is the point, for me, when the rational and irrational minds duke it out. the irrational mind says that i'm in troulble. the rational one says no, it's probably nothing. and even if there is someone, i locked the door (with some spare brake cable), and even if they come in, they're probably not hostile, and if they are, they just want money or, at worst, my stuff. honestly? they can have it if it comes to that. i'm so infinitely more fortunate than whomever would do this that a couple hundred dollars and bike and some camping gear is really nothing to me.i put my earplugs in and sleep pretty well, despite the loud ass trucks 15 feet from my earsin the morning i notice some falling debris near the shack that sounds a whole lot like human footsteps.

2200m
i'm at what looks like the top, but turns out to be YALP (yet another local peak). feeling pretty good now. only walked a little bit this morning, up a grade that was 18-ish percent. going up lots of people were offering me rides and the slow moving trucks offered to let me hold on and be pulled.

2400m
stopped by the police yet again. i guess they're bored and i seem interesting. these guys are particularly fun -- ask the usual questions about where i came from, going, where i eat and sleep, which country has better women, etc. they give me some arepa with egg and "chocloate" which is some chocolate powder with water and milk (we'll see how my stomach feels in a couple days. can't turn down free food unless it's obviously bad though). there's a picture with these guys in the album.

2500m
up and down, but i'm finally at the next town, yarumal. feeling tired but pretty good. stop at a little food stand, there's some guy there who is very talkative (he even looks like rodney dangerfield) who pretty much orders everything for me -- cafe con leche, arepa, and chicken in a fried shell -- and then even pays for it. pretty cool. i wish i could send some of this weather home: clean air, blue sky, 75 degrees.

2000m
nice decent

2500m
stopped by the police yet again. just one guy and he was actually serious for a couple minutes, then slips into sizing up how crazy i am

2700m
the top. feels good. it's all pretty much flat and downhill from here. descend a little to santa rosa de osos where i am typing and starving now. and feeling particularly good. the lady at the hotel didn't have enough change so i bought a beer to close the gap.

by the way, the numbers are starting to mean nothing to me. they're a point of amusement, but this is clearly not about numbers.

yesterday was 74.09 km, 12.6 km/hr, 1671 meters gained
today was 81.03 km, 14.5 km/hr, 1832 meters gained
in total, i climbed 11,500 feet the past couple days. ready for a break

photos and videos

why google does not make it easy to easily integrate photos and video into the blog site is beyond me. when i get to medellin i'm going to try and see if i'm missing something or if there is a better way to do this. i'm somewhat tempted to move the whole thing to crazyguyonabike.com (yes, a real site).

anyway, instead of a siesta i found an internet cafe and updated pictures. and i uploaded a couple videos here and here. i also finally started taking some pictures with my camera that exposes real film, but it may be a long time before anyone sees them.

so far today has been good, very overcast and humid this morning, only 80 degrees. i'm stopped in Caucasia and it's back to 95 again. 70k at 22.6 km/hr (glad i wrote this down because i just cleared the day on my computer). it's pretty flat, the shoulder is nice and big, and i'm starting to feel like my good old biking self. the road is about to turn up, though. 275K more to medellin -- i'm going to try and make it there by wednesday.

moving on

right now i'm in a little puebla called Planeta Rica. was planning on trying to stay at a farm again tonight, but the name was too good, and after 121k at 21k/hr i'm treating myself, a little.

not sure if i let on to this much, but yesterday i was really baked. my little bike hat was just not cutting it, and after two days of constant equatorial sun i think that half of my brain cells went into heat hibernation. anyway, today was much better for a number of reasons. 1) i got a sombrero which does a pretty good job of keeping the sun off my head. had to sew some twigs into in to prevent the front from flapping around. 2) i wore pants today which kept the sun off my legs so they can tan instead of blaze. surpisingly not that bad. 3) i'm starting to perfect the Gunnar method of wearing a longsleeve shirt -- cuffs buttoned to keep the sun off the arms and almost the entire shirt unbuttoned to keep cool. 4) i'm finding out what's good and cheap to eat: little bananas that taste 10x better than anything i've had at home, oranges are good and practically free, fried whole potatoes with a little meat in the middle for 20 cents, and fried arepas with egg for 40 cents. right now i'm drinking a little over 2 gallons of water a day. 5) the bike is performing admirably -- the index shifter seems to have fixed itself in the warm weather -- but i'm thinking about slimming things down considerably when i get to medellin. 6) yesterday i saw a guy travelling on a motorcycle get stopped by the police and he was being searched. today i was stopped for the first time and they just wanted to get a grip on exactly how crazy i am.

Colombia is very familiar but definitely not the same as the other central american countries. they use a lot of slang here -- it seems like every 3rd word i hear is "plata" (cash), fittng for a country that makes a lot of its money exporting something so frequently bought in cash. people are far less likely to wave when i pass by (fine by me) but they frequently say something to me, although either i can't understand their accent or they're using slang i don't understand or they're just talking to someone else but looking at me. i get a LOT of honks, but, then again, not nearly as many as the women on the street.

i PROMISE to have pictures next time...i remembered to bring my camera to the internet place today and even took the usb cable out of my bag but it didn't make it into my pocket

stroked

i met a german couple at the hostel in cartagena, sven and ilya. they had spent some time at an italian-run children's school in one of the poorer areas outside cartagena and convinced me to stick around one more day to see the school. which I did, and it was worth it.

so yesterday i was off -- i wanted to leave early in the morning but didn't make it out until 9:30. lots of traffic leaving the city. i missed a turn to stay on the main road and wound up in a little town where everyone thought i was looking for the beach (fittingly, playa blanca). once i was about 20k outside the city the road was pretty good and not too much traffic so i was pushing fairly hard, which turned out to be a mistake. i've had my fair share of experience biking in latin america, but i underestimated my lack of acclimation to the heat and the heat itself (100 degrees and very humid). so i think what i experienced was a little heat stroke (not dehydration, that much i can judge). after an hour an a half in the shade i felt better and was able to keep going, albeit slowly and with lots of stops. biked a little later than i should have, but it turned out well because just as it was getting too dark i found an open farm gate, walked in and asked the farmer living there if i could put up my hammock. he invited me to stay inside with himself and his two kids. they had a lot of questions but i'm coming to realize that colombians speak fairly quickly, with an accent í'm not used to, and like americans they seem to be making up the language on the fly. anyway, i gave him some rum i had in my bag (leftover) and showed him all my toys: stove water filter, etc.

went to sleep very early (didn't sleep well on the foam mat on the floor and lots of animal noises) and woke up around 5am. made some oatmeal with my alcohol stove and got moving early to avoid the heat. there was lots of traffic for the first 10K or so and i was very lethargic. afterward the road improved and the traffic was much, much better. lots of little 200-300' hills. took a nap under a tree and afterward felt my legs come alive for the first time. towards the end of the day today I ran into a man who had been walking around colombia, peru, venezuela, and bolivia for 10 years. he was very friendly and he rattled off his favorite bands (def leppard, bon jovi, ac/dc, kiss, etc).

now i'm in Sincelejo, a local capital, univeristy town and cattle town. leaving early tomorrow, south toward medellin (med-ah-jeen). should be good riding, but i might not have internet again until medellin, 457K away

98K yesterday, 105 today. not very much, but i've been stopping a lot to stay cool.

will have some pictures and videos next time.

agua man

detroit to cartagena airport to cartagena centro

it's hard to describe the feeling when you first get off the plane. all the months of planning, reading online and recounting past experiences suddenly mean very little. you're somewhere very, very different. just as i got the bike all set and rolling, it started pouring hot torrential rain, which was clearly worth a chant of "agua-man!" from afar.

but for me, this time, it's also familiar. i don't even know how i did this last time with no spanish, but it's very satisfying to be able to communicate without much pointing and grunting.

one thing i remember clearly from last time is that whenever the guide book describes a city as a must-see, i'm best off avoiding it. cartagena is fine, and i'm sure some of the surrounding beaches are very nice, but the centro area is crowded and dirty and not all that inexpensive. charming, maybe, but i'm just a little too jaded. and i've already had a week of being lazy and have spent my fair share of time in crowded and dirty latin american cities. on the upside, the hostel here is perfect: cheap, friendly, and has free internet.

so tomorrow i'm going to gather some final supplies, get to sleep early, and start riding

detroit

not much notable about the ride back from royal oak, 40 mi again but a headwind most of the way. once the lingering ethanol wore off in the morning i was pretty hungry.

today i went exploring downtown detroit with Aaron i.e. we were looking for cool abandoned buildings and factories. pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/dlittle/DetroitApocCity#

pre-tripping

just as my core temperature was coming back to normal, i figured the best way to pay hommage to those still freezing in new york would be a 40-mile pre-trip ride through the slush and snow in detroit's sprawl. it was pretty shitty, but not too bad -- i know this becuase i only thought about calling to be picked up and never made it as far as taking my phone out of my pocket.

good times with mike (old college roommate) and megan (college friend and mike's wife) and their puppy in royal oak. i'm sparing you all the video clip of me singing "in bloom"

hats off to suburban/metro detroit drivers: not a single honk or side swipe after 40 miles on car-filled roads with no shoulder (i.e. 8 mile). i'm pretty sure that most of this was not out of courtesy, but because MI drivers must think i'm crazy. and not crazy in the way that i AM crazy, i mean bat-shit-straight-out-of-the-prison-mental-ward crazy. they were scared to get anywhere near me.
i'm afraid another side effect of this ride and the ride today will be deepening fears about the economy. so hopefully you all hear it from me first: it's not THAT bad here, the economy is still chugging along, and my riding a bike around detroit is not a symbol of economic distress.






"in bloom"













Mike probably singing Ozzy














prettiest couple north of 8 mile












pit stop for cinnamon doughnuts and eggs














slightly lost on an unpaved side road

149.6

this is how much my 3 boxes of life weighed at penn station, divided almost equally to stay under the weight limit of 50 lbs each. of course this meant the remaining 70-ish pounds had to be dragged around on the floor and my back and onto the train, but no big deal. Tom, you are awesome for helping me get my shit to the station, and our cab driver is awesome for noticing that i left my viola in the cab and for coming back to the station.

so after countless months of hemming and hawing, i'm finally out of new york. it was not easy by any means. apologies to the many who had to listen to my ongoing internal debates about the what when why and how.

i was very comfortable (if not a little cold) and surrounded by lots of great people -- this is clearly one of the advantages to being in a large city. i had originally set off to new york to be a bike messenger for a while and to meet a lot of people and i think it's safe to say i accomplished this. i refuse to make any predictions about the length of this trip or what's going to happen afterward, but it's going to be hard not to go back.

as i'm writing this on the train, flipping through recent pictures, of course i'm still thinking about what i'm leaving behind. but at the same time, after being caught up so long in the little details that go into planning a trip and explaining what i'm doing to people who are not necessarily on the same wavelength and trying to gracefully disconnect myself from new york, i'm also reminding myself why i'm doing this.

anyone who has know me knows that while i certainly am capable of logical thought and reasoning, i tend to make a lot of decisions based on little information and lots of instinct. the fact that i NEED to travel underscores this. as great in my life in new york is, i'm always stuck with the sense that shuttling myself between work, home, museums, concerts, bars, and other people's apartments does not constitute a complete life -- for me. maybe i'm exaggerating a little, but this is frequently what it feels like.
i need to get out there and instead of just talking about the world, i need to get a real sense of what this space actually entails. who knows, maybe this represents some kind of deeper longing that not everyone experiences, or maybe it's as simple as an itch that needs to be scratched, but bet the reasons lie somewhere in between. or maybe we can set up a section on intrade where we all can bet on the real reason.

to be honest, i'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this trip is. of course the biking will be great. i will meet lots and lots of interesting people, and will develop connections with everywhere i visit. i'm very keen on becoming acquainted with the world in a very real and physical way, so when i read about what's happening i won't just have an abstract idea about who is affected but will be able to apply my own filters, understanding, and experiences.

this will be my first time camping in the wild, so i will get to spend some good time with the world we are so far removed from in new york. i'm looking to learn some skills that might help make me (us) more self-sufficient -- this is the muddiest part, more details later. i'm keen on getting my spanish (and maybe french) near fluent and being able to hack my way through some other tongues. and, despite the minefield of "(i)s and (me)s" in this post, this trip is as much about having something to give back as it is about myself and my experiences. don't think for a second that i don't appreciate my position in being able to do this with ease.

i'm going to try my best to keep this up to date. as it turned out, one of the most rewarding parts of my last trip was coming back to learn that many of you were following along and sometimes living vicariously. reading back through the central america posts, however, i can't say i'm impressed with the last journal. hopefully, now that i've been living my own life entirely the past 5 years and just a little older and more exierpienced, i'll be a little more lucid and insightful and give you guys a reason to keep reading. and i'll have a digital camera to help illustrate the trip as it happens, and hopefully my little film machine will produce results comparable to the heavier, bulkier ones that will stay at home. if we're lucky one of our creative consultants (brianlightbody.com) will make some more cool jpgs to highlight some particularly awesome events.

again, if you like me and can't remember anything, RSS is a good way to keep up without having to bookmark and refresh. but god bless the refreshers.

i'm looking forward, first and foremost, to being done with moving all my shit around. then, i'm looking forward to spending some good quality time at home. then it will be the beach for a few days, getting my core temp back to normal, collecting whatever last things i might want. then it's time to hop on the bike and explore

-------------------

packing lists. these are always horribly boring. the gear never makes the trip. but it's clear to me that for cycling long distances it pays to be prepared if you have the means. without the bike my list would probably be just a toothbrush and a camera. and maybe some of you get off reading about this stuff, like me.

- marin pine mountain steel mountain bike, circa 2001. one size too small, just how i like it. practically stolen from a 2nd hand bike shop in colorado. 9 speeds and shimano trimmings. kona rigid fork to take a front rack
- CETMA 5 rail front rack. Nitto rear rack. both are cro-moly (i.e. steel not aluminum). spare mounting hardware because shit will break.
- panaracer tires, spare tubes, patches, pump, etc, etc.
- axiom lasalle and nashbar waterproof bags. ancient north face backpack.
- hennessy hammock, 20 degree down sleeping bag, large foam mat (doubles as yoga mat), space blanket, ground tarp.
- spare clothes? nah. buy em as you need em. a pair of wool socks and underwear. otherwise, old tennis shoes, bike shorts, over-shorts, lightweight pants, a couple layers up top, a poncho, and a hat. i plan on wearing the football jersey of whatever country i'm in, and one neutral shirt for border crossings.
- bike computer with altimeter -- COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY but i'm as dorky as most of you reading this, so i'm sure you understand
- brasslite ethanol/methanol burning stove. pot. biodegradable fork and spoon (Amber send me your website so i can promote them!). water filter and iodine tabs.
- alien bike multi-tool, big ass swiss army knife, little flashlight, small channel locks, freewheel tool / chain whip, cone wrenches, grease and chain lube, ball bearings, spokes, cables, etc, etc.
- rear light in case i get stuck riding at night. this usually sucks but it definitely happens
- cheap cell phone. for emergencies, i guess. likely to be ditched
- a novel or two (WIDE open to suggestions, although i'll probably end up reading whatever i can find), guidebook (footprint s. america), spanish dictionary
- zip ties, lengths of velcro (awesome), bungee cords, tape, glue, sewing kit.
- canon powershot sd1100, 3x 4G memory cards, 3x batteries, usb cable, charger. Olympus XA and 10 rolls of various kodak b&w films
- more drugs than i care to admit
- plastic bags
- straw hat
- passports and spare copies
- F harmonica