Archive | May, 2010

We’re at the end of the road – the coastal road anyway.  We’ve battled headwinds for a couple thousand kilometers, but somehow managed make to to Camanà – where we will turn left and climb away from the ocean.  The Andes are calling. We will be sad to leave the gorgeous desert behind, but are [...]

Whew!  That was close.  Too close actually. This morning John climbed out of the tent and moved our bikes around so he could get to his.  “Nancy!” he called, “You’ve got three broken spokes!” Cripes. Three busted spokes while the bike sat overnight.  It wasn’t even moving!  Three more spoke nipples popped under no stress [...]

POP! There are few noises in the world uglier than the sound of breaking spokes. We spent the day inching our way up a narrow track carved into cliffsides overlooking waves crashing into the rocky shore, and then racing back down to the coast.  Over and over and over. It was a tough day – [...]

If it ain’t one thing, it’s another… When we left Nazca however-many-days ago, we decided to make one big push to Arequipa 650 km away.  Yes, we would take a few rest days in there, but mostly we planned to just go… …and then we arrived in Chala and John somehow pulled a muscle and [...]

Last night when we collapsed into our tents utterly exhausted, we had no idea where we were.  This morning, we opened our tent and discovered we were in wonderland!  Truly it was fabulous. We spent a leisurely morning packing up slowly.  The boys played in the rocks.  We enjoyed our time in Wonderland, but finally [...]

It looks like John’s bum is going to cooperate – finally.  He still feels the muscle a bit, but feels he is sufficiently healed to move on.  So – tomorrow we’ll hit the road again! We aren’t sure what to expect in the next 200 km. We know it will be hilly, but the big [...]

Seeing as how we’re stuck here in Chala, I decided to head out with the camera.  I have no idea how this bitty town supports such a vibrant market seeing as how there are no pueblos around here to serve, but somehow it does.

I think it’s a good thing we didn’t leave today… Our initial thought was that we had a potentially tough 85 km coming up if the headwinds continue and it’s hilly like it has been.  We decided to take a day off so we go into it fresh. But this morning when I headed out [...]

 …and they told us this was the flat, straight section of the journey… “It’s not bad until Atico,” the truckers told us.  “It’s pretty flat and straight for now, but once you hit Atico then the road will get very twisty and windy, up and down, and roundabout.” So what in the heck happened today?  [...]