Apologies for giving up blog writing back in Argentina. So, please find below an update on where we’ve been, and how, in an extremely boring, pure cycling format. Everything is still very beautiful!
In summary… 22nd March – 28th June. La Quiaca (Arg) to Boa Vista (Brasil)
6,219 Km. 63 days cycling. Average distance on days cycled: 112 Km. Longest day: 223 Km. Route: Bolivian Altiplano - Bolivian central highlands – back to the altiplano and La Paz – cross to Peru at Lake Titicaca – south shore to Cusco and Machu Picchu – long crossing of the Andes to the Peruvian Coast – up said coast for 1500 Km through deserts – back into the Andes as we cross into Ecuador – down into the Amazon basin and over the equator twice to Coca on the Rio Napo - Down the Amazon to Manaus - Through the jungle to Boa Vista. General conditions: uhm, hilly!
Bikes
The frames made it to Coca. There will be a future blog about what has been going on in Brasil I’m sure but... Don’t get aluminium mountain bikes for a steel touring bike job! Support from Merlin Bikes very good indeed. The bits attached to the frames have generally been replaced or welded back together. Our tyres have proved to have a design fault – side wall splits mean a couple of cheaper replacements are now rotating. Continental ‘Travel Contact’ are the culprits to avoid. Dave Leslie’s (official team support coordinator) parcel of drivetrain spares arrived in La Paz but the parcel of pannier parts has already done Bristol – Mendoza – Bristol – Lima, and we think it might now be heading back over the Atlantic for the fourth time. It’s clocked up so many air miles it's becoming a serious factor in climate change.
La Quiaca (Argentina) to Potosí (Bolivia). 22nd to 30th March
Distance: 735 Km. 1 rest day. Av dist on cycling days: 92 Km. Very wild, scenic and seriously demanding cycling.
Cross the Bolivian border at 3443m above sea level and finish at 4070m up in Potosí. In between we climb to levels where no person has had the breath to carry an altitude marker. No tarmac at all. Dirt deteriorates to deep gravel before the town of Tupiza. Sand coming out of it improves to bedrock as we take a route that isn’t marked on road maps. Vast panoramas are wildly impressive. Camping with the Llamas, cycling up a river to the mining town of Atocha and sliding through sand dunes until we reach the Salar de Uyuni. 160 Km there and back to spend the night on an island in the salt flat. Best surface of entire section. Tupiza to Uyuni was difficult but Uyuni to Potosí was gruelling. Our map of Bolivia is great as it was a gift from the fantastic ‘Boon’ but really awful as it has clearly been drawn by infants. Ones who are really bad at geography. I’m sighting this as the reason for our traumatically late finish in Potosí. ‘Road’ appalling. Lots of sand, water and mud, some snow, but hardly any air. We see no other bikes in the city of Potosí. There is a good reason: many hills and they all only go up. 3 days off: visit the world’s most important mountain and see Evo Morales after much searching. A very memorable time.
Potosí to La Paz. 3rd – 14th April
Distance: 1074 Km. 2 rest days. Av dist: 107 Km's per day. Bit more air, Amazon tributaries, cobbles and long climbs
Potosí to Sucre over 2 days continues our anti-clockwise loop started in Uyuni. We drop down on tarmac through heavy rain to the more comfortable and pretty colonial city of Sucre (2790m) sitting above deep-cut, lush green valleys through which we travel over the next 4 days to the city of Cochabamba. Tarmac runs out on this stretch. Road made of debris for half a day then cobbles for 75 Km. Cobblers. Scenery wonderful, lots of dramatic drops and long climbs make for good cycling. Rivers are now Amazon feeders and surrounds suitably 'baby jungle'. Interesting accommodation in the town of Epizana: confusion is caused by a herd of pigs trying to break into our ‘room’ during the night. On to Cochabamba in landscape identical to Weardale. Leaving Cochabamba ( 2560m) we are now carrying sawn-off pick axe handles - see future blog from Al on how to avert potential urban ‘situations’. ‘Tarmac’ all the way to Ecuador now. We climb back up to the altiplano reaching 4500m and in doing so pass to a more barren, harsher landscape near Oruro. The run in to La Paz is marked by numerous inner tube explosions as I’ve fitted the wrong size valves in Cochabamba. Col and Al are having chain snapping problems instead. Entering La Paz (3660m) actually requires a steep drop off the plain into the canyon filled by this fantastic city. The descent is done is our trademark urban style – down a motorway kicking troublesome taxis and buses. It rains, we get drenched and freeze to the handlebars. 3 days off here to enjoy what is a really tremendous place. Go to La Paz!
La Paz – Cusco (Perú).18th to 24th April
Distance: 723 Km. No rest days so 103 Km's per day. All high level stuff so relatively flat around Lake Titicaca, which is, indeed, ‘very nice’
You can see it’s not really so far from the capital of Bolivia to Cusco (and Machu Picchu) and the first four days take us up to and around Lake Titicaca. Due to crafty logistics we manage a night on the Isla del Sol, birthplace of the Incas (in short). Col spends time on another planet as he’s suffering from the latest bout of bad guts that will, uhm, rumble on to Ecuador. Cross into Peru and travel along the fertile south shore of the lake before rising through a bit of austere splendour to a 4300m pass and so back into the Andes proper. Pretty chilly. It is worth noting that on crossing the border into Perú, until passing into Ecuador a few of days ago, the standard of driving descended to something so poor there is no comparison. The only instrument Peruvians seem capable of locating on the dash is the horn, cycling militancy was provoked and many drivers ‘had to be told’. Everyone’s glad that’s all over. We drop into the valley of the Rio Vilcanota (later to flow through the ‘sacred valey’), the temperatures increase and the scenery becomes more pastoral. Inca terracing everywhere – well, mainly on the hillsides. Into Cusco where we take 4 days off and discover some deserted houses on top of a big hill which is alright…
Cusco – Lima. 29th April – 9th May
Distance: 1169 Km. 1 rest day. 117 Km av per day. Through the Andes at the really wide purple bit on your atlas. Not for kids.
If you want to emulate the cycling climbing feats of Virenque, Chiappucci, Roche et al, and see lots of Alpacas at the same time, this is route. Six high mountain passes at or above 4000m, highest 4390, in the six days out of Cusco. Climbs of up to 65 Km in length finishing in wild hairpin, D’huez-style stuff. Snow-capped jagged peaks abound around. Very little air. Again. This route was shut by the activities of ‘The Shining Path’ through the eighties and nineties – perhaps that’s why our latest mapmaker didn’t get round to finding all the towns and took to making some up instead. It is deeply exciting scenery. Six mind bending days end up with a 2 and a bit hour descent down a 99Km 3800m drop to Nasca racing against nightfall. Fast and bumpy. I stare so hard through my sunglasses they snap in half. We take a day off in Nasca to look at the mysterious Nasca Lines from a light airplane. Discovered in the 1900s - I’d like to see the minutes from the Nasca council tourism brainstorming session a couple of years earlier. The next day we pass some suspicious looking workmen as we cycle through the same desert. We think they’re drawing a mouse. From Nasca we rack up some longish days through deserts punctuated by the odd irrigated valley and out-of-season seaside resorts and reach the snobby suburb of Miraflores in Lima thanks to the map drawing skills of Maria in a Repsol in Chorillos. 3 days off in Lima.
Lima to Macara (Ecuador). 13th to 22nd May
Distance: 1234 Km. 2 rest days. Av per day: 154 Km. Long fast days through a desert notable for fog and drizzle. Escape to beauty in Ecuador
We cycle straight through Lima and it is a seriously lively route. We followed the directions of what seemed to be a reliable voice and rocked-up in some tasty neighbourhoods where we only survive due to: our deeply weird appearance, our don’t stop for anything, anything at all and cycle as fast as possible at all times approach and a police escort out of a particularly ‘we’re all about to get battered’ sort of place. We were delighted to find the motorway which we sprinted along for about 20 Km before it downscaled to a dual carriageway down the fast lane of which a naked man came running at us. Frankly after all of this excitement not a great deal happened for 800 Km or so until Colin fell down the hole in Chiclayo. This is mainly because the northern Peruvian coast is a desert punctuated every 100 Km or so by depressed and depressing towns. People were very keen to impress on us how dangerous it would all be but we encountered no trouble whatsoever. Thus thrills were thin on the ground. The first four days out of Lima we actually covered more ground than the peloton will over the first four days of Le Tour his year. Ok, so their fourth day is only a 30Km time trial, but then they’re not avoiding naked madmen on the route. We manage the 223 Km crossing of the Desert of Sechura in one leap, which is a good job as there is not a great deal in it and it means we can watch the European Cup Final. If I’d have known odious Chelsea would lose it in such hilarious fashion I’d have walked over that desert to watch it. On my hands! Still chuckling we avoid ‘South America’s worst border crossing’ (the main route on the coast) by finding a route inland to the Ecuadorian border town of Macara.
Macara to Coca. 23rd May to 8th June
Distance 1284 Km. 3 rest days. Av per day: 92 Km. Very, very hilly. When it ended, which at points seemed unlikely, we were on the banks of the wide River Napo ready for a boat adventure east (and south a bit - pedants take note)
We climb through cloud forests to reach the spine of the Andes at Loja. It is a beautiful but difficult road. Loja to Cuenca is wet and difficult and might have beautiful if the cloud had lifted. Cuenca is very attractive but we have no time to stay as we cycle on to Riobamba, a route which is beautiful, wet and difficult all at the same time. In the last 8 days we have crossed the Pacific / Amazon watershed 5 times (lets just say 'The Andes') and the cycling is consistently demanding. Things level out a bit through the 'Avenue of volcanoes' on the 2 days to Quito and the rain eases off a little. The clouds only lift high enough to reveal the dome of Chimborazo on the day out of Quito, heading east to complete our last high altitude pass at 4100m, dropping down the eastern slopes of the Andes, past Volcano El Reventador, through the oil town of Lago Agrio and down to the Rio Napo.
Coca to Manaus. 9th to 21st June
River trip. No Kms cycled but some 'lost' as we move east and a bit south. Conditions generally flat and wet - it is a river.
Ready? Rio Napo: Canoe launch from Coca to Nuevo Rocafuerte: 10 hours. Smaller canoe launch over the border to Pantoja in Peru: 2 hours. Peke-peke (dug out canoe) with Nono the journo (¡q nos vemos en La Latina gaditano!) to Santa Clotilde: 2 days. 1 day wait. Rapido (fast launch) to Mazán: 4 hours. Cycle 4 Km over land bridge to Indiana on the Amazon. Amazon: Hilariously packed launch from Indiana to Iquitos: 50 mins. Cargo ship 'Manual Iquitos' to Santa Rosa: 2 days. Launch from Santa Rosa to Tabatinga in Brasil: 15 mins. 2 day wait. M. Monteiro (Cargo / cruise ship) to Manaus with ace Mary-Lou: 3 days. Shipbroker for journey: Middlemiss-Montgomery Lines who manage a 63% saving on quoted prices. Hey, Dr Pace; arrival in Manaus ahead of laycan (cos that's shipping coordination 'de puta madre' señor!).
Manaus to Boa Vista. 22nd to 29th June
Distance 839 Km. 1 welding day. Av per day: 140 Km. Hot and very humid, powerful sun. Should not have been a surprise; we were in the jungle. First 200Km very undulating (think the A68 to Corbridge) then flat, crossing the Rio Branco to this city close to the Venezuelan border.
Sluggish start with boat-life and heat induced lethargy in legs. Col's rear rack snaps on day one which we rectify with the 'big-bolt-bodge' from Calingasta (see Argentinean blogs). Second morning out of Manaus Al's bike frame snaps. More serious. Return to Manaus and get it fixed in the Technical College Pro-Menor Dom Bosco as a demonstration piece for a class of apprentice aluminium welders. Oh it is a result! Resolve to go even quicker before anything else falls apart. Improbably superb place to sleep found at Paraiso de Pesca; erm, 'muite obrigado' Pedro e Marco. 120 Km through the Waimiri Atroari indigenous reserve. I disturb a Jaguar (huge cat, not Morse's car) by roadside but don't get eaten. Toucans, Macaws, monkeys and tortoises are less worrying nature spotted here. Exit reserve - please feel free to chop down trees and graze your cattle. Long and hot days. Powerful sun and anti-malarial drugs combine to cause weird sunburn. Wrist bone has come up like a polished cricket ball. Final day to Boa Vista more open and interesting as various mountain ranges loom up in advance of the Gran Sabana which awaits over the border in Venezuela.
Meanwhile The Wolves did not go up. What, one wonders, is the point?!!
D Middlemiss
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