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bike friends
bike stuff
some stuff i like
ruins
wet feet, the inca road and a donkey
Setting off from Atillo into the hills, during a short break in the rain, my pack laden with food and camping gear I’m vaguely anxious. The way the locals direct me doesn’t match the route description I have photocopied from the guide book and there is absolutely no path to follow on the boggy wet […]
Also tagged ecuador, mountains, off cycle, rain, walkingel mirador
In the morning, I cook breakfast, break camp and walk less than a hundred metres before emerging from the trees into a clearing surrounded by a variety of more or less ramshackle structures dotted around a rough football pitch. I survey the scene to identify the building emitting smoke and then make my way towards […]
Also tagged guatemala, jungle, wild placesgetting my feet muddy again
I head towards Calakmul, not primarily to see the ruins, but to enter the jungle again. Calakmul is 60 kilometres off the main highway, deep in the wilderness. I am slowed to a snail’s pace on the ride in by my recent purchase of a field guide to Mexican birds. I am halted every few […]
Also tagged jungle, mexico, mud, wild placesisla jaina
Looking at my map, Isla Jaina catches my attention, for some reason. I know nothing of the place but the map indicates that there is an archeological site on the island – which is part of another biosphere reserve – at the end of a twenty kilometre dead end track. I take the turnoff towards […]
Also tagged mexico, water, wild places, wildlifevarious ruins
Layer upon layer of history is evident everywhere in the Yucatan.
Also tagged mexiconot such a sweet history
Cuba’s fortunes have generally hung on a single crop and before tourism the main harvest was sugar. The area around Trinidad is dotted with the ruins of enormous 19th sugar plantations which ran on the sweat of African slaves.
Also tagged cuba(dis)continuities(2): a stateside interlude
My sister is working on an art project in the vicinity of Chicago so we decide to make the most of a rare moment in which we are both in the same hemisphere. We tussle via internet over who will travel the final miles to make the meeting possible and eventually I lose out and […]
Also tagged (dis)continuities, chicago, off cycle