BOLIVIA/CHILE: SAN AUGUSTIN — ALOTA — LAGUNA HEDIONDA — LAGUNA COLORADA — SOL DE MAÑANA — LAGUNA CHALVIRI — LAGUNA BLANCA — SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA The good, the beautiful, the bad, the sad, the ugly. Ah, life. … SOLITUDE: I have exchanged the pleasures of company and shared meals for the more austere joys […]
Also tagged bolivia, land mines, on the highway, tourismPERÚ: CHIQUIAN — CAJATAMBO On the eastern side of the Pastoruri pass there are three options for heading south: 1/. follow the main highway – fast and paved – to Huanaco and then to Cerro de Pasco: 2/. follow dirt roads to the east of Huayhaush and then through the Cordillera Raura – areas with […]
Also tagged bikepacking?, perú, tourismPERÚ: CEDROS DE ALPAMAYO My circuit by bicycle of the Olimpia and Llunganuco passes with their spectacular mountain backdrops left me wanting more. I long to get closer still to those peaks and investigate their icy mysteries in greater detail. Emboldened by my six day trek in the El Cocuy National Park in the north […]
Also tagged mountains, off cycle, perú, walkingPERŨ: HUAMACHUCO — PAMPAS — CONCHUCOS — SIHUAS I’ve been studying Tom and Sarah’s excellent blog for route ideas in this part of Perú and shamelessly stealing them. Thanks for blazing the way, guys!
Also tagged dirt roads, mountains, people, perúEl Cocuy National Park: I’ve left it too late to try to record this experience in words – sitting in an apartment in Bogota with swish of cars on rainy streets. The hum of fridge. Static of florescent lights. Wi-fi. The silence is gone. A never empty silence filled with the seep and trickle, the […]
Also tagged colombia, mountains, off cycle, walkingDespite already climbing to over 4000 metres out of Santa Rosa, I have managed to end up – due to the road forbidden to me in Los Nevados – still on the wrong the side of the Cordillera Central. To arrive in Bogota from Villa Maria, I have no choice but to cross the mountain […]
Also tagged colombia, hot springs, mountainsRain on the roof throughout the night, a constant drip, water pooling near my head. Wind howling, rattling loose roofing, chilly gusts scuttling under the door and creeping into my sleeping bag with me. I am sleeping in a bare concrete cell of a room at the desolate finca, ironically named Campo Alegre**. I wake […]
Also tagged colombia, mountains, rain, walkingAfter days of eating and resting in Ahuas, I decide the time has come to tackle the next section of La Moskitia wilderness. Leaving the settlement, as I ride alongside the official Ahuas airstrip, young men on motor-bikes pass me on their way to work on a clandestine narco airstrip somewhere not far away. I […]
Also tagged border crossings, honduras, la moskitia, losing itSetting off from Brus the second time I don’t really have any more useful information than I did the first time but I am determined. I make it back to the confounding fork without incident (apart from my third river crossing). I pause to investigate the left option for a second time and then take […]
Also tagged honduras, la moskitia, losing it, ordinary angelsAfter I flee the sandfly infested shores of Trujillo, I head, alone again, into La Moskitia. La Moskitia is a huge area in North Eastern Honduras consisting of large areas of uninhabited tropical jungle, savannah and swamp. The wide flung communities are interlinked by canoe transport on a complex system of rivers and lagoons that […]
Also tagged honduras