On the first sight of a snow capped mountain, on the way to Quito, I stopped for a picture and my optical nerves also stimulated that part of my brain cells which contain memories of past mountaineering. My days in Quito were going to be busy planning an expedition. First thing first. In Quito, Keith, …
Category: Blog
Alaska to Argentina bike tour
May 12 2015
Cali, Colombia to Quito, Ecuador: Crossing that imaginary line
Rolling hills became rolling mountains. The steep lines up and down in the elevation profile for this section describes the challenge involved; needless to mention the rewards of downhill riding and the awesome views. After all no pain no gain. During my short stay at Cali I visited Universidad ICESI for a motivational talk. Carlos whom …
Apr 23 2015
Bogota to Cali: In search of a good coffee
There were plenty of reasons to take a break from cycling in Bogota and the five weeks was well spent visiting local sites, schools for talks and riding in the Ciclovia every Sunday. About 121 Kms of the roads were closed on the Sunday mornings in Bogota for people to ride, skate, roller blade, run …
Mar 16 2015
Colombia: Shifting from Central Andes to Eastern Andes
The Colombian Andes has three branches. Medellin is in the Central Andes and Bogota is in the Eastern Andes. There were several mountains to descend and ascend to shift from one range to another which makes it all the more interesting: shifting gear is a lot smoother. From Medellin I had to descend to the …
Feb 17 2015
Continental Shift: The Beginning of the Andes
The marshy land mass that connects North America and South America called Darian Gap does not have a road, so I took a ferry from the port of Colon in Panama to Cartagena in Colombia. The ferry ride was 17 hours plus 8 hours of immigration and check-in bureaucracy; the rough sea made my stomach …
Jan 31 2015
The end of Central America: Costa Rica and Panama
From Lago Ometepe in Nicaragua, Costa Rica can be reached by an over night ferry to San Carlos and a short boat ride across the river San Juan to Los Chile in Costa Rica. This turned out to be a fun experience, I particularly liked the San Juan river, seemed like a good one to …
Jan 13 2015
Moreno from Nicaragua
The sun rise party at the Atami resort on top of the cliff overlooking the sea was indeed a perfect spot in terms of both partying and to watch the sun rise on the New Year’s day. Eugene, I and his friends felt 20 USD for a party that included unlimited drinks and breakfast in …
Dec 30 2014
Christmas with the Canadians (French speaking)
From Antigua, Eugene and Sam left a day earlier to El Salvador. I spent an extra day in Antigua mostly wandering around. The next day was a good start; losing an altitude of 1500 metres over 30 kilometres was not hard. Although, a wrong turn at the end of this costed me a 22 Km’s …
Dec 17 2014
Buenos dias from Guatemala
For this section of my ride, Eugene and I were joined by Sam who is also from Quebec, Canada. This section, 475 Km’s, from San Cristobal de las Casas to Antigua, Guatemala was like the mountain stages of Tour de France; tons of ascents and descents. From San Cristobal de Las Casas, we left to …
Dec 08 2014
Puncture free ride
I stayed for two more days in Oaxaca city to wait for Eugene’s arrival, whom I cycled with previously in Baja California two months ago. I felt home at Zoe’s place(my Warmshowers host in Oaxaca) so it was not difficult to spend more time in Oaxaca. From Oaxaca City we cycled approximately 525 Km’s to …