This is the last entry for the Ride Across South America (RASAM) in Oct/Nov 2004, covering three days of touristing in Peru after the ride. On the right you’ll see a list of the days of the RASAM bike tour…

On this, our last riding day of RASAM2004, we got off to a slow start. Lisa left the campsite by Cero Azul, marched across the beach minefield of giant crabs and went swimming. As Steve, Eduardo and I took down…

The highlight of today was riding through the agricultural workers strike in Pisco. The workers blocked the Pan American Highway – the police said it would be closed for maybe 3 days. Burning tires, rowdy people, rocks on the road.…

New Team! Lisa, the wife, showed up. Here we all are at our hotel at the start of the day. It has been great riding with Dalton and Steve, but much of the day today I rode with Lisa, and…

I went from rock-solid sound asleep to as awake as I have ever been in .08 seconds this morning. Something was climbing on me, on my bed. Of course I didn’t move. It took me another 1.18 seconds to determine…

For some reason I thought Peru was a relatively small place, about the size of, say, New Jersey. It’s probably some ethnocentrism combined with Mercator projection distortions. NJ is 8,700 sq miles. Peru is 1.28 million sq miles – you…

The break day yesterday was refreshing and we were thinking big mileage today. Eduardo, Steve and I loaded the bikes up at the hotel in Arequipa, drove back to the Pan American Highway, and set off. We took a picture…

Steve’s comments at the bottom of this update! (Riders note: Arequipa is not exactly “en route”. See end of update for details.) This was a day of dramatic scenery, challenging riding and then the first big city we have been…

We are getting the hang of the coastal desert, high plains desert with canyons intermixed thing. We could have shaved a couple hundred miles off our trip by staying on the Pan American Highway instead of going down to the…

As I write this on a Tuesday morning, I hear a typewriter clacking away in the government office across the way from the VIP Hotel here in Ilo where we spent the night. In Tacna last night, the internet was…

Last night we camped out along the Pacific on an isolated beach by Cuya. For a change of pace, today’s update starts with textures from that beach. Sand, sticks, live and dead bush, and foam. We rode down a 4,100…

(Note: there is no update for 11 We stayed in Iquique for two nights.) Iquique is wedged between the coastal mountain range and Pacific. It is the same topography as the rest of the coast riding up from Tocopilla, except…

Bye Dalton! We woke up in our campsite between the stone golf course and the ocean and packed up slowly. Dalton came back for RASAM2004 part II to made it across the continent. That accomplished, it was time for him…

Camping out on the Tocopilla Golf Course. (dedicated to Guy Snyder) Everyday Dalton, Eduardo and I take pictures. I download them to the computer, pick the best and build an update around them. Usually I select 15 to 20 pictures.…

Our stay in San Pedro de Atacama was too short. It is a very unique town – for adventure travel, for culture, for nature and scenic beauty, and for good party. More details on the place at the end of…

We survived last night. Everything froze solid (that’s Eduardo holding up our frozen water). Dalton and Eduardo bailed on their tents and fled to the shelter and heater of the Fiat sometime during the night. We picked up our windblown…

(Riders note: details on the road conditions at the end of this update.) Our riding mileage is well below my usual averages, but the conditions here are much more extreme than anywhere I?ve ridden on the 3-1/2 continents to date.…

Riders Note: It really is about 78 miles from Purmamarca to Susques. We rode the first 18 miles of it yesterday – a tremendous climb from 7,400 ft to 13,300 ft.) We woke up at the comfortable Hotel El Manatial…

(Riders note: The distance above is our riding distance for the day. The actual distance from Jujuy to Purmamarca is about 3 miles less. We started 15 miles north of Jujuy and ended 18 miles past Purmamarca, trying to gain…

(Riders Note: It’s only 58m, 93k from Salta to Jujuy. Because of the short distance, we rode past Jujuy and drove back to our hotel.) Dalton, Steve and I flew from Charlotte to Miami to LaPaz (Bolivia) to Santa Cruz…

The Briefing follows… first, with due respect to my “Republican” friends, I want to express my heartfelt apologies to all of you in the rest of the world. In the four short years of my bike tour of the world,…

Dalton and the Chain The day started amiably enough. We had only a 50 mile ride, albeit with some significant climbing, to make it to Sala and complete part I of RASAM 2004. By 9am we were at our starting…

We actually ended the day on Argentina Ruta 9 about 25 miles north of Metan – the closest landmark around. Among the best benefits of riding with support (Eduardo!) is that we can end when we can’t go any further.…

NOTE: Dalton’s Story at the end of today’s update!!!! Today, our third day heading WNW on Argentina Ruta 16, was a relatively rough day. Bad wind again in the morning, bad roads all day, perhaps the hottest day yet, Dalton…

We cannot post these updates, but they seem to be our only connection with the outside world. No phones in our rooms the last three nights, much less hi-speed internet. We read the updates ourselves and imagine how others would…

(Note: Eduardo’s story at the bottom of today’s update!!) Dalton got us beers at the YBF gas station where we stopped last night 12k north or Resistencia, so I gave him a Gatorade this morning from the same gas station…

This was a huge riding day. We made up for our day off yesterday in Asuncion with 168 miles today in very big chunks of 32, 41, 42 and then 53 miles due to a lack of support and some…

We’re not likely to ever come back to Asuncion. It is inexpensive enough, and has some nice places, but in general it is the antithesis of Curitiba. Asuncion, the former “capital of South America” is backwards, run down and uninspiring.…

Two days ago, after checking out the hotel pool in Foz do Iguacu, Eduardo reported that there were lots of chickens around. Dalton was duly concerned and impressed, until he personally checked it out and discovered that there were no…

It might not seem that difficult, but riding 6 to 9 hours per day under searing, sunny heat (102f today) on mercilessly repetitive hills, hundreds of feet up and down (I have an altimeter on my bike) is really getting…

We made it all the way to Paraguay today. Our guidebook says “Paraguay for the first time can be something of a shock, culturally, psychologically and physically.” It was for us. After riding across the majestic Ponte da Amizade frontier…

This was our third day on the BZ277 highway heading west through the Brazilian countryside. We were determined and did achieve our first 100 mile day (usually no big deal) in spite of the unspeakable hills. Another issue is laundry.…

Today was our first day of good weather but another day of nothing but very big hills through farmlands. Nothing here is flat or straight for more than a kilometer or so. We just rode up and down hills (very,…

There’s an election going on down here too – a little different from Kerry vs. Bush. Politics in Brazil is based on loudspeakers, billboards and flags. Candidates are identified on the ballot by their name, a number (two digits in…

Outdoor pictures have much better definition in sunlight. You won’t see much of that today, but today was a total sensory experience. Wet, cold, wind, loud trucks, bad visibility… We awoke at 6:30a again, to darkly overcast skies. Here’s the…

For a good start, start early. Our wake up calls failed, but Dalton, Eduardo and I all made it to the hotel restaurant for breakfast at 6:30am, when it supposedly opened. Breakfast is free here the Regent Park, as it…

This is the start of the story of a bike ride across South America, from Sao Paulo Brazil to Lima, Peru. These trips always begin with a preparation day, and this Monday was a typical one. Dalton Cox and I…

A year ago I got off the bike in Moscow. In a couple of days I get back on in Sao Paulo. I’m ready for for South America, my 4th of the 6 rideable continents. Thanks to Andrew, Ilan, Gavin,…