route
currently...
We´re currently in Loja, Ecuador, and leave tomorrow morning for another predictedly tough 2 days in the mountains up to Cuenca. After that we're hoping we can make Quito in 4 more days to stay somewhere near our target...
basics
We'll start in Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina, keep west up the spine of the Andes, mostly through Chile, and cut back across into Argentina at Mendoza. From there we'll hit Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia and finally end up in Venuezuela. Beyond that we haven't really bothered planning a route as it's much more of an adventure making it up as we go along!in a bit more detail...
Leaving London early on the morning of Tuesday 4th December, we somehow got public transport all the way to Gatwick (including the No.82 bus in rush hour with 3 bike boxes and all our bags...).We flew with Delta (never fly with Delta, take our word for it) via Atlanta (never fly via the States if you can avoid it - they impose US visa restrictions on you, even though you're only in transit, so we had to pay £100 each to change our return tickets to be within 180 days just so we could board the outbound flight, and will have to pay the same again when we change it back to mid-July) to Buenos Aires.
From Buenos Aires' Ministro Pistarini airport, we jumped on a bus to the internal airport on the far side of the city, Aeroparque, fixed our bike boxes after they'd been demolished by US Customs, and boarded a flight to Ushuaia, via a short touchdown in Trelew.
From Ushuaia, on the southern tip of the continent (and the most southerly city in the world, as they're keen to point out), we headed north (obviously) up the East Coast of Tierra del Fuego. This took us up and over Paso Garibaldi, through Tolhuin, Rio Grande, San Sebastian (Argentinean version and Chilean), and to just miss the ferry from Porvenir to Punta Arenas.
Getting the ferry the next evening to Arenas, we stayed for a couple of days to get some things sorted while in a relatively large place. From Arenas we headed to Puerto Natales where we again stocked up and then popped into Torres del Paine National Park to spend Christmas.
We popped across the border, back into Argentina, visited the Glaciar Perito Francisco Moreno and [back...] to El Calafate. We spent the New Year there and headed on to El Chalten
From El Chalten we took a couple of ferries and a trek (without a horse) to Villa O'Higgins in Chile, up the Careterra Austral via Cochrane and Coihaique and to Puerto Montt.
From Puerto Montt we took 3 ferries across to Bariloche in Argentina and started to head north once more, through San Martin del Los Andes, Junin de Los Andes and Zapala.
Up Ruta 40 through San Rafael and Mendoza, where we spent a week. We then headed northwards once more to Salta and the Bolivian border.
Crossing the border into Bolivia put us into very mountainous country! Numerous mountain passes over 4000m, one up to La Cumbre at 4496m. Entering Bolivia at Villazon, we rode one day to Tupiza, then a very demanding 3 days to Uyuni, via Atocha. We rode 75km or so across the salt flats to stay on the island in the middle (Isla del Sol/Incahuasi), got up to watch the amazing sunrise, and rode back to Uyuni. Then it was up to Potosi, a fascinating place with an amazing history, and also happens to be the world's highest city at 4060m! Then on to Sucre, Cochabamba, La Paz and Lago Titicaca where we crossed into Peru.
Hitting Peru, we made it to Cuzco, took a trip to Machu Picchu without the bikes, braved it through the mountains towards Nazca, dashed up the desert coast to Lima and went even faster to the Ecuadorian border.
------ still to do ------
We're under time and distance pressure! We've got a very tight deadline to get to Quito to keep things on track.
From Ecuador we were planning on cycling through Columbia, but this has been scrapped due to safety concerns. Instead we're planning to head inland from Quito to a little place called Coca, where we will attempt to catch some form of boat down an Amazonian tributary, over the border and back into Peru, briefly, and on to Quitos. From there we'll catch another boat, this time probably more of a luxury cruise type vessel, for a 5 day(ish) ride down the Amazon to Manaus in Brazil.
Legend has it that Manaus is something of a shithole so we'll be hot-footing it out of there sharpish and heading through the jungle, northwards once more, to the Venezuelan border.
Once that lot's done, it just leaves Venezuela, a country of amazingly varied landscapes and fantastic beaches. Depending on how long we have before our homeward flight, we may well be spending some quality R & R time here - though there's obviously most of an entire country to cycle through!