Stages 76-81 of 109, days 103-108 of 142

• Stage 76 to Las Lojas 157.1 km, 1,303m climb, 6:19
• Stage 77 to Aluminé 129.3 km, 1,473m climb, 6:14, 60 km dirt
• Stage 78 to Junin de Los Andes 119.7 km, 1,188m climb, 5:55, 70 km dirt
• Stage 79 to Ruta de Los 7 Lagos, 101.1 km, 1,097m climb, 4:27, 2 km dirt
• Stage 80 to Villa Traful, 52.7 km, 862m climb, 2:40, 30 km dirt
• Stage 81 to Bariloche, 96.3 km, 801m climb, 3:43, 29 km dirt

Where	Distance	Dirt	Climb	EFI
South America	8,035	1,318	82,663
Andes Trail	7,749	1,309	79,053	X
Ecuador	912	30	16,265	✓
Peru	2,622	515	28,702	X
Bolivia	1,101	222	7,426	✓
Argentina	3,112	542	26,760

Before starting the next block of six riding days to Bariloche, we had a relaxing rest day in Chos Malal. There isn’t that much to do in town which was fine with me. On bikes, we did laundry, went to a coffee shop and stimulated the local economy at the bike store – the owner was great and super happy to have so many customers. I had a simple dinner with Miranda and Twan at a pizza place, then retired pretty early.

We left on November 9 for a long stage, 157 km, all paved, on Ruta 40.

This was another of those days that could kill you if the wind was bad but our luck held and we had only small headwinds part of the way. There were three modest climbs along the way and as you would expect with a long stage like this, well over 1,000m of climbing. We ended up in a great campground in Las Lojas where the locals were having a big fair/party and applauded each rider loudly as we arrived. They sold us ice cold beer, their homebrew and other treats. We celebrated Marc’s birthday in style with three different cakes.

At about bed time (9 pm), the locals left, music stopped and all we heard all night was the river, plus maybe a couple of dogs and birds.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqodkEN8yv

The next day was also kind of long at 130 km, but the scenery changed dramatically and we had a fantastic time. We headed up into the mountains, with snow all around – it was obvious in many places we rode by that it had just recently melted. It’s spring here and there is lots of green but still snow on the peaks.

After lunch, we had a 60 km dirt section over a hill. There was construction on part of it and some people didn’t like the road surface, but we had a great group of five dirt lovers and an excellent time. Riding by the river was beautiful. We camped at a campground 10 km short of Aluminé which had few facilities and was only open for our group – like bushcamping but with a toilet. We did our laundry and washed by swimming in the river wearing bike clothes. The Rio Aluminé we had ridden by was wide, full and fast here and COLD! My tent was about 2m from the river and there were no dogs or any other noisy things at night. Just great.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vwq17BQodLO

In the morning on November 11, we started off together for 120 km of fun, riding to Junin de los Andes. 70 km was unpaved, again, not bad if you like that sort of thing, and I’m sorry for those that don’t – then again, why would you come if you don’t? We passed the Argentine Army moving huge herds of mules along the road twice, but generally there wasn’t much traffic. We also passed fields of California Poppies which I never expected to see here but of course we have a lot of at home. Kirsten told me they grow wild in her garden in Hobart, Tasmania.

After a stop for ice cream, beer and pomelo soda, the campground in Junin was very nice, on a little island in the river, with WiFi and quiet, grassy and shaded tent sites. After yet another excellent huge dinner, I slept really well.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vdOR7MJPDr6

From Junin, we had a surprisingly fantastic stage I called “the average stage”. It was 101 km. The actual average of our 109 stages is 100.4 km, and the climbing was 1,097m, close to the actual average of 1,018m. But it was anything but average. We had lunch early at 40 km in the amazing tourist and ski resort town of San Martin de los Andes. As we rode in, the Europeans thought it looked like a town in the Alps in France/Austria/wherever. And I thought it looked like a mountain resort town in California, maybe around Lake Tahoe. There were a ton of pickup trucks to support the US over Europe. The air was so clean and crisp and it looked so prosperous. We are about a million miles from Peru/Bolivia now. It really drove in how big and varied Argentina is. We’ve ridden over 3,000 km in the country now and are seeing something unlike anywhere else on the tour. We arrived before the lunch truck so had time to drink coffee or just check out the view and town.

We ate by the shore of Lago Lacar then got to ride along it for a while before heading up and over a climb and back down to more lakes. Along the way we passed a spot that may be unique: Arroyo Partido. From the bridge where we crossed a stream, we could see it split, literally under our feet, into two streams. One flows into the Pacific and the other into the Atlantic! Amazing place.

The super scenery continued all afternoon. We rode a 2 km dirt side road to a campground that had just opened for the season, perfectly situated on a gorgeous lake, with snow-capped mountains right above.

They had hot showers, toilets and cold beer – they nailed the essentials for us! Some swam in the lake; I just relaxed, then was on dinner duty at 7. Dinner was indoors, a big variety of tapas made by our crew. The numbers may have been pretty average but the day sure wasn’t.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vXvLY2k847O

November 13 was a great day for me! I had basically a half day of riding, only 52 km, super scenic and fun the whole time. After 6 km, we tried a one hour side trail to a waterfall. The sign said no bikes so of course we rode down the single track but were stopped after 500m by a river crossing that was too deep to ride and very deep and fast for wading. Rob waded it later and said it was the highlight of his day. Back on the road we continued a bit then turned off on a dirt road for Villa Trafal, a nice town back on the same lake we had camped on the previous night, Lago Trafal.

The dirt road was really fun with some blazing descents – I followed Twan and he has no fear, just skill; it was truly awesome. There were a couple of steep short climbs too which we haven’t had lately. We stopped at a coffee shop for some local smoked fish sandwiches and I had a locally made all natural dark beer.

We cruised the last few km to camp, just out of town and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was all grassy with almost no one else there, right above the lake – it could’ve been Switzerland or Norway.

After soup and snacks I was planning on riding back to town to find WiFi or cell service but miraculously, right at our tents (which even had a picnic table and sometimes working power), SMS started working so I could stay and be lazy all day.

After dinner, we had a campfire and got to watch Dr. Bill patch up Wijnand’s leg, who he had taken hiking through the thorn bushes and falling rocks trying to get to the top of a cool looking ridge.

It’s getting dark so late now, it’s just so different from our time in Peru and Bolivia. It it now light until way after 9, and of course soon it will be 10 and later.

https://www.relive.cc/view/v1OwMQpxBXq

We left the amazing site at Villa Trafal under cloudy skies with cooler temps – first time in a while. We had a 30 km dirt section first, with more steep climbs and fast descents. Then we came out on the paved road to Bariloche.

After 20 km of that we had lunch, then powered to town in a paceline with Andrew and Twan leading.

It was cool and a little windy, and seemed like it might rain but we arrived dry at the Hotel Islas Malvinas at 1:30. The first person I met on arrival was Greg from Poland who had ridden with us from Cusco to La Paz and now was back to ride to El Calafate. He gave me a big hug and was clearly very happy to be back. In the bike garage was a twin of Wytze’s bike; no he didn’t buy a new one, it’s his wife’s. She’ll be joining us for the last section. We are getting eight more people here so from now on, the trip will feel different, five tables at dinner instead of four, harder to pack all the bags each day, etc. Anneke had a huge amount of pastries and snacks for us, and there was a beer store right next door, so we had a great time, relaxing in the warm indoors.

I’m sharing a room with Winnie and the showers were hot and great. It’s so nice to be back where tap water is drinkable again. I spent time in the afternoon writing and dropping off my laundry across the street. Then, a bunch of us hung out downstairs for wine and met several new Dutch riders. Wytze had made a reservation for 8 pm at a highly rated restaurant called Alto el Fuego. The place was packed but we squeezed nine of us in and man was it a great dinner! They specialized in meats but luckily had a trucha (trout) option for me. Starters of grilled veggies, cheese and other stuff like bone marrow and sausages. The wines were special. Luckily for us, one of our new riders, Bart, is a wine expert and he picked two whites and two reds that were just great. Desserts were wonderful and at the end, I used my credit card to pay the entire 12,700 bill netting me enough pesos to live large for a long time in Argentina. What a night!

We’ve now finished seven of the nine sections of the trip. We’re about as far south as Mount Shasta is north in California, a bit over 41°. The final two sections will total about 2,800 km in 28 riding stages plus four rest days. We’ll cross into Chile in a few days for a week, then back into Argentina, then Chile for 10 days, then a final run of three days riding in Argentina to Ushuaia. The life continues!

https://www.relive.cc/view/v36ArPBpkGq

Stages 61-63 of 109, days 84-86 of 142

• Stage 61 to campsite 120.4 km, 653m climb, 4:14, 4 km dirt
• Stage 62 to campsite 160.0 km, 556m climb, 5:08, 4 km dirt
• Stage 63 to Chilecito 121.0 km, 871m climb, 4:50

We had three more days of cycling to finish out the block of six, from Salta to our next rest day in Chilecito. The first one started with a really nice breakfast at 8 am. We had fresh blueberries and pastries along with the usual. Nice upgrade!

We headed out from Santa Maria at 9:15 and cruised south on Ruta 40. For the first 40 km we were in a large group with Wytze leading one line and me the other. More and more people dropped off as he kept ramping the pace. Finally I had had enough and had my own little group of five or six, with me and Twan pulling the whole way. We received profuse thanks at 65km when we got to lunch. It was out in the middle of nowhere, no shade but luckily not too hot. The winds were not bad either. After lunch it did get a little worse and Twan and I just carried on the two of us, stopping for photos and enjoying the ride. Ruta 40 is the classic road through most of the length of Argentina and we know this part pretty well.

It was gently downhill with some small climbs, so a relatively easy day even though it was 120 km.

At 116 km, we turned off on a dirt road and wound up a valley, across a river, and finally up into some rocks to a fantastic campsite with thermal pools!

We went directly into the pools – there were two, each big enough for three people. The sign said 36°C but it may have been cooler. Anyway, it was awesome, soaking happily there. We ate soup and snacks, set up our tents, and after a while had a great dinner, outdoors and warm! It was such a contrast from camping in Peru and Bolivia. We hung out drinking wine after – so civilized and fun.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOd3KnAjkv

The next day we had 160 km or 175 km (exact destination was unknown) so we had breakfast early at 7. The sunrise was great instantly illuminating the vertical cliffs right above camp.

We packed up and took off just after 8am. We elected not to go with the A team and instead cruised to lunch at 75 km in the town of Londres in a group of six. Andrew led a lot of the way and the riding was interesting through canyons, mostly down down down with a little up. We lost 1,350m during the long ride and only climbed 550. Lunch at the town square was nice except for a super loud speaker extolling the virtues of a great future in Londres etc. But it was great to get off the bike and refuel. After lunch I wasn’t sure but decided to go with Wytze and crew. He said it would be nice but by now I know what really happens. It was ok for 30-40 km then he was up to 38 kph into the wind and I faded. But it’s hard to escape. He noticed and forced us to regroup. I followed his wheel for the rest of the way to San Blas and had to refer to rule 5 in order to make it, many times. Wytze said, “You can’t escape.”

As we were getting near the first possible camp, we pulled off to get a cold drink. Only a gas station was actually open so we bought 3L of ice cold coke there and I don’t like the stuff but it was super delicious. We sat in the shade, filling our water bottles with coke, and swilling. Excellent on a hot day.

We rode down to the end of the track but no one was there. Wijnand had posted the location on WhatsApp so we could see we had just passed it. Sure enough, back 1km into the wind, the Finish flag was down on the ground – we had missed it. We propped it back up and cruised down a little dirt road to a beautiful campsite. The owner had built it all, little ponds and water ways, with ducks, catfish, turkeys, donkeys etc. It was only 2 pm and Wytze showed his mastery of English: “I feel so sorry for the people still out riding….NOT!” We sat swilling many 1L ice cold beers (very cheap at 125 pesos each) and eating Anneke’s excellent tomato/pasta soup. And of course all the snacks like chips, gumdrops, cookies, everything we needed after a long ride. Our diet is so excellent: just eat all the time. Martin told us from home that he had lost 12 kg riding from Quito to Salta on this diet.

The showers were hot (although not for later riders) and I found a shaded spot on the grass for my tent. I took a short nap, listened to music for a while then eventually it was dinner time. Everyone had made it, some surprising themselves at cranking out the 100 mile ride with head and side winds. Dinner was just great with giant multi-layer cakes for dessert. I stayed up a little after, but actually needed sleep.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vZqNNYr8ZGq

I slept almost non-stop from 8:30 to 6, then got up at 6:30 for breakfast at 7. It’s not really the distance that is tough, the difficulty is the wind. It’s been calm (so far) in the mornings but not in the afternoons.

We headed out in a big group, which was down to 12 by about 20 km. Wytze was leading at a very sane pace but then we had a hill and were down to eight.

Rob turned off at a town, then Yvonne dropped, then Lambert and we were down to five. We continued this way but then the pace increased too much on the last uphill to lunch so I dropped off. It was only one more km to lunch but fighting that wind was tough. Lunch was at a little shade structure with nothing else around in any direction.

We tried to leave a bit after Wytze but he tricked Twan and me by waiting at the road for us. So it was back to wheel sucking with the pace slightly too high. Finally I had had enough after 30 more km of that and stopped “for a photo”. Luckily Twan was dead bored and wanted anything new. He was entertained for a few minutes while I found an ant infestation in my top-tube bag and had to take it off the bike and get a million big ugly ants out. A total mystery where they came from. Then we soldiered on, up into the wind for a long way.

Eventually there was a nice downhill but you had to pedal to go even a halfway decent speed (35). Andrew later told me Wytze dropped him here because he was holding 49-50 which is faster than Andrew’s bike will even pedal. We had a 3.5 km climb up to town, then rode through a bunch of red lights making sure Rob couldn’t see, and finally made it to the end at 120 km. I was more tired than the previous day which was 40 km longer. We have apartments with a double room and a triple room each. Kirsten and Gareth are the parents and Andrew, Winnie and I are the kids in ours. The wifi doesn’t work but the showers do so life is ok. We even could drop off large bags of laundry, a big plus. We’re here for two nights and no one has figured out what to do on the rest day tomorrow, but sitting out in the nice garden is not bad. It started with just Andrew and me, but over the next hour a ton of people came and miraculously, food and wine appeared.

Wytze, Miranda and I had gone in together on six bottles of excellent Malbec, and we donated four of them to the party. Miranda talked the crew out of a huge number of olives, and then more and more food was found.

We snacked until 7:30 then walked into town which took until 8, when restaurants open. We headed to one that was recommended and ended up with a dozen people. I had a 1L beer and a giant pizza and it was great. Ice cream for those that left space after, then shopping at a mini-mart for breakfast. We took a taxi back, arriving before 10. Then a nice call with my old friends Andy and Irene at home, and time for bed!

https://www.relive.cc/view/vWqBerezwQ6

Stages 54-57 of 109, days 75-78 of 142

• Stage 54 to La Quiaca, Argentina: 91.5 km, 1,195m climb, 4:05
• Stage 55 to Bushcamp: 119.8 km, 536m climb, 4:33
• Stage 56 to first campground in Argentina: 147.7 km, 404m climb, 5:02, 2 km dirt
• Stage 57 to Salta: 121.6 km, 1,092m climb, 4:37

Our last full day in Bolivia was a rest day in Tupiza. I didn’t feel like doing any touristic things so just did some shopping, bike cleaning and adjusting (tightened headset), and relaxing. In the evening eight of us went out to a fun restaurant right near the hotel – a very simple and nice rest day.

In the morning, we had to walk over to the other hotel to fetch our bikes, then left at 8:30. We rode fast in a group down the canyon, with nice views of the sometimes vertical walls.

After 30 km, Andrew and I let Wytze and Jens drift ahead and continued up the hill to lunch at our own pace. Our awesome lunch truck driver, Wijnand, had found a killer spot, with shade under the trees, next to a stream. We had climbed 600m to over 3,400m but it was pretty warm. After lunch we had 45 km of mostly flat cranking.

Jens had a couple of flats then suddenly we were in the border town of Villazón. We found some money changing places right by the border and converted all our bolivianos into pesos for Argentina. Exiting Bolivia was weird: just pass on through – they didn’t even look at our passports. On the Argentine side, there were a few windows with a few people waiting. It took maybe ten minutes, visa no longer required for US citizens.

From the border we had 1 km to our hotel in the border town of La Quiaca. The hotel seemed pretty nice although the wifi overloaded and died as we all arrived and connected. I shared a “suite” (a normal hotel room) with Michael and it had nice shower. Dinner in Argentina doesn’t start until 8 pm, so I went out and checked out the town – most everything closed and dark. But the supermarket was open so I bought food and beer for a snack.

A little after 7, we went out to look for a restaurant and found one nearby that looked great. Somehow someone let us in and things were looking up: they had eight artisanal beer taps!

The kitchen didn’t open until 8 but we had a great time drinking IPA and eating snacks we brought until then. Dinner was great too although it’s hard when you get up early, ride hard and then don’t finish dinner until 9:30. We had lost an hour as Argentina is four hours off California time so it wasn’t so bad.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vdvmBDQ21xO

Our first full riding day in Argentina started out with a normal breakfast, maybe a little better than in Bolivia. We left the hotel at 9:15 and rode out of town on a straight, flat road.

I forged ahead at first, then was caught by a big, fast pack. We cruised on and on, trading the lead, then lunch came early at about 55 km. It was great though, as Wijnand had found a great covered area for shade.

Then we had another 65 km to go to camp. We had the most disciplined pace line ever: six riders each taking 2 km pulls. That lasted until about 90 km when the hill started and simultaneously the headwinds hit. Wow was it suddenly hard! It was sometime side wind which is sort of worse in a pace line. We applied rule 5 until we got to the top around 100 km, then had 20 km more of pedaling downhill into the wind. Camp was along the road, with plenty of flat space. Here we were still over 3,500m and it was quite windy while setting up and eating dinner. We had the usual Llama ceremony and Jan gave a nice speech then presented me with the Llama.

I now get to carry her for some days until the next ceremony, then I get to present her to someone – for doing something amazing or stupid or painful or whatever I like. We had a campfire after dinner too.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOd3Km7jkv

It rained a couple of times in the night so I left my tent up for the sun to dry during breakfast. We left after 9, with 150 km to go and the headwind already blowing up the valley. The headwind continued the whole day but our saving grace was that we had over 2,000m of descent and only one small climb. We dropped from over 3,500m to under 1,500m. I rode in a group as it was crazy to tackle this on your own.

Lunch was nice around 75 km, then back at it. Somewhere around 90 km all the traffic was backed up – in both directions. We rode down the middle, on the dirt on the right and left – there was no good solution. It got crazier as we passed cars and buses and trucks by the hundreds. I have never seen such a mess.

It went on for several km, then we got to the cause of the problem: a section that was super muddy. It was like there was a 10-20 cm thick layer of liquid mud flowing across the highway. We had to ride the middle here, threading very unsafely between giant buses and trucks and cars. The mud was spraying everywhere. I looked down after we got though to see my shoes were completely covered in red mud.

But we were free and riding along. At about 125 km, we had our hill for the day, pretty small, but it started raining on top. The next 20 km to camp was pretty crazy too: coasting about 45 kph in rain, barely able to see, on a major highway with drivers pissed off from the multi-hour delay due to the mudslide. Somehow we made it down the 600m descent and turned into the campground, still in rain. Soup was ready but I was frozen and had to have a shower first. The facilities were basic but the water was hot. Then food, then I found some of the smartest (and fastest) people had upgraded to cabins. Only about four were available. Michael and Jens were looking for a roommate who doesn’t snore so I volunteered. For about 2,000 pesos total ($33) we had a nice two room suite with a good bathroom. Jens took the money I gave him and bought a dozen beers for 540 pesos – that’s $9 for about 6L of cold beer. We sat on the veranda sipping, reliving the day. Dinner was great fun, indoors, with the rest of our beers and the Bike Dreams red wine. We stayed up afterwards since it was somewhat warm.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqDmQyk8Lv

I slept really well and didn’t wake up until 7:15. Just had time to pack before 7:30 breakfast, then we took off just before 9. It was cloudy and cool but luckily no longer raining. We continued down the highway, going fast with Rob and Wytze setting the pace. The road got more and more freeway-like, then we passed a no bikes sign. We took the next exit then the fun began. Rob had a back way into Salta that was excellent! First uphill a bit, into the fog. Actually it was a lot of fog and we hadn’t really ridden like that before. It was super thick but luckily there was very little traffic in either direction. It collected in my beard and eye lashes. Eventually we started a long descent, and at the bottom, around 45 km, the fog lifted. The next road was a toy road – so narrow it was comical. A sign said it was 4m wide! It looked so crazy with a center line painted and signs just like a real road, but 2m per lane! It curved around, up and down, through a gorgeous forest.

Somehow Wijnand had taken the truck on this road (and had a stern talking-to from the local police) so when we got to about 60 km, there was lunch, all set up. It was a special day since from now to Ushuaia, he will be driving the other truck and our new driver will be doing lunch. So he served us some special cookies and cakes along with the normal awesome food and great music. The new guy has some mighty big shoes to fill!

It was still cool and damp when we got back on and then cranked to Salta. It was 60 km, and Wytze declared that it was “Jens Day” so we would go at whatever speed Jens wanted.

It was a fantastic ride, one of the nicest yet, curving along, little traffic, always pretty, never boring. After 100 km I found myself wishing it would last longer. But soon we entered Salta and cruised a bit off route to stay on the autopiste (freeway) as it was faster. Downtown, we decided there was no reason to get to camp early since we would just have to help with the party preparations. So we found a great coffee shop and stayed an hour and a half, amazed at the choices on the menu – like more than ten types of hot chocolate. And churros! It really felt European, I guess like Spain since everyone spoke Spanish. But it could’ve been Italy or wherever. Just so nice!

We cruised the last 4 km to the campsite and set up tents. At 6 pm, the grocery store opened so we bought several liters of beer with snacks, pre-party provisions. At some point we walked over to the party and Rob was cooking up a storm. They had so many kinds of salads and meats and even fish on the barbecue. Along with beer and wine, it was really a celebration. We are losing ten people here in Salta, including two staff, Lucho the mechanic and Henk the non-lunch truck driver. We gain about seven although only a few were already present at the party. Rob and Anneke gave little llamas to each departing rider and introduced Marc from Belgium and our new Dutch mechanic, Ype. It was very unseasonably cold unfortunately. Just a couple of days ago it was 37°C. But at the party I was wearing both jackets and people we huddled around the barbecue pits for warmth. Marc told me the same party in 2016 was very very different – he rode from Quito to Salta then, and is completing the ride to Ushuaia this year. Dessert was had, much talk, but I was really tired and only lasted until 11:30. It was loud and there was lots of light shining on my tent but that didn’t stop me from instantly falling asleep. We have a couple of rest days in Salta now, then we continue south.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vMq5d7r1gQ6

Stages 52-53 of 109, days 72-73 of 142

• Stage 52 to Bushcamp: 100.3 km, 794m climb, 3:50
• Stage 53 to Tupiza: 95.9 km, 1,217m climb, 4:17, 14 km dirt

Where	Distance	Dirt	Climb	EFI
South America	4,828	776	54,808
Andes Trail	4,546	767	51,198	X
Ecuador	912	30	16,265	✓
Peru	2,622	515	28,702	X
Bolivia	1,002	222	6,231	✓

We had a relaxing rest day in Uyuni after seven consecutive riding days. This day was special as it was day 71, or exactly the mid point of the trip in time. In a few days we’ll have the middle riding stage, and sometime after that we’ll be halfway in distance. A bunch of us walked a couple of km from town to the Train Graveyard, which was interesting but the walk was depressing due to the amount of garbage and general condition of everything.

We had a surprisingly nice lunch in town, relaxed, then a simple dinner at the hotel. Many of us were on AFD (alcohol free day) due to massive overindulgence the night we arrived. You should’ve seen Jens and Bastiaan at breakfast on the rest day. Destroyed.

In the morning, it was beautiful and warmed up quickly. By the time we left about 9:30, it was perfect. We headed out in a big group and quickly got to the paved road to Tupiza. This stage, and the next, had been quite difficult in the past, due to being all dirt, with constant washboard and deep sand in places. In contrast, for nearly the whole of stage 52, we were on pristine pavement, much better than the typical California road.

We were in Butch Cassidy territory, quite close to San Vicente, where he was supposedly buried in 1908. The first part of the ride was pretty much flat and straight cranking. We rode in pacelines, pretty fast, and made it to lunch at 65 km quickly. After lunch it was more interesting, winding up and down through mountains and valleys. We stopped in Atocha for ice cream and coffee. Camp was by the side of the road, just at 100 km, in a gorgeous setting. The wind picked up after we arrived and you had to be careful eating the soup as it blew off the spoon. I took a nap in the afternoon, then by 6, it was much nicer outside.

We had a great dinner, then, for the first time in a long long time, could sit around and chat as the wind had dropped away. It was getting close to full moon and the whole landscape was lit up beautifully. I went to bed after 8 and slept super well. I took some night shots at midnight when I woke up to pee.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vQvxVZ23M96

In the morning, we had a luxurious 8 am breakfast. It was so nice and warm in the sun, with no stress, and most everyone seemed to be happy. Breakfast was the usual, then we took off at 9. This stage had been very difficult in previous years but we just continued up the excellent new road. There was a lot more climbing, especially in the beginning. It was a series of climbs with small descents, and then we were up over 4,200m again – nearly 14,000′. I think it’s the last time on the whole tour.

The air felt great and then we pulled over after 43 km for lunch. There was still more climbing after lunch – and we found that the paving wasn’t really finished. There were a number of 1-5 km unpaved sections, but not bad really. On one downhill I went nearly 50 kph on the dirt. I hit 80 on a paved descent and I think the record for our riders was 87 – I take it easy these days as crashing is not an option. After lunch I passed a few riders but just went at my own pace which was nice.

We had a little snow at the top – I think later riders had more, I just had a few big flakes which felt nice and cool. Then a quick 700m descent and we were down in the land of warm. There were big tall super green willow and cottonwood trees. We hadn’t seen something like that for weeks. We were still at 3,200m, but it seemed so low and warm. The last part of the ride had lots of road construction, unpaved sections, and a diversion into the river for a while. Then I arrived in Tupiza. About 1.5 km from the hotel, I ran into the fast group, working on another flat on Wytze’s bike. They were out of tubes so I donated mine that had sat in my seat bag since Quito. It didn’t inflate – same as the one Andrew donated. Finally we got him going so we could cruise to the hotel, arriving at 2:10. We had to follow a hotel guy’s car for 1 km to the bike parking at another hotel. Then he gave us a ride back. Baggage wasn’t there yet but we had delicious soup and other snacks. Then we unloaded the truck, had nice hot showers, and a chance to relax.

In the evening eight of us went out to a restaurant for dinner – pretty nice although slow. Tupiza doesn’t seem like it should be popular with tourists but I saw a number of obvious non-locals. We’re going to bed early without drinking much even though tomorrow is a rest day. Maybe we’re getting soft? Or smart?

https://www.relive.cc/view/v1vjpAzNXJ6

Stages 45-46 of 109, days 64-65 of 142

• Stage 45 from La Paz: 132.6 km, 1,008m climb, 4:54
• Stage 46 to Ururo: 97.8 km, 302m climb, 3:26

It was really nice having two full rest days in La Paz, the last two days of September. Especially for me since my cough has gotten worse lately – I needed two days of not breathing hard to recover. The first morning was a Sunday and eight of us went on a cable car tour of La Paz after breakfast. We walked over to the Estación Central where two of the many cable car lines start. We chose Red first since it went uphill – we had ridden under it the day before descending into La Paz. The special tickets that let you go on all the lines for 24 hours (no more than one hour stop at any station though) cost BOB 11 ($1.59). Such a deal! The system is built by the Swiss and once you’re inside a station or in the cable car itself you don’t really feel like it’s Bolivia. It’s so modern, clean, fast and efficient. We rode up to the top, switched to the Silver line, rode for a few stations, had ice cream/coffee/pastries at a coffee shop with a panoramic view of La Paz, from 4,100m. Then we took the Yellow line down to below the level of our hotel. Then Blue one stop to downtown, then White through the middle of downtown to Orange, up and over a hill and back down to Estación Central.

What a fun and easy two hour tour of La Paz. We saw parades, parties and very little traffic. Sunday seems quiet and relaxed here. Then I had a big pizza lunch with Twan and Andrew by the hotel and relaxed in the afternoon. In the evening we had a huge dinner party back at Higher Ground for 14 of us. A little sad as it was Annabel’s going away party. But absolutely delicious and super fun.

Monday was also a rest day and I really didn’t do much. Martin and I went out and both bought cough medicine (medicina de la tos) in the morning. When one dose didn’t do much, I took a second, but then passed out for a massive nap. I watched a movie after that then we went out for another giant group dinner, next door to Higher Ground. I had a liter of Jugo de Tumbo rather than beer. And more medicina de la tos in the evening.

I felt so much better the morning we had to leave La Paz – also drawing the late breakfast shift (8am, because the dining room doesn’t come close to fitting us all) was great. We took off just after 9 and after just a couple of blocks, more than half the people headed off to the Purple cable car line. The rest of us followed the GPS track down to the start of the motorway, then 10 km up to 4,100m (which turned out to be uncrowded and easy), and through El Alto for a long way until we were out in the country again. The cable car group had a great time bypassing the big climb and quite a bit of El Alto screwing around in super heavy traffic. But the EFI group got smaller: Jan kind of took the cable car by mistake and Karin took it due to sickness. Rob’s opinion: “There is a plane to Ushuaia for those that don’t want to ride.”

I rode with Chris, Jens, Bastiaan and Andrew and we blazed through pretty fast. Out of town it was back to the Altiplano cruising, nearly flat, but with some rollers. Chris kept up a mean pace and after 50 km or so Andrew and I let ourselves be dropped on a hill. We continued to lunch, then headed out together to ride to camp. We met Martin’s group who had bypassed lunch and they warned us the camp had been moved 5 km up to a school due to the forecast bad weather. Sure enough, after 132 km instead of 137, we spied the Finish flag, ducked through a wall and saw the trucks at a school. It was a broken down school and it was comical when we walked into the gym where Bike Dreams was set up, cooking soup. It was a very crappy building, with the tin roof not nailed down, blowing loudly in the wind.

After soup, we found that we could camp in the gym, out on the football field, or next door in the second floor “condos” we named “El Alto”. I chose the condos as it was starting to rain and the weather didn’t look good at all. We fit four tents in the room with glass in most of the windows. Wijnand was the only one who camped in the other room with no glass in any window. Half the remaining people camped outside and half inside. We were looking for a word that means camping in a tent indoors but couldn’t think of one. Dinner was at 6:30, quite yummy, with lots of banging of the roof and rain. It poured later but not in El Alto! No one snored and I slept really well!

https://www.relive.cc/view/vWqBeJnXnQ6

October 2nd started with me looking for a bathroom at 6 am. It turned out there was a pit toilet at the back of the school – not pretty though so no photo. Our room was mostly dry and Wijnand’s was mostly wet. There was lots of fresh snow on the mountains around. Breakfast was at 7 and it was nice to pack everything up dry. No one who camped out on the field seemed to mind too much and some said the rain was a good tent test. At breakfast, the yogurt was lost so it was impossible to eat muesli – I had peanut butter/jam/banana sandwiches instead. Then packed up and started riding at 8:15. It was a shorter day with an option to take the main road saving some distance or the Rob route, with 20 km of unpaved. Lunch was supposed to be on the unpaved route but when it changed to the paved route (due to Rob smartly not wanting to risk the truck getting stuck in the mud) many people like me changed their plan to the paved option. When I started riding, by accident I was right behind Wytze, a dangerous place to be. For 22 km, it was Chris, Wytze, me, Jens and Rob going fast in a paceline.

Then we got to the turnoff for the unpaved option. They all went and I stayed and chatted with Rob waiting for the other riders. I decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and not breathe hard any more and get over this damn cough. When a big group of ten came along, they were dead sure of taking the paved route and I joined in.

We had a lot of fun riding at a very sane pace, and just chatting away until lunch. The shoulder was wide enough for two side-by-side and there wasn’t much traffic. The gentle tailwind was just great. We had another comedy scene at lunch with every one of us screaming at Gareth with the truck horn blowing, but to no avail – he just kept cranking. Later he said he was looking for the truck too – not very hard I guess.

We sat in the sun, ate, then took off in the same big group. We chatted away and suddenly I noticed we had gone 90 km. Then we came to a town and it was Oruro, our destination. It was only 12:30 – a really easy day is nice sometimes. Oruro is actually pretty big (264,000 population) and we must’ve seen every school kid in town as we rode in. All in nice uniforms, walking along the streets – maybe going home for lunch? We finally came to the Hotel Gran Sucre and checked in. We unloaded the trucks, had super nice showers, then soup and snacks.

After a relaxing afternoon, seven of us went out to dinner at a pizza place by the main square. We had a massive great dinner, capped off by banana splits. Outside it was quite cool and raining on and off, luckily off while walking to and from the restaurant. In our room, we were shocked that the heater works so well. It’s the first comfortably warm room we’ve had I think. Laundry was dry after dinner. Time for sleep early tonight. We have five more straight days of riding until the next rest day in Uyuni, including the famous salt flats – can’t wait for that.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vNOPnP4dD2q

Stages 43-44 of 109 Puno to La Paz via hotel on Lake Titicaca, Days 60-61 of 142

• Stage 43: 74.4 km, 866m climb, 3:35
• Stage 44: 78.4 km, 397m climb, 3:01

Before the two-day ride to La Paz, we had a rest day in Copacabana, Bolivia, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, close to the Peru border we crossed on Sept 25. The big tourist thing to do is take a boat ride to a couple of islands, Isla del Sol and Isla de la Luna (Sun Island and Moon Island). The trip takes about three hours and costs just over $4. Most people, for some reason, chose not to do it. I certainly preferred hanging out in the hotel and the town. Maybe we’re not very good tourists. After a slow morning, Andrew, Martin and I went out for lunch in a 3rd floor terrace right at the shore. A giant meal of trout with onions and tomato sauce with the standard rice, veggies, salad (Tim, I don’t eat raw veggies any more!) and fries set me back a very small amount of money. Washed down with a nice big wheat beer – very good. But it does make for a lazy afternoon that included a nap. In the late afternoon, everyone seemed lazy but Andrew and I hiked up Cerro Calvario, a nice peak right next to town. We took the easier way up, mostly stairs for the 200m climb. We got to the top a few minutes before sunset which is at 6:30 these days. It’s a gorgeous view of Copacabana, Lake Titicaca and over to Isla del Sol. We took lots of photos, then headed down.

We met a bunch of riders in town headed for a really nice Italian restaurant, but alas, it was full. We ended up having a perfect dinner at Mauraz with Miranda and Annabel who is leaving us in La Paz. Everyone had the set course ($3.40) of soup, trout and dessert. I tried an adventurous dark Bolivian beer but it was crap. After only sleeping three hours the night before I tried folding my pillow to make it taller and slept eight full hours – great!

In the morning we had the hotel breakfast plus muesli, nothing special. We took off together at 8:40, uphill, first on dirty brick cobblestones, then onto a nice smooth road. It’s funny, as we had noticed riding from the border, when the pavement gets a hole in it, the repair is just stuffing the hole with rocks, not patching with asphalt. Anyway, it was a nice easy climb of 450m up to about 4,250m, about 14,000′. The road was so uncrowded and pleasant. As we got up high, the scenery opened up – just gorgeous. I caught Andrew and we rode the rest of the way to lunch together. After a few more little hills, we got a great view to the east of some of the Cordillera Real, a large range of mountains with many peaks from 6,000-6,400m. They are all snow-covered and look almost fake. Super beautiful.

Then we descended back to lake level (3,810m). Lake Titicaca is split into the main lake and a smaller one called Lago Huinaymarca (or Lago Wiñaymarka or just Lago Menor). There is a narrow strait we had to cross and there’s no bridge. We had lunch in the warm sun at the “ferry” terminal on our side, then boarded a “ferry” – really just a crappy old barge with a small motor. A Swiss couple traveling in a camper with their little daughter for a year plus a few locals were on ours. The barges go every few minutes – there are tons and it costs under $1 for the 15 minute crossing.

It took a while to land as there are limited spots with vehicle ramps. I wish I could’ve seen one of the Bike Dreams firetrucks cross. It was pretty exciting on the other side since there was a huge band competition going on. Dozens of marching bands were warming up or competing all over. Their buses were parked everywhere. We stopped to take some photos and noticed a larger barge, completely covered with band members, cruising along the shore, playing loudly. Then another and another and another and … we finally left, but we rode up the hill hearing multiple bands playing at the same time.

The afternoon ride was only 35 km, with a few tiny hills, on an uncrowded highway that is in the middle of being expanded into a four-lane highway. We stopped to watch the Bolivian Army do calisthenics (to loud music and with weird purple smoke bombs going off).

We pulled into the Hotel Titikaka a little after 1 pm – a very easy day. While the hotel has seen better days (long ago), it was still ok and no one else was there. We joked that the last time someone stayed there was when Bike Dreams came through in 2016. We had yummy soup and snacks, nearly hot showers, then it was time for beer. Martin and I were caught by the hotel guy snooping in the kitchen trying to find beer and he seemed pretty proud that he had a dozen large ones, cold in the freezer. We immediately bought three and told him he would need to chill many more. He suggested 30 and we said “Perfecto.” We sat outside on a nice deck with a beautiful view of Lake Titicaca, watching people riding the zip lines, spinning inside the hamster cages and playing with some local kids. The big excitement was when a fire started in the reeds just by the hotel – we saw a local woman with a comically small bucket and wondered what she was up to. The fire grew and grew until the flames were at least 5m high. It was burning fast and loud and at one point we could feel the heat from 200m away! It burned the whole area below the hotel to the lake, including some pumps and pipes and stuff that looked important. It eventually stopped.

I think there was another nap involved, then dinner for everyone was at 7 pm, in the hotel dining room, choice of trout, chicken or carne. Most people took trout it seemed. Quinoa soup to start as usual, and dessert was crepes or ice cream. Most people chose crepes and I think they only had about three. So they split them ten ways each. You could eat it all in one or two bites. It was cold but there was a roaring fire going in the next room and we sat for a while. I also got to call home; Google Fi works so well here. Hotel Titikaka is purely pre-internet so no Wifi.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vRO7dd14Gy6

I slept so well, about eight hours which was really nice. Breakfast was as usual, then we started the stage to La Paz at 9. After just a few km, our nice uncrowded nearly four-lane highway teed into a busier highway which we took about 40 km to lunch. I was riding with Jan and Andrew. The wind was light, the hills weren’t steep, the views of the Cordillera Real were awesome and the traffic was manageable. Wijnand had a tough time finding a place to set up lunch and said it would’ve been better to not have it today since it’s short. We hung out with the fast guys for a few minutes before they left. Lunch was ready later – we were in no hurry since we had strict instructions to not arrive at the hotel before 1 pm. Most everyone arrived as we ate and Lucho gave us dire warnings about the traffic in La Paz we would be dealing with. He had stories of having side mirrors break off on his shoulder etc. So we rounded up Greg and Michael to join us. Sure enough after only 3 km or so, the traffic got somewhat nasty. It is chaotic because so many people use the little mini-buses that they have to pull over and stop everywhere, all the time. The whole right lane is almost useless for riding. At this point the highway was 2-3 lanes in each direction, although some are dirt sometimes. But it wasn’t any worse than Juliaca or the other bad places we had ridden in Peru. I only heard of one incident later: Tom was hit by a bus, but like a pro, he just let it push him sideways and didn’t have a problem.

Michael went a little out of control once when a car cut him off (he imagined) – luckily there was no international incident. We told him to cool down and chill – he apologized and continued fine. With around 12 km to go, we took a slight wrong turn, had to reverse 200m to catch the correct exit of a cloverleaf and somehow lost Greg and Michael. Assuming they were in front, we continued – right onto the motorway! This would be illegal in most countries but we just went through a lane that was “Cerrado” (closed) and suddenly all of La Paz was laid out about 400m below us. It’s an immense city.

The upper part where we were is called “El Alto”, separate but right next to La Paz proper. 2.3 million people total. After checking that this really was the route, we headed down the six-lane motorway, taking it easy. Rob never mentions any details of the route preferring that each person have a bit of an adventure. There was very little traffic (high toll price maybe?) and we had the entire right lane to ourselves. It went down, on and on for over 10 km but finally we came to our exit. From there the hotel was only 370m away! So easy and 1000% percent better than any other possible route. We rode up at 1 pm on the dot and Rob let us in to park. It’s tricky here since in 2016 Bike Dreams got a fine from the police for unloading the trucks here. So Henk and Wijnand drove direct to a cable car parking lot and then taxied the mountain of luggage over. Rob told us this would take more time and to come back at 2. We walked into the first coffee shop we saw and Jan treated us to 710 ml Paceña beers plus giant pieces of delicious lemon meringue pie! What a great way to kill an hour!

At 2, we checked in and while our room is on the 3rd (4th in US English) floor, the shower is super hot, the wifi works, the beds are nice and we have a balcony with table and chairs for drying laundry. Soon we were downstairs having drinks and snacks. We met Karin’s son Twan who is a giant of a 23 year old and will be riding with us all the way to Ushuaia, taking her place. We met Dick, our other new rider, also Dutch. We lose Pip and John, Greg and Annabel here – sad to see them all leave. Annabel has been with us since Quito and is family.

Later a bunch of us headed over to an excellent restaurant called Higher Ground several people discovered. It’s owned by an English guy and has just excellent food and drink. We had one of the best meals of the trip. The bill for nine people ended up at BOB 1100, which makes us sound like high rollers, but no, it was well under $20 per person. Such a cozy, friendly place. The last thing we did was make a reservation for 12 for tomorrow night.

Some of us went across the street to the DT Brew House after for a last round – watching rugby on ESPN from Japan. Their NE IPA was crap but their American IPA was ok. We got back before 10 and it’s hard to believe how much we did today. What a life this is!

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