fourspinningwheels-blog

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Lima to Arequipa

We arrived in Lima by plane and spent 2 days exploring this massive city (population 10 million!). Whilst there is lots of colonial architecture, there is also a decidedly more western influence with lots of big chains advertising everywhere! One upside was that we were able to replace our camera.... We stayed in the neighbourhood of Baranco which has a hipster vibe and enjoyed some great cerviche and walks along the Pacific Ocean.

From Lima, we got back on our bicycles and headed 1,000km south to the second biggest city in Peru, Arequipa. This was harder and took a lot longer than we’d anticipated - continuous gusting headwinds as we crossed the desert slowed us to a crawl for some of our shortest (distance) and longest (time) days! 11 days cycling was one of our longest this trip - and at times was a bit monotonous and the days blended into each other a bit.

Our only rest day was in the town of Huacachina, a tiny tourist town built around an oasis in the sand dunes. Once we’d rested and refuelled, we spent a great afternoon skiing in the sand dunes. You are taken on a white knuckle ride across the dunes in a buggy before being deposited at the top of various dunes, all of which look impossibly steep. Surprisingly though, you really need the gradient and a lot of wax on the bottom of your skis to keep moving. Aisling managed to fill up her pockets with sand but apart from this, there were no falls and it was a really great experience.

We passed through a lot of other interesting towns. Each time a river passes through the desert out to the sea, there was a little agricultural town in the valley. One was filled with old olive groves and we picked up some amazing olive tapenade to snack on along the way. We also passed lots of fruit farms growing grapes for the production of the local spirit Pisco. We also managed to get a glimpse of the prehistoric Nasca lines - ancient figures, etched into the sand high in the altiplano.

Mainly though, it was a lot of desert and sometimes nowhere to stop for 70km at a time. Unfortunately the road was in varying states of repair and it seems there is a real culture of chucking enormous amounts of rubbish on the side of the road which must never break down in the dry environment of the desert. As a result there were some pretty horrendous smells most of the time.

We arrived in the pretty city of Arequipa, which is known as the white city because of the stone the colonial buildings are constructed with. We enjoyed 2 wonderful days resting and eating some amazing food. We even managed to find an Indian restaurant and enjoyed our first proper curry in 4 months. It got a return visit before we left...

From Arequipa, we took a day tour to visit Colca Canyon which is a valley twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Colca canyon is known for its pre Incan terraces and for its giant condors. We were in luck and we saw the huge birds up really close as they glided across the valley searching for carrion. The trip finished with a well deserved soak in on of Peru’s many hot springs.

From Arequipa we decided to treat ourselves to a bus to Cusco as Aisling wasn’t fancying the climb to 3,400m above sea level. We booked tickets on the night bus and managed to secure the bikes passage by generously tipping the luggage man at the bus station. All seemed to be going well until we were woken at 1am by a loud banging noise. It had snowed and the bus was skidding along a high mountain pass with the luggage apparently slamming up and down below us. Miraculously we arrived in Cusco and the only damage was a single broken spoke on Matt’s bike!

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Ecuador

We decided to take a slightly different approach during our time in Ecuador by basing ourselves in Quito and doing a few multi-day cycle trips from there. This meant we could leave our non essential baggage behind and tackle the climbing a little lighter.

Our first trip took us 96km north to the market city of Otavalo. The road was smooth with spectacular views of the huge volcanoes that characterise the Ecuadorean Andes. We spent our first day in Otavalo at the huge open air market - apparently Latin America’s largest. Unfortunately we had to postpone our hike to the Cuicocha Crater until the following day as Aisling was struck by food poisoning for the first time on the trip - pretty miraculous considering some of the things we’ve eaten! After the 5 hour hike the we caught the bus back to Quito to make up the lost time.

Back in Quito again, we headed 75km west to the town of Mindo which sits in Ecuador’s cloud forest. We chose a smaller road over the mountains and through the forest rather than the state highway. This was the wrong choice! Although the views were beautiful, the “road” turned out to be a very badly eroded gravel track. Our average speed plummeted to 8.5km/hr and it was dark by the time we arrived.

Thankfully, two very restorative days in the cloud forest followed, involving lots of coffee, chocolate and watching of hummingbirds. We stayed at a lovely hostel complete with a charming - though rather stupid - Labrador called Goose, who we would have happily taken away with us. We even managed to squeeze in Mindo’s waterfall hike and some tubing on the river.

All too soon, it was time to head south and we began the three day, 210 km cycle to Latacunga. Our route took us across the Equator and through the 60km long city of Quito. On the third day we were treated to stunning views of Ecuador’s highest volcanoes Cotopaxi and Chimborazo.

Due to some unfortunate timing, Aisling celebrated her birthday in the roadside town of Tambillo. After an hour and a half of walking around town, we discovered that there was in fact only one establishment serving dinner (I don’t think the word restaurant can be fairly applied), however a busker did perform a delightful rendition of Happy Birthday in a sort of terrifying Caberet style (video footage can be found on Facebook). Alls well that ends well.

We left our bikes in Latacunga and caught the bus to Chugchilan. From there we hiked the final day of the Quilotoa loop which takes you through remote villages and over the mountains to the impressive Quilotoa loop. We were obviously a bit overtired as the day ended with Aisling getting herself locked in a restaurant loo and Matt leaving the camera on a bus.

Sadly we lost all but one photo of the Quilotoa hike, including Matt’s “naked hiker” poses. Hopefully they bring joy to whoever finds the camera!

After cycling back to Quito, we set off for the Ecuadorean Amazon. This involved a 7 hour overnight bus journey, another 2 hour minibus and then a 2 hour boat ride deep into the Cuyabeno National Park. However all the travel paid off as we saw 4 types of monkey, pygmy marmosets, pink river dolphins, cayman and a manatee, as well as loads of birds, frogs, snakes, turtles, spiders and bugs. Unfortunately the anacondas remained elusive, but we weren’t particularly upset about this when we went swimming in the Laguna.

After the rainforest, we spent a week at Spanish school in Quito where we grappled with irregular verbs and the past tense. Not sure how useful these will be alongside our already mastered standard roadside phrases: “necesitamos comida” (we need food), “Sí, estamos cansados” (yes, we are tired).

Then it was time to take our newly discovered vocabulary and catch our flight to Lima. Maybe it was all worth it, as Aisling managed to dazzle the check-in staff, jump the queue and it turned into our most uneventful flight with bicycles to date!

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From Mompox to Bogotá

We had a few days relaxing in Mompox and seeing some of the old colonial churches (as well as some of the biggest lizards we’ve seen so far!).

As we began our cycle from Mompox to Medellín, the weather turned wonderfully cloudy and the temperature dropped into the high 20’s. We couldn’t believe our luck! The first three and a half days and 470 km of cycling passed uneventfully but then disaster struck!

As we were entering the town of Puerto Berrío, Matt’s derailed broke again - seemingly without any cause! We were left with no choice but to complete the remaining 188km by bus. The silver lining was that we were spared all of the climbing into Medellín!

With Matt’s bike in the shop for repairs, we spent 4 days in Medellín and the surrounding areas. The city is recovering from years of political and drug related violence and is now enjoying a tourism boom. We learned about the history of the city at the Museo Casa de la Memoria and about social projects for change on a colourful graffiti tour of Comuna 13. Our final day was spent enjoying spectacular views of the Andes and learning more about coffee at a farm a short drive outside the city.

With Matt’s bike back in working order and feeling very rested, we began our biggest cycling challenge to date - the road from Medellín to Bogotá. The 493km route crosses all 3 fingers of the Colombian Andes would have a total of over 10,000m of climbing!

We managed to complete the route in 6 days (plus a rest day in the region’s coffee capital Manizales, of course). The spectacular views across the Andes were worth the aching legs and general exhaustion. We strayed from the most direct route so as to take in the “Alto de Letras” - reportedly the longest cycle climb in the world, with 80km of uphill and an altitude of 3,700m. We came at it from the other side though - so were expecting 80kms of pure downhill. It wasn’t quite uninterrupted but the Km’s flew by and we were soon down to the warmth of the valley again before climbing back to Bogotá at 2600m above sea level.

Our final 2 days in Colombia were spent in the capital Bogotá. Unfortunately it’s not as characterful as Medellín but does have a number of interesting art galleries and museums.

Our time in Colombia was at an end and it was time to fly to Quito, Ecuador.

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Bienvenidos a Colombia

We arrived in Cartagena Colombia at 7am after an overnight flight from Heathrow via Bogotá. Needless to say we were pretty tired after the wedding celebrations and experiencing 3 timezones in 6 days so we decided to spend few days relaxing and exploring Cartagena. It was 30 degrees, about 90% humidity and we were glistening in sweat by the time we got the bottom of the airplane staircase...

Cartagena itself is an incredibly historic city and we easily passed 3 days wandering the streets, trying the cerviche and visiting a few museums. We even tried a salsa class to see if we really were beyond hope. That can now be confirmed. (Un)fortunately no video footage survives.

(Pretty streets of Cartagena)

Then we were back on our bikes to make the two day (238km) cycle along the Caribbean coast to the city of Santa Marta. Only 40km in and disaster struck... It seems that we had not properly aligned the derailleur on Matt’s bike when we reassembled it after the flight.

As we were climbing up a hill, it suddenly snapped off and was dragged into the spokes rendering it a mangled mess. The bike could no longer be cycled. Fortunately we were only a short walk from a town so we made our way to the local shop and planned to use our faltering Spanish to ask for a taxi to the city so we could get a replacement part.

Nobody in the town had a car but they did source the local mechanic who helped us to shorten the chain, effectively turning it into a temporary single speed bike. Meanwhile the police had turned up to survey the situation. I must admit that I was a bit wary - I had been warned by people in the know about risk of blackmail from police who would happen to find you in possession of (definitely not your own) drugs... However the officers we met, Jaime and Jonathan, turned out to be incredibly helpful.

(I was unsure what rules were on photographing the police but here’s a surreptitious shot of our attempted village repairs)

It quickly became apparent that Matt wasn’t going to make it very far on the makeshift fixie so after offering to take us out for lunch, the policemen flagged down a passing car to take us a further 80km along our route to the city of Barranquilla. They were adamant we didn’t give the driver any money and indeed the driver refused our modest offer of some petrol money! We were dropped off at the Triciclobaq bicycle shop where the mechanics managed to salvage the derailer and fix the bike in a couple of hours, all for the grand price of 40,000 pesos (£10).

The next day we were back on the road again and managed an uneventful 120km to Santa Marta. Temperatures of 34 degrees and humidity through the roof has made for much more challenging cycling than in Africa so progress has been a bit slower.

From Santa Marta we headed to Tayrona National Park by bus (no bicycles allowed). Here you can trek through the rain forest and camp on beautiful white sandy beaches. The walk was admittedly rather hot and humid but we did see lots of wildlife including poison dart frogs and monkeys. On our return journey we trekked via Pueblito; an ancient lost city which is now home to an indigenous tribe.

(Some questionable tan lines, a monkey and Pueblito)

From Tayrona, we headed 311km south to the tiny city of Mompox, a historic river port and UNESCO World Heritage site. This sleepy town doesn’t seem to get too many visitors and it felt almost like we had travelled back in time as we enjoyed a quiet day off.

(Some of Mompox’s many churches)

Then it was time for our toughest challenge yet...647km and lots of climbing to the city of Medellín. But that’s definitely a story for another blog post!!!

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Out Of Africa

The day after Kilimanjaro was spent catching up on 6 days worth of news (including the devastating news of the death of Arethra Franklin!) and sampling copious amounts of Tanzanian coffee. Just a day later we were back on the bikes again with our leg muscles complaining rather loudly.

After studying the map carefully we decided that instead of cycling all the way to Dar es Salaam, we would instead cycle out to the coast and take a boat to Zanzibar from Tanga or Pangani. It did not seem that there would be many places to find food in the day time and the later part of the journey to Dar seemed to be mainly featureless highway. Needless to say, the fact that we would shorten the route by 136km had no bearing on the decision...

The journey to Tanga took 3 days with overnight stops in Same and Korogwe. The road was generally quiet and initially flanked by enormous baobab trees. As we dropped down to sea level the surroundings became lush green with palm and banana trees and the temperatures rocketed.

We had a rest day in Tanga where we sampled some amazing Swahili/Arabic fusion cooking, visited some caves and finished up with sundowners on the beach.

Unfortunately the next day was not so restful. It rained heavily overnight, turning the unpaved road to Pangani into a quagmire of incredibly thick mud. After only 20km the mud was caked under the mudguards and the wheels were no longer spinning at all. We poked as much out with sticks as we could but it just got clogged up again in a matter of minutes.

We were saved by two local business men who were driving their pickup truck to Pangani for a family BBQ and I’m afraid to say the last 30km were done riding in the back. No regrets.

We had 2 options to get to Zanzibar: a 17hour overnight ferry that goes first to Pemba and then to Stone Town or to charter our own boat in Pangani and spend 2 hours travelling to Nungwi; a no-brainer - or so we thought. The boat turned out to be a tiny fishing vessel and we were aggressively thrown about on the waves and bounced off the bottom of the boat for a very long two hours.

Safely in Nungwi, we pushed our bikes up the beach and settled our nerves with a coffee and some breakfast. After that, there was nothing else for it, but to spend 4 nights relaxing on the beach and enjoying the local restaurant scene which is much more varied than anywhere else we’d been on the trip. Somehow Matt even managed to persuade Aisling to get back on a tiny fishing boat for a morning of (unfortunately unsuccessful) deep sea fishing. Even adding his own chum (vom) didn’t help attract the fish...

Finally we cycled 50km from Nungwi to Stone Town and spent our last 2 days enjoying the architecture and museums of this historic city (Aisling’s revenge for the fishing trip).

All too soon, our African adventure was at an end and it was time to go back to the UK for the Uriel/Heseltine wedding. Our adventure will continue in South America....

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Some more Kilimanjaro photos

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Kilimanjaro

We arrived in Moshi on Sunday night and met our hiking companions: Rebeca from Spain and the very adventurous Sanchez family from France (Eric, Tristan and Yarra).

We were now firmly on Tanzanian time and the following morning was more than a bit chaotic as we made trips to multiple supermarkets and a hire store before finally starting our hike at around 3pm. The hire store was an experience in itself and we suspect that we were wearing more than a few charity donated items...

Fully kitted out in our ethically questionable attire, we began our 6 day trek. Our team of 6 hikers was supported by no fewer than 22 people (a guide, 2 assistant guides, cook and 18 porters). Here we are looking fresh - that would definitely change over the coming days...

We took the Machame or “Whiskey” Route, named because of its popularity and relative difficulty compared to the Marangu or “Coca Cola” Route. The route begins in a dark and damp rainforest but the scenery and temperatures slowly change as you pass through moorland, alpine desert and ice fields as you ascend.

The terrain itself is not too challenging (there was a small amount of scrambling on 3rd day) and the porters are carrying most of your kit, tents and food. However altitudes above 3000m leave you feeling very short of breath and our guides Remmy, Burra and Victor kept us walking “pole pole” (slowly slowly) at a pace of just 2-3km/hr. It felt a little frustrating at times and we watched our porters doing double the speed with 20kg balanced on their heads but in retrospect we needed the time to acclimate and make sure we weren’t too exhausted for the final push to the summit.

Altitude can also suppress your appetite - so one porter, Simon - was given the specific task of force feeding us enormous quantities of energy rich (beige) food three times a day. A task which he seemed to enjoy a little too much.

The summit day was the most challenging by far. We began climbing at midnight, ascending 1200m in the dark and reaching the summit just at sunrise. The tiredness and altitude combined left us both feeling unusually emotional at the top but luckily there were no other adverse effects.

There was a bit of a scramble as many hikers fought to have quick photos at the summit marker in the subzero temperatures and howling winds (think frozen beards and numb hands) before making a rapid descent again.

We completed our descent the following day and after lengthy showers joined the Sanchez family in celebrating Yarra and Tristan’s birthday properly (thankfully without the beige food!) with lots of locals dancing and singing happy birthday as they brought out a fruit cake of pineapple, watermelon and banana.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and we prepared to cycle to the coast for the next stage of our adventure. There are far too many photos to fit on this blog so we are looking forward to getting some of them printed when we get home again!

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Out of Kenya, into Tanzania

The road from Nairobi to Arusha was mainly a nice new tarmac highway with relatively little traffic and we were losing altitude from Nairobi at 1800m so we began our journey feeling pretty confident. However we didn’t account for the incredibly strong winds blowing across the Savannah and it turned out to be a rather challenging 3 days...

Crossing the border from Kenya to Tanzania at Namanga was a bit of an ordeal... We arrived after a big bus load of people and weren’t prepared enough to have the visa fees in cash. In true African style, we were let into Tanzania to get to an ATM and trusted to come back and complete the formalities... after an hour and a half of bureaucracy we were stamped through and began the cycle to Arusha. In retrospect we would advise bringing lots of patience, cash and maybe a bribe to the border next time! After leaving Namanga we were rewarded with wide open roads across plains dotted with occasional Masai villages.

Food was still hard to come by but when we got the chance - like with this beef stew, chapati & rice - we didn’t hold back...

Being (easily) tailed by a local cyclist on the way across the border!

We arrived in Arusha and had a well deserved rest day - sampling Tanzanian coffee - before going on a day safari to the amazing volcanic Ngorogoro crater. The 160m deep crater is home to wildebeest, zebra, lions, elephants, hippos and ostrich. There are no giraffe though, as they are unable to climb down the steep crater sides. (We couldn’t figure out how the hippos managed!)

Our time in Arusha was over and we cycled an easy but damp 80km to Moshi for our next challenge... the snowy peaks of Kilimanjaro.

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Karibu Kenya

After months of planning and packing , we finally landed in Nairobi in the early hours of Friday 3rd August. Waived through customs with disbelief about our plans, we got to our airport hotel and went straight to sleep. Matt set a silent alarm for the morning (!) so the final bike assembly was done with a bit of a crowd outside on the street.

A somewhat eventful cycle journey down the main Mombasa Road ensued, involving mind boggling spaghetti junctions and gridlocked traffic under trees full of giant Marabou storks.

We’ll leave the details to your imagination, but needless to say we were very glad to arrive with the lovely Langford’s who were wonderful hosts for the first 3 days of our trip. Nick took us cycling with his Nairobi cycling friends to the town of Limuru and Amanda took us to the David Sheldrick foundation for orphaned elephants and the Giraffe Centre.

Feeling very much rested and ready to cycle, we made the 90km trip north to Naivasha where we were hosted by Vicky Morrison, who has just set up her own bakery in the town. Filled with delicious bread, we had a not-so-restful rest day on cycle safari in Hells Gate National Park and climbing down the spectacular Ol Njorowa Gorge. The day was finished perfectly with a meal at Sanctuary Farm overlooking the shores of Lake Naivasha as the sun set.

Despite a wonderful stay in Kenya it was already time to say goodbye as we cycled for 3 days and 344km south to Arusha and the border with Tanzania. The roads weren’t always easy and finding a square meal can be a challenge but there’s beautiful views and fruit aplenty.

Asante sana, Kenya!