• a Pedaling Adventure
  • a Pedaling Adventure

Zuid-Amerika

Un’avventura di 269 giorni di a Pedaling Adventure Leggi altro
  • Day 204: From the Andes to the desert

    4 agosto 2016, Perù ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We still had some more spare altitude. So today more downhill. The first 38 asphalt, after that kinda okay gravel road. We madei t into the coastal desert. Here the only road north is the 4 lane pan americano. So we stoped 5 km before the panamericano to set up camp in the desert. Tomorow a but more than 80 km pf highway before we are in Trujillio.Leggi altro

  • Day 214: Racing across the Pan Americana

    14 agosto 2016, Perù ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We tried to recover from 5 days of sun, beach and party. But getting on the bike was tough. We really needed to make it to the town 125 km away. But starting only at noon made it tough. We had to race to get there before darkness. Getting caught on the Pan Americana in the dark is not fun. So we averaged 25 km/h and found a cheap hospedaje before darkness. Tomorow we will cross the border to Ecuador.Leggi altro

  • Day 217: Quito

    17 agosto 2016, Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    This will definitely be our last bus. Soo done with nights of no sleep in cramped in a bus. So we took a 10 hour bus from Machala to Quito. Ariving in our shorts and shirt in cold Quito at 6 in the morning was kind of a shock. We quickly found our down jackets and set out for the city. It was still 20 km to our hostel in crazy morning rushhour without any breakfast. After finding the hostel we could checkin and get some sleep.Leggi altro

  • Day 232: Time to start the last stretch.

    1 settembre 2016, Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The last weeks we spend recovering in quito and lying on the beach in tropical colombia. Now we are back in quito and ready to start the last part of our trip. We found an old train track that was converted to a cyclepath. Although halfway trough it was more traintrack than cycle path. But it gave us a nice route out of quito.

    We started late and stoped early we dont want to push our legs to far on the first day. But afterall we made 62 km which is only 8 short of what we have to average to make it to Medellín in time.
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  • Day 233: Back in the northern hemisphere

    2 settembre 2016, Ecuador ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    We started the day easy and after a good breakfast we set out around 10. The road went up and down all the time. Our leggs are not used to climbing anymore so it was kinda hard. But at noon we reached the equator and made all the pictures. Finally back in the northern hemisphere.

    We found a smaller road as a shortcut for the Pan-Americana. But off course that meant a lot of climbing again. But after 90 km we made it to the town of Ibarra. After dinner we are quickly went to bed. Tomorow is gonna be tough.
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  • Day 234: Ecuadorian champion and 6 years

    3 settembre 2016, Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    We woke up early. Today would be a lot of climbing so we needes as much time as we could get. After a 30 km decent we started the climb that should take us to the Colombian border. On the climb we met Paul on his road bike. He turned out to be the Ecuadorian cros coutry mountainbike champion. We rode with him for a while. We also met leigh. This english guy started cycling from england 6 months ago. It funy how you always meet people who do somethig more crazy.

    But we made it to 3000 meters. Here we will stay for the night and tomorow we will cross into colombia hopefully.
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  • Day 235: Colombian photoshoot

    5 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We set out early to hopefully get across the border early and make some progress into Colombia. The bordercrossing was the shadiest so far. Normally we just park the bikes near the douana and go together to the immigration. But here we decided to take turnes looking after the bikes.

    But soon we made it into Colombia. Due to a big accident on the road there was a trafficjam of 10 km. we managed to avoid most of it by passing the cars. But we were stuck between trucks for quite a while. while taking a rest at a gasstation we got a lot of atention from the locals. We took atlest 8 pictures with people and explained at least the same amount of times what we were doing in Colombia. Aparently they don't see that much gringo's around here.
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  • Day 238: El Trampolín de la muerta

    9 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    El Trampolín de la muerta, oftew Colombias death road. We knew it was gonna be a log day. So we left at 8:30 for the first 8 asphalt kilometers. After that the asphalt was gone. The road started to climb and the drops became bigger. We kinda got the idea why the road got its name. Pasing cars here was sometimes even difficult on a bike. But the scenery was stunning. Certainly one of the most beautiful roads we have ridden in South America. But darkness came to soon. We had to race the last 10 km in the dark to the first town.Leggi altro

  • Day 239: Welcome to the jungle

    9 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Below 800 meters. It felt like had to chew the air. The high humidity made it a sweaty wet ride. But it was a different landscape than the rest of the trip. Everything was green and it felt like we were riding in the jungle. The next town was 140 km away so we set out early and started fast. But at 3 it became obvious that we wouldnt make it. Luckely we found a cheap hotel in a small village. We will try to make it tomorow.Leggi altro

  • Day 240: Warm showers.

    10 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    The whole night it was raining. And while we had breakfast it started raining even more. But we set out for a short moutainstage to the next city. Wr didnt bother to put on our rain pants. It was to warm so we just let our selfs get wet. And after a 30 km climb we rolled down the moutain to the first warm shower in 4 days and some dry clothes.Leggi altro

  • Day 241: sweating in the rain.

    11 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    This morning it was raining again. But nevertheless we started cycling. It wasn't too cold so we made some good progress. The locals cheerd to us while we battled the rain. Most of the times the locals scream Vamos Nairo! Refering to the colombian pro cyclist Nairo Quintana. We stoped at 1 after making 70 km. The legs hurt and tomorow we will try to make the last 110 km to the town of Nieva.Leggi altro

  • Day 242: Sprinting towards the rest day.

    12 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    We expected a long day on the bike today. So we woke up early and started riding at 8 in the morning. Today for the first time in four days no rain. But With 34 C it was another sweaty day. So far no meter in Colombia has been flat. it is up and down all the time. So no big climbs today but we managed to make 1450 meters of vertical ascent either way. After lunch we picked up the pace and managed to do the planned 115 km before 3 pm.

    The last 6 days we have destroyed our legs. All this climbing with our heavy gear makes that our legs hurt. So tomorow we will explore the town of Nieve and take a rest day.
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  • Day 244: floating down the road.

    14 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We woke up to a giant thunderstorm. Water came down like crazy and the streets soon turned into rivers. But we are Dutch and used to a bit of rain. So we set out trying to avoid the worst flooded streets. Most of the cars don't really care about cyclist. So quite often we got splashed by the cars.

    We rode the whole day in the rain. But actually we preferred the rain over the 36 degrees and sunny. We made some good progress until nino got our 17th flat tire. Turned out his outer tire was totally worn. So aftet 9950 km we finally destroyed our first tire. Luckily we carried a spare and got to a town with a cheap hospdaje at 4. Tomorrow will probably be the last "flat" day of the trip.
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  • Day 245: Last day on the flats.

    15 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    The mountains on our left kept getting bigger and bigger. Tomorow we will have to start climbing again. But not today, today is flat.

    It was dry in the morning so we decided to set out early to make it to the next town before it became really hot. It's the last day in the semi flat valley. so we enjoy the easy kilometers. We can clearly notice that trafic gets heavier the closer we get to Bogota. Not much happend on the road, so we made it to espinal before 13:00. We will spare the leggs for tomorow. when we will climb the first part of our crossing of the Cordillera Central.Leggi altro

  • Day 246: Vamos Nairo!

    16 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    33 degrees. Thats what it said when we started in the morning. And during the day it ony became warmer. We started to climb bathing in sweat. But the road climbed slowely and steadily. So it wasn't to hard. Soon we made it to the town. And that's were the fun started.

    Cars started honking and people cheering. Vamos Nairo! Is the most heared sentence. Refering to the Colombian star professional cyclist Nairo Quintana. We had motors and cars driving up to us and asking where we were going. After hearing Medellín they said we were crazy. After telling were we started people just became speechless. It was a nice distraction of the shitty bussy road and before we knew it we made it to the center and found a cheap hotel. Tomorow we will have to climb again.
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  • Day 247: Last time above 3000m.

    17 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    To get ahead of the heat we decided to leave town at 6am. Although quite early we were happy that we did it. It was still cool and traffic wasnt to bad. But two hours later it was sweating again and crazy traffic. It took us till 2 to make the 58km to the top of the pass. So we thought we would be in Armenia early.

    A couple of hundred meters i got a flat tire. It turned out one of the patches was completely ripped a part. So after changing the tube we continued downhill. Only to have ninos tire flat at the bottom. Another ripped patch. So we hope with 2 brandnew tubes in our tires to make it to medellín.
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  • Day 252: Sore

    22 settembre 2016, Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Our walk yesterday was a bit longer than expected. we ended up walking 19 km. And since we are not used to walking anymore. Our leggs were complaining. so with super sore legs we started the last part of our trip. And even though the legs hurt and there was a lot of climbing we made our goal easily at 2 pm. So we got a cheap hotel. It's only 190km more to Medellin!Leggi altro