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Panamericana adventure

September 2019 - May 2020
A dream comes true!! Starting in Vancouver, our plan is to go South until we reach Tierra del Fuego - World's end. Our chosen way of transport: 2 fantastic travel bikes. Follow us on our adventurous trip with all the expected highs and lows 🚵‍♀️😀 Read more
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  • 202footprints
  • 12countries
  • 255days
  • 1.0kphotos
  • 0videos
  • 28.7kkilometers
  • 17.6kkilometers
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  • Panamericana adventure
    Day 255

    Back in Germany

    May 19, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    After an 11 hour flight, we arrived in Munich. The plane was on time and all our luggage came out straight away. The airport was scarily empty. As it was still early, we took the train to Würzburg where my parents picked us up. While riding the train, we put the bikes back together (we had to disassemble them to match the demanded box size on the plane). After a stop in Warburg where we packed some stuff, we drove to Bielefeld to complete our obligatory quarantine here. Another 2 weeks looked up, this time, we are not even allowed to do grocery shopping or exercise. I guess we are used to it now 😏 At least, we have German beer (and Austrian Radler) and a big backyard to be outside.

    We are sad we couldn't complete our project and had to come back to Germany. At the same time, we are proud of what we have achieved so far and thankful for the experience we had so far. Thanks to everyone who was part of it - you made it very special!

    Final stats:
    14.606km cycled
    152.406m climbed
    855 hours and 48min on the bikes    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
    Day 253

    Final countdown

    May 17, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    With the help of the German embassy, we got seats on a repatriation flight to Munich. So we said goodbye to our hostel family in San Gil and left for Bogotá. Juan Diego, the owner of the hostel, organized a bike rack for his car and drove us to the capital. The drive was quite nice: we passed beautiful mountain scenery and the "cycling state of Colombia", Boyaca. As interstate travelling is usually not allowed yet (we had an official document from the embassy), roads were empty and we made it to Bogota in about 5 hours.
    In Bogota, we organized bike boxes for the flight. Our host for a night in the city, Marcelinus, welcomed us warmly, helped us pack the bikes, cooked us Colombian meals and gave us a lift to the airport the next day.
    In Colombia, the airport is closed and only operates few humanitarian flights. Our flight was the only one that day. Necertheless, we had to be there 5 hours early because of security checks. After waiting in line for 2 hours (with a 1.5m distance of course), we had to wash our hands in mobile sinks and had our temperature measured. Check-in went smoothly, so we had to kill another hour before boarding. Luckily, we met a couple who we knew from the San Gil hostel before lockdown. So we played pantomime with them which was great fun.
    Boarding was line by line which took quite a while. Seats were uncomfortable, inflight entertainment turned off, food was served in a plastic bag and we had to wear a face mask all the time. We definitely had better flights before, but well - we landed safely in Munich.    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
    Day 249

    The end is near

    May 13, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We've lost count of our days in lockdown already... It's been almost 2 months now that we can't move on. After 6 months of continuous travelling, we are stuck in a town, even in one house, which is a difficult situation. We are lucky to be healthy, to have friends to video-call with and people who support us here in Colombia with offering us a nice place to stay. However, when they announced another extension of the lockdown until 25th May, we decided to look for flight opportunities back to Europe. It was a hard decision for us, but with still increasing numbers of Covid infections in Colombia as well as in other South American countries, we don't believe (bike) travelling will be easily possible any time soon in this region. So now we are waiting for either moving up on the waiting list for European repatriation flights (German flights already left beginning of April) or for the airport to reopen for commercial international flights. Let's see...

    In general, there's a very regional strategy to confront the pandemic here in Colombia. As San Gil is - luckily - a "Corona-free" town, most of the businesses can open again. They also allow us to do grocery shopping 2x per week again - based on your passport number - and exercise any day between Monday and Friday within the borders of the town (no radius of 1km anymore) for one hour between 5 and 8am. We totally made use of this little freedom and cycled to the regional airport, 10km and 500m of elevation away from our hostal. This is also the border of San Gil as you can see by the blocked road. However, we are really happy to feel the wind again around our heads 😊    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
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    Day 233

    A first little step towards freedom

    April 27, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Unfortunately, we are still in San Gil and still in lockdown, as the Colombian Government extended the curfew until 11 May for now. This means, we'll be staying here for at least 2 more weeks.
    The last 2 weeks, we followed our daily routine of workouts, yoga, reading, eating... We found a German beer in the supermarket, discovered a super cheap absolutely amazing burger place with delivery service and perfected our do-it-yourself mobile and beer stand for our regular movie nights. We also had some video calls with friends which is a really good distraction from our daily life inside a house.
    However, something has changed positively starting from today: the president realized that exercising outdoors is important for one's health. It's generally restricted to morning hours (5-8am) and within 1km radius of your house. So, of course, first thing we did this morning was going out for fast walking around the blocks close to our hostel.
    Once we got back, we found out, that in San Gil, they actually restricted the exercising hours based on the last number of your passport: for example, with my "8", I'm allowed to exercise for one hour on Tuesdays, 7-9am and Fridays, 5-7am. Good the police didn't check us today 😉
    Furthermore, we got 2 new housemates: the hostel owner and his mum moved in as they had to give up their apartment during this time with no income. Andrés, our housemate up til now, on the other hand, moved back to his aunt and uncle to work in their workshop to earn some money. Today, we helped moving the furniture out of the apartment which provided another excuse to get out 😉
    Let's see what is going to come in the next couple of weeks..    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
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    1
    Day 214

    Early Easter egg hunt

    April 8, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Things are getting pretty boring here. The Colombian government extended the curfew until 26 April. Plus, they changed the regulation for going out and reduced it to once per week during the Easter week. So we are staying in our hostel doing the usual: working out, reading, eating, sleeping... As it's Easter, we got a treat of pizza and Colombian rum which should get us through the rest of the quarantine. Our yoga skills are still pretty basic, but improving - and so are our cooking skills... Our personal highlight this week was the spare part of the blender that arrived yesterday, so we can finally make smoothies again 😀 Who would have thought that we spend "7 months on the road" locked-in??Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
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    Day 208

    Killing time

    April 2, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Although we can't bike on, we are not totally lazy. Colombia has been in lockdown for almost 2 weeks now. This means that we are not allowed to go outside except for grocery shopping. And even this is restricted to only 2 days per week which is based on the last number of your Combian ID. As we obviously don't have a Colombian ID, we show them the number at the bottom of our passports. Here, I have an "8", so I am allowed to buy food on Thursdays and Saturdays, Herbert with his "6" on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The last photo shows the regulation for San Gil.
    This system is actually implemented differently in each city or village. Sometimes, a certain number can go on a different day, sometimes during a specific time slot. In some cities, you can use public transport only at a certain hour depending on your last number. I guess this system has a good intention, but can make things really chaotic and difficult. For example, when people from the village need to come into town to get money from the bank and in their village, they can leave the house on a Tuesday, but in town they are only allowed to enter the bank on a Thursday...
    Meanwhile, we try to kill our time. We finished the puzzle within 3 days, using trial-and-error for the blue sky. We also baked bread. As we don't have a working oven, Herbert is trying to build our own oven-like system. The 3rd trial wasn't actually too bad.
    Furthermore, we do a lot of exercise. The skipping rope saves our stamina and 2 yoga sessions per day make our bodies more flexible again after 6 months on the bikes. And thanks to amazon Colombia, our friends in Switzerland could surprise us with some European beers 😀
    We can't do much, but we also try to help the people here as much as possible. Therefore, we painted a couple of walls in the hostel. We also try to use local delivery services. This is, however, a little more complicated compared to Germany for example, as there is no central website for deliveries or many websites of local restaurants in general. So when we walk through town, we look for papers posted on restaurant doors that refer to a delivery service or search facebook pages for people who advertise in local groups.
    Overall, we really miss cycling. But considering the worldwide situation, I guess we can't complain.    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
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    Day 200

    Day 200 and the quarantine

    March 25, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Who would have thought that we spend our 200th day of our trip locked up in a house in Colombia because of a worldwide epidemic? Noone could have predicted this, that's for sure!!
    In Colombia, travel has been largely restricted since 16th of March. Since last Friday night, there's state curfews, so it isn't allowed for people to leave the house anymore, except for grocery shopping or going to a doctor or similar. At midnight today, a nationwide curfew started, so these rules apply in all of Colombia.
    We still think we are kind of lucky because we found a good place to stay during this difficult situation. First, the climate in San Gil is nice. Temperatures during the night drop to about 20 degrees, so we don't need airconditioning or a fan during the night. Before 10am and after 4pm, temperatures are cool enough to exercise.
    Secondly, we have running water all day, electricity, a fully working kitchen and a bed. What sounds normal to most people is actually not everyday life for everyone here in Colombia.
    Thirdly, we also have quite some space in the building including a patio, so we can see the sky even if we have to stay at home. It's not allowed to leave the house for exercising, so we use it for online trainings. Good to see there's heaps of offers on YouTube such as Yoga or #lederhosentraining.
    In general, we try to keep a daily routine: get up around 6:30am, start with breakfast and followed by our morning exercise. During the hot hours, we puzzle, study Spanish, read, catch up with the news or with friends and family. Once it cools down, we do our evening workout, followed by dinner. Before going to bed, we usually watch some comedy online. We found a way to download videos on the phone, transfer it to the camera and connect it to the tv, so we have a big screen to watch it. In general, we prefer older comedy shows with last year's topics to get a break from Corona.
    Yesterday was a highlight in our routine. In between state and national curfew, there was a day of a break. We took our bikes and went uphill for a ride to exercise a little. It was soooo good for our souls to be outdoors, a totally different feeling!! And again, we are lucky to be in San Gil as there's mountains all around. We can make 600m elevation gain on remote roads in only 10km. So we don't even have to go far in order to get a decent training and enjoy the views. Unfortunately, the officials here realized that all people used the "free" day to go out. So we got sent back to town when a firefighter passed us on his scooter. He also critized us for not wearing a face masks.
    In general, people go crazy about the masks here. 95% of the people here wear them which is scary to us. We refused so far, but when someone yelled at us on the road again when going shopping, we decided to wear some as well. Lucky, we still had the ones we received in California which were supposed to protect is against the smoke of the fires. They won't help against the virus, but people here are satisfied and we won't end up in the news as the foreigners who refuse to wear masks... Anyways, apart from groceries, we could also buy a skipping rope and 3 balls for juggling which will hopefully distract us a little during the next 19 days.    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
    Day 195

    Getting ready for the lockdown

    March 20, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    In the Santander, the state we are in right now, there'll be an obligatory general curfew starting tonight. For now, it's only for 78 hours, but who knows? Anyways, we are preparing for staying in our hostel in San Gil for a while. So first we bought some Spanish books and a puzzle to kill time indoors. Furthermore, we used the time for studying more Spanish.
    Today, we went for a final bike ride before we can't go outdoors anymore. We cycled uphill to the tiny airport and followed some dirt roads before heading back to town. Finding our way back to the main road wasn't easy as most turns ended on a private property. But people were always friendly and directed us back on the main track.
    Back home, we had a hot shower as it was relatively cold (18°C). Afterwards, we went grocery shopping, so we have the basics for the next 4 days.    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
    14
    Day 193

    Daytrip in the mountains

    March 18, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Next day of Covid-19 prevention: we started with smoothies for breakfast to fill up our vitamines. Then we headed took another remote road out of the city. This time, our destination was Mogotes. It started with a 600m elevation gain before we had a curvy rolling stretch.
    Shortly before Mogotes we passed a health control. They took our data and asked about any symptoms. As we don't show any and would return back to San Gil, we had no problems passing. In the village, we enjoyed some yummy empanadas before going back home.
    In general, we see more and more people with face masks. I'm tempted to ask them if they are all sick, but don't want to risk getting in trouble 😏    Read more

  • Panamericana adventure
    Day 192

    Social distancing

    March 17, 2020 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    In the morning, Ishan left our hostel apartment, as he decided to cancel his trip and go home to Australia. So now it's only us and Andrés in the house. Andrés is Colombian and usually works in the hostel. During the closure, he can't work there, but prefers staying as the conditions are way better than in his home.
    After breakfast, we decided to do social distancing in the mountains and went for a bike ride on a remote road to Charalá. The route went passed Fonce River and was really beautiful. We passed a waterfall and spent some time on the central square eating icecream.
    On the way back, we wanted to check out if the Indian Cave is still open. In order to get there, we took a back road which was dirt. But hey - we have time and no luggage, so let's try! Climbing was really hard and I sometimes had to push some metres, even though we lowered the air pressure. But the landscape was awesome and there was absolutely no one else on the road.
    In Paramó where the cave is located we first stopped at the church. Then we went to the entrance of the cave. Unfortunately, noone was around. Looks like everything is closed to the lack of tourists. So we just went back to San Gil, did some grocery shopping and cooked dinner.    Read more

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