a self-supported bicycle tour through South America

Yesterday we touched based with the touristy side of Quito by taking in the Old Town, the Angel monument and of course, the Equator. We had a lovely guide, Cara, whom Dr Simon helped out by offering allergy advice and prescribing Zirtec. We also encountered the not so nice side to Quito in the form of a corrupt policemen who tried to solicit money from our driver for overtaking a bus going up a hill. Luckily for us our driver phoned his brother, the General of Police, and got him to have words with the policeman who promptly apologised profusely and wished us a lovely day!

Today we visited the local hospital for our last installment of jabs and wondered around for an hour trying to find X Bikes (a bike shop we had been recommended) hoping to get some info on our journey. No such luck. Not only did we come across Lothario with his smooth Ecuadorian looks, but he didn’t even offer us any advice. An hour and sunburn not well spent to say the least. Nevertheless, we did see a bit more of the city and one really can’t complain about 30p cab rides now can one?????

As I sit here watching Simon eat his last Argentinian steak “Marriot Style” I contemplate the enormity of what we are about to do. Can I get off now? Just jokes.

We were only saying today, that it seems like we have been waiting for this day to come for the best part of the year…and I guess we have really. All we have been thinking about for the best part of the year is being on our bikes and actually cycling, and that day is tomorrow. Time has flown this past week, and each day we discover more and more things that we have to do, or have forgotten to do (even the never-ending lists haven’t helped!).

Had we decided not to let you all in on our little journey, by means of the website, sat phone, GPS, video (I know! And yes Mum, Simon promises that technical difficulties will be far and few between) we probably wouldn’t have that much to pack or worry about, but as this IS the trip of a lifetime we want to share it and document as much of it as we can. We think it makes it fun and allows us to be a little closer to our families. That is important to us. [Jen]

Well as I sit here finishing off this last blog entry for a few days until we get our next Internet installment, I’m struggling to remember all I have to do. All being well the GPS will give us the Lat/Lon in WGS85 decimal notation which I will use to send in an SMS via the satphone to update our current location. The ceramic water filter has already given us our first 2L of water (I wonder how many litres she will have to be milked for?).

I’ve also had to do some research on a drug called azetazolamide (helps one acclimatise more rapidly in extreme altitudes) which we bought today over the counter at the medical centre. This is the drug that our GP in the UK refused to prescribe (privately or otherwise) as he wasn’t experienced enough in mountain medicine and it was too risky for him to prescribe. That said having done lots of research we are aware of the side effects  now and it’s there just in case we need it in extreme circumstances. Some of the height gains will be significant and we anticipate reaching altitudes in-excess of 15,000ft. For those interested:

• Ben Nevis, highest mountain in UK is 4409ft
• Machu Pichu, Peru is 8202ft
• K2, Pakistan is 28,252ft [thanks for the correction Gary]

So just a final quick thanks to everyone who has written in our Guestbook, left comments or sent us satphone messages, they are all warmly received.

GaryJ keep it clean(not), moderating your comments is just so much fun. Nomad, I guess we’ll be seeing you in France, and thanks again, you are a top bloke. Pete, I hope to bring back some pictures for your online gallery of mine Of course everyone else who has helped and supported us, and not to mention laughed at us. Mum, Dad, Wendy & Tamsin the Champas was great and meant so much (even if it doesn’t agree with altitude sickness). Will catch up soon people. Adios [Simon]

With the successful arrival of one lost kit bag (thanks very much for the heart palpitations Delta) we are now well and truly settled in our lovely room at the Marriott in Quito. Yesterday was spent relaxing in the super king sized bed, ordering room service (I know! Excessive) and sleeping (for me) and doing web stuff (for Simon). To be honest, I thought that once we were on the road that Simon would have lost interest in the “mistress” (his laptop) but I was obviously mistaken….although we can all benefit from his affair, as you will see from the new addition to the site which enables one and all to text our sat phone for FREE. My boyfriend is a genius!

Even though we have not ventured far from the hotel yet, we are both showing significant signs of mild Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). According to our little First Aid Manual, the dull headache (kind of like a hangover), the interrupted sleep, the shortness of breath (Simon tends to start puffing when he changes channel on the remote!) are all symptoms. We are weeing constantly, which we read is our body’s AMS mechanism kicking in that helps to prevent water retention. The manual, however, doesn’t explain why Simon has pooed 7 times since we have been here! Might have something to do with the Baby Back ribs in Atlanta. What an appetite!

Today is Wednesday, bike building day. The room is littered with tools, and no mum the carpet is not covered in oil…have you not seen the Rohloff hubs? Cycling nerds will know what we mean.

We are also in the process of trying to find a clinic in Quito to arrange to have our final jabs for Rabies and Hep B. After a brief conversation with the Business Centre in the Hotel trying to explain what we needed and that no we didn’t want the doctor to visit us, he said “ah, yes, leave it with me and I will call you back”. He called back to explain that a representative from the laundry department would come to our room to assist us with our request. Needless to say the language barrier is proving a little frustrating to say the least!

The water in the hotel is very drying to the skin and hair. My ponytail feels like a Brillo pad at the moment even after a tube of leave-in conditioner. I have, however, discovered that the Health Club do pedicures! Might have to sneak down for one later I think! Can’t let the standards drop just because I am on a cycling expedition. When the opportunity presents itself, one must maintain personal hygiene I say.

We have already checked out the local supermarket for our vitals shop (Dad, I know you love that word!) and are quite impressed with the variety available. We wont have any troubles finding the rice and pasta we need for the “camp” dinners. I have no idea how Simon will cope without meat everyday, but he assures me that Lama won’t be THAT hard to catch and roast! I think he might be serious.

Signing off for today. Love to you all.

Well this is just a quick update as I’m completely knackered and must get some sleep. We arrived yesterday evening having had a 26hr trip from Gatwick to Quito via Atlanta, USA. Luckily both the bikes arrived ans appear to be undamaged (we hope they’re ok as we’ve yet to assemble them) however, not all the bags turned up and we were missing just one of Jen’s bag with all her clothes and equipment etc.. (what a nightmare!)

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, the bag has just arrived this evening having been lost somewhere in Atlanta. Apparently this happens a lot coming into Quito although I’m not entirely sure if it’s just more common with Delta or not.

 I’ve managed to create a page for anyone to send us a satphone message free of charge! For more information click here.

More updates shortly and some pictures hopefully of where we’re staying at the mo…

Adios Simon

Well we’re back from Italy now. For those that didn’t know we’ve (the immediate family and partners) just got back from a 5 day break on the coast of Italy in Amalfi following Mike and Tamsin’s wedding last weekend.

We stayed high up from the sea in a great villa run by Roberto which was so picturesque it was unbelievable! For anyone interested, don’t ever bother going to the island of Capri, it’s a complete waste of time and so overrated; you’re better off putting a bulls eye on your backside and walking into the blue oyster bar than going there to be taken for a ride!

Anyhow, the Satellite phone has turned up, along with other goodies for the trip. We’ve had another three injections this morning and the final ones for rabies & Hep-B will be done in Quito all being well. We decided this was best otherwise we would have to stay in the UK until the beginning of August before leaving and this would set us too far behind to complete the trip by February.

We’ve booked the flights with Continental to Quito via Atlanta outbound. When we return we will be coming back from Buenos Aires. The current plan is to acclimatise for 5 days in the Marriott in Quito before starting the cycling the last chance to lap up some creature comforts! We hope to push on through to the more interesting stuff in Peru and Bolivia as fast as possible to leave us enough time to get down to Ushuaia the finish in Argentina.

What a sad sad day! The van has now been sold, it only took one day on Autotrader to get shot of it, luckily the first guy who saw the advert on the Internet wanted it. I was amazed as he hadn’t even seen the van in the flesh and yet still made an offer on it. We bartered a bit and eventually settled on a price for which he brought mainly cash and the remainder in a cheque; it was kind of odd counting 15k in 20’s on our coffee table.

Then the saga of the satellite phone and our unsuccessful bidding on eBay for one finally came to a head when one was advertised at a bargain price of $1000USD as a “Buy it now” option. So no sooner had I got used to my cash mountain, I saw 1/2″ of it disappear to Indonesia on another piece of our essential equipment (at least our parents will be happy).

For those who are technically minded the phone we settled on is a Motorola Iridium 9505A and looks like one of our regular cell phones from the 80’s. Weighing somewhere in the heavy weight boxing category it can make telephone calls and even send SMS text messages, unbelievable eh!

My love affair finally had to come to an end! The van has to go to and I cannot tell you how sad this is making me feel, she’s a beauty and has never given me any trouble whatsoever, unlike other women in my life. Many good times had and now looking for another home, she’s very well respected on the road.

VW Transporter T5 Window Van T30 SWB 2.5L TDI 174BHP in metallic Off-road Grey, 34K miles. £20,995 o.n.o (more images)

Tel: 07973 102256 Email:plumms@gmail.com

• Left & right sliding side doors, tail gate
• Headlamp washers, fluid level indicators, heated washer jets, rain sensor and automatic dimming rear view mirror
• Electric windows, electrically heated, adjustable and folding mirrors and internal central locking control
• Electric sunroof tilt & slide, double tinted rear and single tinted side windows on security glass
• Single plus dual rear folding seats, removable mezzanine rear deck
• VW 18″ Dakar alloy wheels & VW lowering kit
• Front fog lights, rear parking sensors, towbar, ESP, air conditioning with rear cabin heater
• Trip computer, leatherette trim, crome wing mirror and grill covers, cruise control, alarm with interior and tow away protection
• Alpine CD/Radio/MP3 with direct iPod integration and touch slider control
• Fully integrated with stereo Nokia Bluetooth car kit
• Full VW Service history

This is where we currently live. I’m really going to miss this place for the next 8 months, living by the sea is just amazing. We’re renting the place out (fully furnished) to a couple of teachers that currently rent a flat next door to us. We met them through a friend of mine that lives above them. It just so happens that this is the same guy who I rode the TransAmerica trail with across the USA in 2004 with. This makes life so much easier for us (and cheaper!), so thanks Jonny and Emma

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=st+catherines+road,+bournemouth&sll=37.0625,-95.677071&sspn=30.819956,59.238281&ie=UTF8&ll=50.720794,-1.795535&spn=0.006005,0.014462&t=h&z=16&om=1

Well, we’re finally getting closer to that leaving date. It’s funny just how fast time seems to go the closer you get. I’m starting to panic a little that I still have so much to do on this damn website. I’ve changed from hosting Wordpress to using Blogger, then to Blogharbor and now finally back to Wordpress!

Guess I should have stayed with Wordpress right from the start, hindsight’s a wonderful thing and I’ve learnt a lot along the way about coding blogging websites that perhaps I really don’t need to!

There’s still the current location, route map and photo gallery to write and I hope that they go smoothly as I’m reaching the end of my tether now

Well we’re back from our trip to Seattle in the US. We decided to go at the last minute simply because of the exchange rate with the pound being so strong (nearly $2 to the pound)! I decided to produce a spreadsheet prior to booking the flights to work out what the potential cost savings would be by buying the equipment we need for our South America trip in the US. It looked like most the cost of the trip would be covered so that’s what made up our minds.

We ended up spending a lot of time in REI in Seattle. It’s an amazing place with just about everything you could wish for when going on a trip. In fact, we spent almost 4 whole days there going through just about eveything we thought we would need. It’s well worth visiting if you get the chance, the website’s not bad but it’s just better in the flesh, believe me!

The equipment we bought I will list at some point under the South America trip section. It’s very hard to decide exactly on what we’ll need even though I’ve done the Transamerica tour before. At least our warm-up trip we plan to do in France/Spain should further refine what we think we’ll need. That said, the weather conditions are going to be far more varied and different in South America, perhaps even extreme in comparison to anything else I’ve ever experienced. Therefore, it will difficult to get it absolutely spot I think, perhaps there will be a lot of refinements made whilst on-route, most likely in the clothing department I’d imagine.