Tailwinds and trespassing: Puerto Natales to Ushuaia

I pity those folk who forgot to check the prevailing wind direction when they booked their tickets to the bottom of the world to start pedalling north. Our encounters with northbound cyclists go along the lines of 'is it this bad further north?' wincing at the mere thought of it, and, 'But I just didn't …

Big Patagonia, little Patagonia: El Chalten to Puerto Natales

If each section of this ride is defined by a distinct feature, then this is the Postcard-Patagonia phase. The iconic towers of rock and walls of ice feel almost familiar after poring over so many photographs through the years, but to sit in the icy breeze for hours and marvel at them in three dimensions …

Gear review: better than the rest, worthy of note and would avoid

There is nothing quite like bikepacking for a long time to test and often kill gear. Riding a bike down little dusty, bumpy trails seems to be a step above hiking in terms of wear. It seems with most gear there are several options that more or less do the same thing. So this is …

Into the funnel: Coyhaique to El Chalten on the southern Carretera Austral

Winding through formerly remote parts of Chilean Patagonia, the Carretera Austral has a reputation bigger than any other road among cyclists and roadtrippers in South America. The project to connect these small and inaccessible communities began in 1976 and the most southern stretch wasn't completed until 2000. For a few years it must have been …

Clouds of hell-death and other fun: Trevelin to Coyhaique

South of the heavy hitting tourist highlights of Bariloche and around we slowly returned to the welcoming embrace of the less tourist laden Argentina. Supermarket queues, bumper to bumper paved roads and angry honking horns were replaced with small shop chats, enthusiastic waves and quiet dirt roads. Trevelin is a former Welsh settlement and still …

Bliss and bustle on the national park shuffle: Pucón to Trevelin

One of my favourite aspects of The Very Long Bike Ride is how seemingly few decisions are left to make once you're on the road. It's a beautifully simple lifestyle. One decision always remains though, at times blindingly obvious but often not, and a thoughtful decision or a careless one can shape the following days …

Childhood education and the Family business

We roll into Llipa about 4pm. It's a tiny dusty village with very little going on. It's perched on a hill, with the Plaza de Armas (centre of every Peruvian town) claiming the highest point. We look for a place to buy a beer but nothing is open and very few people are about. It's …

A christmas comedy of errors: Chos Malal to Pucon

On a particularly hot and dull afternoon of cycling, somewhere in northern Argentina, we sat in the shade of one of the few available trees with our new friend Charles and dreamt of the Chilean Lakes district. Around Christmas we figured we'd be there, and we loosely decided a Christmas cabaña in Caburgua was in …

Parrilla powered pedal pushing: Mendoza to Chos Malal

Mendoza felt like a milestone of sorts: Half way-ish down Argentina. Except when we got there I looked at the map properly and realised it was more like a third. This is a seriously large and long country. We have long known that this next stretch of riding would be testing in ways we had …

The low life: Fiambalá to Mendoza

For the first days of low altitude life after descending from the Puna I am too hot, too bug-bitten, agitated and feeling I am not cut out for this style of touring. Give me the -10c nights over this any day. After weeks in the harsh desert though, it's just a matter of time before …

Argentine aventura: Antofagasta to Fiambalá

'But, why?' We're standing at the corner, where our direct route to Fiambala branches off the main road, chatting to couple of Argentine gentlemen who are full of questions. A sandy track signposted '4x4 only' leads into a more deserty looking area than the desert we're already in. 'Una aventura?' we offer, uncertainly. There is …

The Salt Road: Trails through the Argentine Puna

The Puna de Atacama is a windswept, arid, high altitude, desert-like plateau on the border of Chile and Argentina. If you think that sounds a little inhospitable, you'd be right. But when it is not blowing a ferocious gale and exfoliating your already dry and leathery skin with airborne sand, it can be stunningly bright, …

The faded glory of Paso Socompa

We develop a gluttonous olive baguette and goats cheese habit in San Pedro and when we make our early morning escape, freshly baked loaves are secured to the handlebars and an extra large slab of cheese slowly sweats in the rising temperature. A departure from 'civilisation' demands packing in a few treats you won't be …

Pushwhacking Volcán Sairecabur

Ten nights in San Pedro de Atacama pass us by while we swing in hammocks and eat like cyclists, though it's weeks since we've cycled. The package (Andy's new Porcelain Rocket framebag to replace a broken Ortlieb one) was due to arrive 2 weeks before us and is still MIA. On our daily pilgrimage three …

The backdoor to La Paz: From Lago Titicaca to La Paz via Condoriri basecamp

We’ve ridden into La Paz from the north twice now, and this last run couldn't have been a starker contrast to the first, as illustrated in the following figures. Figure 1. September 2016. Main road + vicious Giardia + lying on the ground for 5 minutes out of every 15. Figure 2. September 2017. The …

Bikepacking Ausangate: Suckers for punishment and singletrack

Almost exactly a year ago we stood at the turnoff to Ausangate for a good 20 minutes, agonising over whether to take it. We'd had every intention to, but a solid day of overdoing it on the Salkantay trek a week before had left my knees in bad shape. Fine when walking, but barely able …

A loop of southern Peru: High roads, canyon hopping and baby volcanoes

With our brains full of verbs from two weeks of Spanish school in Arequipa we were itching to do some riding. A route to Cotahuasi Canyon was on the cards, but there were two good options. The answer (obviously) was to do both, forming a loop of sorts, beginning and ending in Arequipa for more …

Culipampa: Andean village life

"Culipampa (4,770m). A shepherd we met just before the village told me ‘Tiene de todo!’ which I thought was a bit of an exaggeration as it only has about 20 houses, but there was accommodation, restaurants and shops." – Andesbybike.com route notes Despite having been fairly warned by this description, in my mind Culipampa is …

All of the things: Our South American gear list. (Version 2)

After 5 months of riding, the bikes were due some replacement parts and some gear was showing signs of wear. Having to return to New Zealand for a while allowed us to reassess our gear. This is an updated list of All Of The Things. It's pretty nerdy, you've been warned. I've detailed the main …

Northern Chile to Argentina: Paso Sico and the end of the line

San Pedro is at once delightful and shocking. A small, cute, desert town creaking under the weight of tourism. After a slog through the Lagunas we happily throw our weight in the mix and make the most of it – eating, drinking, lazing and even taking a tour. It's a disconnected experience, travelling in an …