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 kindadank
Registered: 07/14/03
Posts: 683
Last seen: 6 days, 20 hours
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 Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: mickdawg666]
#8425834 - 05/20/08 08:24 PM (4 months, 23 days ago) |
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Another option for everyone that keeps posting in the thread about how awesome it would be and wanting to do it is travel in SE Asia. After you get there, the prices are absurdly cheap by any standards. The area contains 3 of the cheapest countries in the world. In these places you can easily get by on $5-10 a day, and even less if you aren't moving around alot.
Just something to consider. Once you throw down on that plane ticket, your money can go a LONG way if you want it to and don't go out and get wasted every night.
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
Registered: 12/03/02
Posts: 5,059
Loc: beautiful BC
Last seen: 2 hours, 40 minutes
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8460267 - 05/29/08 04:08 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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Posted from private blog:
Climbed Huyana potosi @ 6088m
Day 1: drive to base camp; (a medium sized cement building at the mountain base, provides kitchen facilities for guides, and bathroom and sleeping accomodation for climbers in a large loft. Bathroom is a brick outhouse 50m away in a rock field.)
From Base camp we gear up, and hike halfway to rock camp through rock fields, and glacial lakes - at a nearby glacier we practice with crampons and ice axes + get to practice a vertical icewall (very brittle)
Return to Base camp; over a hot meal and endless tea - many different groups share travel stories and conversation - some people suffer from the altitude, and most suffer severe diarhea all night. We sleep in a large loft, pillow and mattress provided .. regularily interrupted by the unzipping of sleeping bags, headlamp, stomping on the floor, and clanging on the metal door.
Day 2: wake up early, breakfast and packing up. Head to Rock camp 3 hours away carrying all our gear (5130m) .. After arrival, there is nothing to do but rest. After dinner we all hit the sack before dark.
Rock camp; Much smaller refugio - tiny communal area hardly holds us all. Outside tarped/greenhouse style kitchen, bathroom is a pile of rocks around a toilet facing the refugio/no door. Loft is mattresses lined up immediately beside each other.. Very hot and stinky with human.
Day 3: The night was sleepless due to altitude. We are woken at 12:30 and gear up/drink tea/eat sweets until 1:30 when we group up and set out. Me yeon (austrian cyclist) and Julio our guide... tied together, harnessed up, begin ascending a 45degree ice slope - step by step the 12 sharpened spikes of our crampons dig their way through the hardened snow - at times we walk along vertical drops of ice 50-100´high, and over hallowed ice crevesases. (we are mostly ignorant of this, its so dark) .. we are at the base of the last 200m ascent (80 degrees) by 5am and my partner is very tired and suffering the altitude (5900m) is less than gung-ho.
After a long and very cold break - we begin the ascent - sadly i am tied in the back and must "hold the lead" keeping my distance, yeon is "moaning" loudly and breaking every few steps. Progress is immensely slow and very frustrating for me. (dispite this, we ascend MUCH faster most of the groups tailing us.).. after close to an hour on the slope, the horizon is getting light and the mountains pushing through the endless sea of clouds becomes aparent for the first time - WHOA HOLY. 90m vertical to go... i pass my partner and run to top, and eventually he reaches the top 5 minutes before the sun comes up.
The view - all of lake titicaca, la paz, glaciars and granite mountains and green mineral lakes. We are above the clouds ..
Once he appreciates the view, he is reinvigorated and we take many many pictures and wait for the other groups .. so we can share our glory.
Julio nails in a deep ice screw and we begin descending slowly... after we are off the 80degree slope, i bonk - and every step of the 2 or 3 hour walk back to rock camp is agony. By this time, my big toenails had turned purple and my feet were very sore - i was so exhausted i felt confused and unable to talk.
Back at Rock camp we eat soup and recharge and pack up before heading back to base camp (carrying gear over a steep rock field for an hour)..
The groups i was with, were all excellent and like minded people and a pleasure to be in company with. I even befriended 3 cyclists who have ridden from pakistan to La paz over the last year...
i am very glad to have done this - mountaineering, ice climbing and more radical forms of camping/hiking/exploring seem to be within the realm of mortals like myself now. Cost is the most prohibitive aspect of it outside of Bolivia..
Most likely i will be headed to Arica Chile by bike in the next 2 days -It feels forever since ive been on the bike (week break) .. and have decided riding Chile boardered by ocean and volcanos will be worth the cost...
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"i am becomming my future self"
Edited by PDU (05/29/08 04:16 PM)
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sleepy
Welcome to the show
Registered: 01/17/05
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8460281 - 05/29/08 04:12 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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i hope you know you can get ayahuasca real easily in Peru
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
Registered: 12/03/02
Posts: 5,059
Loc: beautiful BC
Last seen: 2 hours, 40 minutes
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8460292 - 05/29/08 04:15 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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glacial lake:
Ice climbing:
Zongo mining graveyard:
Inside rock camp:
Rockcamp:
The path to rockcamp:
Practice glacier:
On the brink of sunrise at 6088m:
The path to summit 200m at 80degress:
Weird shadow over lake titicaca:
Waaay more pictures, but its too slow to upload in net cafes - i come home sometime before august.
Shambahla anyone?
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"i am becomming my future self"
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 LosAngelesGraff
Dose me!
Registered: 06/09/06
Posts: 5,867
Loc: Califas
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8460307 - 05/29/08 04:19 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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great pictures, whats the deal with that shadow haha.
also seems like people on the shroomery are covering the world slowly. we need shroomery.org flags!
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http://www.myspace.com/mcdopeone
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.davidicke.com/index.php/
Enjoyment only means the negligence of practice.
You dont really know how much freedom you have, till you risk yours
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Mad_Larkin
*sigh*
Registered: 11/29/07
Posts: 475
Loc: Yorkshire, England
Last seen: 3 days, 19 hours
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: LosAngelesGraff]
#8460362 - 05/29/08 04:35 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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That's awesome man. Beautiful pics. I've always wanted to go to South Amerca.
And what the hell is with that shadow?
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Mushroom Potency Alien Dreamtime
Terrence Mckenna Files FaLiLV Script
Stoned Ape Psychedelic E-Books Their Law
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
Registered: 12/03/02
Posts: 5,059
Loc: beautiful BC
Last seen: 2 hours, 40 minutes
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: Mad_Larkin]
#8460879 - 05/29/08 06:15 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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not sure about the shadow - imagine my surprise to be experiencing it!
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"i am becomming my future self"
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MOTH
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 17,442
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8461136 - 05/29/08 07:20 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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OMG I'm tripping right now and saw your pics and nearly peed myself with total slobbering glee!
Amazing.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 12,882
Last seen: 8 hours, 11 minutes
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8462008 - 05/29/08 10:46 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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Just wanted to say thanks for the pics. I am definitely living vicariously through you.
Thanks for this thread.
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astronaut
manual labor advocate
Registered: 09/11/07
Posts: 556
Loc: Oregon
Last seen: 12 days, 20 hours
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8462051 - 05/29/08 10:58 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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I'm totally doing something similar next year, man. Probably not by bicycle, maybe a cheap car or motorcycle. Who knows though. Maybe I'll ditch everything I have and see where my feet take me. I'm so fucking ready for some life-reaffirming spontenaiety, away from this rut.
Have fun, I know you will 
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In another Time's Forgotten Space, your Eyes looked through your Mother's Face.
Wildflower Seed on the Sand and Stone, may the Four Winds blow you Safely Home!
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0xYg3n
topdawg
Registered: 04/29/04
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8462897 - 05/30/08 08:18 AM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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Man, that's awesome. 
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Cowgold
Bullshit
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 10,277
Loc: .
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Re: I am cycling in Bolivia, about to go into Chile... (pictures added ¨big¨) [Re: PDU]
#8462952 - 05/30/08 08:52 AM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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Did you plan the trip yourself, or is it somekind of adventure tour type thing? (I'm going to read the thread now. Awesome pictures, though! haha)
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MisterMuscaria
Trusted Tripper
Registered: 05/13/08
Posts: 1,774
Loc: Mega-Lo Mart
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Re: I am cycling in Bolivia, about to go into Chile... (pictures added ¨big¨) [Re: Cowgold]
#8463445 - 05/30/08 11:43 AM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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Ive been planning to bike to the southern tip myself, probably next year though, but perhaps Ill leave as early as winter.
Im doing a little traveling in the summer too, but headed north rather than south.
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"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." -Yoda
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 Brugman
Starchaser
Registered: 05/16/01
Posts: 8,673
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Re: I am cycling in Bolivia, about to go into Chile... (pictures added ¨big¨) [Re: PDU]
#8463527 - 05/30/08 12:04 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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Quote:
PDU said:
titicaca
Sweet pics.
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
Registered: 12/03/02
Posts: 5,059
Loc: beautiful BC
Last seen: 2 hours, 40 minutes
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Re: I am cycling in Bolivia, about to go into Chile... (pictures added ¨big¨) [Re: Brugman]
#8475388 - 06/02/08 03:34 PM (4 months, 10 days ago) |
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Ok, update; from my blog again..
Ok, the jyst from an email i wrote my mom:
Basically following jeff kruys route so far... High high mountain plains out of La Paz into strange badlands and desert crossing the rio desguardo.. great scenery, very very very cold at night.
Very sparsely populated, just about ran out of water - ate beef heart..
It was very very very windy after patacamaya, with some climbs tortuous at 4 or 5kmh for long distances. Before i knew it i was 8kms from tambo quemado (bolivian boarder) took me over an hour to get there, where i was covered in diesel smoke and forced to ride through endless lines of semis on both sides of the road,.
At this point i am eating cookies and chocolate bars nearly exclusively (no variety of resuplly for couple hundred kms, and nothing fresh into chile, no semen allowed either.)
5,7, far kms, im told???... later was chilean customs.. it was now dark and very very cold.. i could have pounded out a few kms if the wind wasnt so strong, not to mention uphill nearly the whole way. After 8kms i got to a sign saying welcome to chile, it was completely dark..i put on lights and pulled over when trucks came... it was another 5kms or so (now on bad road, the 1st time in a couple hundrd kms) ... froze my ass off.. chilean customs said ¨muy frio, de donde duerme¨when i pulled up ¨very cold, where you sleep¨and gave me an empty office to sleep in for the night - they were by far the nicest and most organized and professional customs i have gone through + the bathrooms were clean.
No food, and no resupply at all...
Riding 75kms of stale marshmellow wafers, and chocolate tea cookies.
^ Left today.. towards putre - very very very windy, impossible to make much progress, steady climbing for 4 hours... feeling humiliated and incompetant before a 25kms+ downhill came at the beginning of Lauca national park - volcanos, frozen ice shelfs, desert, rocky mountains, fields, and vicunas everywhere, flamingos and other cool birds too... 4kms more climbing into Putre.. 120kms from Arica or so.
Now i am very hungry, and everything is closed until evening.. Cant wait for a real meal or 2. Hope to get stove working so i can boil water at night. It is unpleasantly cold camping.. food and liquids freeze, even inside tent. Sleep clothed, with toque, in winter sleeping bag, with silk liner.. wake up 2am shivering until sun up. On the bike by 10...
It is difficult for me to accept that i cannot ride great distances in this environment - The wind makes riding like walking waist deep in water, or pulling sandbags with your ankles.. all day, no break, ever - it blows you off the road sometimes. Not fun past 2 days.
Sadly my camera ate 2 sets of batteries (bunk, contraband panasonic) in 4 photos, and i missed all the best scenery ive seen yet. Not sure if ill cycle or bus towards san pedro de atacama, the wind is extremely demoralizing and challening - cold and dry, and it is freezing at night. However, i dropped over 500m today and this is the firt time its been warm enough to wear shorts in late afternoon. I need to go to arica (sea level)for supplies and a chilean Map - will see if i can find a route down the coast.. for some sun, and a change (pan am hwy??)
Chile is different, Putre is small and mostly deserted, but with many amenities for tourists.. the sun is hot and currency is pesos (very confusing).. i got a hostal that seems expensive, 4000pesos (8.50) for a room that seems like a storage room (has unused junk in it.).. The people are visibly more privledged and many people have cars...
The landscape is much less populated, and camping is very much easier and feels less paranoid. I am unsure of filtering water, as many streams are poisoned by arsenic and other volcanic stuff (apperently).. the trade off for beautiful isolation is having to carry large amounts of food and water. I will not do expeditation type stuff (rural roads lauca park, or salar) unless i can get my stove working properly, heated water is necessary at night, as is hot food.
What day of the week is it?
Im not sure im getting homesick, but i cant stop thinking about shambahla and hanging out with coire on Salt spring island.. pretty sure my life is moving in a positive direction for the 1st time in ages.
_________________________________________________________
Astronaut - I hope you do do something like this, sounds like your in a good mindset for it! I am comming home in just 7 weeks.. Not sure what or where home will be .. However, if its up in the air by Winter i am going to Guatamala to study language more (thinking about buying a hybrid motorcycle and riding from Canada through Central America - However.. probably just a fantasy for now.)
Cowgold - Fuck adventure tours!
Just today, on the outskirts of frontera chile, wind howling.. I passed a group of people my age at an "outpost" at the beginning of Lauca National Park.. they were standing outside their tour operators mercedes van taking picture of the "rural life" and the big volcano.. I have no time for these people, or tours - it is so sterile, safe, + removed, not to mention very very costly (usually the money going to some american or european tour operator, taking the money out of South America.).. I dont know, but i have BEEF with alot of tour operators + most people that do it themselves agree. Researching it and DIY is much cheaper, real, and more rewarding.. (albeit challenging.) That said, tours are necessary for mountaineering and the like..
.. Im not all that planned. I bought my gear, and maps + drew lines connecting the interesting places.. I gather route/supply info along the way from a geocities cycle touring site, and crazyguyonabike blogs..
Mister muscaria - id be interested to hear about your plans! Southern tier meaning Ushuia and Tierra del fuego? I have met several cyclists this trip who did this, heading north .. lately. I could provide you with some info and links if you´d like.
I am disappointed to not get to check out southern chile and argentina because of the weather (here in northern chile, it is soooooo cold at night right now)
However, this trip is really the "pull your head out of your ass and experience life for the 1st time" trip. Once this is survived and out of the way.. i would Love to ride from South to North starting in Tierra del fuego, being better supplied. Very challenging and popular route..
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"i am becomming my future self"
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Cowgold
Bullshit
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 10,277
Loc: .
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Re: I am cycling in Bolivia, about to go into Chile... (pictures added ¨big¨) [Re: PDU]
#8475423 - 06/02/08 03:46 PM (4 months, 10 days ago) |
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sounds very difficult but rewarding. I'm enjoying the shit out of this thread and am kind of embarrassed I didn't read before asking silly questions.
You've got brass balls, dude. 
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TheGoodLife
Stranger
Registered: 06/01/08
Posts: 78
Loc: California-Los Angeles
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Re: I am cycling in Bolivia, about to go into Chile... (pictures added ¨big¨) [Re: Cowgold]
#8490922 - 06/05/08 11:29 PM (4 months, 7 days ago) |
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a trip like that but in the United States would be awesome too. The U.S. has alot of natural beauty to offer. The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Mississippi River, etc.
From California a person can take the 10 freeway all the way east, and once in Georgia a freeway going straight north can be taken. Then go through the Midwest and get on that Oregan Trail back to the West Coast up in Washington or Oregon. Then finally head back home to sunnyside California.
I think that sounds pretty cool. America has so much diversity and regional culture that I want to experience firsthand.
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razmablues
Fried Gypsy
Registered: 12/16/06
Posts: 2,325
Loc: OrangeCounty
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8490968 - 06/05/08 11:41 PM (4 months, 7 days ago) |
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you, are, a fucking, badass.
i envy you just picking your shit up and doing it.
keep treking man, need more people like you running around exploring.
i hope i can do all that once the times right and i got the cash...
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All I know is that i'll still run, and pledge allegiance to the setting sun.
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circularvortex
Spinning...spinning
Registered: 08/31/06
Posts: 4,528
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Re: I am cycling in Peru, about to go into Bolivia... [Re: PDU]
#8490981 - 06/05/08 11:45 PM (4 months, 7 days ago) |
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Awesome! Thanks for the pictures and updates! I look forward to more!
I'd really like to try something like this, but I think I would enjoy a motorcycle a bit more. Are there regular gas stations in South America (distance wise)? How are the gas prices?
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No statements made in any post or message by myself should be construed to mean that I am now, or have ever been, participating in or considering participation in any activities in violation of any local, state, federal, or fashion police laws. All posts are works of fiction.
For well you know
That it's a fool
Who plays it cool
By making his world
A little colder
You dirty hippie!
You'd sacrifice a beautiful woman to save a moderately attractive monkey?!
You must've smoked some bad granola!
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
Registered: 12/03/02
Posts: 5,059
Loc: beautiful BC
Last seen: 2 hours, 40 minutes
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Re: Cycling 10 days back to Bolivia with no Money! [Re: circularvortex]
#8527222 - 06/15/08 03:32 PM (3 months, 28 days ago) |
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circularvortex - gas stations are pretty sparse in alot of places, you would have to plan your route well. Often times in medium sized villages you buy gas out of a barrel with a handpump at about twice the price of gas in a city. (quality is often low + gas is old)
I think price is generally around a $1 a litre, but ill confirm next time i pass a gas station.
On my way out of Sabaya, a touring motorcyclist stopped to chat, he was riding from santiago chile to the jungle in argentina to photograph crocodiles and snakes...
Motorcycle touring is very common and there are established routes you can follow, although you´d have to be fully voiced on mechanics and carry spare parts and tires.. Almost any sort of travel in south america requires immense preperation and planning, there is not AAA to bail you out if you stall out 2 days from civilization..
I also have motorcycle touring in the back of my mind one day.
Something to keep in mind: in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile ... only 20 to 30% of the roads are paved, and as i found out this past week, the dirt tracks are horrendous washboards and very busy with semis that leave massive dust trails in their wake...
As a cyclist this is choking and horrible.. Stay off the main trade routes and stick to lesser travelled routes.
TheGoodLife - Your right, the US has alot to offer which i indeed want to check out first hand. The + is that there is very established community with routes and maps with detailed info about everything... to follow.
However, having a more organized system of maps and roads comes with a price. More traffic, and less remoteness. It is harder to wild camp, and get away from "things"..
That said... when i get home in august, i am doing a 2 week 1200km tour in western BC.. and look forward to having familiar territory and regular habitation and resupplies with people that speak my own language. Many people, if you ask them... will let you camp in their yard!
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"i am becomming my future self"
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