Holy $·#¡/!!!!!!!!

Claudia, me, Marta, Eric and Ximena


Montevideo cityscape...the one on the left used to be the tallest building in South America back in it`s heyday...like the Smith Tower.


Lue styling with the Mercedes hood ornament and the rope holding the front pannier on for dear life


Eric and Elisa at Estancia Cerro Zarco, a beautiful 17th century hacienda


Lue looking unnaturally short on the walk back to Claudia`s house :c(

This is it folks, the moment we`ve all been waiting for. With great humility, pride, awe and amazement I am here to say that..WE MADE IT!!!! After 15 months, 15 countries, $10,000 worth of penny pinching, even more thousands of kilometers, and more flat tires than we can count, we have arrived at the end of the road. We are broke but exponentially richer than when we first set off from the Californian coast, good bye seeming like the understatement of the year as we rode away from Dad two Februarys ago. We officially rode our bikes from San Diego to Montevideo with only two exceptions: 1) the sailboat crossing between Panama and Colombia because there are no roads connecting the two countries and 2) 100 kilometers by bus on the coast of Peru to avoid being robbed at gunpoint, which seems to happen to cyclists about once every two weeks in that area. I don`t even know what to say...it is an unbelievable, overwhelming, speechless moment for me. I am so proud of us!!!! Hell yeah!!!! But we`re still waiting until Buenos Aires to buy and eat an entire cake in celebration of the achievement :c)

So, if it is a bit surprising to some of you that we are finished, here`s the whole story. We were planning to ride a bit further to Colonia del Sacramento here in Uruguay, but Eric took things into his own hands. We had been staying in Montevideo with another cyclist, Claudia, who is great. She kindly put us up in our very own room with two beds, washed our clothes, gave us free use of her kitchen, and introduced us to several of her lovely friends. She and Ximena decided to ride with us for a bit on our way out of town, so we all left yesterday, a sunny, beautiful morning. A mere kilometer or two from her house a giant pothole/manhole/black hole combo stopped Eric`s bike in its tracks. Actually, judging from the bent spokes it rolled the front rack through three of them before coming to a complete halt. In a spectacular crash Eric flew ¨like a blonde arrow,¨ as Ximena put it, over the handlebars of his now-stationary bike. Luckily the worst that happened to him was a rock in a blood blister in one finger and a goosegg on his hip. Lue, on the other hand, was officially retired. As the fork took all the blow of the crash it was left completely bent and unusable. And where can we find a replacement fork for an ancient, huge Trek with an outdated headset system? That`s right, nowhere. So, we take our bows and have our official curtain call here in Montevideo which is, coincidentally, further away than if we had merely ridden to Buenos Aires, and no one would have known where Colonia is anyway. So there you have it!! Wow.

We still have a bit of traveling to do as well as major culture shock awaiting us back at home, so we`ll be posting a few more times for any of you who still want to read up on our experience.

ALSO, we are hoping to do a couple of fundraisers to benefit the schools that we volunteered for along the way. We have received so much support along the way that the least we can do is try to give back to the communities that received us so beautifully. We are having a potluck BBQ in Vancouver on Saturday July 16th and a silent auction event in Seattle, hopefully sometime in August. Keep your eyes on this page for more info!

safety in Uruguay

It is so ´tranqui´ or chill here in Trinidad, about 200 kilometers away from Montevideo, that the streets are lined with bicycles. I mean just sitting there, propped up on the curbs with their pedals, completely unlocked. Awesome.

More Pics! Be sure to read the blog a couple of posts down!

Yes, careful for these guys when walking through the tall grass of Argentina


If, dear reader, you make it to Argentina; try the Alfajores (from a good bakery highly recommended). You will thank me.


A random guy came up to us and said ¨you have to see my motorcycle and take a picture of you guys on it¨. Sometimes we roll with it.


Likewise, the Chevy Nova did not fare well with Latin American consumers


Ummm, at least there is honesty

Roadside ¨red¨ shrine. Actually dont know what the red means...


Hugo and Blanca


Jorge and Juan and Jorge´s wife (never learned her name...)


Eduardo and Pamela in the Parrilla


Gloria and Teddy with Falucho

Keep on the SunnySide!

Merilee covered in spider webs as we were crossing rivers between Santa Fe and Parana. It was crazy how many of those spider web ballons were out!


Not this again!


Ohh farmland, la la la!


Outside our campsite inside an old barn


Sorghum (spelling?)

Oh my goodness, so we are very close to our final destination! But, the bicycles are keeping Merilee and I on eggshells. This past week my frame broke again! Whoo hoo! We were about 6 kilometers outside of a small town and right next to a house. We walked in hoping to find help but instead a rather persnickity lady greeted us with the words ¨there is nobody here you can talk to¨ and ¨I am working go to the service station¨. Well, Merilee and I were a bit shocked so we walked our loaded bikes into town and started asking around for a place to do the weld. We found our way to a shop that specializes in making internal engine parts for farming equipment. Juan, Jorge and Ariel kindly put my bike back together and with a beautiful coat of black rust resistant paint. (Dad you will have to help me with the name POR 50 or something). Jorge then allowed us to sleep on the shop floor and Ariel invited us to a pizza and milanesa dinner! Tasty! Argentina is perhaps the closest to Italy I have ever felt! There is always an aboundance of olives, mandarines, pizza, salames, and people with Italian last names. Anyhow, my bike is doing well, but I think the next break may be the end for it.

The next day as we were leaving the town where we had my bike fixed, we were stopped by the local television and interviewed! Famous, yes we know. Ironically, it happened right in front of the house where the woman curtly had had nothing to do with us. Of course, one of the questions he asked was ¨how have people treated you guys on the trip¨. Kinda funny. He went on to tell us about rumors that a high up Nazi official lived in that very house during the 50´s.

More bike fun! Merilee´s rear wheel. Not only do about 5 of the spoke holes have cracks on her rim, but there is literally a hole in her rim as well. I mean, it is probably 2 inches long by half an inch wide and the spoke does not stay still unless we gorilla tape it there. Yet, thankfully, it is hanging in there real tough as she has rode the last 2000 plus kilometers on the weakened wheel!

We also have had two lovely experiences with people. The first was we stayed at a small resturant where we asked to put up our tent. Eduardo and Pamela invited us to a small sampling of asado and we ate good! Blood sausage, ribs, intestines filled with yucca...very good. We also tried escarabiches, which are veggies cooked up in vinegar and then kept in oil. All in all, tasty goodness and two good people.

Last night as it was getting dark Merilee and I stopped into a small store to see if they would be willing to put us up for the night. Teddy, yes Teddy, immediatly said yes and decided to cook us dinner because he LOVES to cook. He is a spry guy of 72 who told us all about cooking and his love for meat!! If he is going to eat, it has to have meat he said. So Merilee and I dined on veal and chicken. Pretty good. And hopefully not too awful as he was raising his own cows.

Now, we are in a race to see if we can make it to Montevideo. As long as the bikes hold I think we´ll be alright!

Moving Towards Cordova

We spent the last week riding out of the mountains and into the lowlands of Argentina. The landscape was rather dull with mostly cactus and flat flat scenery.

We spent Easter Sunday with a family in a small community of about 6 houses. They had three kids, tuna plants (cactus fruit), chickens and a house in construction. Martin and Maria were very nice and let us watch television. Nothing like watching an action flick with Jean Claude Van Damme!! There are a few universal truths we have learned on this trip and one is about television; no matter where you are, it is something people are willing to spend money on no matter how poor they may be. Anyhow, we spent a wonderful night chatting, showering and eating some hamburger!

The next day we landed into the outskirts of Cordova. We went in search of some camping in a small suburb town of Cosquin. Since it is the off season and we are going into winter most campgrounds are closed. We finally got some information about one that was still open and headed there. We met a couple taking care of the grounds and almost immediately they said we could just stay for free. Hugo and his wife Blanca, who said she was a bike tourist at heart, were pretty amazing people. They fed us pizza that evening and invited us to stay the next day to have an Argentine asado. Merilee and I agreed!! Why not! Well, because the next day they fed us and fed us until we could not move! Ribs both cow and pig, chorizo, ice cream and salads. Merilee and I typically eat very little meat but when offered it we usually do not decline. Anyhow, we both had chest pressure after so much food, and wanted to eat veggies for the next week. Hugo and Blanca are also holding us to coming back to Cordova and staying for some more time! One day!

Now we are in another town, Villa Allende, where we are staying with a friend of a friend that we met in northern Argentina. We went into Cordova to see the city and took a small tour of the church and cabildo (arts/municipal building). We went into the gothic cathedral of the city, which is seriously amazing. One of my favorite churches we have seen. Later we went to a free dance performance and saw a bunch of folkloric dances throughout Latin America and ....the tango! It was a bit too dramatic for me; put in amongst such happy smilely other dances, but I am sure I will come to love it. There really seems to be always something to do in this city.

Currently, we are co-habitating with a parrot that speaks about 3 words as well. Most mornings we wake up to hola....Hola...HOLA!!!!! The bird screaming in a very creepy way. It is gooood fun! Sadly pics seem to not be working again. :(

Less than 2000 Kilometers! (We think)

In honor of our less than mark we will retail a few stories of our last several days!

We stopped in a small town called Punta Balastos because we did not want to camp in the desert because of how many thorns there are. (You walk out to pee and instantly your shoes have 50 spikes in them youch!) We chatted with the police and he told us where we could find a store to buy a few things for the evening. When we got to the store the owner kindly met us and instantly asked if we were going to stay in the town that night. When we said yes, she said we could stay next to their house and have a shower. We proceeded to talk about many random things like if we like peanut butter and whether or not we are afraid of ¨middle eastern looking people¨. Anyhow, we passed a wonderful night with Manuel and Graciela!

Two nights ago we were in Belen. We wanted to buy walnuts because there are lots of them in the region. We went into a small store to see if they had any and the owner told us about neighbors who harvest walnuts. We went there and met some curious kids and Christina promptly invited us to two bags of nuez! They are quite tastey. And they go well with our pomegranets (spelling?).

Yesterday, we saw a sign on a house saying raisins for sale. We decided to stop in and ask about them. We were met by a real friendly women and her sister who just finished freshly drying raisins. They are best with the seeds inside. They also sent us off with four ripe pomegranets which are wonderful!

Dogs here in Argentina are oddly nice. When we stay in a campground often a random dog shows up and accompanies us everywhere we go...literally. In Cafayate a dog followed us to the stores, chased down motorcycles along the 1 kilometer walk into town and chased off other dogs that would be near us. Goofy. But, at times the dogs are tooooo much. For example, in Los Nacimientos a dog kept trying to come into our tent!! It was more than wierd though because it kept rolling over, and Merilee and I were sure there was something wrong with it. But it was just ubber friendly. Anyhow, to get rid of it we had to throw water on it and chase it down the road.

Speaking of over friendly animals though, once, we were riding through nothing but sagebrush and desert sand when we saw two dogs coming towards us. They were not barking, but being a bit evasive. We have learned that when dogs don´t bark they are usually more dangerous, but these dogs seemed alright and when they got alongside us they just trotted along. Then, all of a sudden, in the distance we see an animal SPRINTING towards us. It was about a kilometer away and running full tilt down the empty road. As it drew closer we saw that it was a llama. Merilee and I kinda got to one side of the road to let the running animal by, but then it stopped right next to us and started headbutting us lightly and smelling our legs and arms and just being plainly odd. We really did not know what to do with this friendly llama. Both the dogs and llama followed us until we made it to the turnoff for a small house where they stopped and perhaps waited for their real owners to get home and feed them.