Guidiary - Travelling the Americas

09/11/2018

We haven't posted on here in ages and so much has been going on we've now been putting it off because we don't know where to start!

So, after the Galapagos we headed back off on our bikes and slowly went down the spine of Ecuador - ticking off a lot of volcanoes and beautiful national parks on our way (Pichincha near Quito, Cotopaxi National Park, Illiniza Norte, Quilotoa Crater). Konstantin even scaled the mighty Chimborozo - 6268m, the closest mountain to the sun in the world!

We were having an amazing time, BUT, something was rumbling underneath it all. Something just wasn't quite right. We arrived in the beautiful city of Cuenca (still in Ecuador) and the disquiet began to grow. And then, on the anniversary of the crash of our van, it all came to a head. We had a massive argument and both decided we felt a bit lost about where the trip was going and what we wanted to do next.

Despite that, we headed out the next day on the bicycles. We got about 10km along busy, polluted streets, before we stopped for some breakfast. As we started chomping down on some very sickly pastries, those rumblings from the day before came back:

"I really don't want to do this anymore". I announced
"Me neither" Konstantin asserted.

We backtracked to a cafe and got back to the drawing board.

"I think we need to really shake things up, dramatic change". I declared.

And so, about an hour later, the beginnings of a plan were forming - we'd head to Lima in Peru on a bus (in fact, a series of very tiring overnight buses!), drop the bicycles in storage there, hire a car, and explore the huge expanse of Peru by motor power for a bit.

And, about 3 days after this complete change of plan - we arrived in Lima. 3 days later we picked up Suzie, our slightly battered Suzuki, and drove straight to the mountains!

We've not necessarily given up the bicycles for good - but so far, we think this is definitely the best choice for the next month or so. There's so many factors, but, primarily, we didn't initially want to do this trip as a cycle tour. It's been amazing (in parts!) but as we look at the distances coming up (South America is HUGE) and the incredible hiking that is often 100s km off the main cycling route, we really started to feel the loss of the van more than before. And, we are super excited to build our trail running and hiking legs up again for a while.

Just as a final note (if you've read this far!) - we are getting a bit lazy at updating this page, but we are a lot more active on Instagram. Konstantin is there as and Janneke is there as .

22/10/2018

And now....all of our land adventures on the Galapagos on film.

Featuring - Marine Iguanas, Land Iguanas, Sally Light Foot Crabs, Galapagos Snakes, Red Footed Bo***es, Nascar Bo***es, Sea Lions and lots more. Watch to the end and you'll see us playing around with a tortoise shell!

https://youtu.be/FUAPLOrA0ws

We posted the link to the sea adventures yesterday if you missed it!

A short video showing some of the amazing wildlife we saw on land during our Galapagos trip on Nemo 3 in October 2018. We took the 8 day North Route. Featuri...

21/10/2018

As promised - we've made a couple of videos about our time on the Galapagos.

First up: Under the Sea!! Featuring: White Tipped Sharks, Galapagos Penguins, Flightless Cormorants, Sea Turtles, Pufferfish, a Hammerhead Shark, Sealions, Marine Iguanas and more.....

A short video from our amazing trip to the Galapagos in October 2018. We took the boat Nemo 3 on an 8 day cruise along the North Route. Featuring: White Tipp...

19/10/2018

Hello! Sooooo we've been a bit quiet as we headed out for 10 days on the Galapagos. It was INCREDIBLE. In fact, it's hard to describe what an amazing time we had...both of us feel like this wasn't just a highlight of the trip, but of LIFE!

Anyway, we took over 1500 photos, and so instead of trying to go through and choose the best 10 or so for here, we've selected the very best 250 (haha!) and put them in this Google Photo album for your perusal:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3efHuo2TbAQJCzvEA

Videos coming soon too!!

262 new photos added to shared album

27/09/2018

We crossed the EQUATOR!!!

Unfortunately, despite Ecuador literally being the Spanish for equator....AND being on the the MAIN ROAD to the capital city....there was NO SIGN!!!!!!

So instead of an awesome equator selfie, I'm just going to share another epic photo from our hiking trip the other day!!!

25/09/2018

So, a few days before we arrived in the town of Ibarra, Konstantin got his head into some planning for the trip. This is always a double edged sword - I really want him to get involved, but things like this always happen:

"I want to climb Imbabura volcano".
"Imbabura what?"
"It's 4600m high, has some fairly technical scrambling and will take about 8 hours".

At this point we had been cycling for six days straight....averaging about 1000m ascent for every 50km. I was tired.

"Konstantin, I'm tired".

But, as usual, a serious case of FOMO kicked in. We rested on the Saturday at the wonderful home of Irene (a friend of a friend) and on the Sunday morning we woke up early, took a taxi and a pick up truck to the trail head and got hiking.

Oh my god am I pleased we did. What a stunning, stunning mountain. Gorgeous views, amazing (sometimes dramatic) weather, and a very tough days hiking. And, as an added bonus, I didn't get altitude sickness! I'm getting the hang of this South America malarky!

24/09/2018

First full day cycling in Ecuador was a bit of a stunner!!

We headed onto the dirt roads of El Angel Ecological Park - a high elevation area filled with stunning frailejones, flooded paths and absolutely no traffic!

20/09/2018

We made it to ECUADOR!!! 🇪🇨

9th country of the trip and we know it has some very exciting things in store for us!

It's been a busy few days - our last day in Colombia we spent exploring a crazy cool fairytale church (a fitting end to an amazing two months in the country).

And into Ecuador we already spent the afternoon being tourists at Tulcan's no. 1 tourist attraction - a graveyard (yeah, I know, odd?!).

Lots of photos below!

18/09/2018

After our epic two days on the Trampolin de la Muerte we rocked into the small town of Colon (just say it with a Spanish accent and it doesn't sound as bad).

There was a house mentioned on ioverlander (an app we use to help us find accomodation)...we just had to knock on their door and they would hopefully be able to give us accomodation.

"Sounds a bit odd" Konstantin declared.
"Trust me..." I replied, having very little faith that it would work.

So, we found ourselves at about 5pm outside the door of Peter and Margola.

"Hallo" Konstantin switched to German, "bist du Peter?"
Peter looked a little surprised to have two very soggy, rather smelly cyclists at his door.
"Ja". He replied.

Konstantin explained we were looking for a place to stay. Alas, Peter didn't think their room was free.

"But" he started. "oh I really want to speak some German, let's have coffee and cake tomorrow". He went to check with Margola and came back with even better news than cake...the room was free.

We spent two absolutely lovely nights in their home - sharing wine, coffee, visiting friends, playing cards, and talking (a lot of German, I had to just speak Spanish!).

On from there we headed to the small town of La Cocha...which is on a beautiful lake (at least we assumed that on the first day, it was completely chucking it down!). We got fully soaked...but at least had our new French cycling friends to keep our minds off the cold and wet!

And now....we are very, very close to Ecuador....more on that soon!

15/09/2018

WOOOOO! We just finished the Trampolin de la Muerte (the Colombian death road.....).

This crazy mountain road climbs 3000m in 65km - on completely unpaved roads. It winds over waterfalls, creeps up lush forested mountains, and is quite often completely shrouded in cloud (we were lucky on our first day....less so on the second!!). There's crazy steep drops (often with only warning tape as a barrier....), and, it's one of the most dangerous roads in Colombia.

We stayed in the garage of a restaurant next to army rifles. Ate a lot of rice. And spent most of our time going WOW at the incredible scenery.

02/09/2018

We've just spent a couple of nights in the Tatacoa desert!! Yet another completely different as incredible scenery in Colombia

Few things we learnt:
- Konstantin really, really doesn't like the heat. His face contorts into a permanent look of disgust at the level of sweat. And boy, was there a lot of sweat.
- My new tyres are amazing and make cycling through sand A LOT easier. Which is good because there's a lot of sand in the desert!
- Wasps are stupid and land in the folds of our body (elbows, armpits, underneath the knee (what is that bit called???!)) and then sting horribly when you have the audacity to move
- Cowboys look super cool when they're doing their cowboy thing
- You can never have enough water
- There are amazing ice lolly places in the middle of the desert that aren't a mirage!

Enjoy the photos....they were hard won (2 hours to travel 8km through the sandy bits 🤦😎🚲)

28/08/2018

One day back on the road....and it's time for a rest day!

We weren't planning to stay more than one day with our amazing Warmshowers hosts in the town of Fusagasugá (thankfully known locally as just Fusa!), but they were so delightfully hospitable that we took them up on their offer of another night.

We used the extra day wisely, enjoying a culinary tour of Colombia and the local area - including soups, a market trip and hot chocolate for the breakfast (who couldn't love this country?!!).

It was such a perfectly lovely few days and such a great start to the South American section of this journey!