From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

Naturally, after baking under the Central American sun and dreaming of cold drinks and ice baths, now we find ourselves shivering away, dreaming this time of fire places, hot chocolate and hot showers!

It’s still the rainy season in Equator, and after sparing us in Quito, the rains have not let up. We had to dig out all our raingear: gloves, jackets, rain pants and overshoes, all Goretex. And even though we are right on the equator, we’re pretty high up and it is cold. Even the fleeces came out. It’s hard to know what to wear though, since we’re sweating through our t-shirts going uphill, but as soon as we stop climbing, the light tail wind freezes our backs and makes us shiver. The result is a runny nose, a scratchy throat, and a looming fever. 

The countryside is very green (not surprising given all the rain!) and reminds us of Washington and Oregon in the States. The surrounding volcanoes are sadly hidden in the clouds. We went right by the Cotopaxi volcano (5897 m) but couldn’t see its perfectly shaped ice cone. We beat our previous altitude record when we biked along its side, at 3503m. And no altitude sickness, which bodes well for what’s coming up!

Going down wasn’t nearly as fun as it could have been. Under the pouring rain, our brake pads seemed to melt away like snow in the sun. We’d been keeping our eyes on them for a while, but didn’t think that they’d wear out so quickly – even though we knew that the rain is really not good for them. So we had to go slowly down the last part of the mountain, and we even had to walk the bikes for a bit when the road was really steep. We got the brake pads replaced at the first village that we came to, and a bike mechanic charged us $8 to change all 8 brakes. We made quite the spectacle in the village, all bundled up beside our loaded bikes!

Sara & Sébastien