From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

Moccoraise

After almost 3 weeks of vacation, we’re back on the bikes. Mario and Marianella invited us to go to Moccoraise, a small village where Mario’s parents live. Her mother, Maximilliana, is a micro-entrepreneur and has agreed to talk to us. For once, we were supported while biking: we had only our emergency kit with us, a bag with some food and our warm clothes. All the rest of our stuff was in the truck. It was strange to be travelling so light!

En route, we met Charly and Julien, two guys from France who were biking from Ushuaia to Cuzco. We exchanged information with them. It was quite encouraging to meet them!

The whole family was waiting for us to Moccoraise. Then Maximilliana and one of her neighbours, another mico-entrepreneur, told us all about their experiences with micro-finance. It was really interesting and we learned a lot. It was great to speak with clients without the institutions themselves as an intermediary, since they tend to introduce us only to their best clients, the ones with no complaints.

We also got to meet the community leader. He told us all about the difficulties of the village and asked for our help. They are looking for:

• someone with an agricultural background to teach to improve their crop yields;
• someone to consult with regarding a water reservoir for the village; and,
• the funds to print an illustrated book about life in their village. The book is written by a Danish author and translated into Spanish. All they need is the money to actually print it.

If you would like to help them out, or have any ideas, let us know. The village of Moccoraise thanks you!

110km and 4356m up

We had to say goodbye to our hosts Mario and Marianella. It’s always to hard to leave people, and they had done so much for us. There were a few tears in our eyes as we watched their car drive away towards Cuzco, on their way to a business meeting.

We hit the road, again, heading towards Puno and a 800m climb. It’s tough getting back to work!

We lunched at the top, watching the buses pull up and unload all the tourists. For them, there were artisanal stalls and placards proclaiming the altitude: 4356m! Everyone rushed to get their picture taken in front of the sign attesting to the dizzying height. Just two weeks ago, we were in the buses just like them, but now, back on the bikes, we really can’t imagine why people do those trips. After a bit, they all filed back inside the buses.

We made it to Ayaviri that night, although we hadn’t been sure we would be able to cover the 110km. We arrived just as night fell, in the cool evening air of the altiplano. We had spent the whole day at more than 3500m above sea level.

Headwinds and headaches

We left Ayaviri the next morning, psyched for the day. Just outside the town, however, two big dogs guarded the road, refusing to let us pass. We cautiously approached and they attacked. We were all the way on the left side of the road but luckily there wasn’t much traffic. I heard the snapping of jaws only inches away from my leg! I was so mad I threw rocks at them and the beasts chased them down and ate them! At least it distracted them while we biked by…

Unlike the day before, the wind was not at our backs. Instead it was a cold headwind. No more biking in short sleeves – I put on a hat under my helmet, my fleece, and my gloves.

After 95km along the altiplano, we arrived at Juliaca, a crazy town. Everyone honked for no reason and the taxis and mini-buses fishtailed across the roads. After making the rounds of the town, we found a half-decent “hostal,” more expensive than in Cuzco. We filled out their forms and paid, and only then did they tell us that they didn’t want us to bring the bikes up to the room. We tried to negotiate, but to no avail. The clerk was following the orders of the boss, who didn’t even acknowledge our presence, and the two of them talked about us while we were standing right there. In the end, we put the bikes in a publicly accessible room. We weren’t happy about it, and since we were already annoyed, we asked for a note specifying that the hotel was responsible for the bikes. Just as we were leaving, the desk clerk asked us whether we had any valuables to declare. As if we would give them a list of our most expensive stuff…!

Puno

The city was 42 km away, and that meant 42 km of terrifying road. There was no shoulder, and the cars and trucks were aggressive and didn’t give us any room. It was like some competition to see who would force the gringos off the road and into the ditch, or else who could deafen us with their horns. Once, a truck passed so close to me that I screamed and pulled over to the side. It was impossible to bike under such conditions. And the Peruvian drivers are impossible to predict – who knows what they’ll do next.

We did finally make it to Puno, and started looking for Marta, a young woman who sold us some handicrafts two weeks ago when we were with Sebastien’s parents. We took a picture with her and had promised to give her the photo when we came through Puno. We asked at one stall and the girl took us to Marta’s, which was closed. We were about to leave the pictures with her when we noticed that she was wearing the blouse of one of the microfinance institutions that we had visited. We told her about our trip, and she introduced us to other women borrowers. It was hard to get them to trust us. We had to explain several times who we were and about our project, and that we didn’t actually have any money, but that we were trying to document their experiences and tell their stories to the world, which might have a positive effect. We planned to meet them again the next day to hear more about their experiences. We didn’t really want to stay in Puno, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up!

Monday we will cross into Bolivia, the 12th country so far of our trip. It’s also the country where many other travellers have run into problems and even given up….

PS. The immensity of the altiplano (around 3800 or 3900m above sea level) is breathtaking. The colours are intense, and the sun’s rays penetrating. Despite our best efforts with sunscreen and shade, we burned a little up here.

Sara