From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

It's been 5 days now since we've been back on the bikes.

On Sunday, Seth showed us what he had done to fix our panniers (thanks again, Seth!). We helped Heather organize her stuff and sort through what she absolutely needed to bring with her. She had only one pannier for the front and so we also managed to cobble together a bag tied to the other side of the front rack to balance out the weight. We attached the lights and the rearview mirror, and we bought her a bike computer as a welcome-to-the-team-“Pladusol” present.

Monday we took us bus 500 km south. Lots of cyclists had told us that it wasn't worth it to bike that section, and that it was better to take a rest. And this head start means that Heather can bike with us all the way to Puerto Montt, where she'll be able to catch a bus back to Santiago, and then Toronto. We arrived late that night in Los Angeles, and it was raining. It took us a little while to find a place to stay.

Tuesday, back on the bikes, under the rain. Heather started off ahead, while we took our time to save our muscles. And in the afternoon, the old team once again took the lead, and we all stopped for a cyclist-sized snack.

On Wednesday, we had mostly good weather, some rain. We had some trouble finding a decent place to sleep. We were surprised by how cold it is here. At night the temperature dropped almost to zero and we didn't even bother looking for a place to camp.

Thursday was a big day: 70 km with a headwind. But the morale remained high!

Cycling with another person, and especially Heather, has given us energy and a renewed perspective on the trip. She sees things that we don't notice anymore and points them out to us. She stayed optimistic even when it took us an hour and a half to find a place to sleep. She thought up some different lunch possibilities too, to switch things up a bit.

Sharing this trip and all our experiences over the past 18 months has made us realize how much we have accomplished, discovered, seen or refused to see. We know we are lucky to be here, although we don't really like being called lucky, since we really made our own luck when it came to this trip. We have changed a lot, and our perspective on the world has been broadened.

Sara