Every day, on our trip, we face the unfamiliar. A rather interesting state of affairs. And, oh my, the unknown, the new, the strange and the foreign draws out those emotions. The full basket of them …. Harry and I gravitate towards different sets of emotions. But, together, believe us, we haul them all out. Almost every day. And now, our trip ends, where it begins. In Montevideo. Our loop of 14,448 kilometers is complete. A week short of 4 months. We have [...]

We are ‘home’-bodies. Frankly! It’s a wonder we ever leave home. So, on this trip, these ‘bodies’ spend masses of time finding comfy wee ‘homes’. And we are quite particular …. We like our bikes off the street. And we crave space. Because those bikes ooze stuff! Harry’s panniers jampack. My paniers burst. Our top bags pop. It’s tools, spares, tyre tubes, bike oil, chain oil, fuel-cells and a compressor. It’s laptops, battery packs, cameras, GPS units, translator, maps and books. It’s rain-suits [...]

‘The End of the World’. At the tip of South America sits the southernmost city of the world. They call it, Ushuaia. But we can’t even pronounce it! ??Ushuaia?? And we only get our tongues around it, when we eventually arrive there. It’s ‘Ush-why-ha’! It feels momentous. As we ‘thump, thump, thump’ into there. Our hearts feel too big. And our chests too small. But it’s also bitterly cold, wet and windy. So, it sobers our ‘End of the World’ moment. It’s been [...]

‘Terra del Fuego’ means ‘Land of Fire’. It’s those fragments of land that cling onto the tip of South America. Why, ‘Land of Fire’? Snow caps everything! But that’s what Magellan names it. When he discovers his Strait. His Strait of Magellan that slips through and skips the treacherous Cape Horn. All he sees, on the other side, are little fires. A Land of Fires. Little fires dot the shores. They line the coves. And flicker on the water. Fires kept alive by [...]

Charles Darwin visits Chiloé Island in 1835, on the HMS Beagle. He calls the place ‘a miserable hole’. The climate ‘in winter is detestable, and in summer it’s only a little better’, he says. And he describes it as a place ‘on the borders of Christianity’!?! Darwin, how can we not, but visit Chiloé Island! Here is Chiloe Archipelago; barely tethered to Chile.   It’s an archipelago of islands, 30 kilometres off Chile’s southern coast. So, our bikes and we, board [...]

The Mapuche today, are mostly in Temuco, Santiago and Buenos Aires. Here they seek opportunities for education and work. But the ancestral land of Araucania, in south Chile and Argentina, is the heart of the Mapuche. And it still holds a core community. Slowly it seeps in. Why are the Mapuche different? Then it shakes us! The Mapuche maintain independence for 300 years. It’s a strong, unified military that protects them from the Inca & Spanish Empires. And in the early 17th century [...]

City planning is my training. We plan, organise and arrange things spatially in a city. And mostly, we do it in a neat and tidy fashion. But the City of Valparaiso – arranges itself! And it’s not neat and tidy. And I LOVE it. It’s my guilty pleasure! The city falls from steep slopes in a sweeping circle. Into the Pacific Ocean! Everything hangs on precariously. Houses cling onto their old foundations. Cars wheel spin round razor sharp bends. People pay R2 to [...]

More than anything, the world rushes by, as we ride.  It’s the slow rise and fall of ever changing scenery. As our thoughts focus and fade. It’s a treat! Hey friends, here are a few odds and sods, of the first third of our trip. Near the beginning of our trip we ride through the expansive grasslands of the Argentinian Pampas. And pass by the cattle that feed on all that grass. Afterwards we travel northwards to the [...]

Where do we begin to tell Paraguay’s story? Maybe with that building that unsettles us, so much? It’s in the centre of the capital, Asuncion.  They call it the ‘Pantheon of Heroes’, (‘Panteon de los Heroes’). And here lie the remains of Paraguay’s heroes. There are 3 presidents, the wife of the last and 2 child-soldiers and 2 unknown soldiers. But, we read, a cast of dictators rule Paraguay for the 19th and most of the 20th century. And sure enough, those three [...]

  The Iguazu River carries, and its Falls drop, a Jesuit missionary, strapped to a cross, like Jesus. The plunging abyss below sucks him in and spits him out. Like the indigenous Guarani people he missions to convert. If only it ends here ….. This is a flashback. We are on that rubber duck, and stare up at the Iguazu Falls with fellow fun seekers. It flashes ‘The Mission’! The award winning 1986 movie starring Robert de Niro, Jeremy Irons and a very [...]