Itinerary update

You´ll have to forgive me for these last few entries. I´m very tired and my brain seems to be a bit slow right now.

Like I said in the Argentina post, we´re currently in Paraguay heading to Bolivia. From Bolivia we head into Peru and then fly from Lima to Panama City the 20th of February. From Panama we cycle our way to Guatemala City to fly home on the 1st of April. We´re looking forward to seeing everyone as well as locking these bikes up in the garage and throwing away the key.

We´re in country #31 with approx 11,183km of cycling and we´ve enjoyed all the comments, emails and encouragement we have recieved from everyone. There are times when it´s a challenge to keep going and it's always uplifting to hear from home. Thanks again for putting smiles on our faces and keeping in touch!!

Uruguay

Cycling through Uruguay was nicer than either of us had anticipated. Rolling hills, little traffic, decent roads, except for one dreadful 20km section, and plenty of free camping (we assumed it was free but who knows). We cycled past a lot of people on horseback and found many interesting little critters.

Argentina

The last couple of days have been difficult. We cycled another ass-bruising 177km day (I have no idea how we hit the same record number twice), and then yesterday was a big 125km day with 40C blazing heat. Last night I made the mistake of going for a few "cervazas" as well as a $1.50 meal consisting of 2 "mystery" meat filled pastries and a very meaty hamburger filled with eggs, cheese and ham. It was tasty, but this morning I woke up with a nasty gut-wrenching sickness that makes me want to vomit all over this keyboard just thinking about it.

Today was long. We´re currently in Asuncion, Paraguay after dealing with border issues and then finding out the 5km day we had planned turned out to be a 60km ride with a hangover, the gut-wrenching sickness and without food or water - superduper-fantastic!! I´ve had enough we´re coming home!!!

HAHA ya right!! I heard it was -27C the other day...no thanks. I know if I came home now, I´d be up on a roof within a couple of weeks trying to fix something. I don´t care how sick I get, I´m waiting for the spring!

On a more pleasant note, Argentina was great! We were able to cycle hard for the last 2 weeks and the weather couldn´t have been nicer - except for that scorcher of a day. We did have a few problems with the police though. Thank the good-times for Julia´s Spanish, she was able to get us out of a few "fuzzy" situations. There was one incident where we had to grease the traffic patrol with $30 to let us go without having to pay a heftyier fine of $100 for not having the proper reflectors. Proper reflectors??!!...I was this() close from shoving my size 9 "proper" reflecter up his crooked ass!

We also saw quite a few good looking bugs, a lot of dead Armadillos(Sp?) and hundreds of small vulture-type birds hanging around the highways. Tomorrow we make plans to head up into Bolivia where we will meet my parents and then together make our way into Peru to tackle Machu Pichu(sp?). I am excited to see them and will be looking forward to another break from these bikes.

New Zealand

New Zealand was a nice holiday within a holiday. We arrived at the airport mid-afternoon and cycled our way to a campground just south of Auckland.

We soon realized that there was more to do here than we had thought and since we had only 6 days, we decided to rent a car and get the most out of it. We picked up a little station wagon, loaded all of our gear into it and headed south.

We kept active on our "holiday within a holiday" with rock-climbing, caving, abseiling, black-water tubing and a short trek up a mountain. We also visited active thermal pools and a bar in Auckland completely made of ice. With the car rental and the high prices of our extra-curricular activities we tried to save money elsewhere. We "free camped" the entire time in farmers fields, the sides of highways and picnic areas. We also cut costs by buying our own groceries and creating cheap ways to make our food last, ie; mustard on crackers and bread dipped in hot sauce - my favourite!

We're now headed to Argentina to start our tour through South America. Unfortunately our flight has been delayed by 3 days and we've been put in a hotel close to the Auckland airport with free meals and movies. I guess there has been strikes in the Argentina airport making it very difficult to fly in and out of......good times!

Australia

Australia was a breath of fresh air! I was surprised at how much I was reminded of home. We had an excellent Christmas with Peter and Christine and want to thank them for everything they have done for us while we were here! Christmas day we were woken up with a delicious breakfast, gift opening and then dips in the pool....fantastic! Boxing day we toured through the countryside visiting wineries, breweries and a chocolate factory....the brewery was my favourite and of course Julia liked the chocolate!







A couple days after Christmas we jumped back onto our bikes and headed south to the well known Margaret River. On the way we stopped off at an old friend of my sister's, Martine, who invited us in for a night of good hospitality and conversation.







We arrived in Margaret River just in time for New Years where we headed to the local pub for many beers and the countdown to 2008! We're now back in Perth where last night we went on a "torchlight" tour through a 19th century prison known for being the most haunted prison in Australia.






Tonight we fly to Auckland, New Zealand, where we will spend a week cycling down the interior. From there we fly to Argentina to start our way back up north. Until then....