THE ALTIPLANO

It would be a big mistake to imagine that the Andes Altiplano (High Plains)was comparable to a table top onto which one could climb. In reality the plains are protected by big mountain passes over which one has to grind in the lean air. From an altitude of 2 500 metres at Cochabamba I climbed over 4 distinct high passes, descending again after each pass before climbing even higher over the next. The highest point on the road was at 4 500 metres before descending to the Altiplano at around 4 000 metres. There is no accommodation in these mountains, and I camped a couple of times at high altitude. On the second night after leaving Cochabamba I was camping on a ledge at 4 000 metres (I was hidden from the road, but some of the local tribal people spotted me from a path high above - no problem, as they waved and greeted me politely in Spanish). Those mountains are very desolate, and one of the few animals which can survive there are llama´s - the farmers herd the llama´s on the steep slopes with the use of ¨sheep-dogs¨. As I often do in the absence of any fixed object, I propped the bike up out of the dust and locked it to my tent for the night. At that altitude it became quite cold in the night, so I dressed appropriately and crawled down into the sleeping bag. During the night Old Saartjie blew over onto the tent, and with bike theft in mind I tried to jump into action with pepper spray and fish knife at the ready. However, with all that protection against the cold I got myself into such a tangle that I was fortunate not to cause myself any grevious bodily harm! (I wonder about that incident, as the bike was leaning away from the tent and there was only a light breeze). Later at the miserable dusty Altiplano junction town of Caracolle I stayed in an appropriately miserable room - the door could not even be closed properly from outside. During the night I had to trot to the equally miserable filthy downstairs toilet on regular occasions due to a stomach problem, and one of my fellow "inmates" stole my old, dirty, broken 2Oceans Marathon T-shirt from where it was hanging close to the door. Things get stolen for re-sale and not personal use, and the Nike sponsors logo on the sleeve must have been a deciding factor. However, upon closer examination the thief was unhappy with his catch, because I later recovered the stolen shirt from the hook behind the toilet door. Due to the thin air at altitude I often went into Oxygen Debt, and had to stop to hyperventilate until my head cleared and some strength returned to my legs. I reached Calamarca village early in the day on my way to La Paz, but I was so exhausted that I decided to see if they had any accommodation. Upon enquiry at the roadside I was informed that there was indeed a hotel up the hill at the plaza, opposite the historic cathedral (they even told me how much a room would cost). Well, when I got up there I found no such accommodation, and a ¨Man Of the Cloth¨(the Padre of the Cathedral complex) allowed me to camp out in one of the empty school-rooms. I was pleased about that as there was a fairly strong icy wind blowing on the plains - there was even a toilet in the back yard, with lots of guinea pigs charging about (I imagine the Padre knabs a fat one every week for his Sunday lunch). And then it was the final stretch to La Paz, at 3 600 metres the highest capital city around. At first I didn´t think much of the place, as I had to battle it out with taxi´s and busses through the dusty and dirty outlying El Alto. But when I did spot the city, it was an absolutely amazing sight. There was no prior warning, suddenly the earth fell away in front of me and there lay this spectacular city with the centre on the deep valley floor and buildings hugging the impossibly steep valley walls- with Mt Illimani in the background. Later, looking for cheap accommodation up and down the steep cobbled streets of the backpacker area, I was directed to a touring cyclists haven (Casa De Cyclistas), where at one point there were eight bicycles clogging the small place. It was also great to swap stories with the other cyclists, and just to have a normal conversation again for the first time since I left Leana in Rio De Janeiro 2 months ago. La Paz is a good place to acclimatise as it is situated at a slightly lower altitude than the surrounding area, and I´ve been here for a few days already. So, tomorrow I´ll move on again. Daily distances cycled since Cochabamba have been:- Parotan Camp 69 km; Pongo Camp 40 km; Caracolle 90 km; Patacamaya 91 km; Calamarca 46 km; and La Paz 65 km. Total in South America is 12 397 km, and total cycled since the start of this jouney is 78 884 km.

THE CORDILLERA ORIENTAL

Feeling rather miserable after the theft of my photo´s, I made a hasty exit from Santa Cruz, heading West towards the Eastern slopes of the Andes (The Cordillera Oriental). I had a choice of 2 roads, and after consulting bus drivers at the terminal I took the Northern route (first I spoke to a group of taxi drivers at a pavement cafe, but at 9am they were too drunk to give decent directions). Although the road was busy, it was quite flat for the first few hundred kilometres. I stayed in some interesting places, and the simple rooms which I found there were dirt-cheap. Then the road tilted upwards towards the Altiplano (High Planes of Western Bolivia), and in less than 100 km I battled my way up from 300 m to 3 700 m. The road was supposedly paved, but it was in poor condition with gravel sections as well as cobblestones in places. At the end of climbing day 1 I was at around 2000 m and looking for a place to camp. I found a small roadside restaurant and upon enquiry I discovered that they had some rooms upstairs, as well as a hot shower (all for less than 3 Dollars). The following night I was up on the plains at Colomi, and from 3 700 m the road plummeted into a large dusty valley where I reached the city of Cochabamba more than 1000 m lower, 40 km later. At altitude the climate of the plains is rather desolate compared to the tropical atmosphere of the region down below. That lowland region is known for its variety of fruit (I bought tangerines and bananas a number of times at the roadside), as well as for production of coca (which they dry in front of their houses the same way they do cloves in Indonesia). The rural people live in stilted wooden houses (like in Laos), and they wash cars and clothes and themselves in the rivers (like in Africa). The women seem to have been cut from a square block of material and dress in pleated knee-length skirts and wear their hair in 2 long braids (the 2 in picture are actually quite skinny). The men are all scrawny and have a bulge of coca-leaf in their cheek. Up on the plains around Colomi the people have a smaller build, their houses are mostly made of mud bricks, and they have a somewhat Chinese look about them (in fact the landlady at the dump where I stayed in Colomi would not look at all out of place in parts of South-Western China). Cochabamba, where I am now, is the 3rd largest city in Bolivia, it is an interesting crazy town, but I have mixed feelings about the place. I arrived on Thursday afternoon and immediately went to the immigration office to extend my visa. I found there that they still follow a tedious paper trail, and I was instructed to fetch my visa on the Friday. On the Friday I discovered that some official had not yet signed my application, so I had to come back on Monday (this afternoon, and I hope it is ready). I also heard that about a month ago USA cyclists Eric and Amaya had booked into the same hotel where I´m staying, and while unpacking Eric had his fully laden bike stolen from the hotel courtyard (and I´m miserable over the loss of some photo´s!). Now I´m taking no chances, and I´ve not only locked my bike in my room but I´ve also chained it to the furniture. One of the things that I did get done here was to acquire a pair of reading glasses - now I look like somebody´s grandfather (the poor blighter), so perhaps it´s time for a shave again. If my visa is ready this afternoon then I´ll be climbing out of this valley again tomorrow, back up to the Altiplano where the air is thin and dry and cold. Daily distances cycled since my last post have been:- Buena Vista 109 km; Entre Rios 107 km; Chimore 73 km; Villa Tunari 37 km; Migalitu 64 km; Colomi 51 km; and Cochabamba 58 km. The total distance cycled in South America since November 2010 is 11 996 km. The total distance cycled on this journey so far is 78 483 km.

A PATH THROUGH THE JUNGLE

Let me first explain why there are no pictures with this report. As I mentioned in the previous post, there was a problem with a virus on my camera memory card - which I eventually had sorted out today. Subsequently, while I was out of my (locked) room, the camera card together with 2 other storage cards disappeared from the room - all the thousands of pics I´d taken in South America gone! Anyway, let me start where I left off last time. At the Bolivian border I got a nasty surprise, I had to pay 50 US Dollars for a 30-day visa. At least Bolivia is a lot cheaper than Brasil, and I found a crumby room where I lay for a couple of days trying to recover from flu. When I eventually got on the road, I found it to be a pleasantly quiet newly-paved road (and mostly quite flat compared to the previous month´s roller-coaster). There was only one section about 200 km before the city of Santa Cruz where construction was still in progress. So I´ve been in Santa Cruz for a couple of days, resting and trying to recover from the flu which I´ve been unable to shake off. So far Bolivia seems to be rather out of place in South America - it reminds me a lot of certain African countries, or even some of the poorer East Asian places such as Laos. I´ll leave here tomorrow morning, heading for the big hills of the Andes once more. Needless to say, I´m very disappointed at the loss of all those photo´s. I did report the incident to the tourist police, but I doubt if that will do any good (the language gap was a problem, they didn´t even have a vehicle and would need to take a taxi to the hotel and investigate). Daily distances cycled since my last report have been:- Quijarro 11 km; El Carmen 108 km; Robore 143 km; Chochis 46 km; San Jose De Chiquitos 97 km; Tintas bush camp 130 km; Pailon 99 km; and Santa Cruz 69 km. The total distance cycled so far in South America is 11 497 km. The total so far on this trip is 77 984 km.

THE PANTANAL

(Sorry, no pics due to a virus on my camera memory card - the joys of using public internet facilities!). Since leaving Campo Grande it has taken me 5 days to reach the Bolivian border at the town of Corumba. I don´t know where the geometric centre of South America is, but I guess that I´m not too far away from that point. I´d expected the terrain to be flat for a change, but 3 of these days turned out to be the usual hilly road. The other 2 days I spent cycling along the elevated road with the Pantanal wetlands stretching out on either side of me. This area is Brasil´s premier ecological tourist attraction, with lots of birds and other wildlife around. Traveling by bicycle I´ve surprised many animals crossing the road or just hanging around close by, but they refuse to keep still and by the time I have the camera out they´ve taken off in a hurry. I don´t want to appear morbid, but the only mammals I´ve seen which have kept still are a variety of road-kill (including the giant rodent, anteaters, cayman and large snakes). At least I´ve managed to snap some Macaws, and the rest of the wildlife is depicted on the murals from the hostel in Campo Grande. For some reason border towns have to be dusty, and Corumba is no exception in that regard. I don´t need dust right now as I left Campo Grande with a sore throat which soon turned into a flu and bronchitis (hopefully I can shake some of that off with the day´s rest at this hostel in Corumba). Tomorrow I head into another country, Bolivia (I´m a bit unsure of the road for the first few hundred kilometres, so it could take a while before my next report). Distances in the 5 days since Campo Grande have been:- Palmeiras 92 km; Taunay 95 km; Guaicurus 68 km; Porto Morrinho 117 km; and Curumba 75 km. Distance cycled in South America so far is 10 789 km. Total distance cycled on this journey so far is 77 276 km.

CUTTING ACROSS BRASIL

If Brasil was a cake that one could cut across, then the baker must have messed up the icing - it is very hilly! Since leaving Leana behind in Rio De Janeiro, I´ve cycled 1700 k´s West for 19 days on the trot. Yesterday afternoon on Friday the 13th I dragged my depleted self into the city of Campo Grande, and I´m now taking a break in the Hostel Campo Grande. Only once along the way did I book into a room (on day 4 I went into the town of Barbacena in search of a supermarket, bike shop, and internet cafe - the cheap hotel where I stayed laid out the best breakfast ever!). Other than that I camped mostly at truck stops (called Posto´s here) - road transport is huge in Brasil, and the big truck stops are all over the show. Often I was not the only camper there, as all sorts of trucker hangers-on and traveling salesmen string up hammocks and even pitch tents at the popular places. One leather-goods salesman was obviously the cautious type, and carried his rack of belts and wallets everywhere with him - even into the toilets. One hears of people being referred to as `Trailer-Park Trash`, so I shouldn´t be surprised If anybody calls me `Truck-Stop Trash`. The first week since Rio it rained almost continuously, and twice I camped in front of restaurants under the verandah, and once in a covered car-wash bay (when I stuck my head out of the tent in the morning, there was a que of cars waiting for me to move). From Rio I climbed steeply up the forested mountains to the highlands of Petropolis, and for the next ten days or so I cycled up and down big hills covered by coffee plantations and grazing cattle. The lakes in the Rio Grande around the Furnas Depression are very scenic, but the continuous hills tend to detract from the view. Later I dropped down to a lower altitude where the hills were covered in endless sugar cane plantations. After a motorcycle escort across the busy and narrow 4 km causeway over the Rio Parana (with a big Hydro-electric plant in it), the hills were covered in plantation forests and cattle ranches (the bunch in picture came marching to the fence for a closer look at me - while other herds have run for their lives without me even stopping!) Along the way there are surprisingly many large towns/cities, which are only marked by small dots on the map. Campo Grande itself is larger than I´d expected and is the springboard to the Pantanal wetlands area (a big tourist attraction), which I´ll be moving through on my way West. I´ve already spotted some big colourful Macaws, and the road-kill seems to indicate that I´m not alone! Daily distances cycled since Rio have been:- Petropolis 81 km; Tres Rios 75 km; Ewbank Da Camara 80 km; Barbacena 61 km; Sao Jao Del Rei 80 km; Lavras 90 km; Formiga 101 km; Capitolio 96 km; Itau De Minas 84 km; Altinopolis 85 km; Jaboticabal 129 km; Borborema 95 km; Guaranta 62 km; Coroados 100 km; Guaracai 109 km; Tres Lagoas 93 km; Agua Clara 115 km; Ribas Do Rio Pardo 100 km; and Campo Grande 99 km. The total distance in South America so far is 10 342 km, and the total distance I´ve cycled on this trip is 76 829 km.

THE ROAD TO RIO

Eventually Leana and I have made it to "The Marvelous City" - Rio De Janeiro. We've taken our sweet time, for a number of reasons (I apologise for the delay to the 3 people who still look forward to my updates). After my last update from Joinville we had to cycle inland for a while past the pleasant city of Curitiba, up in the hills. After that we left the "Trucking Highway" and returned to the coast as soon as possible (I suffered loads of punctures from truck-tyre debris, and had to replace a broken wheel rim along the way as well). Oh yes, during that time both of us celebrated our 5th birthdays on the bikes - the new rim was my birthday present. In the process we also by-passed Sao Paulo (the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere), which sits away from the coast up over the mountains. Instead we stuck to the coastline and cycled via the coastal cities and resorts of Praia Grande, Sao Vicente, and Guaruja - as well as the Port city of Santos. So let me get back to the reason for our slow progress. Firstly, this section of coastline is absolutely beautiful. There were so many wonderful places to stay over that we often called it a day soon after lunch-time, and we stayed over in places a few times (also at the picturesque historic town of Paraty). There is an endless number of islands off-shore, and stunning white beaches, backed by steep hills which are covered in the lush Atlantic rainforest. That brings me to the second reason for our slow progress - every beautiful beach is separated from the next one by a steep bluff or big hill, where we lost a lot of sweat in the humid conditions. However, at the top of the hills there was the reward of beautiful scenery. Also, we were lucky that the rainy season is coming to an end, and we hardly had any rain at all during this time. Talking about time, we tend to lose track and didn't realise that we pulled into one of the most popular holiday destinations in the world at the start of the Easter Weekend (a very big holiday in Brasil). All budget accommodation was fully booked, and we were fortunate to find a cancellation in a not-so-cheap place which we had to take for the whole weekend (thanks to Leana - and it is a wonderful flatlet in Copacabana). Rio is really a marvelous place, and we haven't even seen everything yet - although we cycled in via the big world-famous beaches (including Ipanema and Copacabana where we are staying). The beaches are packed, but I'm a little disappointed as I was expecting to see hordes of beautiful young topless "carnival queens". Instead most of the sunbathers are overweight and not at all self-conscious about it (and thankfully I haven't seen any topless women yet - something has to hold that lot together!). We have a few days to take in the sights of the city, and we'll probably take the cable car up to the top of Pao De Azucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain). When we leave here we'll probably head inland and West again, but don't count on that. Daily distances cycled since my last report have been:- State Border 111 km; Registro 110 km; Peruibe 109 km; Guaruja 122 km; Bertioga 37 km; Boicucanga 70 km; Sao Sabastiao 41 km; Maranduba 52 km; Ubatumirim 61 km; Paraty 49 km; Tarituba 37 km; Angra Dos Reis 66 km; Mangaratiba 65 km; Barra Do Tijuca 93 km; and Rio De Janeiro 55 km. Total distance cycled in South America so far is 8 607 km. Total distance cycled since the start of this journey is 75 094 km.

SOUTH-COASTING BRASIL

Four years on the bike, and I find myself celebrating by repairing 2 punctured tubes (which by now I could probably do with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back!). Let me rather say something about Brasil, where Leana and I have been cycling Northwards along the coast for the past 2 weeks. For starters, Brasilians are a difficult bunch to describe, as there doesn't seem to be anything like a typical Brasilian. This lot comes in all shapes and sizes, they are all colours of the rainbow, they wear anything they want (sometimes hardly enough), and everyone seems to be happily doing their own thing. Some people live in fancy condo's and glittering mansions, while others live in shacks and on rubbish dumps. Streets are shared by shiny black 4X4's and horse-drawn carts (the other day I was able to help a stranded cart-man by giving him one of my spare tubes). Bicycles are popular here, for sport as well as transport to the supermarket or to work. People are generally friendly, with lots of hooting and greeting and sometimes shouting (fortunately we don't understand the language much, but some of it may be related to the popular Aguardente cane spirit - I've tried the stuff myself, only because it is dirt cheap!). When we entered the South from Uruguay the land was very flat, with a lot of lakes and rice and cattle ranching. Gradually the environment has become more tropical in nature, with forested hills and a warmer humid climate. The other night we suffered a rather heavy rain-storm which demonstrated to Leana that her tent needed some serious water-proofing treatment (fortunately I'd given my old tent the treatment in Australia already). We're struggling a bit with the Portuguese language, which we mostly confuse with the bit of Spanish which we'd picked up in the previous 3 countries (as soon as we open our mouths people here assume that we're Argentinian). In the South there was a lot of interesting colonial architecture, and we also battled head-winds most of the time (we made the most of the couple of days when the wind was in our favour). Currently we're in the historic city of Joinville, about half-way between the Uruguayan border and Rio De Janeiro. One really good thing about Brasil is that they eat a decent breakfast - bread, cheese, ham, fruit, and cake! (in comparison to the measly croissant and coffee in the previous few countries). We've camped all over the show, but thanks to Leana we have stayed in budget hotels a number of times, where breakfast has always been included. Daily distances cycled since my last report have been:- Curral Alto 90 km; Pelotas 157 km; Camaqua 133 km; Guaiba 103 km; Osorio 125 km; Capao Canoa 47 km; Torres 63 km; Ararangua 60 km; Tubarao 81 km; Imbituba 57 km; Tujucas 129 km; Barra Velha 85 km; and Joinville 57 km. The total distance I've cycled in South America so far is 7 394 km. The total distance cycled in the 4 years of this trip is 73 881 km.