Sunday, October 11, 2009

Migratory Patterns


“Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux


I've finally started to read up on Chile, since we'll be leaving in just a few weeks. It may be cooler, temperature-wise, than any of the other bike tours we've done, save our honeymoon on the San Juan Islands, which was often freezing. Lots of blogs have pics of people in rain jackets, looking wind-chapped, but still smiling. Still, that is probably better than the heat I've dealt with in SE Asia- 100 plus degrees, drinking twelve liters of water a day. My solo tours were borderline masochistic at times, but I was in much better shape then. I also realized I've been absurdly lucky with avoiding rain- in over eight months of bike touring, I've been rained on 4 times. That is going to change.

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber


I'm putting a larger memory card in my camera and I'm going to take even more photos on this trip. The tandem has new brake pads, a new drivetrain, and new tires. We focused on cutting weight down to a bare minimum, so there may be some slight compromises of comfort, but it should pay off. We rode over the Sierra Madre mountains in southern Mexico, and way up into the mountains of Oaxaca, on our first tour. We had too much stuff, and suffered more than those wicked 5000 ft. climbs really required. I also managed to melt some disc brake pads on that tour, so the descents have been toned down with breaks to allow cooling. Karinne likes this mellower approach to the downhills, too.

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