Monthly Archives: June 2017

Furry Love

It’s time to move on from the mountains – but before actually letting go of this too-good-to-be-true slice of adventure heaven there is one specific bunch of souls that deserves their minute in the limelight.

The alpacas!

Everywhere – and in mass. For big empty stretches up there alpacas (and llamas but they’re not as cute) were our main interaction with locals and there’s no getting enough of these loonies. Because they’re darn sweet for one. But mainly because each one of them carries enough personality and range of facial expressions to star in their own Hollywood picture.

There are the wise, the beautiful and the quirky ones. There are the frightened and the brave as well as the heroes and the villains. Seems like such a waste that Disney still haven’t put out a movie – or five – starring these naturals. Whatever genre they’d go for – this is blockbuster material for sure!

Which one would you want to see in lead?

Alright, I promise to stop now.

Big sunsets and even bigger night skies in postcard views are obvious favorites for anyone calling a tent their home. More than ever in these landscapes. What I like even better though – is stumbling upon unexpected favorites.


Not the usual one – but still one heck of a view to wake up to!

Puh. I just had to get that out of my system :-) Writing this I’m already in northernmost Peru ready to cross into Ecuador. Odd feeling to go alpaca flash backing while looking over the ocean with warm sand between my toes.

Next Sunday I’ll recap back to reality and for the first time in I don’t even know how long this blog will continue to update in real time! I’m so looking forward to it – and I hope you are too.

Until next time,

Fredrika

By |June 25th, 2017|South America, Travel Logs|
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Way-Up-There Wonderland

If you haven’t already given my last post a read you should stop and do that now. Because this is nothing but a continuation of the remote mountain road where that left off. Still accompanied by Lars (www.lostcyclist.com) most days could quickly be summarised in a single shot usually looking something like this.


Photo: www.lostcyclist.com

Each pass took us a little higher than the one before and every new lake seemed to greet us with even bigger colours than the previous one had proved possible. We’d no doubt found the life-is-good sort of existence that had brought us there in the first place.

Then – por fin – came the proper passes. Three of them 5000+ meter above sea level and higher than I’ve ever peddled my poor (lucky!) bicycle before. And yes, as always. As air gets even a little thinner – life gets even a little better!


Paso Abra Arcata 5090 masl. Highest point of Mr. Bike’s life! Well done boy :-)

Apart from being pretty darn high and ridiculously beautiful the one thing that particularly caught my soul during this stretch was one I hadn’t expected. I think a few of you reading this are under the illusion of that I and others out and about on these stunts are – in any way shape or form – doing something extraordinary. Sometimes more than others I think we even fall for it ourselves.

This wasn’t that. It wouldn’t have been even if we’d wanted it to. These remote 5000 meter gravel passes were humbling to the point of no return. They had soul – literally. Because no matter how high or remote we went, not once did we leave everyday life of the souls that lived there.


Brother and sister playing outside their house on 4900 masl


Ignacio. Working his alpackas on top of a near 5000 meter pass in the middle of nowhere.


I don’t have a photo to proof it. But this man is wearing sandals :-)


Girl. GoreTex, GPS and fancy bicycle. Least badass human being in the region.

Days became weeks and slowly we were reaching some sort of end to our high altitude endeavour. That really didn’t matter though. Not yet anyways. Because every morning we opened our eyes to find ourselves in for yet another day in wonderland.


Though of course. Daily challenge no.1 was getting out of the sleeping bag!


Sand dunes on 5000+ meter above sea level!

Until next time,

Fredrika

By |June 17th, 2017|South America, Travel Logs|
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Leaving Ground

I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to properly explain what it is that these mountains do to me. And I’m not sure it even matters. Fact though, is that I’m still to meet a mountain range that I don’t fall hopelessly for. And Los Andes might just be the mountain love of my life. I had already spent months going up, down and across them. Still I couldn’t wait to head into Peru to kick off another leg. The highest one of all.

Joined by Swedish Lars (www.lostcyclist.com) it didn’t take long to get the show going. A few smooth tarmac days from La Paz we left the main road in favor for a route that our maps suggested was a definite dead as the roads we wanted to take supposedly only existed in our imaginations.

As we decided to take our chances and roll onto our gravel road anyways I think we were both a bit hesitant… for like 15 minutes. One first golden hour view and that was it. This was it. Dead end or not – this road was gonna get ridden.

High passes. Mesmerising lakes. Out of this world canyons. Lovely local people. And lots of feeling incredibly small. Shortly put this first week or so was the bomb. And that’s without even mentioning the bonus of actually getting to speak my own language for a bit.

A few snapshots.


Adventure for us. Everyday life for others.


The mandatory river crossing shot ;-)


Chilly mornings…


…and warm Peruvians. Photo: www.lostcyclist.com

Between two passes we stumbled into the tiny mountain town Chojata – which I still hold as my top place in all of Peru. Stumbling into the 61st village anniversary and being pulled straight into the festivities was a lot of things, but boring sure wasn’t one of them. And boy do these people know how to dress!


Photo: www.lostcyclist.com

Truly capturing these views simply can’t be done. At least not by me. But I think these photos can give somewhat of an idea of the scale to it all. These environments aren’t just stunningly beautiful. They’re insanely dramatic.


Can you see me..? Photo: www.lostcyclist.com


And the village down there..?


I’m in this one too! Riding above the who knows how many hundred meter death drop into the most spectacular canyon I’ve ever seen. Can you find me? Photo: www.lostcyclist.com

This ride had every bit of what I search for. It even proved to have all those presumably non existent roads threatening to kill the fun at any given moment.

And the best thing of all? We’d only just gotten started.

Until next time,

Fredrika

By |June 11th, 2017|Uncategorized|
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Closing One & Opening the Next

One late afternoon I made it to the finish line of my last leg in Bolivia. La Paz. With a big grin I inhaled and took in the glittering view of the massive city. With Andes all around the whole thing just seemed so utterly misplaced. Like one of the surrounding mountains had gotten bored one day, and decided to spit out this loud and chaotic urban jungle just for the heck of it.

I was excited to get to lay eyes on the bustling city everyone kept talking about. Relieved to get to give my tired legs some proper rest. But more than anything else, endlessly joyous to finally get to meet what I already considered to be my friends.

Adriana and Juan Pablo were waiting. Sister and brother of my good friend from home. And the last part of family Koria, who’d taken care of me like one of their own ever since I crossed the border into their country.

There were days of laughter and delicious food. A soft bed and warm showers. 17th floor views to die for. And what I love more than anything – a feeling of home. There are simply no words for this family.

Eastern came and while my own family was skiing and eating chocolate eggs back in Sweden, we spent La Pascua like Bolivian catholics do most and a few days of mass reached it’s crescendo with a massive Sunday procession.

…and the crucifixion of a plastic Jesus doll.


I liked this photo.

Religion sure is a curious thing.

I loved this break. Though after a few days I found myself spending more and more time up on the building rooftop. Not looking at the city views, but gazing off into the distance and to what what behind them.

It was time. I was mountain bound again.


What do you see..?

If there’s one thing messier than cycling into million-people cities, it’s cycling out of them. On the morning of leaving La Paz I met up with Swedish adventure cycling extraordinaire Lars Bengtsson (read his stories from 100k km in 100 countries on lostcyclist.com), and we quickly decided to start off our ride together by cheating out of town.

Instead of spending the day pushing them up the mad hill we’d both come down when arriving in town, we crammed our fully loaded bikes into the city telefericos to literally get flown out of the city center. Totally the way to go.


Can you believe this is actual La Paz public transport?

Before we even knew it we were out of the chaos that is La Paz. Back on the countryside, and back to normal. With the one exception being that we all of a sudden had found ourselves a riding partner.


Fresh air smiles!

Just before sunset we had made it to lake Titicaca. The border to Peru was merely kilometers away and endless adventures laid ahead. Pitching our tents we watched the sun set, and I think there was something telling us both that whatever was waiting – was going to be good.


‘So.. I’ve heard you too like cycling?’ lol

Until next time,

Fredrika

By |June 4th, 2017|South America, Travel Logs|
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