Ever since my first pedal strokes in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina – South America has been blowing my mind in ways I could never even have imagined. Every day, week and month seemed to give even a little more than the previous one and there has been absolutely no end to the madness.
Up until Lima.
In a parallell universe I’m still up in the high, high Andes. Slowly making my way between yet another couple of epic passes, ever so curious to find out what is to be found on the top of the next one – and then the next one again. In this universe though, I’ve had to finally accept what the calendar had already been telling me for quite some time.
‘So you still want to hug your mom for Christmas? Then you better get a move on.’
Racing up the coast from Lima to Ecuador had it’s perks. For the first time in a million years I actually made some proper distance and accompanied by a constant tailwind I literally felt like I was flying north. This was without doubt the least interesting/charming/impressive/varied/challenging stretch on my entire ride on the continent – but to be honest I didn’t mind.
For one I was happy to get to see some big numbers for once. And somehow my mind had made the switch turning this into nothing but mere transport. This was me on my way to the airport.
Though a route through the mountains would have beaten this a million times over, it wasn’t bad. There were some sweet views. And some ever sweeter people. I can’t remember a time when I’ve taken as few photos as during the few weeks between Lima and Quito. The ones I did take though – looked like this:
Morning routine!
Day in and day out…
I asked Isabel for water. She gave me a shower, bed and food until it came out of my ears :-)
No. 1 coastal highlight! Spending a few days riding with lovely Caio from Brazil
Days – even weeks – blurred together and all of a sudden my bike computer told me I’d ridden the equivalence of one entire lap around the equator. 40 000 kilometers. By all means a fair distance on a bicycle…
Today the race ended. My entire ride through South America did. I’m in Quito, Ecuador – and since only a few hours back I’m holding that flight ticket. The one that in less than a week will take me to Togo, West Africa.
Togo. West Africa.
I’ve been so ridiculously excited about this ever since the very idea first made its way into my mind back in Argentina. And I almost can’t believe it’s really time. Almost at least.
Mr. Bike is getting boxed up – soon. But first, this old body needs a proper game of eat, sleep, repeat. And since I’m all of a sudden surrounded perfume smelling people – I think a shower (or 10) might be an alright idea as well.
Apparently not the ‘capital look’ in Ecuador
Where in the world might the next blog post come from..? I sure don’t know. My layovers are as weird as they are many. Let’s hang on and we’ll all find out on Sunday :-)
Until next time,
Fredrika