Wow, I just got an email about an incredible new information source about cycling in Bolivia. Excellent, detailed, with great references to other info sources. If you want your wanderlust to kick in or you're interested in Bolivia, Cycling South-west Bolivia at http://www.tour.tk/.

We'll try to write a bit more later, but here's a quick glance at the delightful Sweden trip from the last week:

We got this video in our email today, and it reminded us of how great Colombia was, and what great people we met there.

One of the special interests I had while traveling through 14 countries was seeing the different regional art. Art tells about the culture, values and links with the history of the people or a connection with the past. Much of art through out the world are traditions that are passed on from one generation to the other. This is especially true with the indigenous people of the Americas.

During the nearly three years of our trip, I would often stop and talk with the artists I met. I wanted to learn as much as I could about their art, techniques, materials and themselves.

Some of the people I sat with were First Nations Canadian wood carvers and Inuit leather workers. In the United States, I learned how to blow glass along the cost of Oregon I visited ceramic studios and fine tapestry studios in Mexico.  read more here... lee mas aquí... »

Click here for a slide show of my art.
Often during the bike trip I created small watercolors using a Winsor Newton traveling watercolor kit. I would either work out in public at busy markets, plazas, dockside, or quiet, secluded places like along the seashore, river banks or on top of mountains like Machu Picchu. I also painted in our hotel or temporary apartment from prints of photos either Randy or I took. While working outside I would often have a crowd looking over my shoulder watching each brush stroke. If someone was a little to close like the young kids and teenagers, I would start drawing them. They usual shied away from this and I would get some breathing room. Other times I would worked from a computer display or the small display on my camera. A trick I discovered to view a particular photo was to make it the last one on my memory stick by copying it. It would then be the first one I viewed when using the view feature on my camera.

 read more here... lee mas aquí... »

Here's a map of the whole trip. To explore in more detail (via Google Maps), click on the map or below.

Click for a bigger interactive map to explore

Some details of the trip:

• We went almost 14,000 miles (22,000 kilometers)
• Starting date: June 9, 2006
• Return date: January 14, 2009
• Biggest mileage day: 89 miles (143 kilometers)
• Number of lifelong memories: Uncountable
• Amazingly wonderful, gracious people: Uncountable
• Number of times we were threatened by bad people: 0
• Number of petty thefts of our stuff: 3
• Sets of bike tires we went through: 4

We had an uneventful flight from Santiago, Chile to Miami and a delightful ride through the Everglades to Naples, Florida, where we'll be living with Nancy's dad for a couple of months before returning to Colorado. We'll put up some more pictures before long, and Nancy's editing some videos from the trip as well!

Just wanted to update you on where we are. No, we didn't fall off the edge of South America!

When we were in Rio Blanco, Nicaragua, volunteering for Agua para la Vida (aplv.org -- See our stories here) we met one of the key guys there, Esteban Cantillano, and he told us about one of the side projects that he´s involved with. He´s a member of the lay order of St Francis associated with the local Catholic church, and this group tries to adopt a small group of boys who are not going to school and to try to provide what they need to get going. Lots of kids end up not going because they can´t afford the basics: uniform, notebooks, and maybe a backpack.

When we were there we gave him $400 that various people had entrusted to us for something like this, and he used it to purchase 15 school uniforms and shoes for the 15 kids (he even send a scan of the receipt).

There are pictures of the kids here and a little note about Esteban that we wrote here.

Anyway, the kids need funding again this year, and they will in future years. It´s such a fantastic thing for a grass-roots local group to make a little dent in the future of the town by getting 15 or so kids into school. If you are interested in helping Esteban´s group, let us know and we´ll start an email conversation, and I can translate for you. We can help with the logistics of getting the money to them.  read more here... lee mas aquí... »