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.

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... »

We've been hiking the last several days in far southern Patagonia, and visited the amazing Perito Moreno Glacier.

I've just updated the website to a new version of drupal, so please let me know if you have any problems with the site or there's anything I've messed up.

Thanks,
-Randy

PS - We have a flight to Florida on Wednesday!

Saludos a todos nuestros amigos en Latinoamérica - hola desde Bariloche, en Patagonia, Argentina.

 

La última vez que mandamos una actualización fue a principios de Septiembre, y en ese entonces nos encontramos en Huánuco, Peru, pedaleando las maravillosas pero difíciles montañas del Perú. (Disculpe que no hemos mandado nada desde entonces!) Aquí está una actualización sobre lo que ha pasado desde entonces.

 

Pasamos una semana en Huancayo y Tarma, Perú haciendo trabajo como voluntarios para Kiva.org y Microfinanzas Prisma. Kiva fue el primer persona-a-persona website de microfinanzas en el mundo que ofrece la oportunidad a personas en el mundo desarrollado que puedan hacer préstamos directamenta (mas o menos) a micro-empresarios en el mundo en desarrollo. Pasamos la semana viajando por bus, taxi, 4x4, y a pié a lugares retirados en los altos y selvas altas del Perú para entrevistar a clientes. Fue divertido y aprendimos mucho conociendo un poco de que están haciendo Kiva y Prisma Microfinanzas.  read more here... lee mas aquí... »