We will be wandering via tandem bikes through the Cordillera Blanca of northern Peru for about a month, before dropping down into the Amazon basin at the end of the road at a place called Yurimaguas. There we will take local river boats down Rio Huallaga, Rio Maranon and Rio Amazonas probably to Manaus, where we will cycle north out of the Amazon basin and down to the Caribbean/Atlantic coast at Georgetown Guyana.
In Peru we hope to visit pre Inca sites in the North; one site is as old as the pyramids of Egypt. A great deal is known about the Incas, but the great societies leading up to the Incas are possibly even more interesting, and certainly much older. The first site will be near the coast north of Lima. From there we will ride directly up into the Andes in search of more sites, interesting people, and hopefully just the right amount of adventure. We are nervous about -20c temperatures at elevations of around 15,000 feet on dirt roads. Mostly we worry about stumbling upon a coca operation and being taken for Narcos. When we descend, precipitously, into the Amazon Basin, we’ll give away our extra clothes and steel ourselves for high humidity and high temperatures, bugs, snakes… We hope to eat guinea pig and Piranha.
The river journey down the Amazon Basin should give a good overview of the world’s greatest river system. We don’t know what we will find along the way, but it’s sure to include interesting people, food and views. We’ve had many vaccinations, are carrying a kilo of antibiotics (it seems) and hope to avoid the worst diseases and parasites. We have a tourniquet for snake bites and a heightened sense of fear of vampire bats. We’ll trade our tent and sleeping bag, augmented by some Andean fibers, for a hammock, mosquito net and bug juice. More coming as the trip progresses.
Claire Rogers writes on cross-cultural adventure drawn from her travels across the Silk Road from Beijing to Istanbul, around Australia and of course, through Iceland–all by bike.
She’s currently traveling by tandem with her husband Bob, through southwest China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Check out NewBohemians.net for more information on their travels.
