1 Continent

After two bike tours (see Previous Bike Tours) and numerous mountain biking and camping trips, I decided to bike through South America for an extended period of time.


After graduating with an engineering degree, I worked for three years in bicycle transportation planning. I enjoyed the work, but I enjoyed the bike ride to and from work even more. This trip arose as a way to mix things up by getting out of the daily job routine and explore the world - by bicycle. You can email me at junkman6 at gmail.com

Life Resume Stuff: estudiar Espanol, bike maintenance, adventure writing, dread locks, learning the bare necessities, survivor/amazing race application (jk), milk a cow!

If this picture doesn't make you smile, then I don't think we've met!

The writings on this blog have been greatly enhanced due to my friend and "Editor in Chief", Sharja! You can read more of his writings on his blog.


Below is a tentative route map of my trip. Several factors to take into account are trip finances, approximate total distances, and how long I'd like to be on tour. Obviously, the exact route is unpredictable due to unforeseen weather conditions, closed roads, dangers, advice from other cyclists, detours for non-cycling related activities, time constraints, etc...

Here is a quick map from the tour. It's all the GPS data from Banos, Equador to Southern Peru (Ollantaytambo) where I stopped biking. Every single meter of this section was completed by bike, no buses, trucks, trains or planes. Just me and my 2 wheels and 4 pannier bags!




A few things to point out...

• Presently, there is no road connecting Panama to Colombia. A section of dense, undeveloped tropical jungle called the Darien Gap separates these two countries. Thus, a week-long ferry ride will be required to access one of the Caribbean port towns in Colombia.

• Most of the Peru route involves traveling through the Andes mountain range, thus what appears to be a rather straight line is actually going to be many ups and downs, reducing overall daily mileage.

• From blogs of other bike tourers (see right panel on blog), it appears the Atlantic coast section from Ushuaia (the southern tip of the continent) to Buenos Aires is not very scenic. I plan to take a bus from the tip to Buenos Aires. From Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro, there are many interesting cities and sites to see. If I do this section, this part of the trip will potentially be done by public transportation to save on time due to the large distances. Travels after Ushuaia are to be determined as I go!