the rocky road

(written by luke) Those of you who told us that biking in South America was not the greatest idea...YOU´RE RIGHT! Whew! There, I said it. The last few days have been quite an ADVENTURE. Not your normal ¨vacation¨ or ¨travel¨. Adventure, I think, is best defined by trying the unknown. That is what we did. And we found it to be incredibly difficult. Here are some stories and lessons learned from the last few days. (we had to wait until our emotions subsided to a normal level to write this).

Wednesday- we wake up with the idea in our minds that we are ¨biking the mountains today to continue our adventure¨. Too stubborn to see that the weather was not the greatest, we left the Papallacta paradise hot springs on our fully loaded bicycles. The road is dirt downhill for about 1 Km, then about 2 Km uphill. First drizzle, then sprinkle, then the roads that we are walking our bikes uphill become muddy. Yet, we are too stubborn to go back. We make it to the highway, and begin riding. The altitude and grade of the road are suddenly too steep- we must rest about every 50 yeards. This continues, the rain comes and goes, and worse of all- the road never shows a downhill! Some weak attempts at hitchhiking and 3 hours uphill later, we find a shelter from the cold rain and ask God to just help us get out of this! Finally we boldly stick out our hand and waver it up and down (thumbs up means ¨hey look at us, we are doing great!¨ hand out means ¨a little help, please?¨) The next pickup truck comes, and what do you know- it stops! ¨we are going to San Rafael, they say. ¨perfect¨ we say (not knowing where San Rafael is). The road we see keeps climbing. It climbs so high that it begins snowing! At this point, we didn´t even want to ride our bikes down that giant 30km downhill road. We make it to a town, and find a place to stay, and eat some pizza and chocolate.


kat pushing her bike up the dirt road, just barely out of papallacta.

the mountain pass we struggled up before finally admitting our need for help.

a dry hut where we found refuge from the downpour on the side of the road.


Thursday. ¨surely we just need to find the rural roads, the ones with less traffic through the smaller passes¨. We continue determined. Today we follow the compass south- around a mountain and to a town that we are assuming is ¨over there¨. The morning ride is delightful! Everything we hoped for! Children in the rural street, a calm semi-paved road, people staring at us, smiling, waving. The road climbs in front of this spectacularly jagged mountain. At last! we have found the ¨rural route¨, the one withouth the trucks and busses. We ask if this road connects to the other side. Some say ¨of course¨ and other say ¨no way!¨ We continue up. We then begin walking, because the road, or big path, is cobblestone and steep. ¨just to the other side¨ we say. The road narrows. Another person tells us that sure, we can get through, but as we get higher, we only see horses and motorcycles going up this road. It ends at a farm. UhOh. We stop to rest, and are soon chased off the area by the herd of cattle going to be milked. This road does not pass through. so down we go. We have the hard conversation- we have now tried 3 days to traverse the mountins, but all we have found are bigger mountains, exhaust, long stares (truck drivers would stare for so long that it seemed that they might run off the road)difficult roads, and no good map of anywhere. Maybe it´s time to travel like everyone else. Once again, waver the hand and hop into a pickup truck.

on the cobbled path that we thought would lead to victory!

cows chasing us from our beatiful view of the mountains we were trying to pass.

Friday. We pack up our valuable bike gear, all the extras that made this attempt possible and pack them into a box to ship away. Our bikes, Pete and Ethel now look very sad and naked. It was a somber morning, knowing we would be selling our dear friends, who have taken on a personality and have followed us closely all the way from early dating to marriage. They, without problems, travled the San Juan Islands, the Oregon Coast, Mt. Rainier, and countless other places. They did not have a single problem here in South America (in fact on the other side of the world), yet we must get rid of them. We took them down to the 2 main bike shops (mostly mountain bikes) that we learned about and in a painful exchange of bartering, left both our bikes for a meager $40. It´s not that the money matters. It´s that these two bikes, which have tremendous worth to us, are practically worthless to anyone else.

naked Pete.


Lessons learned: Don´t shy away from an adventure. What we did was unknown, and we do not regret the attempt! To make life memorable and interesting, you must do those things that are risky. We have no shortage of ¨honeymoon¨ stories. As well as honeymoons are good for adventures together, they are also a wonderful chance to get to know one another. Kat and I have fully learned that we are about the most determined (or you could say stubborn) people. Now we travel with a $33 hiking backpack, a Jansport, and 2 buckets with stickers from Portland to remind us of home.

It is a strong lesson to part with something that is very dear to you- it´s a reminder that Kat and I have each other, and things are just things. Kat is the most amazing person to be with- I am learning about this every day. Her attitude is always positive, and even in the cold rain, she puts on a smile. She could have blamed me for coming up with this idea and convincing her that it would be fun, but yet she gives me grace.

Biking was one of the best ways to see the small towns, and admit to locals that we needed help. We met countless people because of our need for directions, help, and even the occasional 35 cent ice cream cone. While biking won´t continue, we will continue to be bold in our asking questions in attempts to be close to the actual people and culture. We have in fact, ridden on the back of 4 pick up trucks already, and don´t plan to stop.