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Douglas, oh man, Douglas.

I like textures.

and color

Funny little critter. Douglas` dog.

Ok, they were actually watching Discovery channel but I was happy to get a picture with a dramatic close up on the screen.

Healthy looking people on the islands...

and a mangy looking monkey.

on the road again. Still hot, still tired.

I found Colombia to be immediately more scenic than central america

there are a lot of cyclists here which is great. these two were from Medellin.

That hotel there was the best nights rest i had had in a long time. An effective, quiet AC, real sheets and no blasting local music from the lobby or the next room.

These trees look like giant monsters writhing out of a big pot of mollases, or spaghetti. well to me they do anyways.

This was strange, and funny. They channel the water from the hills into hoses, spray the hoses into the air to adversite it as a car wash, and I have never seen so many big colombian men in speedos. Went on for miles.

Never seen water this color before, like carrot juice.

Another room. Hot little torture box.

Where the climb begins.

Seven hours, seventy kilometers uphill, unrelenting.

but i was loving it

becase it got cold!

And the landscape changed

Well sure I was tired, but I really was very happy to finally be out of the heat.

Later it rained, that was very cold, which is to say very good.

I slept in long underwear. It felt like a ski trip, I couldn`t have been more excited.

I could have put humpty dumpty together again.

How could you not love Colombia?

I just decided to check out this random little town and theres a great square, friendly people, good coffee and a race going on.

Rather like San Luis Obispo in the winter,

only much more dramatic.

Sometimes it is good to be reminded.

Another cycle tourist from the states. A picture says 1000 words.

A day of rest is never a day of rest, but how could I say no to tennis in Colombia?

Ha ha, Im not sure that this has ever spun so fast!

hotter hear, near Cali. I was lucky to find a place to stay before it got too dark.

Coffee in Colombia is always served in small portions. I was so happy to get these nice little cups after all the nasty ones in Central America.

You can tell a lot about a person by they shoes. Id assume the same is true with hands.

Christmas day, a day of rest at an old monastary. Rain, thunder, lighting.

Nasty little place.

The Andes will make you work.

you really do climb over these things, drop down into their valleys, and climb over them again. It takes hours.

My average speed in Southern Colombia and Ecuador was about half that of my North American speeds

And I was feeling pretty ill.

But it was beautiful.

Horse and Dog playing.

Mis Amigos. I love the face of the guy in the center. Colombians will be your friend. dont fight it.

Clean, dry, grateful.

Shower comes with warm water and guarantee of electrical shock. Seriously, I did get zapped.

guilty, it is upsidedown.

They had been selling these things since Colombia, apparently they burn them on new years.

Here, on new years, my amigo here said he was going to buy one, name it after me and then burn it. Im not sure how to take that.

Quito. What a helluvalota climbing.

finding snow in the tropics is a fair sign of how high youve climbed.

Previous photo was taken beside that volcano the evening prior.

last climb of this stretch of the andes. I was so sick of such slow averages i cut over to the coast early.

I like this. Cold, windy.

Even heading out of the Andes I was obliged to do a fair bit of climbing. At the end of the day my average speed was slower than a day of flat.

Horribly sick and horrible food. I dont want any more french fries thankyou!

Back in the heat and humidity. very unhappy about that.

Rain? odd, the desert is supposed to start about here.

Ah, there it is.

Hot, sick, and not wanting to be in the desert.

At least someones having a good time.

If ever you go to peru, I would not recommend camping here.

Well what do you want me to do?

Too much wind and desert ahead. Way too much.

Id love a real map. This is like half the country here.

Hey look! Some plants!

wind, wind, wind and more wind.

sick sick sick and more sick.

I call this, flags in a trash pile.

MOTS, more of the same.

There was constatnly a hazy cloud cover, but even still my face and arms got extremely burnt, perhaps in part from the wind. The mask, and jacket helped despite the heat.

I finally found the mountain from my website. It´s rather smaller than it looks in the picture. Just a big ol pile of sand.

This, just for context, is many days after crossing the border.

I have already been in the desert a long time.

more wind, always more wind.

Just little ripples in the sand, a great texture though no?

the dunes migrate across the desert and into the road. the wind blows sand into your everywhere.

as demonstrated.

A peruvian modeling the bike.

Well if you really want it.

Wind, sand, sun. Wind, sand, sun. Wind, sand, sun.

Heaven. a piece of foam, a cold trickle of water...

...and some food

The suble pastel colors in the sand were really strikingly beautiful, and honestly I could have loved this section of the trip were it not for that terrible never ceasing wind.

No longer sick at least.

Nice people, fellow cyclists.

I certainly hope so.

They quite often cut the road into sand, just sand. What could go wrong?

Lima (at its very very best)

My new bar grips, an old truck tube. Much better.

All my odometer measurements are maxed, distance, time, odometer, calories...

Well those look like fun.

Good luck little fella. (he´s doomed)

Good luck little fella.

The Nazca lines observation tower

The Nazca lines themselves. On seeing them it is quite clear that they were indeed made by aliens.

Strange creatures I am not used to seeing, tourists.

this is something I am used to seeing, a miserable, hot, dirty little room.

Stairway to hell. Hot, loud echoes. Dirty and rank.

wind, wind and more wind.

All juice in Peru is this. Sometimes they refrigerate it, although quite often they dont.

Sand in the road, sand in my hair, in my sweat.

Fishing village. Great lighting.

South of Lima they have much better breakfasts. Made all the difference.

So much of life is waiting, just waiting.

Thank God for this tunnel. Saved me a whole lot of work.

Keep on keepin on amigo

Would make a great steak.

Desert, desert and more desert. Canyon country, incredibly difficult.

Yes, I know. Bit of an exaggeration though.

Today I have to go farther than the farthest mountains on the horizon. I have to do the same tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. It is a lot of work and every foot must be earned. That is why this website is called earning the horizon.

This is about as flat as it ever gets, which is to say not flat.

Welcome to Chile, now climb.

For scale that little dot on the slope is a semi that ran off the road and fell down the hill.

Canyon country. You drop down down down these canyons and then climb for hours out the other side, and then do it agian.

It like airplane high.

Even fake flowers wilt out here

Moon rise. I noticed the moon was upside down... a really good sign of how far south I have come!

Moonshadow. Dont ride at night by the way.

as i said. Very friendly.

Welcome to the Atacama desert

Dont ride at night.

Traveling in style

How would you like your remains to rest here for ever after?

In Peru there are small little bushes and the occasional oasis, here there is not a blade of grass.

the Atacama Desert

sunset. Riding at night is quite an experience, but it is dangerous.

I didnt have much choice in the matter

Bike at night in my headlight

youd never know though would you?

some something doing something

shade, food, water

Hand of the Desert

The sky is incredibly close here, you feel like you could see stars during the day.

Heading north, with the wind the buggers.

The world through my glasses1

Cheap lenses, but you get used to the color

It takes a while.

Camp here tonight

The road less traveled

A flower! been a while since ive seen something like that!

ah, a bed, a shower, and then right back to it.

it cant be wise to rely a small leaking, fragile water bottle through the driest desert in the world, but I did.

I love the color scheme. I propose all roads are done only with white lines and red reflectors. Looks sharp.

From a distance it took me a while to figure out what on earth that creepy thing on the ridge was

Somewhere. Or nowhere, depending on how you wanna think about it.

ooo... that does look like a lot of work...

There are this purple-pink rocks here. The color is just so subtle it looks stunning when an entire cliff is composed of it and the light hits it just right. I want a counter top made of it.

Tea is important, which means making a fire.

Hello one white horse among many brown ones.

Hello one white horse among many brown ones.

Sweet lady. Gave me a glass of wine and an earful.

An oasis, which means a city.

Boy the fun just never stops does it?

Architect: Dr. Seuss

ooo... windmills are NEVER a good sign.

Im all for wind power, but only because I want revenge on the wind.

No no no! The other way! Blow the other way!

ok, change of climate?

An impassable tunnel.

Put the bike in a truck and was taken through.

The far side of the tunnel. Yes, it was a beautiful as it looks.

A very homey place to sleep

What! climbing anchors! I love it! Makes me feel that I am somewhere civilized.

Santiago. I can hardly believe that these tires made it.

Paper thin, and I didnt have a flat since Peru. Absolutely amazing.

Santiago comes highly recommended

I would love Chile if only for the Copec Gas Stations. Food, WiFi, real coffee.

South of Santiago is very touristy wine country, and it´s touristy for good reason.

Strange, strange night.

and a strange man

Water from a well

The wind was of course still terrible. Id be struggling at like 12K, these things would go by at like 25K and Id shoot into their slip stream and follow for miles. Made my day, mercies are so rare.

hate hate hate you mr wind.

More Tractors, I LOVE these things.

Of course I named him...

The only way to keep this bag organized it to keep like three things in it.

The things you find when you go looking...

I love decent places

I love decent places

Heading East in Chile towards the Andes. Will make it over the pass today or tomorrow.

yes thats me in the background, watching rather sternly as she slices my cheese.

That was the toughest fire ive ever made. Took me hours to get it going.

Good Morning Fishermen

Breakfast... Please?

Chilean Border Patrol

Love the Uniforms

Very lucky to find this place to camp. A very cool experience.

Everything looks like this after a while. Clean is just not really an option.

I love lines of cars like this because I can draft off of them.

I am not a fan of road construction, although I am a fan of the finished product!

Argentina. Just Lovely. It´s like this everywhere.

Very nice to have spares.

Often the wind or the wind from a truck will blast me off the road and onto the gravel on the side. aggravating.

I was sooo excited when I bought this thermos. It broke in like the first 10 feet.

That water tasted very peaty.

Yes those are all wonderful things, but Im not going to Rio Mayo. Uh Oh.

What on earth is that supposed to mean?

He he. Armadillos are nasty little critters.

They are serious about their Mate in Argentina

Now that´s the size hill I like to see!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Please!

Yes! Water! Food!

These guys are EVERYWHERE. By the thousands. Very cool to see. They are called Guanaco and are a type of lama.

Also sheep all over.

Plenty more to come

It ends like it began. This looks very similar to my second day in Alaska

It would be so, so easy if the wind would stop...

The following was far and away the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen

I snapped a photo of myself just cuz and I looked at it and was shocked. I dont even look like this.

Just warming up...

Bam! There it is.

Full Moon Rising. If you watch closely you can notice it moving.

Good morning too soon. My writing begins right here. go go go!

What!? No! It´s impossible!! Thats like three big days away!

Good night. A good day. What a mercy.

Morning! is that a wind... no, is that a Tailwind!? Go go go!

Crossing back into Chile.

The Magellan Strait

I just missed the ferry and so was grateful for the excuse to rest while waiting for its return

On Board, barely!

This made things... much more difficult.

Estancia Diego Portales

This is Toros house, ´Jeiurs´ house is the one behind it.

The young man as I was leaving. He was kind enough to let me take his photo, although it looked very uncomfortable for him. I felt bad.

Back on the road to pull through to Ushuaia. Night is not far off.

Pavement!! I reached the road again!!

Sunrise!! Sunrise!!

Oh come on! hurry up and warm me up!

Strange forests down here. This is where they began

This was brutal. Insanse winds, insanse climbs, and Im so close! (Well relatively speaking)

Starting to go...

...A bit nuts at this point

Into this valley, the last before the coast.

The sun was just blinding the last several hours of the ride. Positioned just horribly.

However this may be the most beautiful valley I ever came through.

But I could hardly see it with that sun! Headache inducing.

Eating a chorro on the bike.

The dirt road to the national park and ´The Sign´

Ahhhh. Finished. Well kind of... now I have to bike 25 K back to town!!!

Stayed here 2 nights but couldn´t sleep. Was in a pretty bad way for a while.

View from the window of my second hostel.

A few days later. Feeling a bit better. Just outside a museum in town.

Some of my friends and I going out to see the nearby glacier.

Im really not very good at resting...

This is the place I have been doing most of my writing from. Upstairs in the Hostel.

David Sacher
photos

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