Beginning in Lima, we wandered the Cordillera Blanca of northern Peru, stopping along the way at two seldom visited but important ancient pre-Inca sites. From the high Andes we dropped down into the Amazon basin to the end of the road at Yurimaguas. There we took local river boats down Rio Huallaga, Rio Maranon and Rio Amazonas to Manaus, where we traveled north out of the Amazon basin…
When the nearest bicycle shop is hundreds, even thousands of miles away, we have to be prepared to fix most problems. I carry up to a kilo of tools and spare parts to fix most of the mechanical failures we might encounter after travel on bad roads, and dirt tracks.
There will be more mountains to come, and some will probably seem harder than this one. Zippy is making strange noises from the drive-train, and we fear we have put him under too much strain this time.
We are sometimes tired, but feeling stronger every day. We’ve reached that magical three-week point in a long challenging bicycle tour, when we are in the zone, when we feel pretty much ready for anything.
people think of the Tibetan people and the Tibetan Plateau as being only within the lines drawn by the Chinese government, the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Both the Plateau and the Tibetan people are spread over several other provinces. The government encourages Hans to move into Tibetan lands with various incentives, and by building new cities deep in formerly exclusive Tibetan lands. But the fingers of Himalayas we crossed to climb the Plateau, and the difficulty in building and maintaining roads, have kept this part of Tibetan land Tibetan.