verano

the idea is as follows, head south, take a left, a few rights and go around the lake...

Gatona

http://www.bikely.com/

not a plan but a general direction...
once in Greece Ill decide what to do in Turkey, a couple thousand kms to get there seem but a few but another two weeks to start the journey, an eternity....

Happy New Year

At the end this is, kind of, what the route looked like.
Not everything on bike, bits on ferries, bits on trains (specially France where the rain was bent on destroying my moralle)
As I write this I say goodbye for a couple of months. Marta is safe and dry, keeping all her strenght for when we start again on Spring. For me its been a great adventure, "a dream that is becoming true it's a true dream" someone told me; I choose to believe her.

What for me to do now? a lot to digest....

BarbaricciaFinal

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

I miss Marta

8 days in Scotland today and if not for the few days I spent with Hannah's family there will be very little to nothing I'd have learnt from this culture. Thye hills call me as the cities present grey and dark buildings, cold winds, vehicles that dont stop for people and people that cut off people when walking as they rush inside a bus, a train, a fast food store...
Celia Cruz' words resound in my head: "There will always be empty glasses if we rely on water from the city..." The best memories are my bus drives as i see the countryside and the countryside sees me: bottled up in a tin can, scrapping these plastic panels, yearning to come out, pleading to get dirty in the mud, to fall on the ice, to listen to the animals at night... I shut my eyes and remember Marta. I try but the sounds of her rackling chain are replaced by screeching tires, evading potholes are replaced by evading careless people that won't even acknowledge you when they bump you...
I miss Marta and miss the road. Soon now, soon...
Promise to come back, to see it properly, when the highlands can offer me a ground to sleep in, some shelter to cover me at night and a 1001 stories to fill my head and heart....

Belfort

Dias de lluvia me reciben en Francia, parece ser ya la norma...
Mas mientras mas frio en el camino, es mas caliente el recibimiento q recibo en los hogares. Conozco familia nueva en Belfort, un pueblo protegido por un leon encaramado en una roca. Como, duermo, vivo con ellos por unos dias mas el viento empuja, y empuja fuerte.
Al despedirme quiero quedarme, la vista de la recien descubierta sobrina bajo su coche protegido de la lluvia me lo pide mas el impulso pesa y a veces puede mas q uno. La pachamama me recompensa luego: horas y horas de cielo azul me llevan por verdes prados y azules canales, es asi a conozco un pedacito de esta Francia q empiezo a descubrir.

La Marta corre, vuela y relampagea por los senderos. Esta vamos hacia el Sur. Es tan diferente enrumbar hacia el Sur, un sentimiento de nostagia me agobia, te siento tan lejos Sur.....

L'Eroica

A friend of mine told me about L'Eroica, a loop around the Chianti area by bicycle, I took her on it and the result are short of fantastic. 200km of white dirt trails and small roads, lots of hills, loads, with incredible panoramic views from the top of each one of them. No big cities or touristic places (except maybe where im writing from now; every other place I passed by didnt even have an internet café) just beautiful landscapes. Took a chance and left everything behind in Siena and good thing I did, without my 35kg in luggage I can actually go up these hills...
Will finish this afternoon, head back to Siena and then to Florence tomorrow. Toscana is coming to an end, a sad note on my book but the enchantment of seeing my friends in Friuli lightens up the mood: Mandi! :)

Elba

On the road again, this time Marta took me to Elba, what an island! hills that finish on the ocean, just barely enough space to give you a bit of beach, great. Loads of tourists but they can be avoided by going to the harder to walk trails (they are mostly fat old German men). Marta had her first mishap, she broke a spoke, not too bad but its Sunday today, and in here it means mostly everything is closed, so im hanging lose for a day, maybe go to a bigger city see if they can repair it (i forgot to pack spare spokes, dumb me)
Ok, talk to you later....

¿Quando a chuva passar?

A missed plane, a wrong ferry; what else? but no matter what Eolo dishes out, we'll keep on... Among all these problems beauty arises, a beautiful long awaited encounter: Marta and the road are one again and so is my pen and paper
/se me apareció mi musa otra vez!!/

So far been hanging on the beach /effing hot here/ but heading for Toscana's hills tomorrow...

Dia del Ñoqui

A short stay in Buenos Aires but then again, when is a visit to Buenos Aires ever bveen enough time... Im told is gnocchi day tomorrow (every 29th) so when Miguel (my cousin) arrives tomorrow guess what will be for lunch, yes, choripanes!! j/k Im actually a bit worried he might want to try Hooters, hes quite a fan, you know...
Im glad I came ahead of time. Im not big on cities but Bs Aires has a magic of its own, a blow of life per say. I just spent an hour sitting on a park bench watching the river go by, isnt life beautiful?!?!
Head down to Rio Gallegos tomorrow and the cycling starts on monday...

Otro amor q llega

And the plans are set,
route: Santiago - Ushuaia, going thru Pto Montt, Bariloche, Rio Gallegos, Calafate, Puerto Natales and Pta Arenas
traveling by: bicycle most of the way, but I'll not be above somebody offering me a ride :-)
timeline: sometime april
Crew: Myself, Miki, Marta and Gaminedes.
The training has commenced -can't you see?- Sore butt cheeks will be the standard for the next couple of months. Looking forward to it.

I believe this trip will be more than before about the journey and not the goal, but just in case we picked a nice arriving goal: Ushuaia.
I promise some nice pics too, peace..