Pedaling South

I’ve been experiencing distance as time for months now. Instead of thinking about an expanse of land between two points in terms of kilometers, I instead calculate (or feel) the hours, days, or weeks of cycling between those two points.
For example, Cusco is 3 days from Abancay, where I sit now, writing. Apparently the Americas [...]

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Chaque fois que nous entrons dans les villages, on nous souhaite la bienvenue en nous criant « GRINGO! », ce qui attirent l’attention de tous. Impossible de passer inaperçu. Les enfants, heureux de nous avoir découvert, étirent leur plaisir et nous suivent en courant…

On fait le plein avec ce que l’on trouve dans les kiosques [...]

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One senses that this relaxed, colonial Andean center of 150 000 is a place all its own, culturally independent from either Lima or Cusco. The city is visited by relatively few foreigners, in part because of its isolated location, and also because the region’s economy is structured around coca production, among other things, rather than [...]

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J’ai mangé ma première porte de char du voyage. La dame qui a ouvert sa portière à l’aveuglette a aussitôt su que je n’étais pas contente. « No se hace! » (Ça ne se fait pas!), lui ai-je lancé bien fort à quelques centimètres des oreilles entre deux jurons québécois bien articulés. Mon taux d’adrénaline était aussi [...]

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In the chilly, rugged highlands of Peru, donkeys are occasionally crossed with ewoks to produce the ewonkey, a robust animal that can withstand the climate and help repel the Empire.

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By the time we got up to the scenic mountain town of Huaraz in Peru’s Ancash province, I was already feeling the effects of the elevation. Since rising from sea level to more than two thousand meters a couple of days earlier, I hadn’t been able to sleep. Insomnia is one of the symptoms of [...]

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Every day in the Peruvian Andes we meet one or more wandering herds looking for a place to graze. Usually we encounter a mix of goats, pigs, sheep, cattle and donkeys. A dog or three helps keep things orderly, and the whole is coordinated by a woman with a stick.

The whole town (of 10 people) [...]

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