Jan '0929
The picture below was taken at a bus station somewhere in Laos, where we sat for a while in order for the bus to be unloaded from its tons of kilos of rice and then reloaded with tons of other stuff. The guy at the picture made some nice entertainment though, because he had found a very interesting way of fixing a TV. It should be noted that the TV was playing tricks on him in that, if he would stand directly next to it, it would work. If he would then climb down the staircase and walk away, it would start “snowing” again until the guy climbed up the staircase and put himself next to it. After several trials, the guy decided he would just stay and stand next to the TV as this was obviously the only logical way to make it work. 
As long as the guy stood there, the TV would work
Vera & Jean-Christophe
Jan '0924
Of course Nepal was fantastic: the constant beautiful view on the mountains, the incredible Tibetan culture and our funny guide made that this is for us a country we will not forget soon. Nepal is, as many other developing countries, dependent on foreign tourism, which brings a lot of work for the local population.
But there is also a downside to all this: tourism generates a lot of trash. 
The downside of tourism
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Dec '0802
And after 2.5 months of cycling, of pushing the bike, of hesitating, of excitement, of enjoying magnificent landscapes, of asking ourselves “what are we doing here?”, of cursing the rain/wind/cold, of enjoying people’s hospitality, we finally made it, we are in Ushuaia “El fin del mundo”. What a great adventure were those 2.5 months and even though we are quite happy to go “home” now we will leave behind Patagonia with a heavy heart.
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Dec '0801
or Does a shitty day really exist?
Patagonia, with its harsh and unpredictible weather, could be the right place for experiencing a shitty day. For this you need two naive cyclotourers and some spices like “the absence of a good place to pitch the tent” (resulting in no other choice than pitching the tent next to a dry river bed as this is the only flat spot in the are) and all this taking place at spring time, when the snow on the mountains starts to melt!
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Nov '0828
But the title of this article could also have been “Vera IS superstitious BUT right” or “Bikes on strike” or else “pedalling with only one speed really isn’t fun”…
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Nov '0814
So, after our unsuccessfull attempt to tackle the winds on the Ruta 40, we decided to take the more rainy variant by continuing the Carretera Austral all the way down to where the road ends, at Villa O´Higgins. Except for having a day of heavy rain, on which we only got saved from freezing to death by some friendly roadworkers who offered us a roof, a fire to heat up and some food, we arrived at this little town from where the actual adventure started.
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Oct '0829
Once in Coyhaique and after having done a part of the Carretera Austral, we had a difficult choice deciding what to do next. Our options were the following:
- Continue the Carretera Austral south to a place called Villa O´Higgins where basically the road stops. From there, our only option is to take a boat to the other side of a lake, where we can rent a horse to carry our stuff for a day, while we carry our bikes over an almost undoable path to enter Argentina. Sounds nice hu? Well, there is also option 2.
- Enter Argentina and follow the famous Ruta 40 south, known for heavy side- and headwinds and the absence of water over distances of as much as 120 km. Doesn’t sound appealing neither right?
Finally, after doubting a lot and tossing several coins (never decide anything important by tossing only one coin!), talking to other travellers and reading about other cyclists’ experiences, we decided to take option number 2, thinking that it would be a nice change to cycle in the wind instead of the rain.
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Oct '0822
If one had to pick up a word to describe Argentina, Criollo would be the one that comes first, even before football and El Diego (Maradona).
Criollo is a culture of the huge pampas where Gauchos on horse lead gigantic herds of cattle. It is also all what makes a good Gaucho: from the cloth to his emblematic knife (the fácon) and the famous asado (huge barbecue).
We found out that we are quite criollo, perhaps most than city dwellers in Argentina. We do not ride a horse but a bicycle, we have also special clothing and even an all usage knife (the little swiss army knife). And to complete our cycling Gauchos training, we made an asado!
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