http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey An on/off-road bike journey down the continental divide from the top of Alaska to the tip of South America Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:47:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Photo Gallery of our climbs up Cotopaxi and Chimborazo.  Click on one of the photos to see the rest. Here is a shot near the summit when I climbed up solo. Whiteouts and highwinds made it difficult to enjoy the view at the top (or capture many photos). http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/ecuador/ecuador-photo-gallery Goat and Jacob just got finished with their climbing trip. Simon joined up for a bit, but after getting elevation sickness the first day, he decided to head to the beach for some surfing. They used a Spot Tracking device to show their progress on the hikes and it´s pretty ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/ecuador/new-years-on-top-of-the-world We have arrived in Quito, Ecuador. Country number 10 of our travels. JJ is currently in Panama working on a kayak trip and Sean is relaxing on the coast of Ecuador with a friend of his. Simon arrived in Quito yesterday and put his Xtracycle together in his hotel room, ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/uncategorized/bienvenidos-a-ecuador I've had a bit of time to make some updates. Got around to adding some more photos from the Cricamola River Exploratory to the Panama Photo Gallery. Click the photo above to see the updated gallery. http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/uncategorized/photos-added-to-panama-gallery We think it must have been somewhere near the town of Quimbaya where JJ was bit by a mosquito that carried Dengue Fever. Cycles of fevers and chills swept in and out each day and he knew he had more than just an average flu. A clinic ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/uncategorized/jj-gets-dengue-and-rts-slows-up Waiting behind a sheet of rain draining off the roof of a small tienda were a group of stranded travelers. “It is far too dangerous to cross right now, please wait for the bulldozer.” Somebody offered, even stepped aside to make room under the shelter. It was true.  Rocks were continuously tumbling ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/uncategorized/derrumbes-past-medellin To enter the port of Turbo, we paddled through the maze of mangrove forests, a twisted conglomeration of roots and branches rising out of the water. Shanty houses edged up against the water and began to turn on their lanterns as night poured in. Merchant ships that run products up the ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/colombia/turbo-to-medellin                                      Our final crossing of the Gulf of Urabà was nearly complete. Turbo was close enough to make out the trucks and buses spewing exhaust along a coastal frontage road. The most striking characteristic the mystical fantasy world known as the Kuna Comarca was its absence of automobiles. ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/colombia/no-mas-turbo http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/video/colombia-video-landslides-flash-floods We got the Colombian photo gallery updated with photos from our most recent stretch of riding. Click on the photo below to check them out. http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/uncategorized/landslides-and-flashfloods%c2%ba Part Two: Recovering from Blindness I was ready to go at dawn. Fishermen were already trolling close by, and the sounds of livestock wailing and townsfolk awakening drifted from Mamitupu. Goat yelled at me from his hammock as I packed my Kayak; “Are you not ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/panama/lost-at-sea-part-two Part One: Out of Sight Goat was in the lead. More accurately he was far ahead of the pack, and completely unaware of the span of choppy sea separating him from me. With my left foot I pushed in the rudder control foot peg as far as ... http://www.ridingthespine.com/Journey/panama/lost-at-sea