Cold is Colder in the Yukon

This cold in the North of America is the coldest we ever imagine, we have felt it day after day, and it has turned into a great experience, we have learned how climate varies suddenly from a radiant sun to a strong rain, they are very great distances with many pines at each side of the highway and where the only company is the wind, the dangerous bears do not show themselves, because they are more afraid of the humans than we of them. Different motor-homes pass us in the highway constantly, reminding us that each one takes in life what they wish... our bicycle home!
It will stay with us in this long route, showing a little more of the world and of LIFE, now we are in Whitehorse, the capital city of Yukon. In the highway we have seen a bear cub, which was startled when it heard a car; swans, fox, beavers, white collar eagle, squirrels that do not cease to work for wintertime!!! And the giant raven which is the one that cleans the carrion and wastes. Also gorges with very nice translucent water! It is important to see how the great majority of the inhabitants care for the water.
The H2O IS NO PROBLEM!!!!! for us, what is a kind of problem is the coooooooooooooooold. Well, we are very far from our house, seeing people that pass by us very swiftly, it is difficult to see persons in the streets, you only see cars that go by rapidly, there are few houses and in most of them you can see nobody, when we reach a town there are few persons, it is not like South America, in which we saw people in the route and many people in the towns. .Maybe in South America life is in the streets and here it is the other way around? Or the weather makes the people stay much at home? Or are people hre more accustomed to loneliness? Well, we do not know what the reason is. Of what we are certain is that it is a different life style.

One Push of the Pedal nearer to Colombia

Alaska! State of USA, which in summer has approximately 20 houres of light, where the vegetation grows very swiftly...all this is for us very strange, since we feel it is day until 11:00 p.m., but our biological clock lets us know that it is already time to rest!!! Pedaling from Anchorage to Fairbanks we have found a territory with many pines and beautiful animals which appear suddenly in the way, such as squirrels and rabbits of which we have seen a lot, also a large cub of black bear that suddenly showed up and disappeared, we have felt the cold which is very strong in the days it rains. But it is very pleasant when the sky is blue, the sun warms us, the dragonflies, butterflies and bees, fly around us, but for the traveling cycle the weather is never perfect ….. It is perfect, the landscapes, the smell of nature and the sounds of this are felt fully. After visiting the Denali National Park and only feeling rain for several days and not seeing more BEARS!, we went to the second most important city of Alaska, Fairbanks, arriving in three phases of which the last one was the strong mountain. Here we will rest a little with some friends and will visit the city. The places are constituted by the people and Alaska is no exception, we have found very kind people who are very respectful and excellent hosts. From here we say “From now on each pedal push we do is nearing us more to our dear nation “Colombia”

Moose on the Road

News from Angelica and Claudio:

I'll let the direct translation do the writing. Angelica is writing;

Once we came out from Colombia we arrived at the CardioStart headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and there we met an Angel called Luz Estephanie, a Peruvian little girl, 5 years old, who had an accident in her country lost her right arm and is being supported by CardioStart so that in the city of Tampa she is receiving the necessary prostheses for her rehabilitation, more information in http://luzestephanie.blogspot.com/. Several days in that beautiful city and the great day arrives, we take a plane for Anchorage- Alaska, the two of us in different flights, Angelica with a stop at Phoenix – Arizona, Claudio with stop at Minneapolis-Minnesota, we met again in Anchorage, we stayed three days in friend Owen’s house. Saturday we started the adventure taking the route North to the Denali National Park and then on to the city of Fairbanks, it has been four days of hard pedaling, a new period of adaptation to the highway and luggage. A beautiful cycle route from Anchorage to Willow and then on by the highway. We have met very kind people, the weather has not been favorable, because in this season of the year there is much rain in Alaska, on the fourth day of the trip we met Ricardo Ernst, an American citizen who lives in Trapper Creek, and who some years ago lived in Colombia. He invited us to his house. He wanted us to know a typical house of the region. He prepared a delicious dinner with wine, beer and red salmon, we rested all day today, we dried the tent, washed our clothes, we write and studied a little, we visited the surroundings and will have supper of moose. Ricardo remembers Colombia very much because people there were very kind with him. Tomorrow we will start pedaling again and hope the weather improves.

Alaska, by Bicycle

Good news from Angelica and Claudio. They made it to Anchorage and met Kenny. After a few days preparation they left for Denali and their Alaska adventure. After Demali we expect them to head south to the lower 48. I will try to meet them in Missoula, Montana, at the home of Adventure Cycling. Nancy and I will be coming across the upper US from Portland, Oregon, headed for New Jersey and hope to spend a day with them. Enjoy the photos. These are all I have for now. They are having a difficult time getting internet connections. Claudio said everytime he sits down to try connecting on his portable he finds a bear looking over his shoulder. Maybe on the next post I'll tell you about their adventure with the wolf. Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them for better viewing.

Grenada

Headed to St Georges in Grenada for a week. CardioStart has been invited to install a cardiac surgery unit in the local hospital there. I visited the island last December and the facilities look very good and they have an excellent medical university located there. Some changes have ocurred in the local management so we are back for a second visit. I am hoping to make contact with a local rider I met last year at the airport. He said he could fix me up with a bike, helmet, and directions, so I am looking forward to it if time is available. Grenada is an old British Colony and thus is pretty stable as far as government is concerned. I didn't see much during the two days we were there and hope to see more this time. Grenada is about 70 miles off the coast of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez country, and the location of President Reagan's war to thow out the Cubans. I'll be back next Saturday night. Hopefully have some photos of biking Grenada.

Above photo is from the stairway from my room near the restaurant at the University Club, where we will be staying for the week of our visit. Tough life, huh?

Been Busy

A little 5 yr old girl can sure keep you busy. Luz is the 5 yr old., but what fun it is to be kept busy.(see: http://www.luzestephanie.blogspot.com/ ) I went for bike rides on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but slipped Friday and today. My back is killing me. I think I hurt it lifting a larger bucket of concrete out of the truck on Thursday afternoon. Tylenol is being consumed at a high rate of consumption, but it seems to do little to relieve the pain. I think rest is the answer. Take a look at the photo.
I saw Chris on the side of the road on Hwy 41 on my way back from All Childrens Hospital on Friday. Chris works for an engineering firm. They give him a GPS, a bike, and a water flow detector. he is mapping out the county's water system, valves, conduits, etc. All the info is recorded on a computer he carries on his belt. That big dome is the GPS receiver and transmitter for him to download back to the office. Interesting job.
Photo #2 is Claudio and Angelica on their arrival at the Amtrak Station in Tampa from Miami. They stopped by on their way to Anchorage, Alaska for a ride from Anchorage down the Great Divide Bike Route. They will continue through to their home in Bogota, Colombia. They'll be at CardioStart House in Tampa until July 24. You can follow their adventures on their website at:

http://bicinfronteras.skynetblogs.be/
They will soon have a blog available for daily postings. Click on their photo above for a real closeup and take a look at the CardioStart patch on Angelica's shirt. The patches are available for your own shirt from CardioStart. Send me an email.

Check out the Neighborhood

Time sure flys when you're having fun. What else can I say, I guess I have been having fun, It is already July 9 and I have not written since June 30. But I thought a lot, that should count for something. A little girl named Luz has been keeping me pretty busy.(see earlier post, or weblog at http://www.luzestephanie.blogspot.com/ ).
My recent rides have been keeping me closer to home. It is amazing what you will find if you just slow down and look around. These are some of the photos I took on a short 17 mile ride areound home.

How many people are lucky enough to have a peacock or two in their neighborhood? The colors are tremendous. This fella was just sitting there watching me pedal by. As I turned around to catch this photo I saw another one in a building lot. But don't start thinking that having these beautiful birds as neighbors is a neat thing. Have you ever heard the cry of a peacock? The first time I heard one it scared the bejeebers out of me.(is that a word, bejeebers?). They sound like a cry for help. And they are very loud. I am thinking that I might better enjoy the company of a Pantree Chicken, in the next photo. I'm not really sure what kind of bird this is but you see them all over, usually in pastures and many times sitting on the backs of cattle picking flies off them. We named them after a restaurant that was formerly in Valrico. A club, of which I was a member, had a weekly meeting at the restaurant and nine times out of ten chicken was the meal of the day. I used to kid the owner about going across the street to catch his chickens, referring to these birds. At least they are quiet, and they do a good job of picking bugs from your lawn. My favourite are the Sandhill Cranes, seen below, in a neighbors yard. Of course they are also noisy, but not like the peacocks. They move so majestically and are fairly common around here.

The photo at the right is from our own backyard. A Lady Cardinal trying to pickout just the right sunflower seed. Of course, no photo layout would be complete without one of my best friend, Jack.