The Adventures of Angelica and Claudio continue

Still in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Angelica has published new information on her blog. An english version can be found at: http://cardiostartbiketour.blogspot.com/ The following are two photos from them. Links to their Fliker photo gallery of the trip can be found on the weblog.

Update - Riding

For those of you who are interested in the progress of Claudio and Angelica, they are wintering in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. We'll stay in touch with them over the Winter and keep you posted from time to time on their activities. Angelica said they hope to spend the time learning English.

I guess you know you are too busy when you do not have time to take a short ride around town. Before Nancy and I left on our long trip to California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and return across the northern tier, I had a reason for not riding. Maybe in reality, they were excuses. It had been very hot here in Tampa and my back had been bothering me so bad I considered a pain management Doc and a nerve block. However, no nerve block(I just did not like the Doc), and then the long trip. But now my back feels better so I am working to get my trusty steed, the Mongoose, back into condition. The "Hilly 100" bike ride is this weekend, but I will miss it. I need to get back into riding shape for a few weeks before I tackle a ride like that. More soon. Maybe I'll do a blog on our long trip. I need to put one together for CardioStart's surgery mission to Grenada in Jan/Feb. I also want to mention that I expect to head to Grenada about a week early so I can bike the island of Carriacou. More later.

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?