Maps

Here's maps of our part of the cycling tour.  Check out the post below titled "Here's what we are doing" for the background information and links to other blogs and info.

Ecuador:  The main road on this map is the Pan American Highway.  Note that we are not on it - we're on the secondary roads

We cross into Peru and head for the coast - downhill for a while!

Further south in Peru, we make the turn east and head towards Cuzco.

You'll note some interesting names for places we stay: Bush Camp, Desert Camp, etc.  There is a Gravel Pit in Eucador.  (Click on any picture to enlarge it)

Laura and I finish cycling in Cuzco.  After 3 days off the rest of the tour leaves, heading towards Bolivia.

We'll have about 5 days in Cuzco during which time we will get to Macchu Picchu and maybe Lake Titicaca in Bolivia (but not on our bikes!)

Here's what we are doing

Hi:
This is Laura and Greg's blog of our upcoming cycle trip to Ecuador and Peru.

This trip will be an organized tour with a tour group.  What we are doing is part of a tour that goes from north to south through the entire length of South America (Cartagena, Columbia to Ushuaia, Argentina), about 11,500 km.  There are people who are on the entire trip, so there are people in this world who are crazier than us.  this is a big group; there will be up to 60 cyclists at any given time.

The basic trip plan for us is:
-leave for Quito, Ecuador August 6
-the rest of the tour arrives in Quito August 10 and we meet up with them
-we start cycling August 12
-cycle southeast then southwest through Ecuador to Peru
-south through Peru to Lima
-further south through Peru to Nazca and then east to Cuzco arriving September 20
-explore around Cuzco, Macchu Piccu until September 26
-return on September 27

Crazy, eh?  The total distance will be over 3200 km with lots of mountains (not hills, mountains).
The good news is that we are part of an organized tour, so they will be guiding us, carrying our gear and feeding us most of the time (except on rest days).

You can also find out about the bicycle tour company we are going with.  They are called Tour d'Afrique.  They are a Canadian company whose signature tour is one all the way from north to south through Africa.  The link to their website is http://tourdafrique.com/tour-overview/?t=south-american-epic 
We are on sections 3 & 4 of the tour.

There are also various others doing blogs and posts.  One is facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/601347353301217/

We are also following a lady who is doing her own blog of the trip.  The link to her blog is

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sueshuttleworth/13/1436863900/tpod.html?utm_campaign=share_notification&utm_source=dashboard&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share_button

The map below shows the whole trip.  We're just doing the two sections through Ecuador and Peru  wimps, eh?  My next post has more detailed maps of our sections.