GlobeBusters 20th Anniversary Trans-Americas Ride Blessed are the Bikes

GlobeBusters have arrived in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, four months after setting out from Alaska on their 20th anniversary Trans-Americas expedition. During a brief pause to service bikes, ready for the final leg through Patagonia, we asked Tour Manager Rhys Lawrey to tell us about their adventures since leaving Trujillo in northwest Peru

Tunnel Vision

The road through the Canyon del Pato ('Duck' Canyon) is legendary, consisting of 54 single-track tunnels through the mountainside. Since we last rode it, the surface has been covered in Tarmac, which we assumed would be an improvement. However, it hasn't been maintained and it's riddled with potholes.

Dodging these, while avoiding the cliff face on one side and a precipitous drop on the other, requires maximum concentration. On a positive note, we didn't get any punctures! Riding through the tunnels is amazing. They are pitch black, with only room for traffic in one direction.

Put your lights on high beam, get on the horn and go for it! Some of our group met vehicles coming in the opposite direction, causing gridlock. The locals tend to argue, rather than try to find a solution, so our guys acted as referee and then played a giant game of Tetra, trying to get cars, buses and trucks into a position where they could squeeze past each other. It was actually quite good fun.

After all that excitement, we treated ourselves to a day off and visited Machu Picchu, the lost citadel of the Incas. This involved catching a train, followed by a bus, and then a hike, but it's well worth the effort, because it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

And where else would you get photobombed by feral llamas? Back in the saddle, we headed for Lake Titicaca, on the border with Bolivia. It's both the highest navigable lake in the world and the largest lake in South America. It's also home to the floating villages, built on reed islands by the Uros people, who had originally been seeking refuge from the Incas.