Maraposa Monarca

As always we are still alive despite the best efforts of the driving
public of Mexico, and we have had an exciting few weeks.

but it stick to the highlights probably the most amazing thing was to
see the the Monarch Butterflies in there winter habitat in the
mountains of Mexico. If you didn´t already know - every year hundreds
of millions of butterflies fly from Canada to Mexico to generally
chill out and when it gets warm again they will mate and then head
home ( the females that is the men prefer to die after sex) . Anyway
as it happens we got to go visit the mountains where they hang out
waiting for the sun, however the catch is the walk to the top of the
mountains- imagine ,if you will, a group of old and disgruntled
mountain goats getting together and thinking up a path up a mountain
that would challenge an "Olympic Champion Mountain Goat". hopefully
you will start to get an idea of a track that was never intended for
human transportationthat we had to walk/crawl up. However the
butterflies are more than worth it , there were literally millions
upon millions fluttering around the top of the mountain, they were
quite unconcerned by the humans walking around it was what I would
call a butterzard ( a blizzard of butterflies), Andy took hundreds of
photos and you should definitely check them out on his blog.

The other highlight of the last month was visiting the town of
Paracho- this is a town that for hundreds of years has specialized in
the making of guitars. Certainly the best guitars in Mexico come from
Paracho . Anyway I went in search of a new guitar here, after a long
afternoon of searching, inspecting and playing i finally found HER, a
beautiful "one of kind" guitar. Made of a specially imported wood
that the master craftsman had been carefully drying for 10 years to
ensure the best sound. He had then spent the best part of 3 months
making her. So when when his price for this work of "musical art" was
less then what i make in 2 hours it seemed almost criminal for me to
then bargain him done to half that price. Of course afterwards i
felt pretty guilty when i realised he also has several children to put
through school and a son with Down Syndrome (but not so guilty to then
get him to throw in a spare set of strings and a bag) :-) . Now you
would think that i wouldn´t have slept easy that night - but as it
turns out music really does sooth the beast and after several hours of
playing that evening i slept very well -

plenty of other things have happened including a Mexico Day parade in
Guanajuato, a terrifying night in a brothel in Leon and a new speed
record of 70.7km/hr going down the side of a volcano but those stories
probably warrant their own emails

i hope everyone is well, merry Christmas and don´t be shy about
sharing your own stories .

Andy

Near Death Experiances -( Andy G gets all the good stuff)

Well tomorrow marks the last day of our surjoin in the lovely city of Zacetacas,

Just a quick recap, in my last update Andy G was feeling sick with a tummy bug, however (,thankfully) , he got over that pretty quickly and we were back on the road to Zacatecas , and the only "notable" thing that happened was andy G came close to being killed as he decided to play chicken with a 16 wheeler truck down a steep road - hmm i didn´t partituarly endear myself to my friend when I told him to "harden up" even though he was physically shaking for about 30 mins afterwards (- -- i really am going to make a great dad one day!!!!!) unless your paying me by the 1/4 hour don´t expect alot of sympathy :-). did I mention that i have bought a whip and yell mush mush at andy and WL when i think they are not riding hard enough or when ( heaven forbid) they are not enjoying the uphills ( although to be fair i have only ever met one other person who enjoys uphills as much as me - he knows who he is)

Anyway we did make it all safe and sound to Zacatecas where we have spent two really great weeks at the local spanish school, despite being pretty intense i have enjoyed it - i would even go as far to say that i haven´t unenjoyed learning spanish. We ( AG, WL and me) decided to stay with different host families while in school so we could really be pushed at speaking spanish and get a much needed break from each other ( the above story should explain why!!)

It has been great to get off the bike for a little while , wearing clean clothes on a daily basis and meeting new people - going to an actual fiesta and meeting locals and drinking the very occational beer without worrying about it killing me the next day on the bike. oh and meeting some Brazilian girls all I can say is ay aya aya aya. Hence I am very keen to get back on the bike - brazil is still 5000kms away.!!!!!

anyway on Andy G´s blog he has posted lots of great photos so have a look at

http://libertytoredemption.wordpress.com/

I do love getting the occational reply´s so don´t be shy , I hope eveyone is well where ever you are

Andy

p.s if you noted any spelling mistakes i put them deliberately to keep you on your toes, and also the spell check is not working

Hola with Diarrhoea, (best friend of the budget traveller)

Hi everyone,

Andy G has Diarrhoea - well it had to happen - and it couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Right from the start of this trip I have been kind of expecting it - not really in a good way - more like in the way that you are expecting death - you know its around you just hope that it won't happen to you :-).

But despite the last day or so, we have been having an unexpectedly good time , we met up with Marco a local to the city of Monterrey and he let us stay at his apartment he took us to dinner we went to the movies and Walmart and generally had a good time and when it came time to leave he rang has parents in the next city and we biked to their house and spent a few more days in the bosom of mexican hospitality - before reluntantly moving on.

For the past few days we have been biking in the Northern desert of Mexico with about 50 types of cactus and not much else - but it has in fact been really beautiful camping in the desert and waking up with mouth -fulls of dirt -- humm

My spanish is coming along and I can now conjugate the verb "to be" but still don't know why I would want to?? but i'm told it will be useful. I can also wirte a accurate description of myself on Mexican dating websites - Soy un (I am a) guapo ( hansome) , calvo (bald) chico ( boy) de Nueva Zealanda ( from NZ).

Hopefully Andy will be over the bum squirts in a few days and we will continue cycling - of course whose turn will it be next ??


Adios

Andy

p.s I have a video of a Tumbleweed chasing me down the highway in mexico ( yes, fairdinkum, a real, honest to god, tumbleweed like out of a John Wayne movie - when I next get the chance I will upload it)

Hola from Mexico

Hola fromMexico,

Hi everyone, well this trip has just become international!!, 3 days ago we crossed the boarder and entered Mexico.

Just a brief recap, we spent several days in Austin staying with Walt a retired airforce pilot, he showed us around Austin and genrally made us welcome, we then headed to San Antonio to see the Alamo where Davy Crockett ( the guy with the coon skin hat - he actually existed) met his end and then we headed to the boarder town of Laredo through probably the hottest part of our trip so far, essentally a desert and the combination of no water , no food and no shelter for 60 km stretches made for hard riding but we did make it and wei ling also coined a new phase of " andy you smell worse than 3 day old texas road kill" it turns out that this not a completment - for some reason the mix of humidity and heat makes the roadkill worse than any i've expereanced before............... you cuold quite literally smell these things from 200 metres.

Anyway we entered mexico and evrything changed really dramaically - no-one spoke english the roads became narrow and the cars/ trucks and buildings all all became old and tattered I really had not expected such a change so quickly but i immedialtey felt at home here, thinking this trip is really going to get interesting.

We are on our way to the city of Monterrey to spend a night or two with Marco a fellow biker we contacted through warmshowers.org and from there will head into the mountains and go to a spanish school to really get good at the language - exciting time ahead

anyway I hope everyone is well. i have never been better - believe me - true happiness is not knowing what day of the week it is and not caring either.

Andy, Andrew and Weiling ( and of course Allant)

oh yeah all those people who emailed back their congratulations about myself and allant should maybe read their emails a bit more carefully and perhaps look at the photos of allant - ( unless you were playing my game back at me - then Bravo well played )

New Love and second chances

Howdy everyone ,

well where to start really, probably best to give you the background ,
about 7 years ago when I was living in China quite by accident I met
the love of my life - she was a American who had also found herself in
China - anyway it was kind of love at first sight and we were pretty
much inseparable as we traveled through China, and central Asia and
turkey and Europe over 6 months - we had this fantastic time but
inexplicably when we got to Rome we went our separate ways and in
truth we have never seen each other since .........i guess I have kind
of tortured myself for the past 7 years wondering why I would give up
such a good thing and occasionally even my Dad tells me I should have
bought her home ...

Anyway , most people don't even get one chance at true love, however
once again really when i wasn't looking for it I'm in love again --
Funnily enough when met on the Internet when i was doing research for
my bike trip - she is from china but her parents are American - she
lives in NYC so we decided to meet up while i was there, --- and of
course my first impression was wow!!! she is a bit younger than me--
but - I really wanted to spend more time with her so with nothing to
lose invited her on our cycle trip - And she said YES, so with any
fledgling love i asked Andy and Wei Ling to not mention anything on
their blogs cause I just wanted to see how things would go , we said
that we would go to Austin ( Texas) together and reevaluate things
from there....

So of course things are going great- everyday from NYC I have felt
like I am flying on a little soft cloud, and you just know it is love
when you can't get the Karen Carpenter song " close to you" out of
your head for the past 2000 miles.

So anyway the big news-- we are going the whole way to Rio de janero
together and this time I promise I am older and wiser and will bring
her back home . Both Andy and Wei Ling have seen the change in me and
of course they really like Allant as well so they wouldn't have it
any other way. I've attached some photos as well and of course Allant
is in her favorite leather and rubber outfit ( wow!!) come to think of
it maybe the married men shouldn't be looking at these photos.- and i
just want to encourage anyone who hasn't found that special someone
yet to not lose hope and to take chances- you never know what could
happen. Even though I gave up my GT slipstream ( probably the best
bike I ever owned) in Rome i never gave up hope of finding another.


Andy and Allant

Top photo:, me and allant

bottom: Allant all loaded down

Hauntings in New Orleans

hi everyone,

Well the bike tour has really got to that point where things just seem to be flying past , you would think that life goes really slowly as we can only go 80-100km a day but in a week that is a long way- there is so much to see and even though we are going the slow way there really seems to be so little time.

Anyway two days ago we went to NEw orleans - I really didn't know what to expect- thinking that hurricane katrina would have left very little behind - but infact we really didn't see any evidence of the hurricane - we did the usual touristy things like going to the french quarter of town and seeing all the art shops and bars and music and jazz clubs and of course the numerourous sex stores ( which makes a little country boy like myself blush - in fact one of the working girls even shouted at me ( as i walked down the stress looking straight ahead) that she had never seen someone blush so much )

I also went on an evening hauntted city tour - which was really fun - the guide a "certified" ghost hunter has spent years investigating the paranormal in New Olearns and really blended the history and stories and people and culture of the place into a really entertaining evening.

anyway we are back on the road and will be in Austin texas in a few days ( home of Lance Armstrong) and tehn on to Mexico.

hope everyone is well

Andy

Hunka Hunka Burning Love

Hey everyone,

well we have made it to graceland, after 46 days of cycling , we have made it to the spiritual home of elvis. Unfortunately things have changed since Elvis lived there, graceland is now in the bad side of town and we were told by several people to at no times stop on our way to Graceland.

however graceland is really cool , seeing all has cars, planes, gold records, three T.V.s, and of course all his jumpsuits, u can buy exact replicas of has jumpsiuts and although I said to andy I would where one all to the way to Rio if he bought it he balked at the $2000 USd pricetags .

Little known facts - elvis has sold over 1 billion records, he had green shag pile carpet on the ceiling of his living room and he met pricilla when he was 24 and she was 14 !!!, .

tomorrow we are back on the road again headed to New Orleans, and will be there in the next 2 weeks.

Andy

Happy birthday to me ;-)

I need to start by telling a tale that happened 7 years ago , the setting is Kazakstan and i was on another cycle tour - we had had a very long week cycling and we were relaxing in a sauna in the kazak capital when I told my biking companion that my birthday was in a few days - on the 29th of august - which to his amusement he informed me that it was now september and that I had missed my birthday by a week,

fast forward to the current trip, I was determined to not let the same thing happen again - I carefully cheaked the dates and worked out my birthday fell on a friday - we organsied our trip to have a rest day on that day , and we hired a car and drove to some impressive limestone caves in kentucky - we even went to denny's and I got a free sundee which my meal ............. two days later after a particurly long day of biking ( and being chased by dogs) , I picked up a paper to reliase that I had done it again and that my birthday had been the previous day and I hadn't known ;-)

once again the tour is going really well, we have met an amazing amount of hospitable people - and in the last two weeks have stayed two nights with Jim and Ruthie in milford, Jerry at has home in kentucky, and Bill in tennasee - we are starting to get used to people stopping us on the road and inviting us to stay at thier houses.

Andy

p.s saw my first hummingbird today at our campsite - there were bird feeders with sugar water there and at least 50 hummingbirds flitting around -

please visit andy and weilings blog they ahve got some great photos of the hummingbirds

at www.libertytoredemption.wordpress.com

Safe in Kentucky - land of the unleashed dog

Crossed the ohio river from Ohio into Kentucky a few days ago , and basically haven't been able to stop biking due to the dogs, it seems the folk here love horses, tobacco and unleashed dogs. And what the dogs love more than anything esle is chasing cyclists. my faviourite chase so far was a small fat sauage like dog with legs so short it looked like a slug moving across the ground , I felt so sorry for it cause his barking was so sincere that I slowed down just so he could feel like he was doing a proper job of chasing. .

we have been loosely following the old route that slaves used to escape to freedom from the South to the north ( prior to the civil war) , has been really interesting visiting the old museums and houses where poeple hid and were hidden - even more interesting is talking to the average american about their own history and so far their knowledge has been woefull ( although would the average NZer know the reason for the NZ land wars ??)

anyway doing well, loving being on the road again. will keep you posted.

Andy

Made it to Zanesville ;-)

Don't know where Zaneville is ?? well neither did i until about 1 hour ago when we rolled into town.

Just I quick post to say everything still going well, just had an amazing 5 days riding, firstly along old Rail-road trails converted into bike tracks and then on the roads of Ohio, has been incredibly hot and humid , with amazingly heavy thunderstorms in the afternoons, yesterday we got caught out in the open and found an old abandoned barn to shelter from the storm, the whole time i was expecting a local with a pitchfork to shoo us away but alas no such luck.

My tent has become akin to a sauna and i'm waiting for the day someone comes in and catchs me sitting naked in my tent playing my guitar sweating from every pore , and the explanation i will have to make.

really starting to get into hillbilly country now and Ohio is getting flat - I saw a great t-shirt that said "quick pedal faster i hear banjo music " but decided that wearing it might not endear me to the locals.

We are eating really well, i'm in charge of making porridge in the morning and apart from accidentily mixing petrol in the mix one morning generally it goes down well- however andy and wei ling are now convinced that it was a deliberate attempt to get a few more horsepower out of them .

HOpe everyone is well, my sister just had her second child , a beautiful girl called hannah - I can't wait to meet her .

Andy

P.s Got woken last night by my first Skunk who just decided to walk into my tent - I didn't ask him his busness - he didn't ask mine, so - no explanation was needed ;-)

Some photos

How I met my Armish Wife.........

.....Would have been a great title for my next blog post. We have just spent the last few days in lancaster county in the great state of pennsylvania which is the heart of amish country - just to recap the Amish are dutch /german immigrants who came to america and shunned all the trappings of western life - ie. they still ride around on horses etc... they are quite insular in their christain beliefs etc ,

Gibbo and Wei ling for some reason thought I would be well siuted for that life and set about finding a good amish girl for me - however what they don't tell you is that they are against pedal bikes and the women don't shave their legs - ( and frankly they are just not puratanical enough for me) and it turns out all the best 14 year olds are already taken!!!!!! ;-) I guess i will just have to continue my search ..

Just to recap on the trip so far , about 14 days ago we rolled out of NYC along a beautiful bike path right along the shoreline and over the washington bridge into New jersey , we spent a few days just getting clear of the city and have been heading west - the country is just so beautiful with heaps of forest and mountains and fantasic smooth roads, - our first major stop was gettisberg - which was the seen of the civil war battle that turned the tide and lead to eventual union victory, from there we have continued west on an old canal way that has been turned into a cycle track .

we also had a little detour into Washington DC to see the president at home, ab lincoln, the mall etc, was very pleasant

I hope everyone is doing well , I'd like to say i've been thinking of you all ..... but to be fair as I was skinny dipping in the cool of the potamac river last night after a long day on the bike I really wasn't thinking of anything accept how great life is ..................

Bike of the conchords : New Zealands third favourate cycle touring Trio

Hi everyone ,

When i was about 20 years old my grandfather ( at the age of 92) imparted to me the only advice he ever gave me , he said

"Andy you can either work when you're young or when you are old , but at some time in your life you will have to work"

- i had alot of love and repsect for Jock ( my grandfather) and I have taken his advise to heart - therefore I've decided to work when i'm old !!!! and tomorrow i am starting my cycle tour From New York City to Rio de J aneiro.

Without labouring the details, about 7 years ago I came up with the idea and enlisted the support of one of my good school friend's , Gibbo . However it has taken the best part of the last 6 years for us to organise ourselves - and just when it seems we had it all sorted Gibbo had to go and jepordise the whole thing by meeting the love of his life and get married ( Wei Ling - did I mention she is a mail order chinese bride !!, ) . So NZ's third faviourate cycle duo became a trio.

So anyway here we are in the big apple , we have our bikes and a few maps , and we are due to head off tomorrow morning - to face ( how the french would say) I don't know what. I will do my best to do at least one exciting thing per week to spice up my weekly blog - and as and when I get pictures I will post them.

Andy

p.s) Wei Ling has just been reading over my shoulder and corrected me, she is in fact Malaysian-Chinese