Wars raged in Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The ravages of war spilled over into Honduras in the form of refugees and extended poverty. Persecution of the Maya in Guatemala threaten stability and tourism in that country. Panama was run by a “tyrant”, however supported he may have been by the USA. Columbia seemed mired forever in drug wars.

Costa Rica and Ecuador were, at the time, stable countries surrounded by strife. Peru had a pervasive reputation for thieving against tourists, but otherwise harming them was not a priority.

In bicycling Central and South America, we avoided the war torn countries all together and picked our way through the controversial ones. We started in Costa Rica and made it as far as Lima Peru before collapsing in complete exhaustion

We hope you find the following pages of our travels inspiring and exciting to follow.

In 1983 to 84, we made our very first ever bicycle trip.…from Costa Rica to Peru…a five month long odyssey. We had never ridden bikes more than 30 miles at a time before this trip.  We had never toured, and never carried luggage. Anne’s foreign language training was French. A crash one month course in Spanish before we left was our preparation, although it did us very little good as much of the trip we spent traveling in native areas where Spanish was a second language.
We did take enough time to plan to get sponsored by various companies. Our 2 Specialized Stump Jumper 15 speed bikes were a new concept in that day. Sealed hubs, suspension, ultra-low gearing were all new ideas at the time.

• Pack & Paddle in Lafayette, Louisiana sold us our bikes at wholesale. They took us under their wing and were the backbone supporters of our adventure.
• Bellwether clothing jumped in and donated all our bicycling clothing. They had several new lines and we certainly tested them to the hilt. Years later, we were still wearing their clothing. Tough, durable, good looking it was!
• Marmot donated two down parkas. We still have them. They still go on trips with us. Never leave home without one. They pack up small and you never know when it will snow! No kidding, our trip went from seal level to 13,000 feet.
• Kangaroo donated our panniers. We used them on many subsequent trips but we have been unable to locate Kangaroo as a business anymore. They just disappeared.
• Bibler donated our tent. It was the new rage…no fly. Like a Gortex rain jacket, the tent itself was water proof…and breathable…hence no condensation. In the hard tropical rains that we endured however, rain smashed through the tiny breathable pores of the tent, breaking into a fine mist upon us. Still, we loved the tent for speed in setting up and tightness of the package when stuffed.
• In appreciation, we published three separate magazine articles about the journey in various bicycling magazines. Text and photos from those articles are quoted on the following pages.

Most of our friends in Sandpoint, Idaho did not even know we were gone.

“Oh, I wish I could do that too!” was a comment we heard often after our return.