New photo gallery

We've added a brand-new photo gallery to our website, where past clients can upload photos of their adventures with Sacred Rides. We've got photos from BC, Chile, Peru, and Guatemala up, with more photos coming every day.

VISIT THE PHOTO GALLERY

Chile - the land of Pisco Sour

I'm back home after an amazing 12 days in Chile. The country with a 4,000-km-long coastline and the 2nd-largest mountain range in the world has once again blown me away.

This time, I was there with 7 clients - all Canadians - and boy did we have a blast. We started in Santiago with a sweet little ride just outside of town, then headed up into the mountains for some spectacular views of Mt. Aconcagua (the continent's highest peak) and the ocean.

Valparaiso - the town of Pablo Neruda, the country's famous poet - entertained us with some epic urban riding, funiculars (streetcars that go up steep hillsides), and really cool restaurants and bars. Along for the ride was Felipe from 24/7 TV - check out the episode on Valparaiso (the riding segment sandwiches a skating segment).

From there, we headed north along the coast to Maitencillo Surf Camp, where Roberto and his crew showed us the surfing ropes. Surfing is a lot harder - way harder - than mountain biking. Respect to those who can rip the waves. I managed to stand up for about 3 seconds - once. We followed our surfing with an amazing ride through the Chilean jungle, with spectacular views of the ocean interspersed with thick jungle.

I don't think there can be many things more awe-inspiring than a sunrise surf. Sitting on your board at 7 am, watching the some come up while waves crash over the beach and birds divebomb the water is an unexplicably amazing thing. Do it if you ever get the chance.

After Maitencillo we headed north to the Atacama desert, home to the driest desert in the world and some really unique riding. Surrounded by 6,000 m volcanoes, the town of San Pedro is an adventure hotspot. It's also a Pisco sour hotspot, and we managed to knock back more than a few bottles at the post-riding fiestas. One of the highlights was floating practically on top of the water, at the salt water lagoons of Laguna de Cejar. If you tried, you could practically do a sit-up in the water.

All in all, an amazing time on our inaugural Surf and Singletrack trip!

La Rute de Maya - Guatemala final post

Hi everyone:

Well Guatemala is behind me now, a series of memories strung together like decorations on the Christmas tree. Liek those decorations, I can pull them out anytime - admire them, share them with others, reconfigure them anew each time. How to sum up an incredible month in an incredible country?

It's true that pictures can often tell stories better than words, so I'll keep this post brief. Suffice it to say that Guatemala has provided me with some incredible memories. We met incredible people, visited places so beautiful we couldn't find words to describe them, and had experiences that are indelibly imprinted in our psyches (we - allow me to explain - is my beautiful fiancée, my as-yet-unborn child, and me).

It's hard to imagine such a gentle people as the Maya having to suffer through something as unimaginable as the brtual civil war that wracked their country for 36 years. Walking through remote villages in the Ixil, it's not hard to see the scars this period left on it its people. There's a hesitancy on the part of many of the Maya we met, a reluctance to open themselves to strangers. But spend a bit of time to get to know them and you’ll be rewarded with a whole lot of grace and hospitality.

Our final week in Guatemala was spent riding around Lago de Atitlan, kayaking and trekking on the lake, relaxing at Casa Del Mundo, hiking an active volcano, enjoying a colourful weekend of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Antigua, and visiting the ancient Mayan site of Tikal. It was about a year’s worth of adventure, all packed into one week. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Next post: Surf and Singletrack from Chile

La Ruta de Maya - Guatemala pt 7

En route to Lago de Atitlan

We set out from Antigua a little later than usual – bogged down in no small part by the tequila we drank last night at an amazing little café called the No Se Café (The I Don’t Know Café, which appropriately summarizes one’s state of mind if you stay there too long – “Where am I?” I don’t know. “Who am I?” I don’t know.) The tequila was top-rate, at least.

We set out from town amid the din of chicken buses (even the Guatemalans call them chicken buses - expect in Guatemala it’s el chicken bus) and tuk tuks, those funny little motorcycle taxis that are the backbone of Latin American transportation. We stop at a little roadside tienda to stock up on snacks. Mmm, Guatemalan potato chips are good.

Soon we are climbing on a wide singletrack up into the mountains above Antigua. It’s a grunt in the morning heat, but it feels purifying. We can almost smell the tequila dissipating into the air. We pass through lush forests, fields rife with avocads, and the everpresent volcanoes looming over us like sentinels. They remind me of the mountains in Peru, whom the Incas called apus. The apus are spirits, and they can be kind or they can be vengeful. These Guatemlan apus can certainly be vengeful, when they erupt and bury villages as they have frequently over the past few decades.

For today, the local apus are benevolent, and we arrive safely at the town of Parramos a few hours later. We bike to the ruins of a beautiful colonial church, where our support vehicle has already set out a delicious lunch. We chow down frantically, having worked up an intense hunger, and kick back in the midday heat.

After lunch, we hop on the bikes for the climb to San Andres Itzapa, where we meet an affable fellow named Dom. Dom is the local head of Global Vision International’s school project. He wears a smile like the rest of us wear a shirt – it’s on him constantly.

Dom takes us to the school, a small, modest building where workers are busy building another wing. The local doña greets us with smiles and vigorous handshakes and takes us on a tour of the school. Dom explains that the school services 150-200 Mayan children every day, children who would not otherwise have an education. In addition to schooling them, the program also provides them with breakfast and lunch. Many of these children, he explains, wouldn’t otherwise eat more than a few tortillas a day. Education is the only way this community can break the cycle of grinding poverty which has been their lot for centuries. By learning Spanish, they will be able to move on to higher education; several students have already graduated teacher’s college and are back in the community teaching at the same school they started in years ago.

We leave the school after making a donation of books, pencils and other school supplies. On our way out, the doña’s husband offers us a drink of local whiskey. Stephen tries it and his face immediately contorts into spasms. As we leave, I think I spy the dona’s husband pouring it into the tank of his motorycle…

Our next stop is Maya Pedal. Maya Pedal is an incredibly cool organization that takes in used bikes and fixes them up and sells them to local communities – at a heavy discount. The bikes that can no longer be fixed up get turned into fantastic Dr.Seuss-like contraptions: water pumps, blenders, corn huskers… These are then sold to local communities, who use them to accomplish certain tasks by footpower in a fraction of the time it normally takes.

We finish off with an amazing road ride down to the Posada de mi Abuelo, a very laid-back horse farm and guesthouse. As the sun sets, we kick a soccer ball around a makeshift field, soaking up memories in the fading sunlight.

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note: Supporting and visiting local development projects is an integral part of our tours. On every one of our trips a portion of your tour costs will go toward supporting projects like the GVI school project. Also, our non-profit organization, Bikes Without Borders, will be partnering with Maya Pedal in the coming months. If you want to contribute to either of these projects, visit:

www.gvi.co.uk or www.bikeswithoutborders.org