when we were planning our trip, that where the information we were looking for and found very valuable - peoples experience on the road. So here we'll share ours.
- budget
- bikes
Budget
Our
budget calculation is based on our daily spending, which include food,
accommodation and occasional small items (more expensive stuff like new gear,
clothing etc. are excluded).
Accommodation:
we camp most of the time, and try wild-camp if possible; we always choose
cheaper and more basic campgrounds (which can mean no shower for several days,
but we’ll have shower at least once a week ;)). To cut on expenses (and meet
amazing people) we use warmshower.org and couchsurfing.com quite regularly, especially
in cities where it is more difficult to find good campground.
Food:
we cook our food most of the time, but we have meal out 2-3 times a month
(nothing fancy, rather cheap). We eat vegetarian (so no clue about meat
prices), healthy and fresh, organic and local as much as possible, which
normally mean more expensive products, however we always choose from the middle
price range. We cook from scratch and don’t eat canned food and noodles, which
seems to be cheaper. To save on food we got a loyalty card from 2-3 biggest
supermarket chains; you can save this way quite a lot and if you find the right
supermarket, it’ll have good selection of fresh, local produce. We also carry
food for 2-3 days (until we reach another of ‘our’ supermarkets) and don’t shop
in small towns, where they normally wind the prices up a lot.
Alaska
(2011)
We
spend just 10 days in Alaska, but from our experience food there is rather
expensive and the choice limited. Apart from Fairbanks (where there is a big
supermarket) towns are tiny with small, expensive groceries and if you thinking
of eating out, you won’t probably find anything but hamburgers and pizzas.
Camping
costs between $10-20, showers – if there were any - were for free.
Canada
(2011)
$21
per day per person (Canadian Dollars)
Prices
in Canada vary a lot from North to South, but are generally a bit higher than
in US. Northern Canada is similar to Alaska; distances between decent groceries
can reach up to 500km and the small ones (marked on the map as a food store!)
might stock only chips and chocolate bars. The more South you go, the more
people lives, which means more stores, bigger competency, better choice and
lower prices. Past Yukon the chain supermarkets start to appear, so if you want
to get a loyalty card, that the right time to start looking around.
Governmental
campgrounds costs between $14-21 and don’t have showers, commercial starts from
$20 and have either free or paid showers ($0.25 per 3-4 min.) Yukon was the
only place where the firewood was provided for free, in other places you have
to pay or collect yourself, however in State/National Parks collecting is not
allowed.
US
(2011)
$17 per day per person
$17 per day per person
Food
shopping along the Pacific Coast is great – there are plenty of supermarkets
that carry wide selection of food, including European, Hispanic and natural
foods sections. Apart from that in farming areas there are always food stands
by the road, where you can find good deals. Camping is great to J We hardly stayed in commercial
campgrounds (average price $20) as there is plenty well maintained State Parks
and most of them along Pacific Coast have hiker/biker sites. This is a communal
space to pinch a tent for people who come without a car and costs $5-7 per
person. Shower situation in SP looks as follows: Washington – sometimes and
paid, Oregon – always and for free!!!, California – always and paid. Forget
about firewood – ridiculously expensive and in most places no collecting (as it
is State Park).
Mexico (2012)
$10 per day per person (US Dollars)
Our stay in Mexico costed us $10 p/day p/person, but it can be done for less. While we were very tight with our budget in Canada and US, in Mexico we allowed ourselves for more 'treats'. Things get much cheaper there and there is also more 'temptations'. First of all the street food culture is enormous and because we are both food and culture enthusiast we couldn't miss any opportunity to try new stuff. Besides, if a meal costs a couple of Dollars, you wonder if it's worth it to cook dinner. However, we still cooked our own meals very often, mostly because Mexican cuisine is based on meat and Raul is vegetarian. Mexico is highly populated; pretty much everywhere, where we went the towns were a day-cycling distance apart (except for Baja California where we had to carry food for 3 days), so we didn't have to carry much food on us. Virtually in every single town there is a supermarket, a local market and bakery. The local markets, apart from that that they are good fun and best place to learn about local culture, are the place to get fruit, vegetables and local cheese. The fruit&veg selection in supermarkets is non-existent or miserable, bread normally awful and the diary section limited, as Mexican don't eat much milk products; so the supermarkets are good for canned and dry food. Fruit&veg are better on the local markets, however they don't look so shiny and perfect as we are used to see them in Europe and the selection is normally limited to 5 or 6 products (tomato, avocado, corn, courgette,beans). The problem with the markets is that they often close around lunch time and sometimes when we arrived to town in the afternoon, we couldn't find any veggies. All these is true only for small town, in big cities you can find anything you wish.
In terms of water, the one from tap is normally drinkable in big cities, in smaller places we asked locals whether they drink it or not and if they did so we drank it as well. If you are running low on water during the day, there'll be always a place to get a refill (if not a town, a village, a house, petrol station, a house in the middle of nowhere etc.). Apart from Baja California, where there is little population and water is very bad, so it always has to be purified. But there is plenty of 'purificadoras', shops where you can buy water cheaply by litres.
Accommodation. Campgrounds virtually don't exist there. But you can ask anywhere to pitch your tent. We were hosted in churches, by police, fire brigades, city halls and locals. Normally we were offered a place to pitch our tent or a room to lay our mats, but sometimes we ended up sleeping in comfortables beds. Some people do wild-camp in Mexico, however, we always prefered to ask, because this country is so highly populated that you might be camping on somebody's meadow and this person might not like the fact that you didn't ask; besides the beauty of travelling is in meeting locals and we spent some of the most memorable evening with people randomly ask for a place to put our tent. We also stayed more often in hotels (the cheapest one are called 'hospedaje' or 'hotel de paso'; standard super low, as well as price, often we prefered to sleep in our sleeping bags rather than in the bedding provided), mainly to have shower as this random camping normally doesn't provide shower.
Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama)(2012)
$ 14 per day per person (US Dollars)
We put all the Central American countries together, because we spent in each one to little time to be able to work out reliable budget for individual ones. And the same as for Mexico, I think it can be done for less (we love the street food and the delicious juices!), however in my opinion Central America, in general, is slightly more expensive than Mexico. There are also big differences between countries, with Costa Rica and Panama being the most expensive ones and Honduras and Nicaragua the cheapest. In terms of food, water and accommodation what I wrote for Mexico, with slight differencies between countries, is true for Central American countries as well.
Bikes
Replaced on the way:
Tips, tricks and recommendations
Mexico (2012)
$10 per day per person (US Dollars)
Our stay in Mexico costed us $10 p/day p/person, but it can be done for less. While we were very tight with our budget in Canada and US, in Mexico we allowed ourselves for more 'treats'. Things get much cheaper there and there is also more 'temptations'. First of all the street food culture is enormous and because we are both food and culture enthusiast we couldn't miss any opportunity to try new stuff. Besides, if a meal costs a couple of Dollars, you wonder if it's worth it to cook dinner. However, we still cooked our own meals very often, mostly because Mexican cuisine is based on meat and Raul is vegetarian. Mexico is highly populated; pretty much everywhere, where we went the towns were a day-cycling distance apart (except for Baja California where we had to carry food for 3 days), so we didn't have to carry much food on us. Virtually in every single town there is a supermarket, a local market and bakery. The local markets, apart from that that they are good fun and best place to learn about local culture, are the place to get fruit, vegetables and local cheese. The fruit&veg selection in supermarkets is non-existent or miserable, bread normally awful and the diary section limited, as Mexican don't eat much milk products; so the supermarkets are good for canned and dry food. Fruit&veg are better on the local markets, however they don't look so shiny and perfect as we are used to see them in Europe and the selection is normally limited to 5 or 6 products (tomato, avocado, corn, courgette,beans). The problem with the markets is that they often close around lunch time and sometimes when we arrived to town in the afternoon, we couldn't find any veggies. All these is true only for small town, in big cities you can find anything you wish.
In terms of water, the one from tap is normally drinkable in big cities, in smaller places we asked locals whether they drink it or not and if they did so we drank it as well. If you are running low on water during the day, there'll be always a place to get a refill (if not a town, a village, a house, petrol station, a house in the middle of nowhere etc.). Apart from Baja California, where there is little population and water is very bad, so it always has to be purified. But there is plenty of 'purificadoras', shops where you can buy water cheaply by litres.
Accommodation. Campgrounds virtually don't exist there. But you can ask anywhere to pitch your tent. We were hosted in churches, by police, fire brigades, city halls and locals. Normally we were offered a place to pitch our tent or a room to lay our mats, but sometimes we ended up sleeping in comfortables beds. Some people do wild-camp in Mexico, however, we always prefered to ask, because this country is so highly populated that you might be camping on somebody's meadow and this person might not like the fact that you didn't ask; besides the beauty of travelling is in meeting locals and we spent some of the most memorable evening with people randomly ask for a place to put our tent. We also stayed more often in hotels (the cheapest one are called 'hospedaje' or 'hotel de paso'; standard super low, as well as price, often we prefered to sleep in our sleeping bags rather than in the bedding provided), mainly to have shower as this random camping normally doesn't provide shower.
Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama)(2012)
$ 14 per day per person (US Dollars)
We put all the Central American countries together, because we spent in each one to little time to be able to work out reliable budget for individual ones. And the same as for Mexico, I think it can be done for less (we love the street food and the delicious juices!), however in my opinion Central America, in general, is slightly more expensive than Mexico. There are also big differences between countries, with Costa Rica and Panama being the most expensive ones and Honduras and Nicaragua the cheapest. In terms of food, water and accommodation what I wrote for Mexico, with slight differencies between countries, is true for Central American countries as well.
Bikes
Replaced on the way:
- Tires Schwalbe Marathon Plus VERY happy with them! We can only say compliments so far!Raul’s front and rear more than 13000 km and still life left. On the rear one, due to more weight than on the front wheel, signs of wearing off are more visible, but still going! Marta started with a used front tire that was replaced in Portland after 5000km for a new Schwalbe Marathon Plus, so now both are Schwalbe. Punctures:Raul - 6 so far, after 12500km Marta – 1, after 13051km
- Chain and cassette After 8000km we have replaced cassette and chain for the same model as we started with - Chain 9 speed Sram, Cassette 9 speed Sram - cheap and very good so far. We wore it off almost till ground; the chains in a scale from 1 to 5 were in the second last, so that is why we had to change cassette too.
- Headset After few months dealing on and off with Marta’s headset we decided to replace it for a new one. The old Marta’s headset (Token), every now and then was getting loose and the front fork was wobbling. When I tighten it until it did not have play it was very hard to steer the front wheel so I had to leave it with a bit of play and that damaged the plastic ring where the bearing are mounted on. So after third or fourth time (it took a while to loosen, a month or so, so Marta was cycling with this ‘problem’ for a while), we went to a local shop in small town and were lucky to find a great guy, who, after helping me to replace the headset, did not charge us a peso!
- Bike Computer Our both bike computers, both CatEye, both second-hand and wireless stopped working at some point, son we replace it for whatever was available in local shop. Marta has now brand called Schwinn, which just do its jog - the screen gets black when it is too hot (however it is still recording all the measurements) and it displays the speed with a bit of delay.
- Handlebar We decided to use for this trip butterfly handlebar and so far we are very happy with our choice. The wrist can suffer a lot during long touring and with this kind of handlebar you can change the angle and the position of your hands in 4 different ways and that makes a difference. Besides on this type of handlebar you have plenty of room to attach stuff (as you can see on the picture).
- Saddle Raul: I bought the saddle I’ve got after my research before we started our touring; it’s ‘Flyer’ Brooks and I have to say that I love this saddle; the best way I’ve got to explain it is this, after I’ve been for 5 or 6 hours pealing I can stop in the evening and be sat in front of a bonfire and enjoy it , no sore bottom With Brooks saddle what is important is to keep the saddle dry, in case that gets wet do not ride your bike till the saddle has dried off totally otherwise you can stretch the leather. Brooks and other brands sell a waterproof cover for the saddle I just use a regular plastic bag which I carry all the time under the saddle it works perfectly and is cheaper. Marta has chosen classic Terry – Liberator X. And so far love it; after first week of sore bottom (that apparently everybody has to go through) no problem at all! What’s worth mentioning is also Marta’s suspension in the saddle post – it adds up a lot to the comfort of the ride.
- Break stabilizers Someone told us about a way to have your bike more stable when you need to park the bike and is not totally flat and one of the panniers in the front wheel is heavier than the other and that keeps the front wheel flipping into this side, difficult to find this point where the bikes stays up on its own, well those guys had an elastic to hold the brakes on when the bike is park. It’s so simple and it’s great!!
- Pedals Each of us has their own preference when comes to pedals what I can share is my experience. We ride on clipless pedals. Neither Marta nor I have used clips before this trip and now we don’t understand touring without them; overall when you are climbing, you get so much power, they are more efficient. I chose for Marta and for me clip-less pedals that you can also use without cycling shoes, although I have to say that if it’s for a long ride (few hours) they are not that great; the souls of my feet start to hurt, because the clip mechanism is not fully fit into the pedal and so the bit that sticks out is where you apply the most pressure when pedaling and this starts to hurt after some point. Marta’s are a bit better as one side is fully dedicated to clips and the opposite side of the pedal is a plastic platform like a regular pedal.
- Handlebar stem extension When I finished to put our bikes together I realize that the the fork I am using has a short stem so when I was riding the bike the position of my body was to low and I like to have my back as straight as possible so it doesn’t hurt, the best way to solve this problem is using an extension to lengthen the stem.
- Set of tools After we did our research on which tools we would carry with us the best option for us was Topeak Alien II and so far so good, although I carry a couple of Allen key 5/6 with ball endings; they are longer than the Topeak and sometimes the access to the bolt is not straight so with the ball ending you don’t ruin the bolt.
- Bicycle lights I would like to share with you an advice based on our own experience. We are carrying front and rear lights none of them are specially good plus we have also head torches for camping neither great so we have realized that we could have carried with us a rear light for the bike and then just a good powerful head torch to use it as front light for the bike or for camping. That means fewer batteries, less pollution and less weight for you to carry.
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