Touring - Bike Tour from Los Angeles > Rio De Janeiro

Ok. I've searched around seeing if anyone has done this one, and i'm sure someone has but they haven't made themselves a webpage for it :) I've seen quite a few people do the pan american down to the tip of South America, but we want to ride from California to Rio.

I was wondering if anyone can offer any insights on this tour, we've done the transamerican ride which was incredible, but we want a bit more a challenge now :) So next summer we are heading south with about 4-5 months of time to ride about 9000 miles. We've only just come up with the idea, first things first i'm taking spanish classes :thumb: but i'd love to get any wisdom from people who have either ridden part of what we'll be riding, knows anything about visas/bribes/dangerous areas, food supplies, water supplies, any information would be greatly appreciated :love:

We're very excited about doing it. When ever we get together we inevitably end up talking for hours on end about our great american bicycle adventure, fortunately the stories don't seem to bore our friends either, we need to do another and this is what we have our hearts set on!!

Thanks so much guys, i hope everyones enjoying their lovely wheely things

first things first i'm taking spanish classes

You might want to learn a little Portugeuse too. I believe that's the language spoken in Brazil.

You may find some good info on Jeff Kruys crazy guy journal:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/jk

9000 miles sounds like way too much distance for 4-5 months to have any fun. I would double the time frame at least if I was doing it. Traveling through developing countries is usually much slower than bike touring in the US.

I've done a good portion of that route. We cycled the Baja and the eastern edge of Mexico - but you will most likely do the western one. We also cycled the length of Central America - most likely on the same route you'll take.

Once you hit South America, I assume you'll be taking the eastern coast down, whereas we followed the Andes.

Harry and Ivana (http://biketravellers.com/) cycled over into Venezuela and maybe Guyana and that area (not sure exactly) - then they took a boat on the river over to Ecuador and followed the Andes as well. They could give you some info on the northern part of your South America route anyway.

Like you said, the vast majority of cyclists that go to South America tend to follow the Andes rather than going on the other side of the continent. As pasopia mentioned, Jeff Kruys would be a good source of info.