Up the Andes

A ride from the Alto Plano of Bolivia and Peru to the frozen tip of Patagonia; on the world's most dangerous road, where the stakes are high, on to Argentina's fabled Ruta 40, where the steaks are large and cheap. Across salt pans, into mud holes, up the Andes and down again; past the ruins of the ruins of Macchu Pichu, and on the edge of the epicentre of the Chilean earthquake. Through a land of contrasts - mountains and lowlands, deserts and glaciers, wealth and poverty, speakers of Spanish and us with our phrasebooks, tourist traps and lands that time forgot. Join Gareth and Joanne Morgan and their motorcycling companions as they travel to South America on the latest leg of their quest to ride the world by bike. Thrills, spills, mishaps and misadventures, near misses and close shaves, punctures and breakdowns, injury and insult, frictions and frustrations - the rigours of expedition riding in this far-flung corner of the world promised it all, and has delivered with refried beans. But with the risks, there were rewards - the breathtaking scenery and the enriching exchange that occurs when cultures meet across the saddle of a dusty bike on its kickstand.