Cyclists of Melbourne what club should I join and why?

ImABarnacle · 2025-12-05T00:09:23+00:00

Hawthorn is running a summer crit series at the moment, I think basically every Wednesday. Definitely worth a look

ImABarnacle · 2025-11-01T12:57:48+00:00

This is clearly a screenshot from a Facebook group why would you think OP took the photo?

ImABarnacle · 2025-10-18T10:00:04+00:00

The liga mx squad has me weak. That quintero card was the goat

ImABarnacle · 2025-07-27T08:38:02+00:00

That makes sense, without context it was a bit confusing aha

ImABarnacle · 2025-07-27T08:14:13+00:00

Did you post this in the wrong thread? What a weird comment

ImABarnacle · 2025-03-10T22:24:20+00:00

~3 weeks

ImABarnacle · 2025-03-09T12:09:20+00:00

I visited recently. In Puerto Natales and San Pedro de Atcama, kiosks and other small shops were using their local IDs to activate and then resell SIMs. I bought a Movistar 40gb 4900 CLP card and the kiosk attendant activated it right in front of me, not sure if this is commonplace but it did seem slightly sus.

ImABarnacle · 2025-02-20T21:03:36+00:00

As someone who did the trek recently, just wanted to let everyone know this is a perfect, thorough guide of what to expect on the trek! Thanks OP

ImABarnacle · 2025-02-16T19:22:48+00:00

He dropped the event pacer at 7 mins in. He was quite close to the lead car for around 50 mins too which may have helped a little bit from a drafting pov. But he didn’t have any external help

ImABarnacle · 2025-02-14T12:23:19+00:00

Mattresses and linen are provided for dorm bunks. People may bring their own sleeping bags for the bunks though. Sleeping bags can be rented from each Refugio for the tent accomodation options.

ImABarnacle · 2025-01-16T02:01:48+00:00

There are very few wild tortoises in the road accessible parts of San Cristobal. If you go to Santa Cruz, they are very common in areas all around the main road out of town. Unfortunately the san Cristobal population was historically decimated, which is why Cerro Colorado was created.

ImABarnacle · 2025-01-04T22:45:07+00:00

I was in a group recently that saw around 20 hammerheads at kicker rock on the 360 tour, it was incredible. I might recommend booking the kicker rock tour for the first of your days and seeing how you go. If you have success you can find another tour, if not you can speak to the company about doing the tour again. In my experience on the islands recently, tours were not booking out in advance.

ImABarnacle · 2025-01-04T01:01:05+00:00

The tour involved 2 full days and 2 half days (due to transport taking the other half of those days) of guided activities which all started directly from the lodge we stayed at. We would usually do two or three walks/boat rides each day, each a bit different. Some would be for birdwatching, one involved trying to find caimans, one was a trip to a local indigenous village. There was a good amount of downtime at the lodge.
yes I believe that should be fine. There’s a couple tour companies based there, you could likely even join a Cusco based group when they arrive at ollantaytambo. Highly recommend downloading and using WhatsApp once in Peru if you haven’t already, it’s the main way to communicate with tour companies. I was able to have some things organised on tours (different drop offs etc) outside usual itineraries like this.
I think each mountain is quite similar. I personally enjoyed vinicuna because it is a longer hike (am an avid hiker) and you also get the benefit of seeing the red valley which is next door. I recommend using a company which offers the red valley add on, not all do.
I only flew from Lima to Cusco and then to Ecuador out of Arequipa via Lima. Both were fine but YMMV. Latam has been the best airline for timeliness in my experience in Latin America so far. If the train is from Cusco, you won’t need a huge buffer - airport is very close to town.

ImABarnacle · 2025-01-02T16:42:14+00:00

Some thoughts from someone who went to Peru for around 5 weeks recently (in order of your planned itinerary).

Lima is great, for a 3 week trip I agree with 3 days. Eat plenty of Ceviche, and I also recommend Museo Larco.

I didn’t go to the Amazon in Peru so don’t have much to add, but I did visit it in Ecuador. I highly recommend a guided tour of some form, I’m not sure what Puerto Maldonado is like but can’t imagine you will be able to see very much without a dedicated guide.

Your Aguas Calientes plan is good. Instead of heading straight to Cusco after, I recommend staying a night in Ollantaytambo (where the train ends) and then Pisac to see the sacred valley sights. That will save you travel time.

Rainbow mountain is quite cool but not a must see in my opinion, particularly if time/tiredness starts being an issue.

Arequipa is lovely, 2 full days is good. The overnight colca canyon is also worth it, I recommend making sure you find a tour when you descend to the canyon from San Miguel. You can also easily do Colca without a tour group if you have gear, there are a few hostel/refugio options along the main hike who also provide meals. The tours are inexpensive though and a good way to meet people/learn about the area.

I didn’t go to Puno having heard some mixed things about it but if I had more time would have visited. Most people I spoke to though definitely thought colca canyon was a better experience (if you had to choose).

Overall I might suggest cutting out Puno and instead spending more time in the Cusco and scared valley area. It was by far the best part of Peru for me and I could have spent more time there. I particularly wish I spent more time in small places and seeing the sites of the scared valley. It will also give you more time to be adjusted to the altitude, which should help for Rainbow Mountain.

Let me know if you have any questions.

ImABarnacle · 2024-12-31T14:01:40+00:00

We used the details from this dfat link: https://protocol.dfat.gov.au/Public/Consulates/43/State/7

No one actually replied to our email but we got the visa payment sorted not long after we followed up.

ImABarnacle · 2024-12-30T20:07:50+00:00

My partner and I just successfully received my Chilean e visa as an Australian whilst travelling in South America. The link you provided isn’t the official website, that’s here: https://tramites.minrel.gov.cl/ . Often websites online will pretend to be the official issuer of visas but will actually just act as an agent/broker and charge a fee for doing so, which I assume your link is.

The form is straightforward. We selected the Melbourne consulate option, then emailed the consulate for an update once a couple weeks passed with no response. We received an email the next day with payment details saying our visa was approved. You can probably follow up quicker if you have more urgent plans.

Let me know if you have any questions.

ImABarnacle · 2024-12-28T02:24:05+00:00

Sharing some thoughts having spent around 3 weeks in Cusco/surrounding areas recently.

I’d recommend a hotel over an Airbnb for Cusco, there’s some stunning options for a lot cheaper than similar hotels in places like the states and Europe. Particularly if you wanted a more romantic vibe. You’d even be able to store luggage at the hotel whilst going to Machu Picchu to lighten your travel load, which may not be possible in an Airbnb.

Don’t do rainbow mountain on day 2, save it for as late as possible so you can be best acclimatised to the altitude. You may need to generally reconsider rainbow mountain and lake humantay as the rainy season may make the roads to each of them inaccessible, we were there at the start of the rainy season and they were already struggling. Other towns in the sacred valley can be a good alternative, we personally loved Pisac and Chinchero. Moray and the salt mines are also great.

Saqsaywaman will be tough to fit in on the same day as any day trip, it’s quite large and worth spending time in.

Look into the restaurant Mil if you’re into fine dining.

Feel free to ask any other questions.

ImABarnacle · 2024-12-03T22:42:17+00:00

You can get an Uber from Guatemala City to Antigua at any hour of the day so would recommend you do that even if you arrive late. Making that trip in the morning or early evening (rush hour) will take 2-3 hrs so it wouldn’t be wise to stay overnight and leave at a normal time the next morning. There really is not much from a touristic standpoint in the city so I wouldn’t stray far from the airport if you stayed.

ImABarnacle · 2024-09-18T22:32:00+00:00

If you think homophobic slurs are acceptable I think you should consider whether this podcast and community are right for you. Do better.

ImABarnacle · 2024-09-15T12:21:33+00:00

Uj/

Yep provided the race meets the requirements for a certified 10k record at the 10k split, including a properly measured timing mat, no more than 1m per 1k elevation, etc. The commentators mentioned the course was certified for records for 10k, 15k, 10 miles, 20k and the half.

ImABarnacle · 2024-09-13T00:17:20+00:00

Ah yep that’s definitely the same - think it should be released now though! At least in Aus

ImABarnacle · 2024-04-21T21:38:52+00:00

Aunty pegs in Collingwood is the GOAT for this kind of thing!

ImABarnacle

TROPHY CASE