Movement Por Un Cambio: Estamos en QUITO!

The Tour and the Objective

On this trans-national bike tour, we will travel more than 5,000 miles (8,046+ km) from Santiago, Chile to Quito, Ecuador (and possibly beyond). This tour is not just a personal challenge for us, but will also be educational and open to many more people to be involved in various ways. We will stop at NGOs, bike activist organizations and environmentally focused community groups along the way to interview, investigate, give presentations and share information on the movement for the bicycle as alternative transportation. We wish to exchange ideas and stories about climate change and the movements that have formed to address its root causes (such as car culture, industrial agrigulture, consumer culture and colonialism).

Our goal is to do research and collect stories on bike cultures and movements in order disperse them and help the cross-fertilization of various movements by creating resources of information and promoting networking between towns, cities and countries.

We will have a focus on the bicycle as a cheap, accessible, autonomous and environmentally-friendly form of transportation and sport that can be one tangible and practical way to help mitigate climate change. We will be exploring the ways in which we can get more people riding—especially women and other people who aren’t encouraged to ride and have less access to bikes—in order to increase the quality of life for all and promote climate justice.

En este tour transnacional vamos a pedalear en bici más de 5,000 millas (8,046 Km.) desde Santiago, Chile hasta Quito, Ecuador (y quizás más allá). Este tour no es solo un reto personal para nosotros, es educativo y abierto a mucha mas gente para que pueda unirse al proyecto de diferentes maneras. Vamos a ir a ONGs, organizaciones de bici activistas y organizaciones comunitarias ambientalistas a lo largo de viaje para entrevistar, investigar, dar exposiciones y compartir información sobre el movimiento de la bicicleta como transporte alternativo. Querremos compartir ideas e historias sobre el cambio climático y los movimientos que se han formado para luchar contra las razones fundamentales (como la cultura del auto, agricultura industrial, la cultura de consumismo y colonialismo).

Nuestro objetivo es hacer investigaciones y recolectar historias sobre culturas y movimientos de la bici para que podamos dispersarlos y ayudar la cruz-polinización de varios movimientos, creando un recurso de información y promover redes entre pueblos, ciudades y países.

Vamos a tener un enfoque en la bicicleta como una forma de transporte, deporte económico, accesible, autónomo y ambientalista, que puede ser una manera tangible y practica para mitigar el cambio climático. Vamos a explorar las maneras en que podemos tener más gente pedaleando, especialmente mujeres y gente marginalizada, para aumentar la calidad de vida para todas y todos y promoviendo la justicia climática.

jueves, 19 de junio de 2008

Estamos en QUITO!

Ya llegamos a Quito! Nos acompañaron muchos amigos y gente activista de la bicicleta en el Ciclopaseo del 15 de Junio.

Muchas gracias a todas y todos por a vernos acompañado en el Ciclopaseo y a las-os personas que nos siguieron paso a paso toda nuestra aventura atraves del blog.

Muy pronto van a ver mas entradas en este pagina, acerca de nuestra investigacion y los cheveres lugares que conocimos en el transcurso de la pedaleada.

Regresa pronto!

We´re in Quito! Many friends and bike-activists and lovers came to acompany us in the Ciclopaseo on June 15th. It feels great to be back in Quito, and to arrive surrounded by so many bikes!

Thanks to everyone who came to see us in the Ciclopaseo and those who have followed our journey through our blog as well.

Very soon you will see more blog entries here, with more photos, advice for those who want to do tours in the future as well as a final summary of our investigation.

Come back soon!

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Logistics of the Tour—How are we going to do it?

The Route:

We have chosen a basic route using advice from friends and maps, but inevitably will be changing it up as we go and meet people who tell us that this road is better than another for biking, etc. However we do have the basic major cities we want to visit… Santiago, Mendoza, La Paz, Cochabomba, Lima and Ecuador. Aside from that, we will see as we go. The option of buses will remain incase of emergencies.

La Ruta

Hemos elegido una ruta básica utilizando consejos de amigos y mapas a nuestra disposición, pero serán cambiados inevitablemente a lo largo de nuestro viaje, por la conveniencia y consejos de las personas que conoceremos a lo largo de viaje, sin embargo nuestra prioridad será llegar a las ciudades principales en los diferentes países por los que estemos recorriendo como Santiago "Chile", Mendoza "Argentina", La Paz "Bolivia", Lima "Perú", Quito "Ecuador".

Basic survival; Food, water, sleeping:

We will be living as cheaply as humanly possibly by camping out, carrying around food to cook on a camp stove and filtering water. We hope to ask permission to camp in people’s yards as this will often be the safest option. We will be eating whatever food is cheapest to buy in the region we’ll be in, and cooking it on our small camp stove. As for water we will be using sanitizing drops and a battery-salt powered filter. Bathing will occur when invited to use a shower or in any water available to us.

Supervivencia básica. Alimento, Agua, Alojamiento

Durante el transcurso de nuestro viaje estaremos viviendo con el menor dinero posible, una de nuestras ideas es por el motivo de alojamiento, llevaremos una carpa de acampamiento, en este caso esperamos una ayuda de las diferentes personas que conozcamos a lo largo de nuestro viaje para que nos ayuden para poder solucionar nuestro inconveniente de el lugar de acampamiento y poder estar mas seguros.

Otro de nuestros objetivos es llevar, preparar y cocinar nuestro propio alimento, en este caso llevando nuestra propia estufa para poder alimentarnos en el transcurso de nuestro viaje.

The Equipment:

We are both touring on mountain bikes with 26” wheels, though Claire’s is a hybrid with drop bars. We will be carrying everything we need to survive on front and rear panniers (bicycle bags). Our bikes will be heavily loaded and therefore probably weigh over 80 pounds each (fun for going up steep mountains!). We will be carrying camping gear, bike gear and tools, clothing, food, water, and materials for our research and presentations.

El Equipamiento

Los dos vamos a viajar en bicicletas de montaña de aro 26, aunque la bicicleta de Claire Stoscheck es un hibrido mezclada partes con una bici de carreras, y la bicicleta de Cristhian Cuaces por otra parte el mismo fue el creador de sus parillas delantera y posterior y a su vez de las mochilas (alforjas) respectivamente para cada una de ellas. En las parillas (y alforjas) antes mencionadas llevaremos todo lo que sea necesario para poder sobrevivir durante el transcurso de nuestro viaje, como es ropa, alimento, agua, a su vez también todo el material que recolectemos acerca de nuestra investigación y presentaciones. Las herramientas que necesitaremos para poder repara en una emergencia nuestras bicicletas. Nuestras bicicletas serán en cierto modo cargadas por un excesivo peso tal vez de 60 a 80 libras cada una y eso será una gran reto poder transportar durante todo el viaje (va a ser muy interesante durante nuestro viaje en las montañas mas altas que encontremos).

Researching the Bike Movement:

We will make whatever contacts we can in both large cities and small towns before we arrive with bike advocacy and other environmental-social justice groups before we arrive. Once we arrive we will meet with our contacts and have formal and informal interviews, with hopefully some of them being recorded. Then we will make more contacts within the area and continue to meet with people and learn as we go. We will be compiling information periodically and up-dating the web-site with the information on, at least, the bike movements in the major cities. We will carry with us movies and powerpoints on the bike movement in various places to share with those we meet.

Investigación del movimiento de la bicicleta

Durante nuestro viaje tendremos previamente contactos en diferentes ciudades con muchas organizaciones a favor de la bicicleta y grupos activistas ambientales. Y una vez que lleguemos a cada uno de nuestros destinos tendremos entrevistas formales e informales, para así poder tener mucha mas información acerca de los diferentes grupos que están trabajando. A su vez tendremos mas contactos dentro del área que nos encontremos y continuaremos nuestra ruta aprendiendo mas acerca de los movimientos ciclistas y los movimientos ambientales, en el transcurso de nuestro viaje.

A su vez toda la información que recopilemos periódicamente será traspasada a nuestra página web, así como también las experiencias que tengamos en las diferentes instituciones educativas y su forma de ver sobre el proyecto que estaremos realizando.

Haremos nosotros películas, PowerPoint en el transcurso de nuestro viaje en los lugares donde estemos presentándonos.

Presentations at Schools:

So, we know we have much more to learn on this trip than we have to teach… but if so desired, we are happy to offer ourselves to any schools or even NGOs or community groups who would like a presentation on global climate change and the bike movement. To present at schools, we will just seek them out once we enter a town or city and see if they are interested (past experience of traveling cyclists has shown that most schools are) in seeing a presentation. We will have one prepared both for large groups and one that is more popular-education style (interactive) for small groups. And if they are interested, we’ll do it, and change it as we learn more and our perspective grows and changes due to the people we meet and the places we see along the way.

Presentaciones en las escuelas y colegios

Sabemos que durante nuestro viaje tenemos mucho que aprender y mucho que enseñar, acerca de lo que le esta pasando a nuestro medio ambiente y como podemos tener en nuestras manos una manera de solucionar (la bicicleta).

Nosotros estaremos muy contentos para ofrecer a cualquier escuela, colegio, O.N.G. o grupos comunitarios una charla, presentación o intercambiar datos-investigaciones nosotros estaremos abiertos en ese tipo de aspectos.

Las presentaciones en las escuelas, colegios serán en modo a la azar ya que no contamos con una lista especifica de las instituciones que existen en toda la ruta ciclística.

Tendremos preparados varios esquemas acerca de las presentaciones.. Así como para escuelas tal vez mas interactivo.. Y para colegios un poco mas serios con respecto al tema tratado. De este modo podremos aprender mutuamente acerca del contacto que podemos tener con ellos, lo que saben acerca de este gran problema como es el cambio climático y la importancia que tienen los movimientos-organizaciones de la bicicleta.

Financing the Tour:

We have both been working very hard to save up money to realize this dream of ours, and we’ve also been fortunate to receive some very generous donations from sponsors of the tour. We will be accepting donations all along via PayPal on our web-site with the hopes that once we get moving people will see a value in what we’re doing and contribute to help us keep moving.

Financiamiento de nuestro viaje

En este momento ambos estamos trabajando muy arduamente para poder lograr con éxito nuestro sueño y nuestros objetivos, y hemos sido muy afortunados en recibir algunas donaciones por parte de nuestros patrocinadores del viaje. En este momento las donaciones que voluntariamente les agradeceríamos sean vía Pay pal en nuestra página web, con la esperanza que una vez consigamos empezar a movilizarnos las personas vean un valor y la seriedad con la que estamos realizando este proyecto y puedan seguir ayudándonos para poder seguir nuestro camino y realizar nuestros objetivos.

Quien Somos

Who we are:
We are two young people, an Ecuadorian and a U.S.A.er, who are going to come together to do this trans-cultural tour. We both have a strong interest in environmentalism, social justice and the bicycle. We have worked in our respective cities (Quito, Ecuador and Minneapolis, USA) to promote the bicycle as a means of transportation and as a sport and we have decided that we need to take a greater challenge and push our limits to bring our passion to another level by bike touring and sharing it with many other people.

Quien somos:
Somos dos jóvenes, un ecuatoriano y una estadounidense, que van a unir para hacer este tour transcultural. Los dos tenemos un interés muy fuerte en ambientalismo, justicia social y la bici. Hemos trabajados en nuestras ciudades respectivas (Quito y Minneapolis) para promover la bici como transporte y deporte y hemos decididos que necesitamos tomar un reto mas grande e impulsar en nuestros limites y traer nuestra pasión mas adelante.

Cristhian Cuaces

Soy Cristhian Cuaces tengo 24 años

Soy de Quito-ecuador

Sueños, aspiraciones, ideales, planes, retos,

Sueños:
El sueño que yo e tenido sobre este viaje viene desde hace mucho tiempo atrás, el poder viajar conocer muchos lugares estar mas en contacto con lo que me hace sentir tan bien que es la “naturaleza” y al mismo tiempo tener un contacto mas interno conmigo mismo y mi otra pasión que es la “bicicleta".
Esto es algo que lo llevo desde muy corta edad el cariño a la bici a la fuerza que me puede transmitir y lo que una persona puede compartir, conocer y al mismo tiempo experimentar con este tipo de transporte.
Yo en los años que tengo e tenido la suerte de conocer muchos lugares muchos sitios.. a mucha gente que comparte mi misma pasión…y en este momento al saber que lo que vamos a hacer es un reto tan grande como ir a chile y muchos lugares mas a pedalear... es algo que me tiene muy emocionado va a ser una experiencia tan buena al saber que estoy haciendo lo que tanto me gusta y al mismo tiempo estoy contribuyendo... llevando un ideal.. llevando un propósito.. llevando algo que la gente lo podrá ver, oír.. así como es el propósito de pedalear en contra de la contaminación ambiental... el respeto al planeta, el respeto a nosotros mismos y llevar una esperanza para la demás gente y mostrar que los sueños si se pueden hacer realidad solamente es de poner de parte de uno mismo...

Aspiraciones
Las aspiraciones que tengo y tenemos con la señorita Claire Stoscheck sobre este viaje es que la gente llegue a entender mucho mas sobre lo que le esta ocurriendo al planeta a nivel climático y al mismo tiempo enseñar a ser mas concientes sobre lo que nos esta ocurriendo por las malas decisiones de todos nosotros y de ciertas elites de poder en todo el mundo y que las personas sepan que también pueden contribuir para mejorar el sitio en el que vivimos.
Que las personas sepan que ellos también pueden hacer algo para mejorar al planeta y a su vez las condiciones de vida de ellos mismos, y en ese plan también dar una idea a la gente sobre un medio de transporte que es económico es saludable es sustentable en pocas palabras la “bicicleta” dar a la gente una nueva idea buena sobre la bicicleta porque lo que ocurre aquí en quito-ecuador ( y supongo que también en muchas partes del mundo) es que la bicicleta esta tomada como un medio de transporte inadecuado, al mismo tiempo porque esta vinculado a la pobreza en la sociedad... en la que vivimos. Porque en este lugar la gente lleva la idea de que "El que tiene plata es mejor y por eso tiene un automóvil" y eso no es así... lo que no se dan cuenta es que se están haciendo un mal a ellos mismo, a todas las personas a las que los rodean y por supuesto a nuestro planeta en el que vivimos la "PACHAMAMA".
Otra cosa es que también a toda la gente que conozcamos se lleguen a enterar de este medio de transporte y que también se den cuenta que por ser un transporte un poco inusual también lo puede hacer cualquier tipo de persona de clase social, racial, sexual, porque lo que sucede en ecuador es que este medio de "transporte" la poca gente que lo ocupa de esa manera la bicicleta son la gran mayoría "hombres" y eso no tiene que ser así.. y por eso salio el sueño de pedalear con la señorita Claire Stoscheck al saber que ella también lleva una gran poder de razonamiento en este tipo de temas

Ideales
los ideales que yo tengo acerca de la bici es que es un gran deporte y al mismo tiempo es un grandioso medio de transporte.. por eso el motivo de pedalear en este viaje.. es un reto muy grande que nos hemos puesto con la señorita Claire.
A su vez el tiempo de nuestro viaje no es solamente por diversión o por una aventura también llevamos un propósito y un sueño que es mas respeto al medio ambiente y a nosotros mismos.
por mi parte Cristhian Cuaces yo llevo esto con gran orgullo el saber que estoy colaborando con un granito de arena para que nuestro planeta, el lugar donde vivimos sea un sitio mucho mejor y podamos vivir en armonía todos y a su vez poder hacer lo que me gusta tanto que es el deporte de la bicicleta, yo en Ecuador soy una persona muy orgullosa de lo que hago que es la bici porque de mi parte yo lo e tomado mas como un deporte antes que un transporte... pero lo bueno de eso es que las dos cosas van de la mano y lo mejor es que podré compartir con mucha mas gente mis experiencias y transmitirles mi energía para que ellos sepan que también lo pueden lograr y ese es el motivo del paseo para informar y cambiar conciencias.

Retos
Los planes que tenemos es poder pedalear por varios países de Sudamérica es un gran reto para nosotros pero sabemos que lo podemos lograr el plan del paseo es poder pedalear por una parte de Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador.

Esto es un poco de lo que les puedo decir sobre el objetivo de nuestro viaje con la señorita Claire Stoscheck si en algún momento quieren un poco de información de este viaje "MOVEMENT POR UN CAMBIO" nuestra pagina estará habilitada para que nos sigan paso a paso sobre este gran viaje y estaremos gustosos en recibir sus comentarios a través de nuestros emails Cristhian Cuaces redlinecristhianbike@gmail.com o Claire Stoscheck cstoscheck@gmail.com o talvez si considerarían en ser uno de nuestros auspiciantes para esta gran aventura de enseñanza, solidaridad y respeto hacia nuestro planeta... estaremos gustosos en que ustedes sean parte.

Claire Stoscheck

I am Claire Stoscheck, a 22 year old woman from the land of Van Etten, NY, which is, currently, in the U.S. I am a feminist, activist, lover of the world. I grew up with my siblings, parents and other creatures in the woods and therefore have always had a connection with the earth, or the ‘pachamama’ (the word in Quichua). Ever since I learned my uncle was murdered in Guatemala by paramilitaries trained by the U.S. for doing social justice work, I’ve had a great interest in the area and a strong critique of U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America. It’s because of this experience that I have felt a strong connection to Latin America and have had the recognition that my actions here as someone from the U.S. strongly affect, sometimes in a positive manner but much more often in a negative manner, the people and land of Latin America. I feel the desire and responsibility to learn more about U.S.-Latin American relations in order to better them. I am in a large process of learning how to work in solidarity with the people of The Americas for freedom, sustainable living, and environmental justice, and against new forms of imperialism. It’s a difficult process and I have learned a lot of humility.

In the meantime, I have been falling in love with the bicycle over the years. For me the bicycle is an autonomous form of transportation that gives me and others freedom, access, endorphins, flexibility, mobility and happiness. At the same time, when I bike, I’m not affecting the earth or other people in a negative way. Biking is very economical, and to top it off, it’s a super fun sport! I started doing bike activism when I arrived at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, and helped revive a student group called Mac Bike in order to promote the bike as a socially-just environmentally-friendly form of transportation.

My knowledge of and passion with the bike got much deeper when I studied abroad in Quito, Ecuador in order to learn Spanish. In Quito I got to know a group called Biciaccion (which has now split up to also be Ciclopolis) and I had the privilege to have an internship with them. I learned a lot from my co-workers in Quito about the bike and strategies and tactics to promote it, including lots of bike art. It was there in Quito that my life changed and I realized that working with the bicycle is really what I want to do in my life (right now) because it feels right—and because for me the bicycle is a simple machine that connects all my most important values: environmentalism, social justice, autonomy, mobility, anti-oppression, creative expression, freedom and happiness. With Biciaccion I got to work on a project with an NGO, Sol De Primavera, and Mac Bike, teaching low-income youth bike mechanics and urban riding skills. It was so inspiring to seen the passion in these young people’s faces as we biked across the city to parks they had never had the mobility to go to on the bicycles we had fundraised for. The youth at Sol taught me a great deal. I also had the privilege to travel to with Biciacicon to Bogotá, Colombia. In Bogotá the bicycle infrastructure was very impressive—there are many miles of bike paths—and it’s awesome that there are almost a million cyclists that commute there each day. But I also realized that we still have so much work to do—even in cities like Bogotá—because hardly any women use the bike lanes there, or are in the streets of Quito, or in many other cities and places in the Americas. It was after this experience that I decided to dedicate myself to social justice within the cycling world and work for bike access and equality for women and other marginalized groups.

I have been fortunate to find bikers with similar values in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/Saint Paul), MN, and after facilitating a class called Bike Feminism with the Twin Cities Experimental College (www.excotc.org) I was involved in starting a bike-justice group called GearUP (Cycling for Equality-www.gearupmn.org) that works to promote accessibility to bikes and equality for all in the bike movement. This work feels particularly important in a time when climate change is becoming more and more real and felt by more and more people. As more people turn to bikes as transportation, it is important that cycling is open and accessible to everyone, not just those already privileged. GearUP has worked with groups in the Twin Cities and beyond and recently led a workshop at an international community bike shop conference called Bikebike (www.bikebike.org). One group we have worked with is Las Macletas (www.macleta.cl) in Santiago, Chile, who have invited me to speak about women and the bicycle at their 2^nd annual Bicicultura (www.bicicultura.cl) festival in Santiago (which will be the kick-off point for Movement Por Un Cambio). I have also worked with the Sibley Bike Depot (as a Board member), Ciclopolis (a an International Representative) and The Hub Bike Co-op. I realize there is so much more work to do in the Twin Cities and most other U.S. cities to promote the bicycle, and also that it is of the utmost importance that people in the U.S., the largest contributor to CO2 emissions, must urgently change their lifestyles in order to pollute less. I also believe that in order to advance the bike movement more quickly we need ideas and inspiration from others working in bike activism elsewhere in the world. The bike activists I met in South America have a creative energy that we have much to learn from. For this reason I am excited to learn from all those we will meet and engage with along the way.

Why this tour?

First of all, I love to bike. It makes me happy to move through space only with the power of my own body. I am curious about the world, and wanting to challenge myself to live a very simplified, low-impact life-style for an extended period of time (in order to, hopefully, adopt it for the long-term). In addition, I have had the dream to travel the world and study the bike movements and spread this information ever since I went to Quito and learned so much from them about innovative tactics and strategies to promote bike culture. There are so many good ideas out there in the world; we just need to improve our networks and communication. All the movements can benefit if we share information and work together. One of my hopes for the tour is that we can promote and feed these networks and help to share information between organizations, cultures and countries. In addition, I want to bring to the attention of bike organizations the issue of the necessity to promote the bicycle for people—especially women—who currently don’t bike or do bike mechanics very much. It is important to talk about why this is and what we can do in order for everyone to have the same opportunity to discover mobility and economic and social opportunities on the bicycle.

I also want to use this bike tour to help connect the dots between global climate change and our lives—because it is clear that climate change is the biggest issue of our time. In order to mitigate it I believe we must not use band aid solutions that exist within the current machine of consumption, but we must address the root causes, such as industrial agriculture, patriarchy, fossil fuel extraction and colonialism. South America is being mined for its fossil fuels by imperialist corporations to fuel the over-consumption of the Global North, while South Americans suffer the environmental side-effects and displacement brought by this exploitation. At the same time, South Americans live near the Amazon, the Andean glaciers, other areas that will be some of the first to be greatly changed and devastated by climate change; however, they are some of the smallest contributors to the problem. This is an example of climate racism where those who are already marginalized in the global economy are the first to bear the negative side effects of it. At the same time, the situation is complicated by the fact that some South American countries choose to fight the neo-imperialism of the U.S. by using the U.S.’s own tools. Countries like Bolivia and Ecuador are kicking out corporations and nationalizing their fossil fuel extraction and mining—but continuing the practice and continuing to destroy their environment and displace indigenous people (it’s just the national government instead of a transnational corporation). Many people are fighting for other alternative and more sustainable and just ways to fight neo-imperialism and we would like to learn about and support these people’s work with this tour.

Using the bicycle in place of an automobile for transportation is one way—among many—to help mitigate climate change that is very tangible, practical and important. It is also a solution that each and every one of us (almost) can choose to do today on our on, independent of any government or international body, to have a lifestyle that is more sustainable with respect to the earth and also is more just to other humans and beings. When I met a person from Latin America, Cristhian Cuaces, who shared my thoughts on the bicycle and the environment and social justice, the opportunity arose to plan and carry out a bike tour which combines our love of the earth and our dedication to struggle against imperialism of Latin America and within Latin America. I recognize that on this tour I am estadounidense with the privilege of going to Latin America, and with each action I vow to be aware of my privilege and try my best not to abuse it but rather use it to fight against imperialism and all forms of oppression. It will be a great challenge and I hope to ask a lot of questions.

For this multitude of reasons, I am doing all in my power to accomplish this tour, Movement Por Un Cambio. I recognize that it will be challenging on many levels, the least of which is physical, but also emotional, spiritual and mental. But I want and need the challenge in order to grow, learn and help spread the movement. The time for change (cambio) is now. We need movement. Movement por un cambio. Movement via the gears of a bicycle.

Movement Por Un Cambio

The Tour and the Objective

jueves, 19 de junio de 2008

Estamos en QUITO!

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Logistics of the Tour—How are we going to do it?

Quien Somos

Cristhian Cuaces

Claire Stoscheck

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