Movement Por Un Cambio

2010-03-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hey!!! how are you my friends.... This is our new adventure..... It is from Ithaca New York to Detroit Michigan....... United States
more imformation
www.bikeit.org

Que tal amigos esta es nuestra nueva aventura unanse a nosotros...!!!!!!!! Ithaca-Nueva york a Detroit Michigan........ ESTADOS UNIDOS....!!!!!!!!!
Para mas informacion aqui les dejamos el link....!!!!!!!!!
www.bikeit.org

Shout-outs!

2008-08-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
So our presentation at Ciclopolis went well! I have posted the notes we used to do the presentation. I am still trying to post the Powerpoint but it is very large! But hopefully some of you will be able to see the presentation when I bring it to Ithaca, NY and-or Minneapolis, MN in the Fall. I wanted to use this opportunity to give a few shout-outs...

Thank you to...

Ciclopolis http://www.ciclopolis.ec/ for inviting us to do the presentation

http://AAAbikers.blogspot.com for the shout-out on their blog

Amelia Nielsen for doing awesome translations

and to all of YOU for reading!
Thanks!

La Presentacion!

2008-08-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

Saludos a todas y todos!

Intentaba subir nuestra PowerPoint que hicimos en Ciclopolis en nuestra Google Groups, pero parece que es demaisiado grande para subir. Entonces, en vez, voy a monstrarles nuestras notas para la presentacion para que pueden ver los temas y asuntos que compartimos en esta charla.

Ahora voy a ver si traduzco en ingles para hacer algunas presentaciones en los EE.UU.

Gracias por leer!

-Claire

PRESENTACION: El Jueves, 7 de Augusto a las 7pm en Ciclopolis, Quito, Ecuador

NOTAS para Diapositivas de presentación de MOVEMENT POR UN CAMBIO

(CL) Slide 1: Introducción… Buenas noches, muchas gracias por venir.

Soy Claire Stoscheck, soy de Nueva York, y (Cris: Cristhian Cuaces, soy de Quito)

Hoy vamos a hablar acerca de nuestra tour de bicicleta, que se llama Movement Por un Cambio, cual no solo fue un viaje en bici en los Andes, pero también usemos el viaje para investigar las culturas y movimientos de la bicicleta, y promoverla como un medio de transporte.

En esta presentación y charla, vamos a primero explicar porque y como hicimos el viaje, y luego vamos a explicar que aprendimos de las culturas y movimientos de la bici. Después, un tiempo para preguntas y discusión, y al final un paseo nocturno, ojala pueden venir!

(CR)

Slide 2: Quien somos y Por que?

-somos dos entusiastas de la bici

-usamos la bici como medio de transporte y deporte y la promovemos como un medio ecológico y accesible para hombres y mujeres

- somos dos activistas en nuestras ciudades

-estamos preocupados por cambio climático

-nosotros tenemos un deseo de aprender de otros movimientos y culturas

de la bici y de esa manera hacer redes entre ellos para fortalecerles ya que nos dimos cuenta que (la bici) es una solución práctica y tangible para el cambio climático

-este viaje para nosotros fue un reto personal y físico

-lo hicimos en bici porque es sano, autónomo, y divertido… y puedes conocer mas lugares

-y el viaje fue desde Santiago de Chile debido al festival de Bicicultura que se realiza en esa ciudad y después poder retornar a Quito

(CL) Slide 3: Que fue?

• 6,320 km entre Santiago de Chile hasta Quito Ecuador en bicicleta

• 7 meses de los cuales 116 días fueron pedaleados

• Cruzamos en nuestra ruta 8 cordilleras de los Andes, entre 0 y 4,500 msnm

• Con 120 libras de peso

• Promedio de 55km al día, oscilando entre 16 y 125km

• El viaje tuvo un valor de $1,300 cada uno por 7 meses (intentamos hacerlo en una manera muy económica, y tuvimos bastante éxito)

• Este proyecto fue Abierto a mas personas—una estadounidense pedaleo con nosotros 2 semanas, otras personas nos ayudaron con traducciones, mucha gente donaron… entonces había un gran participaron de este viaje y proyecto

(CR) Slide 4:

• nuestro Objetivo Logrado en este viaje.

• Fue Llegar a Quito desde Santiago de Chile en BICICLETA y en caso de emergencia otras formas de transporte

• hacer investigaciones y recolectar historias sobre culturas y movimientos de la bici para poder dispersarlos y ayudar a hacer redes entre varios movimientos en países y ciudades diferentes.

• Creamos un sitio de red, que es un recurso de información, el cual contiene listas de contacto, fotos e información de movimientos y culturas de la bici

• Estamos haciendo varias presentaciones para difundir lo que aprendimos y poder enviar los documentos a los bici activistas que hemos conocido en la ruta

(CL) Slide 5: Como?

• Financiamientos-- Pidamos ayuda de organizaciones de la bici y negocios de acampar, (no tuvimos mucho tiempo para planificar el viaje entonces realmente recibimos la mayoría del ayuda desde) y de amigos y familia quien creían en que estamos haciendo. E igual trabajemos mucho y ahorremos.

• Las bicis y equipo-- Empaquemos todo el equipo necesario para ser autosuficiente y hacer un viaje bastante económica—carpa, hornilla, ollas, sleeping, herramientas de la bici, para no tener que pagar alguien para reparar las bicis, etc.…

• Para ahorrar plata Claire reciclo una bici (de 1985) y cris hizo su mismo (parillas, mochilas) y los dos armemos las bicis nosotros mismos

• Acampamos (en Argentina y Bolivia) o recibimos la ayuda de instituciones como los bomberos (especialmente en Perú, y Ecuador), colegios, iglesias…etc.

• Cocinamos nosotros mismos, comprando la comida mas económica del región donde estábamos en el momento, (mucha arroz, quinua, verduras, frijoles y huevos)

• En pueblos con ciclistas—hicimos entrevistas, fotos, observaciones… (para estudiar la bici)

• Para sobrevivir tuvimos que ser Flexibles, espontáneos, y abiertos para hacer amigos

Por ejemplo hicimos amigos en un pueblos, y ellos tuvieron familia en otro pueblo mas al norte, y luego pudríamos quedar con ellos… y así paso muchas veces, entonces fue muy bueno para ser abiertos y amigables.

(CR) Slide 6:

Nuestra Ruta fue:

AL salir de Santiago de chile dirigirnos directamente hacia argentina, llegar a Mendoza y empezar nuestro camino de regreso de subida

En nuestro viaje por argentina también pudimos en las ciudades de salta, san salvador de Jujuy hasta llegar a la frontera con

Bolivia e ir las ciudades de, Uyuni, Oruro, Cochabamba, la paz e ir al lago Titicaca y cruzar nuestra siguiente frontera hacia

Perú y continuar hacia Cuzco, nazca, lima , Trujillo, hasta poder llegar a nuestra ultima frontera que es la de

Ecuador y poder pasar por Cuenca, cañar, Riobamba, Ambato, Latacunga y poder llegar finalmente a Quito Ecuador

(CL) Slide 7: Culturas de La Bici

• Son Pueblos especiales con muchas ciclistas

• No tienen organizaciones o movimientos de la bici: simplemente tienen una cultura donde se usa mucho la bici

• En estés lugares a andar en bici no es una amenaza al estética ni imagen—como es en muchas ciudades donde piensen son “modernos” y gente moderno solo andan en auto o moto (como en Mendoza).

• Son planos generalmente y tranquillos,

• La bici se vean como algo practico y económica, y mas que nada, NORMAL

• mujeres y niños parece que sienten cómodos andando también… hay un porcentaje de ciclistas mucho mas grande de mujeres y niños que en las ciudades grandes

• La gente dicen “siempre ha sido así”, es tan enraizado es difícil a saber como comenzó la cultura

• Estas pueblos son nuestras inspiraciones verdaderos ya que no necesitan organizaciones , ni infraestructura, ni transnacionales, ni proyectos con mucha plata para tener un montón de ciclistas. las culturas de la bici allá parecían más o menos “naturales”, no necesitan eventos ni activistas para decirles andar en bici! Solo lo hacen. Y eso es bien bonito.

• Ahora vamos a contarles de algunas culturas que encontremos….

(CR) Slide 8: Uspallata—

Bueno pues Al comenzar nuestro viaje estábamos un poco impresionados y felices al poder encontrar un pueblo lleno de ciclistas como es Uspallata. Es muy especial ya que casi todas las ciclistas eran mujeres, y que era obvio que eran madres niñas o adolecentes que cargaban sus niños en brazo mientras pedaleaban.

Inclusive había muchos mas niños y niñas estaban andando solos en la calles con su bicicleta fue muy obvio que todos se sentían bien andando en bici en ese lugar.

(CL) Slide 9: Caucete y Gauchito Gil—

· Luego encontremos con Caucete, una ciudad pequeña cerca del Capital San Juan, cual es famoso para su ciclismo

· Llegamos tipo 5 de la tarde y la calle principal estaba LLENA de bicicletas---y ciclistas de todo, hombres, mujeres, jóvenes, viejitos, y un espectáculo fue los padres y madres llevando sus bebes en sus brazos.

· Hay una ciclovia en la vía principal y las ciclistas si lo utilizaron bastante y parecía que los conductores si la respetaron.

· Nos dio tanta esperanza y alegría para estar andando con tantos otros ciclistas.

· Y Justo antes que llegar en Caucete, vimos un altar para un santo---un santo no-católico—que se llama Gauchito Gil, que proteja los viajeros en la carretera. Ya que hay tantas ciclistas en este lugar, la gente han puesto catalinas en el altar de Gauchito Gil. Eso es una prueba que la bici es bien enraizado (profundamente adentro) en la cultura allá.

(CR) Slide 10: Valle Fértil y Soraya

· Otro pueblo en Argentina donde encontramos bastantes ciclistas fue en Valle Fértil (San Agustín).

· En este sitio pudimos empezar nuestras entrevistas de audio

· hablamos con una ciclista que fue chévere y emocionada para manejar bici, ella estuvo con su hija en brazos. En este momento esta una parte de la entrevista que pudimos hacerle.

· PONER ENTREVISTA AQUÍ.

· Como escuchan la moto en esta entrevista es una amenaza para pueblos como San Agustín, donde la gente no tiene los recursos necesarios para comprar un auto pero están encontrando para comprar motos y solo hace 3 o 4 anos han comenzado a remplazar las bicis.

· Dicen las personas que la bici se ha estado quedando solo para el uso de los niños.

1. Fue un cuento triste y lamentablemente es la verdad en MUCHOS pueblos de Argentina, Bolivia, Perú y Ecuador.

(CL) Slide 11: Abra Pampa y Padre Quique

· También fue una sorpresa agradable para llegar en Abra Pampa, un pueblo en el altiplano de Argentina, donde hay un montón de hombres y mujeres andando en bici en su vestimento tradicional indígena.

· Allá conocimos un padre ciclista, que se llama Padre Quique, quien nos explico del fenómeno de Abra Pampa: los sombreros y las bicis. PONER ENTREVISTA AQUÍ.

· Por algunas razones, la moda del moto no ha llegado a Abra Pampa… por razones económicas (no tienen la plata) y por motivos de tranquilidad (motos hacen mucha bulla y la gente allá no le gustan). Por eso la bici todavía esta segura en su posición de medio de transporte en Abra Pampa.

(CR) Slide 12: Bolivia

En Bolivia no había ciclistas en los pueblos y ciudades pero si había muchos en la carretera entre los pueblos que pudimos visitar, las carreteras en este país tienen señales de transito llamando la atención de los ciclistas

(Pueden verlo en la foto).

En la ruta había mujeres en su vestimenta tradicional, niños y niñas quienes estaban yendo o regresando de la escuela o colegio en sus bicis. Una día encontramos un grupo de mas o menos 10 niños, todos en bicis todos pedaleando juntos para regresar a sus casas que estaban muy alejadas en el campo.

Algunos de Los Niños estaban con las bicis de sus padres

y por ende no alcanzaban los pedales, ya que eran muy pequeños

pero se sentían muy bien al manejar bici.

Ciclovías de Bolivia

Gracias al consejos de varios trabajadores de las calles quienes siempre estaban en bici en Bolivia,

pudimos encontrar una verdadera CICLOVIA que se desvía de la carretera de autos y se dirige a los campos de Bolivia, que acorta el camino en la mitad de tiempo

Cruzando manadas de llamas, ríos, pequeñas quebradas y al final seguía la línea del ferro carril por unos 10 kilómetros.

Nos dimos cuenta que Los ciclistas de Bolivia no esperan al gobierno para hacer infraestructura de la bici: ellos tomen el problema en sus propias manos y hacen las ciclovías ellos mismo!

Fue muy chévere para andar en esta ciclovia especial…

(CL) Slide 14: Perú

· Perú… el primer cosa que reconocimos es que se usa la bici mucho mas que en Bolivia, al menos en los provincias de la sierra en el sur (Puno, etc.…).

· Que maravilloso para ver tantos ciclistas, en la ruta y en los pueblos igual.

· El provincia de Puno, que todavía es altiplano y es bastante plano al lado de lago Titicaca, fue especialmente impresionante. La bici allá es tan común que a veces parecía que crecía de la tierra, como maíz, (ver foto), a lado de la calle.

· Tiene algunas ciudades que son realimente reinados de la bici…

(CR) Slide 15: Puno

El primero de estos lugares que encontramos fue la ciudad de Puno, donde fue el primer lugar que utiliza el tricitaxi como medio de transporte masivo

Todos los tricitaxistas son súper amables, y todos nos comentaron que tenemos que ir a Juliaca si queríamos ver mas tricitaxis de los que allí había.

En la ciudad de puno Hay una pista para practicar bici como deporte y es bueno para fomentar el ciclismo de otra manera

También tuvimos la suerte de encontrarnos con 2 chicas, justo antes de que una le enseñe a manejar bici a la otra

Y en sus propias palabras ellas les explicaran acerca de la función del tricitaxi.

PONER ENTREVISTA AQUÍ.

(CL) Slide 17: Juliaca

· Y cuando llegamos a Juliaca, vimos que es la cultura mas fuerte de la bici que vimos en el viaje, la CAPITAL DE TRICICLO, muchos mas que en Puno.

· -el tráfico y congestión, fue de la bici y triciclo—no había contaminación, no hay ruido, y nosotros sentimos muy cómodos—en casa, andando en bici.

(CL) Slide 18: Juliaca continuada

· -Hay entre 14,000 y 50,000 triciclos usados en Juliaca, y al menos 5,000 en la calle en cualquier día. Y Juliaca no es muy grande… tiene un populación de mas o menos 150,000… los triciclos dejan su marca en la ciudad…y es positiva.

· historia: siempre, desde esta ciudad nació (es una ciudad joven…mas o menos 100 anos) han usado triciclos para cargo, ya que es una ciudad de comercio…hace 20 anos fabricantes de triciclos tuvieron la idea para hacer los triciclos cómodos para pasajeros también…y nació el triciclo pasajero, el modo PRIMARIO de transporte en Juliaca

· -estudio de 5 minutos… vimos 65 bicicletas o triciclos y solo 31 vehículos motorizados… eso es UNA CULTURA DE LA BICI

· -porque tantos triciclos? La cuidad es plano, con calles anchos. Es una ciudad de comercio entonces hay mucha demanda para viajes rápidos y cortos adentro de la ciudad. Pero hay millones de ciudades similares en el mundo—porque Juliaca es tan especial? La única respuesta que encontremos es que la cultura del triciclo es tan profundamente adentro de la cultura—han usado por tantos décadas que ya es NORMAL en Juliaca, la gente ya no saben PORQUE hay triciclos. Como una mujer que entrevistemos dijo, “Tricitaxis son la forma MASIVA de transporte en Juliaca”.

· -porque la gente prefieran tricitaxis a otras formas de transporte? Porque es el mas barato… para ir en tricitaxi solo cuesta 1 sol (mas o menos .30 centavos) mientras para ir en moto taxi cuesta 1.5 soles y en auto taxi cuesta 2 soles. Entonces la mayoría de la gente van en tricitaxi!

· -Es rápida, puedas ir con mucha carga (vimos una mujer con ¿10? Bolsos de cemento en el tricitaxi que alquiló… el triciclista sacando el aire para avanzar---pero estaba avanzando bastante. que fuerza! Juliaca es un buen lugar para recordar la fuerza del cuerpo humana que muchas de nosotros, de la cuidad especialmente, han olvidado)

· -Es muy difícil a ser un triciclista…muchos de ellos trabajan 6am a 6pm, están cargando mas peso que nosotros cargamos en el viaje—solo el triciclo pesa 120 libras, mas el pasajero y su cargo…, y están pedaleando constantemente, todo el día, todos los días. Cuando hablemos con triciclistas, ellos siempre dijeron que es buen trabajo, pueden ganar bien (20 soles al día) y tener horas flexibles (para que pueden tener otro trabajo o hacer estudios) pero muchos quieren cambiar su trabajo porque es MUY cansado.

· -Por eso la mayoría de triciclistas son hombres jóvenes, y los mayores tienen problemas para encontrar clientes a veces (les vean como mas débiles).

· Aparte de eso, No hay muchos retos para ser un triciclista…si eres un hombre, porque es tabú para las mujeres… los triciclos se hacen allá en fabricas pequeñas en Juliaca y cuestan mas o menos 900 soles que uno puede pagar usando el triciclo usualmente adentro de un ano.

· --Cultura de la bici tan completa…gracias as triciclistas---el ambiente es seguro para otros ciclistas, inclusivo mujeres y niños. Cualquier negocio es hecho en bici… desde la gente que coleccionar la basura hasta la gente que venden DVDs, o plátano, o canguil, en la calle. Todo esta en 2 o 3 llantas no-motorizados!

· La gente no tienen miedo que el auto o moto van a reemplazar el triciclo, porque es el modo más económico y conveniente de transporte que existe. Un joven dijo que tal vez la moto va a remplazarlo porque ser triciclista es muy cansada y la gente con tiempo van a escoger la forma más fácil para ellos… pero, no, la mayoría crean que el triciclo va a quedar permiamente en Juliaca. Ojala.

· -No hay infraestructura de la bici ni apoyo de municipio ni organizaciones: nada. Eso es una prueba no se necesita organizaciones, ciclovías, ni proyectos transnacionales con mucho plata, para tener muchos ciclistas. Que se necesita es un motivo económica y una cultura en que la bici o triciclo es ACCEPTADA no es una vergüenza y no se daña a la imagen de la gente. No es un símbolo de pobreza. Es algo conveniente y practico. Es claramente una CULTURA de la BICI allá en Juliaca, y una inspiración al resto de mundo.

(CR) Slide 18: Ayaviri

Al Salir de Juliaca estábamos impresionados por encontrar una parte de la carretera y un pueblo, Ayaviri, donde hay MAS mujeres ciclistas que hombres, en bicis normales y de todo tipo

Parecía que la cultura de la bici de Juliaca se disperso a los alrededores, pero en Ayaviri donde es un pueblo mas pequeño, mas tranquilo y seguro, las mujeres pueden pedalear con mas confianza en las calles

(CL) Slide 19: Puquio y Padre Rueben y Trujillo y Padre Bonniqui

· -conocimos a Padre Rueben en Puquio quien nos ayudo bastante con hospedaje, y es un ciclista feroz y fuerte, (PONER ENTREVISTA AQUÍ)

· Dijo que le enseño los padres alemanes que vienen a visitar pueblos en Pero desde Lima y Trujillo, y ensenan a los padres como andar en bici. Nos dio el contacto de un Padre en Trujillo

· -y cuando llegamos a Trujillo conocimos a Padre Bonniqui, un padre quien ha pedaleado todo su vida desde su juventud en Alemania…

· -el nos dijo una cuenta bastante fuerte que su doctor dijo que si no fue para la bici el hubiera sido muerto ya …ya que es su forma de ejercicio diario que da a el salud que tiene.

· -estos padres son ejemplos para los demás…ya que son padres en un país bien católico, la gente tiene bastante respeto para ellos. Si la gente vean su padre, quien son bastante sobre-peso, (como son estos padres) andando en bici todo los días, van a tener mas confianza para hacer lo mismo.

· --Padres ciclistas de cierto fue un tema que vimos en este viaje, un fenómeno muy positivo

(CR) Slide 20: Ecuador

- Nos dimos cuenta que al entrar a ecuador hay menos ciclistas que en otros países

-la ciudad de pasaje tiene algunos ciclistas, algunas mujeres pedaleando, inclusive una niña pequeña que iba rápido en su bici a la que encontramos en la carretera

- en Cuenca hay bastantes ciclistas pero la cultura esta enfocada en el deporte. Sin embargo hay algunos ciclistas peculiares que encontramos ahí

(Foto del hombre con casco de moto, el hombre sin asiento…)

-al llegar a la ciudad de Riobamba parecía que tiene mas ciclistas que las demás ciudades… dentro del país

Tal vez sea porque es plano y es bastante tranquillo con poca delincuencia.

Es una ciudad grande pero a su vez la gente tiene la suficiente confianza para dejar sus bicis sin cadenas en la calle…que es un señal muy clara que no hay mucho robo de bicis en esta ciudad

la gran mayoría de los ciclistas son hombres en Riobamba.

Conocimos un mensajero adulto que usa la bici ya que se puede desplazar mas rápido, es conveniente en la ciudad... y se puede parquear la bici en cualquier sitio ya que no necesita mucho espacio como un auto.

(CL) Slide 21: Movimientos de La Bici

· Los Movimientos de la bici, es nuestra definición de los lugares donde existe organizaciones, gobiernos y grupos que conscientemente trabajan para promover la bici como medio de transporte.

· Nuestra información de estos movimientos es una combinación de nuestras observaciones, análisis, y las opiniones de las activistas a los que entrevistamos.

CL) Slide 22: Santiago

· -En Santiago el movimiento es bien establecido (1989 con el MFC),

· -Hay mas que 10 organizaciones de la bici y cada ano hay mas.

· -El movimiento allá es muy diverso y viene desde las raíces.

· -Todos son O.n.g.s. o grupos informales de ciudadanos, y muchos están intentando a trabajar con el gobierno pero hay retos y resistencia.

· Por supuesto, hay muchísimas eventos, cicletadas, proyectos como bicis públicos, parqueaderos, sistemas de intermobilidad, conferencias internacionales como Bicicultura, ciclovías—que son mal conectadas entonces no muy útiles, y únicamente en los movimientos que vimos, talleres comunitarios—

· Santiago tiene al menos 2 talleres comunitarios de la bici, donde el público puede ir y aprender mecánica, reparar su propia bici con herramientas colectivas, y ayudar otros a reparar sus bicis. Estos talleres son únicos en Sudamérica y muy positiva, haciendo que bicis baratos y mecánica barata o gratis es más accesible a la gente.

· Santiago tiene una organización que esta dedicada en específico a promover la bici para las mujeres, que se llama Las Macletas, una de las primeras en Sudamérica. Ya que actualmente las mujeres solo son más o menos 8% de los ciclistas, esta organización es un paso en el movimiento de la bici muy importante. De hecho hay una organización para mujeres aquí en Quito también, que se llama Todas en Bici, habla con belen para más info.

· -CUCH (Ciclistas Unidas de Chile) es positiva porque ahora los autoridades tienen un grupo bastante grande con quien pueden hablar acerca de asuntos de la bici (en vez de hablar con 10 grupos diferentes). Desgraciadamente CUCH no incluye todos las organizaciones...se excluye dos importantes, MFC y Arriba de la Cancha.

· -En Santiago, todos están haciendo sus proyectos separados, por lo general. Había un intento de un proyecto de un escala grande, con fundos del Global Environmental Fund (GEF) (un organización transnacional) pero no funciono y jugué un rol en la separación entre grupos de la bici (especialmente, entre CUCH y MFC y Arriba).

· Santiago tiene tantas organizaciones que de hecho tienen peleas entre ellos y ya no colaboran mucho—a veces el nombre o logo del grupo es mas importante que promover la bicicleta. También, según activistas de la bici de Santiago, hay bastante repetición entre las organizaciones (no es que cada uno tienen su especialidad) y por eso es un poco caótico. Son algunos aspectos difíciles en el movimiento allá.

· -Hay algunos aspectos del movimiento de Santiago que son bien especiales…

· También los activistas nos dijeron que es muy difícil a organizar en post-Pinochet Chile ya que el dictador cambio la cultura tanto que la gente ya no sepan como ser ciudadanos activos… el dictador no les dejo hacer muchas cosas como reunir con otros personas o tener contacto con otros países. El resulto ha sido una cultura bien individualista, parecido a la cultura de los EE.UU. según activistas.

· -En este contexto de post-Pinochet Chile, la bici realmente puede ser una herramienta para obtener libertad (después de tanto opresión, toque de queda, etc.…) en Chile.

· Al mismo tiempo que es difícil a organizar, hay muchos y muchas chilenos fuertes que están luchando constantemente contra esta cultura individualista y para tener cambio social en el país. Nosotros tuvimos el gusto de conocer muchos de ellos en el mundo de la bicicleta.

(CR) Slide 23: Valparaíso

-En Valparaíso hay algunas organizaciones que promueven la bici pero el mas activo y grande, se llama MFC Valparaíso es inspirada por el movimiento de Furiosos Ciclistas de Santiago… parece que ellos son muy unidos.

-Han logrado crear ciclovías en su ciudad y tienen varios eventos y cicletadas.

-Tienen mucha organización interna y hay elecciones entre la gente que asisten a las cicletadas para poder elegir a sus dirigentes

-este grupo ciclista No quiere involucrarse con los movimientos ciclistas de Santiago incluyendo hasta que arreglen sus diferencias con las organizaciones existentes en esa ciudad

-este grupo lleva el nombre de MFC pero casi no tiene relación con el movimiento de Santiago, es una organización muy diferente.

-nosotros Fuimos en una cicletadas con ellos y conocimos muchos activistas… como por ejemplo la señora, Elena, de 55 y años quien comenzó a pedalear 30km al trabajo todos los días.

(CL) Slide 24: Cochabamba

· -El movimiento en Cochabomba es muy joven

· -un diario, que se llama El Tiempo, esta comenzándolo…con una compaña de comunicación acerca de los beneficios de la bici como medio de transporte, (que incluyo un articulo acerca de nuestra viaje).

· -Tienen ciclovías pero tienen muy mal diseño y son muy peligrosos (túneles, ladrones, no están conectadas, huecos y lomas en ciclovías, llenos de agua y basura…).

· -Un periódico en su mismo no puede ser el movimiento, pero tienen las ganas entonces pueden trabajar con otros organizaciones deportistas y ambientalistas para poder comenzar un movimiento diverso y fuerte.

Slide 25: Lima

(Decir que hay mucha contaminación—mostrar foto, un razón muy importante para que deben tener un movimiento de la bici!)

• el movimiento ciclista en Lima es joven y hasta ahora los proyectos a favor de la bicicleta han sido realizados desde los municipios y organizaciones transnacionales.

• sus proyectos actuales son auspiciados por el banco mundial, manejado por el municipio y corporaciones privadas. El proyecto principal se llama Proyecto Zoom

• las bases del proyecto Zoom son:

• enseñar a niños y niñas en escuelas y colegios cómo manejar bicicleta y aprender a ser auto suficiente para poder pedalear en las calles sabiendo las respectivas leyes de transito y otras cosas básicas como por ejemplo aprender a ser mas hábil en la bicicleta para la seguridad de los futuros ciclistas

• La enseñanza se realiza en escuelas y colegios

• Se basa en tener monitores- personas capacitadas para poder enseñar a manejar bicicleta- en las clases de educación física de los respectivos establecimientos educativos, que son docenas de escuelas y colegios en los municipios de Lima y Callao.

• Una vez que los niños aprendieron a manejar bicicleta se realiza pedaleadas (que se llama Caravanas) de llegada y salida de establecimiento escolar hasta sus respectivos hogares con la supervisión de adultos responsables del resguardo de los niños.

• Otro aspecto de Proyecto Zoom es construir ciclovías, ya que ahora las ciclovías de Lima están mal conectadas entre si y poco usadas.

• Pero decidieron que su prioridad en promover la bici es un programa educativo y menos en infraestructura. Eso es una fortaleza de la ciudad de Lima, pero también una debilidad

• el Proyecto Zoom tiene la capacidad de estar DENTRO de las horas de colegio o escuela, y por eso todos y todas pueden participar y aprender.

• Se Esta construyendo una cultura de la bici en la gente desde una edad temprana para que pueden practicar bici toda su vida.

• en este momento solo hay UNA organización independiente, que se llama Ciclo Axion. Ellos comenzaron con una cicletada mensual, Masa Crítica, en el invierno pasado. Por estar todavía en la etapa de crecimiento le falta participantes, solo 14 personas fueron cuando nosotros estuvimos allá, pero es el comienzo de un proyecto de la bici ciudadano.

(CL) Slide 26: Trujillo

· En Trujillo hay muchas organizaciones deportivos de la bici, pero todavía falta una organización o grupo fuerte que la promueve como transporte.

· Pero si hay bici amantes con las ganas para hacerlo, de hecho cuando estábamos allá un bici activista, de la Casa de Ciclista famoso allá, Lucho, estaba planificando con Padre Bonniqui en como pueden hablar con el alcalde para comenzar a poner ciclovías… Muy pronto parece que un movimiento va a crecer allá.

(CR) Slide 27: Temas

Aunque hay diferencias culturales entre los pueblos y ciudades que visitamos, vimos los siguientes temas en los movimientos:

Infraestructura (muchos sitios en el mundo) vs. Educación (En Lima)

• En muchas ciudades en los EE.UU. el énfasis del movimiento de la bici es en la infraestructura y la educación es ignorada

• Es un problema porque nadie va a usar las ciclovías en buen estado

si nadie sabe como pedalear

o no tiene interés.

• Programas como Proyecto Zoom, donde hay educación de la bici DENTRO de las horas de escuela y colegio, son fundamentales para comenzar una cultura de la bici.

• Pero al mismo tiempo

• es importante tener un buen diseño de la infraestructura para quienes no tienen la confianza para pedalear en las calles

• es necesario tener un equilibrio entre los dos “IMFRAESTRUCTURA” y “EDUCACION”

Perdiendo perspectiva, demasiado conflicto-

- Vimos que en algunos sitios los activistas llegan a ser tan apasionantes con su cargo que

Pierden la perspectiva de promover la bicicleta

- ya no pueden colaborar con otras organizaciones vinculadas a lo mismo (que es una cultura

de la bici en la ciudad)

- -Otra falla es que el enfoquen es demasiado en la marca o logo de su organización, y olvidan

el objetivo final, que es promover la bici como medio de transporte.

- -nos pudimos dar cuenta de eso en la ciudad de Santiago de chile, seria bueno para el

movimiento si los grupos y organizaciones pudieran encontrar una manera para olvidar sus

diferencias y colaborar juntos

Genero! Y niños

- -en la gran mayoría de pueblos y ciudades que visitamos los ciclistas fueron hombres

para tener una cultura de la bici tenemos que tener mujeres y niños pedaleando

- las mujeres son la mitad de la población mundial, y los niños son el futuro…si ellas y ellos no

pedalean, como podemos tener una cultura de la bici?

- -es importante que las organizaciones de la bici tomen en cuenta esto y comiencen a tomar

acciones para cambiar la situación

otro tema es el terreno plano vs. Lomas, costa vs. Sierra

- había mas ciclistas en el altiplano de Bolivia y en la costa

- -pero algo importante para ciudades con montanas es tener un sistema de intermodalidad para que la gente pueda llevar sus bicis en los buses u otro trasporte publico para que puedan ir en bici hasta cierto punto de la ciudad y luego para subir pueden ir en otra forma de transporte

(CL) Slide 28: Temas continuadas…

Gobiernos v. el base (raíces)

· -Hay movimientos desde arriba… gobiernos locales, u organizaciones transnacionales como el banco mundial (como en Lima) y hay otros que vienen desde las bases, grupos comunitarios o O.n.g.s. (Quito, Santiago).

· -Cada tipo tiene sus pluses y negativos… pero parece que el ideal seria un equilibrio entre los dos—una fundación fuerte de los bases, con apoyo y colaboración de los autoridades y organizaciones grandes.

· Es importante que las ideas para el movimiento de la bici vienen desde las raíces y lo local ya que ellos son quienes saben la cultura y la realidad local de la comunidad, no un gobierno ni una transnacional.

Necesidad (económica) vs. Decisión (ideas de salud, medio ambiente)

· Vimos que en algunos lugares la cultura de la bici es basado en su utilidad—por que es más económica y a veces más rápida que otras formas de transporte (como en Juliaca). (PRACTICO, ECONOMICO)

· -En otros sitios, usualmente en las ciudades donde la cultura del auto es más fuerte, el movimiento esta basado en motivos intelectuales acerca del medio ambiente y la salud (como en Lima y Santiago). En estas ciudades, muchas veces es la “moda” para los del clase media con acceso a educación para andar en bici por razones morales, pero no lo hacen por que tienen que hacer (por razones económicas) (DECISION, INTELLECTUAL)

· -Estas fotos monstrua: aquí en Santiago es una decisión intelectual, y aquí en Juliaca es por motivo económica.

· -Parece que es mucho más probable para tener más gente en bici cuando la cultura de la bici es basado en su utilidad y no como “la moda”. Por ejemplo, Juliaca tiene un porcentaje mucho más alto de ciclistas que en Lima.

· –En el primer ejemplo, a veces la gente pedalear porque no tienen los recursos económicas para un auto o moto…si tuvieron la plata, lo hubieron comprado… -por eso educación acerca de los beneficios de salud y medio ambiente es importante en estos pueblos también…para que cuando la gente llegan tener los recursos por fin para comprar un moto o auto, ya no lo quieren

· -En el segundo ejemplo, no es sustentable para tener el movimiento de la bici basada en una moda que es realimente INTELLECTUAL, en vez de ser ECONOMICO. Cuando es tan intelectual, a veces los mismos activistas de la bici andan en auto porque pueden, no necesitan ir en bici. Por eso tenemos que poner incentivos económicos más fuertes para usar la bici, como un bono para los que llegan a trabajo en bici y-o multas para los que se usan su auto en la ciudad.

· -En cada movimiento, hay que usar ángulos diferente dependiente en la audiencia de ciclistas potenciales. Para la gente con pocos recursos hay que mostrar los beneficios económicos (y también de medio ambiente, etc.…) y para la gente quien no les importa la economía toco concentrar en los beneficios de la salud y medio ambiente, pero al mismo tiempo multándolos por usar su auto, para que es un incentive bastante fuerte.

· Igual tenemos que luchar para cambiar que significa la bici simbólicamente: ahora, en ciudades con una cultura del auto fuerte, como en Quito, la bici, cuando usada como transporte, es un símbolo de pobreza, y vergüenza. Pero en un pueblo como Juliaca, es un símbolo de rapidez y conveniencia. Tenemos que CAMBIAR el SIGNIFICADO SIMBOLICA de la BICI.

· -Pero los activistas de la bici tenemos que tener cuidado porque cuando los amantes de la bici úsalo como parte de su identidad “cool” o “chévere”, puede ser algo muy exclusivo, algo que otra gente no siente que pueden participar o sentir parte de algo así porque es un CLUB especial, exclusivo o un club "fru fru"…. Igual cuando los activistas son más preocupados con su CARRERA, que con la BICI, es muy problemática porque llegan a no promover la bici más, pero promover su propia posición económica. Los movimientos de la bici, si su objetivo realmente es para que mas gente, todo la gente, andan en bici, deben tener cuidado con eso… y tienen que hacer TODO lo POSSIBLE para hacer la bici accesible: talleres comunitarios, talleres de andar en bici y mecánica GRATUITA, paseos en bici GRATUITOS, etc.…para que todos-as se pueden participar!

(CR) Slide 29:

Ideas para otra ciudad basada en lo que hemos aprendido en este viaje

• Educación de la bici dentro de escuelas y colegios

• Equilibrio entre educación e infraestructura

• Programa de transporte de intermodalidad: para llevar bicis en buses, y otras formas de transporte público!

• Un programa de bici-amigos-as o sea que un ciclista con experiencia le enseñe a desplazarse en las calles a uno que no lo pueda hacer

• Talleres comunitarios con herramientas colectivas

• Infraestructura que conecte empleados a su trabajo (de este modo se utiliza para transporte y no solo para recreo) que es directo, rápido, seguro, etc.

• Ciclo vías y ciclo carriles con buenos diseños para que las personas la utilicen y haya un poder político para hacer mas ciclovías

• Trabajar en las leyes de subsidio a los combustibles (en Perú cuesta 3 veces mas la gasolina que lo que cuesta en Ecuador) para que haya menos incentivo para el uso del auto.

• Y Un enfoque en promover la bici para mujeres y niños

(CL) Slide 30: Otro viajeros y sus historias:

· Conocimos otras ciclistas viajeras en el viaje que nos inspiraron y nos dieron energía y motivación para continuar con el reto y la aventura.

· Queremos usar esta oportunidad para agradecerles… aquí es Juan, un triciclista de Venezuela, y nuestros amigos Carlos de Argentina y Tyson de los EE.UU, quien también esta haciendo una investigación del uso de la bici en Sudamérica (y estamos compartiendo con el)… y hay muchas mas.

· esta gente nos inspiran y nos dieron energías para continuar el viaje! Gracias!

(CR) Slide 31:

Bueno estas son las conclusiones de nuestra investigación

• Mucho que hacer, y mucho que aprender de otros sitios y proyectos

Debemos construir redes y trabajar en un nivel local y transnacional, para poder aprender desde la experiencia en otros contextos y culturas

(CL) Slide 32: Conclusiones de nuestras experiencias

Gracias a esta experiencia inolvidable, hemos aprendido mucho acerca de nosotros mismos… por ejemplo hemos aprendido ser mas

• espontáneos, abiertos,

• comunicar con gente muy diferente que nosotros,

• redescubrimos la solidaridad (que tienen la gente, su generosidad—especialmente la gente pobre…, su deseo para ayudar viajeros, extraños…es increíble) y ha sido perdido…

• dimos cuenta que la gente son mas amables cuando viajas en bici, te aceptan en sus casas, te invitan a comer, etc. Porque tu estas esforzando mucho físicamente, un reto muy grande, y la gente tienen respeto para eso y también por los ideales ambientalistas

• romper hábitos, que tienes en la vida “normal” en la ciudad,

• aprendas ser mas duros, y aguantar mas, mas paciencia

• Pudimos ensenar acerca de multiculturalismo

• y dar motivación para otros hacer el mismo, viajar y movilizarse en bicicleta!! Mucha gente nos dijo que quieren hacer el mismo y eso siempre nos dio esperanza…

(CR) Slide 33:

Bueno pues Esto a sido una breve charla de lo que hemos hecho en nuestro viaje si tal vez tienen alguna pregunta con gusto les responderemos.

Fin: Gracias por haber asistido a esta charla y esperamos que puedan visitar nuestro Sitio de Red, nos dejen sus comentarios y sus opiniones.

Nueva fecha para Charla!

2008-07-23T10:43:00.001-07:00

Buenas noticias... ya tenemos nueva fecha y hora para la charla en Ciclopolis!

Acompáñanos en una exposicion y charla con la norteamericana Claire Stoscheck y el ecuatoriano Cristhian Cuaces sobre su aventura en bici por sudámerica que comenzó en Santiago de Chile, paso por Argentina, Bolivia y Perúy terminó en Quito hace 8 meses.

La fecha: Jueves, 7 de Augusto
Hora: 7pm (19:00)
Lugar: el auditorio de la Fundación Ciclópolis. Equinoccio N17 – 171 y Queseras del Medio (para una mapa: http://www.ciclopolis.ec/portal/ciclopolis/textos-generales/ubicacion.html)
Que: Exposicion del viaje y los resultados de sus investigacion, y despues un PASEO NOCTURNO acabando en un lugar para comer, tomar y compartir!

Estos chicos entusiastas del pedal hicieron este tour para poder investigar el movimiento de la bici en sudamérica y promover este vehículo como un medio de transporte ecológico, saludable, económico y divertido.

Para más información sobre su travesía puede visitar su sitio web: http://www.movementporuncambio.blogspot.com/ o escríbe a: cstoscheck@gmail.com y redlinecristhianbike@gmail.com

Tour “Movement Por Un Cambio” llegó a Quito!

2008-06-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

NOTA: Tenemos que cancelar esta charla por razones de...futbol!
Disculpe la molestia y por favor regresa a esta pagina para ver la fecha nueva para la charla.
Gracias!!

Acompáñanos en una charla informal con la norteamericana Claire Stoscheck y el ecuatoriano Cristhian Cuaces sobre su aventura en bici por sudámerica que comenzó en Santiago de Chile, paso por Argentina, Bolivia y Perúy terminó en Quito hace 8 meses.

Este próximo Miércoles 2 de julio 17h30 en el auditorio de la Fundación Ciclópolis.

Estos chicos entusiastas del pedal hicieron este tour para poder investigar el movimiento de la bici en sudamérica y promover este vehículo como un medio de transporte ecológico, saludable, económico y divertido.Para más información sobre su travesía puede visitar su sitio web: http://www.movementporuncambio.blogspot.com/ o escríbe a: cstoscheck@gmail.com y redlinecristhianbike@gmail.com

Bike touring Tips, Packing List, Contacts, and more!

2008-06-26T14:48:00.002-07:00

Totales:

Kilometers: 6,320 (mas o menos 4,000 millas)
Plata gastado para los dos (desde los boletos de bus a Stg… no incluye equipo, bicis, etc): $3,260
Dias pedaleando (comienza el 28 de Nov): mas o menos 116
Dias descansandos-investigando-conociendo: mas o menos 86 desde 28 de Nov (+ 20 dias en Santiago)
Promedio de kilómetros pedaleados diariamente: 55km
Tiempo total de viaje en bici: 6 meses 18 dias (o 202 dias + 20 dias en Santiago) (tiempo total desde salimos de Quito… 7 meses 1 semana)
Altura mas alto: 4,500msnm (en feet es: 13,500 ft above sea level) entre Cocachabamba y Oruro, Bolivia y mas bajo: 0msnm (Valparaíso y Mancora!)
Peso total: ¿la bici es 45lbs… mas 75 en equipaje…?=120lbs mas o menos

Bike Tour Tips & Packing Ideas

Each bike tourer will have her or his own priorities in what to pack , what to eat, and where to stay in their bike tour. However, in planning your own tour it is always useful to hear about what others did to help you make up your own mind. For this reason we have compiled some tips for bike tourers, specifically for those touring in the Andean countries of South America, and specifically for those hoping to tour very cheaply…

-For a cheaper trip, make sure to bring a light weight camp stove that uses anytime of fuel (so that you can re-fuel at gas stations, since you won´t find many camping stores). Make sure to also bring a tent (one which the fly can come off of… if it´s an integrated fly you will die of heat in the desert!) and a very warm sleeping bag (the altiplano in Bolivia is incredibly cold), and a sheet for the desert areas (we sewed it at the bottom so it folded nicely and could enter the sleeping bag, so that it also served as a liner so we didn´t get our sleeping bags too dirty). Sleeping pads ARE A MUST for staying warm!!

-For a cheaper trip, ask permission to stay at fire-stations (especially a good choice in Peru and Ecuador), schools, police stations, churches and community centers. Just explain that you are a cyclist, biking for…whatever you are biking for, and ask for a small area to put a tent up or a place to pass the night. We highly recommend that you write a letter of recommendation for the institutions you stay in to sign. We started such a letter of recommendation in Abancay, Peru and continued to get 15 more signatures (of fire-stations, churches, etc) and it helped us a GREAT deal… it allowed for people to instantly trust us and for us to be legitimate in their eyes.

-Compare prices of prepared food (almuerzos) and non-prepared food (we always had
sandwiches for lunch)… in some countries it will be cheaper to prepare yourself lunch (Argentina, Chile, usually in Peru…) and sometimes it will be actually cheaper to eat prepared food (i.e. a lunch in Bolivia was as cheap as $.70, cheaper than bread and cheese…)

-Cook local foods, buy whatever is cheapest in the markets (fruit and veggie prices vary wildly depending on where you are… for example potatoes are super cheap in the mountains and expensive on the coast, near the rainforest bananas are cheap but in Argentina they are expensive and instead grapes and apples are cheap.) Oatmeal (with fruit, honey, nuts) is the IDEAL breakfast… it´s super good energy and cheap too!

-Bring a complete set of rain cloths… Jacket, Pants, gloves, and something to cover your shoes!! This is incredibly important or you will suffer…

-Kickstands generally don´t work well with a loaded bicycle…better to find a light stick and jam it under your seat or your rack so you can have your bike standing. The stick can also double up to protect you from aggressive dogs!

-Speaking of dogs, they will try to attack you, but if you stay calm and ignore them they won´t bite.

-Line your panniers (bike bags) with plastic bags so you don´t get your stuff wet… if you are camping in rainy areas, rip open some garbage bike and bungee them to your bike so none of your stuff gets wet.

-The Argentine desert is IDEAL for wild camping. Bolivia is pretty good… but Peru and Ecuador are so populated that it is very difficult to find a safe, unseen place. That´s why we stayed 90% of the time in these countries in fire stations.

-Bring a book you aren´t attached to so that you can trade it in or give it away! In fact, you should also bring clothing you aren´t attached to incase you realize you brought too much and need to give it away.

-If you are a light sleeping, bring ear plugs because you never know where you will be sleeping!

-You must tour on a mountain bike (you will be passing some pretty holey dirt roads)! But if you are used to road bikes… put road drop bars on a mountain bike and create a hybrid (that´s what I did and it was ideal for this trip!) You´ll need at least a 7 speed cassette…

My Basic Packing List…
Clothes:
Rain Jacket, rain pants, rain booties (that we made ourselves out of fake leather), dish washing gloves, bike shoes, sneakers, sandals, sunglasses, 2 bike shorts, 6 undies, 5 pairs of socks, 2 pants, one pair of pants to sleep in (comfy), 3 sports bras, winter hat, winter gloves, sun hat, 2 bandanas, 2 tee shirts, 3 tank tops, 1 fleece jacket, 1 sweatshirt, 2 shirts, 1 skirt, 1 dress, one compact towel, bike tights
NOTE: In the next trip I will pack many LESS clothes… you really don´t need much because you can constantly be washing things… I´d recommend 1 or 2 of everything… However, don´t skimp out on rain clothes or warm clothes , you WILL need them in the mountains. Also, make sure to bring bike shorts, they will save your butt for SURE! 2 pairs…
Health:
Toothbrush-floss-paste, shampoo, soap for body, soap for washing clothes and dishes, first aid kit, scissors, sanitation gel, vitamins, keeper, water purifier (we used the MSR purifier MIOX that uses salt and electricity to create a solution that cleans the water… it works GREAT!), ear plus, lotion, comb, mace or pepper spray, bug repellant, sun screen, chapstick, utter cream (what folks use to put on cow´s utters… it´s super helpful for saddle sore! As is…), vasoline
Technology:
If you are into music, and it helps to motivate you to climb giant mountains in your bike, then I highly recommend bringing MP3s or an I-Pod…or if you are trying to get away from technology and civilization, leave it at home! Camera, flash memory, cell phone (we used only for its alarm), headset (to be able to use SKYPE www.skype.com to make international phone calls, it´s a LOT cheaper than calling from phone booths… just $.02 a minute to call the US), audio recorder (Crithian´s MP3 served as a recorder).
Educational Materials:
Bike DVDS, zines, bike photos, articles on women and bikes, etc
Important papers and money:
Credit card (good to bring 2 incase one gets eaten by an ATM…this happened to me), travelers checks, vaccine card (need proof of the Yellow Fever vaccine to get into Bolivia, supposedly…!), a small bag to go under your pants to keep your passport etc. in
Bike Stuff:
Multi tool, 2 extra tubes, lube, grease, lots of patches and glue, spoke wrench, cable lock, fenders, front and rear racks, 4 panniers, handlebar bag, seat post bag (for tools), 2 water bottles, bike computer, extra chain link, extra break and shifter cables, front and rear lights (you may bike at night, or in fog!), extra brake pads, rags and old tooth brush, extra nuts and bolts, tire levers, adjustable wrench, cassette extractor, chainwhip, hex keys, cloth emergency spoke, 4 spokes
It´s important to have lots of tools if you want to be super self-sufficient. If you don´t mind hitch-hiking or taking the risk of being stranded for a bit, or only being able to find super cheap-o replacement parts, you can get away with a multi tool, lube, tire levers, patch kits and an extra tube.
Camping:
Tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, ground cloth, 2.5 gallon collapsible water jug, stainless steel pot and frying pan set, lighters, MSR Whisperlite International Stove, 2 plastic cups, knife-fork-spoon combo, headlamps, waterproof stuff sacks for sleeping bags, bungee cords, scrubby
Other: Diary, rechargeable batteries and charger, pens, notebook, maps (get good ones ahead of time, if not, look around in each country … it can be hard!), book
Try to bring the bare minimum you need to be able to survive and be relatively comfortable on your trip! If you wanna travel cheap you´ll have to bring more weight (camping and cooking gear for example) but it´s worth it… you save a lot, and plus you get more exercise!

Contactos de Movimientos de La Bici en Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru y Ecuador---Colectada por Cristhian Cuaces y Claire Stoscheck en su tour de bici “Movement Por un Cambio”
Contacts for Bike Movements in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador---Collected by Cristhian Cuaces and Claire Stoscheck in their bike tour “Movement Por un Cambio”

Chile:

Santiago-
Taller Comunitario, taller.cooperativo.bicicletas@gmail.com, Jignaciocarrasco@gmail.com
Ricardo Jerez—Velo Santiago velotour@gmail.com
Lina Maria Zuluato—Ciclorecreovia: www.ciclorecreovia.cl, lzuluaga@gomas.cl
Daniel Pavez—Mite y Bicicletas Públicos: daniel_pavez@mite.cl
Udo—Arriba de la Cancha udo@arribaelachancha.cl
Andrea Cortinez—Las Macletas kineandre@gmail.com, www.macleta.cl
Lake—Cuidad Viva, lake@sagaris.cl
Amarilis—Bicicultura, amarilishorta@gmail.com
Valparaiso-
Movimiento de Ciclistas Furiosas Valparaíso, http://www.mfc-v.com

Argentina:

Salta- Casa de Ciclista, Ramon Marin, Vicente Lopez N 1414, tele: 03874392850
San Salvador de Jujuy- Casa de Ciclista, Bejamin Torrejan, Alvear 569, tele: 03884241616, alitaespiritual@yahoo.com (E-mail de Ana Rosa, su esposa)
Abra Pampa- Familia Balderama en Abrapampa Calle Apolinar Ovando y Esq. De Julio n. 10 tel. 03887491433 ayllu_balderrama@hotmail.com lmica17yo@hotmail.com Miriam y Emundo Ellos conocen a Padre Quique quien es un padre y activista de la bici …

Bolivia:

Cochabomba- Luz Marina Canelas del periódico Los Tiempos (que tiene una compaña de comunicación para promover la bici como medio de transporte) lmcanelas@lostiempos-bolivia.com, 4254563

Peru:

Puno- six_cuys@hotmail.com (los 6 amigos de la bici) militaa@hotmail.com (Milagros) natsuko16_6@hotmail.com (Vera Lucia)
Puquio- Padre Rueben (en la inglesia central en la plaza)
Ica- Jorge Bellido Melgovre de la liga de ciclistas patanny.Jv@hotmail.com y
Abraham Jimenez, ciclista y activista: casa-056256611 celu- 056956418864
Lima-
Maria Isabel Melgarejo Torres de Project Zoom (instructora) mimt1754@hotmail.com
Stefany de municipio y Project Zoom: stefygj@gmail.com, 99316987
Jenny de municipio y Project Zoom Jeny.germana@gmail.com
Sofia de Project Zoom (coordinadora) siempremejor@yahoo.com
Trujillo- Eugenio Boniqui, Padre y activista de la bici, 044247511
Lucho, Casa de Ciclista! Avenida Santa 347, Telefono: (044) 20 0313, celular: (044) 990 71 33, casamistadperu@yahoo.es
Chiclayo- Casa de Ciclista, Javier Cabrera Perez perleche103@hotmail.com Amazonas 770

Ecuador:

Cuenca- Bomberos bomberoc@etapaonlin.net.ed www.bomberoscuenca.gov.ec (Arturo Bonilla) 2822518
Quito-
Bicicleteros www.bicicleteros.com
Ciclopolis www.ciclopolis.ec
Biciaccion www.biciaccion.org

Otros Viajando en Bici:

Marcela: Marcelaperez@gmail.com Sebastián: bicicuervo02@hotmail.com nuestra inspiración en argentina…
Justin Vorel (EE.UU), thenomadlife.blogspot.com jrvorel@gmail.com
Pierre (Swisa), pierre.cauderay@montagne.net http://n-amasssepasmousse.blogspot.com
Luke (Belgica), kuifjesegers@yahoo.com
Katrine y Phillip (Swisa) www.tandemdream.ch
Juan Freites (Venezuela), triciclista3r@hotmail.com
Tyson Eusebe Minck (EE.UU.), tysonminck@riseup.net, http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Adventure-Learning-Grant/

Minneapolis-St. Paul, EE.UU.:

The Hub Bike Co-op, taller cooperativa de bici, www.thehubbikecoop.org
Sibley Bike Depot, taller comunitario de la bici, www.bikeped.org
Gear Up, activistas por igualdad en el movimiento de la bici, damesonframes@googlegroups.com

And the tour is over...!

2008-06-26T14:42:00.001-07:00

June 23rd 2008
Saludos desde Quito! Hello, hello. We have arrived at our “destination” (for the moment) having accomplished our goal… Santiago de Chile hasta Quito, Ecuador en BICICLETA! We biked a total of 6,320 kilometers, in a total of 116 days biking and another 86 days resting, investigating and getting to know places (plus 20 days spent in Santiago). Our overall average was 55km biked per day, though it ranged wildly between 16km and 125km. Our lowest altitude was 0 meters above sea level (in Moncora) and 4,500 meters above sea level crossing the mountain range near Cochabomba, Bolivia. Our hospitality was free probably about 95% of the time (camping, bomberos, churches and schools) and we spent an average of about $6 a day per person on food, toiletries, international phone calls, internet and a fair amount of bike equipment. The total spent on the trip was $1,630 each person for 7 months 1 week—about $225 per month (which includes the bus down to Santiago). Our bikes each weighed about 120lbs, that for the next trip we will definitely try to lighten up. We passed through 5 countries, all of which lay claim to part of the Andean mountain range. Throughout the course of this journey we have learned about many cultures, places, people, mountains and bicycles, and we have learned a great deal about ourselves. We have rediscovered the sense of solidarity between humans that we all long for, but which we all lack. Our muscles have grown, as have our capacities to endure pain, be open to new experiences, communicate with people very different than us, and be spontaneous. The adventure was a great teacher… and we know we will continue to learn from it as the experience sinks in and as we reflect.
Cuenca and Chinquitad—
After spending a wonderful day with our bombero friends in Cuenca (they gifted me a bombero jacket!), we biked outside of the city to a small town called Chiqintad, where Rosa, the aunt of our friend Daniel lives. We ended up staying over 3 days with her and her 4 awesome kids… Daisy, Jonathan, Jenny and Andrea. It turns out we had arrived just in time for the preparations for a giant party to celebrate the confirmation of Jonathan. So as soon as we got there we dug right in, peeling papas, cutting col and Cristhian even helped to butcher 2 pigs! Daniel came down from Quito on Saturday. We picked maiz with the girls, shelled beans, and prepared the house. On Sunday we went to the church and helped to document the ceremony, and then…the fiesta began! All afternoon and night long, eating amazing food (Cuenca´s famous mote, hornado—which is pork, salad, papas, etc…), drinking chicha and aguadiente, and dancing. We dancing until we were exhausted at 11pm and then crashed. We had an awesome time with this family…very good and fun people and we hope to see them again! On Monday we continued on our journey… to Riobamba! Only a few hundred kilometers away, but…boy oh boy what a journey!
Cuenca a Quito—
Wow! Ecuador… is incredible. The segment from Cuenca to Riobamba was one of the most challenging and difficult segments of our entire trip. As I have mentioned, Ecuador doesn’t have an altiplano. Instead, in order to travel through the sierra, you must climb to 3,500 msnm and then go down to 2,500 msnm --- only to climb up to 3,600 msnm again the next day, and go down to 2,700 msnm the next… and it goes on and on for days like that. This was, of course, extraordinarily challenging physically, but also emotionally as you knew as you went down the giant mountain that you´d just have to climb right back up the next one. Once again, we longed for bridges—big giant bridges to cross the valleys between mountains. But no, nature rules, so we sweated and busted and we did it. The first day we made it to Azogues, and the next we climbed a ton and got to Tambo. Tambo had just recently formed their cuerpo de bomberos and they were telling us about how low on resources they were… but what they lack in resources they have in spirit! All the volunteer bomberos crammed into the tiny firestation to watch the soccer game. The primer jefe was really awesome and kind to us, and took us out to breakfast the next morning. That day we made it to the bomberos in Chincha, passing through the thickest pea soup fog I have ever seen—you couldn´t see 10 feet in front of you! Luckily the cars were going slow… Then on to Aluasi, following a road under construction that was incredibly slow. We left Aluasi late the next day and ironically ran into 2 different groups of bike tourers! At the top of one of the most insane up-hills we´ve seen (it´s only 4 km long but it takes over an hour!), where Cristhian scored a bunch of broccoli that had fallen out of a truck, we were passed by an Italian cyclist as we ate lunch. The man was older than 60 and was booking it, 80km-100km a day in the sierra! There are some really incredible… and crazy!...cyclists out there. Then, as we headed down the hill we met a Swiss couple on a tandem that was coming all the way from Alaska. It must be intense to be a couple on a tandem… you cannot escape your lover…ever! It must make or break a relationship. Well, then we climbed and climbed and climbed and thought it would never end, and pushed it hard to be able to arrive in Guamote, where I had to interrupt the bomberos drinking in the soccer stadium in order to ask the favor of a place to stay. And it was over… the crazy climbs! We glided mostly downhill to Riobamba the next day. The bomberos in Riobamba really took care of us. They have a new 4 story building that´s quite luxurious. They gave us our own private room with a bathroom and mattresses! We had a great time talking with them and learned a lot about what it means to be a bombero. They don´t use volunteers in the bigger cities in Ecuador, mostly because paid staff are more reliable (of course). It´s quite a contrast to all the bomberos in Peru which are 100% volunteers—Ecuador definitely has more resources for their fire people. We saw more cyclists in Riobamba than in any other Ecuadorian city… it seems to have to do with the fact that it´s quite flat and also very “tranquillo” or peaceful, there aren´t many robbers or anything so people feel more safe on their bikes. In fact, we saw a ton of bikes left outside buildings without locks--very surprising in a city so big! There must be a lot of trust in Riobamba. Of course, it was almost 100% men on bikes. The drivers were tranquillo and generally respectful and I felt quite safe biking there. We met an older man who works as a bike messenger and he gave us an interview (see the google group to listen…). From Riobamba on to Quito the road was relatively easy… we climbed up to 3,700 msnm to pass by the foot of Chimborazo (due to its location on the equator, it´s the mountain furthest from the center of the earth) and came back down to visit Ambato. Again the bomberos were very open and told us very intimate stories about the trails and tests you must go through in order to be a bombero. These men were my age or even younger and they are doing very trying and dangerous things… I respect it a great deal. From Ambato we biked quickly to Lasso (since it was relatively flat) stopping on the way for Salsedo´s famous natural ice creams. From Lasso we meandered to Machachi since we had an extra couple days before arriving at the Ciclopaseo on Sunday. We accidently stayed in an expensive hostel but got them to charge us half price (it was a miscommunication…) and the next day we biked to La Ecuatoriana, the neighborhood in the far south of Quito where Cristhian´s grandparents and uncles live.
La Ecuatoriana
We met up with Crithian´s mother to be guided up the mountain where the abuelos live. They didn´t know we were coming but welcomed us in anyway, with wide open arms. They are high in years but also very high in energy… they have been campasinos all their lives (lived under patrones in their younger years) and continue to plant and harvest corn, avas, papas, etc… They were so kind and generous and kept us very well fed. The uncles also live there, and are awesome, took us walking up the mountain… On Saturday there was a little party to celebrate father´s day and we danced all night long… It was a lovely stay in La Ecuatoriana…
Ciclopaseo: Bikin´ into Quito
And the day finally arrived, the day we were planning on to arrive in Quito, to arrive home, in Ciclopaseo (every 15 days they close down 30+km of streets to cars and only bikers and pedestrians are allowed). We made our way to the Ciclopaseo tent in Quitumbe and were instantly approached by a middle aged man who had read we were coming in the Ciclopolis boletin. He had come to the south to meet us, with his daughter, on father´s day because, “getting my biking in is more important than anything else.” He had had a bad accident with a car a few years back and so now he never bikes in traffic, only in Ciclopaseo… wow, if it wasn´t for Ciclopaseo this lover of bikes would never get to bike! It just shows how important an event like Ciclopaseo is for cities. He bought us fruit salads and had to take off…but meanwhile, more and more folks showed up to meet us. Everyone was bubbling with questions, everything from how much does your bike weigh to what was the coolest experience to how many times did you get diarrhea. It was so wonderful to see old friends, and meet new ones! When about 16 people had gathered we took off north… what an amazing experience, to be entering a giant city relaxed because rather than being surrounded by cars you are surrounded by cyclists. Yay for Ciclopaseo! More people joined us as we biked, and others tried out our bikes to see how they felt. We continued to converse and answer questions and arrived at the Plaza de los Presidentes, where we thanked the folks who came and opened it up to questions. People passing by stopped to listen. The questions were good and interesting. We got invited to be on the radio. Next week we will give a presentation to the public on our experience and on the bike movements we learned about in the offices of Ciclopolis in order to spread the word about bikes in South America. Also we are busy making documents to be able to put on the blog and send to the bike activists we met on the road. There is still much work to be done! So we said goodbye to the folks who had gathered and pedaled our final leg of the journey, up to Cristhian´s parents´ house… tired, a bit nostalgic, but satisfied and happy. May this just be the first of many…

Coming soon… the following Document: A Powerpoint Presentation of the Tour

A few interesting signs we saw along the route in Ecuador...

Exposicion de Movement Por Un Cambio en Ciclopolis!

2008-06-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ven a escuchar las experiencias de Cristhian y Claire en su exposicion de Movment por un Cambio en la proxima semana!
Van a monstrar fotos, hablar de sus experiencias y compartir que aprendieron acerca de los movimientos y culturas de la bicicleta.

Cuando: 2 de Julio
A que hora: 5:30pm
Donde: La oficina de Ciclopolis, Equinoccio N17 – 171 y Queseras del Medio (para una mapa: http://www.ciclopolis.ec/portal/ciclopolis/textos-generales/ubicacion.html)

Ven con preguntas!
Esta exposicion esta abierto al publico... invita tus amigos!

Estamos en QUITO!

2008-06-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

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!

And the return to the mountains...

2008-05-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hello from Cuenca, boy does it give us a feeling of Quito! Beautiful, colonial, and it rains everyday, all afternoon long! Here we´ve been staying with the coolest bomberos ever... there´s hundreds of them (they have an *excellent* system of bomberos here with tons of machines and equiptment...). What a journey since Trujillo! We are so glad to be un in sierra again, and especially in Ecuador where it is so green and there is so much diversity in such a tiny space...

We left Trujillo with Lucho, Tyson and Carlos... and did two days in a row of over 100km it was sweet lots of back wind and flat desert land. We arrived in Chiclayo with Tyson and Carlos and stayed at another Casa de Ciclista, with Javier, who took us out for cerveza and ceviche. Tyson made a Guitarro (guitarra made with a tarro or can) for Javier´s father and we had a grand old time playing around with it. We really enjoyed our time with this chicos and hope to bike with them more in Ecuador... Then unfortunately we had to part ways with our wonderful crew of cyclists, and we headed up to Mancora (taking the bus in order to save time since it´s running out...!). A few wonderful beach days in Mancora and we headed north again... where we ran into some trouble (which we will inform you on later) and so took combies (mini buses) up to the border with Ecuador, Huaquillas. Whew, what a relief to pass into Ecuador, and how exciting!! We biked to Arenillas where we stayed with bomberos and then to Pasaje, again with bomberos. Pasaje is in the middle of giant expanses of banana plantations... that´s where our bananas come from folks, in these giant stretches of monoculture! There in Pasaje we saw many cyclists, more than most towns, and the coolest thing was that there were women biking, and even little girls! We saw a great site... a little girl no more than 5 years old in a white dress booking it down the highway, she was going so fast she passed us! She´s a rockin´ biking and an inspiration to us. And then we started our climb... from a few hundred meters to 2,600 meters! It was awesome... we started in banana plantations, climbed up passing through small banana and orange farms... one thing we have noticed about Ecuadorians, is that they are amazingly generous! We were gifted oranges and bananas one day, soda the next, leamonade the next, etc... everyone is so kind and open here! It was truly tropical for a day and a half and then we entered the real mountains... we camped one night and the next we stayed with a kind woman who has a store in La Union. She had an interesting immigration story... actually we´ve been learning a lot about immigration lately from many folks. Her husband immigrated 15 years ago and never came back. Their 15 year old son doesn´t know his father. They are still married but she knows that her husband is with anther woman, and just doesn´t tell her in order to keep up the appearances. He still sends money and it´s very obvious in her house which is very nice. But... he´s gone, and never coming back. It´s another sad immigration story... A bombero in Pasaje also told us about his crazy experience crossing to the US, a three month journey, over 10,000$ to cayotes, he found a pregnant woman in the desert who had been left behind by her cayote and helped her to the next town...he broke his ankle in the desert and no one helped him and he swam across the rio bravo to arrive in the states, only to be exploited for 2 years working 3 jobs 16 hours a day. He came back to Ecuador, happily, to be with his family again... From Union we climbed all the way up to Portete, over 1,200 meters in one day. It´s amazing to go from the flat hot humid coast to the freezing cold misty mountains in a few days... it´s so chevere. The roads in Ecuador are amazingly interesting (the landscapes are breath taking!) but also amazingly STEEP! It´s almost funny. In all the other countries we´ve been to the roads loop around a mountain to be more flat, but in Ecuador it heads right up the slope! So we´ve had some of our biggest challenges here, but we don´t mind, because it´s gorgeous. In Portete we stayed in the community center thanks to Rita and Vicente (the president of the community... it seemed very well organized!). Over a dozen young folks watched us cook dinner and made Cristhian nervous as he fried an egg tortilla. They were so kind and fun... the next day we headed to Cuenca and here we´ve been, reparing our equiptment and biking around! It´s a good city to bike in, it´s flat, a lot flatter than Quito, and with less traffic. The drivers aren´t super agressive and generally respect cyclists. Cuenca is very well known for it´s cyclists, there are many here who do it as a sport (cross country, downhill, bmx, racing, etc...) and so there definately is a strong bike culture, but it is based on sport. However, there are a fair amount of young men biking around the city as transportation, some carting gas tanks (we saw one man pedaling without a seat! ouch!) or string trimmers. We saw one man biking with a motor cycle helmet! That is real safty first...hehe. There are no projects to promote bikes in the municipality, however, bike lanes are something they are thinking about. The only organized bike event that is not sport is Ciclopaseos, that occur on sundays, organized by El Tiempo the daily paper here in Cuenca. Cuenca as far as we could tell has no bike organizations that aren´t focused on sport. However, they have a lot of potential since there is already a kind of bike culture here and the streets aren´t too dangerous or steep. With a little initiative, an organization could do a lot of good here in Cuenca! And today we sadly say goodbye to our bombero friends in Cuenca (MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS BOMBEROS DE CUENCA!) and continue on our journey to Quito. We are planning to arrive for the Ciclopaseo June 15th and have invited various environmental and bike organizations to meet us in Ciclopaseo and acompany us into Quito! Saludos de Cuenca... Claire

P.S. Here are some old fotos that were sent to us by friends... one is me and Cristhian climbing in Puquio, Peru and the other is me with Jesus (friend of my friend and ex-professor Paul Dosh) and his family in Villa El Salvador near Lima, Peru.

Fotos Ruta Nasca-Trujillo -Peru-

2008-05-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

Amigos en Trujillo Peru izq a der: Carlos,Lans, Luis, Cristhian, Padre Eugenio, Tyson, Claire.

Entrevista a Padre Eungenio Trujillo Peru

Amigos en la CASA CICLISTA Trujillo Peru

Amigos en Trujillo

Entrevista a ciclista en la ciuda de Chimbote Peru

Amigos Bomberos en la ciuda de Chimbote..!!!!

Chimbote una ciudad de fabricas!! Una ciudad con un problema de contaminacion...

Todos piensan que solo porque van por la

costa ya van... mas plano... mmm esto es una fiel prueba que no es verdad...

Imagenes en piedra de Ruinas de Sechin

Una revolucionaria ciclista en la ruta antes de llegar a Casma

Un loco pedaleando en medio del desierto... "como si no hubiera nada que hacer..." ja ja ja

interesante camion.. nooo?? mmm creo que esto es ilegal...!!

Amigos Bomberos en la ciudad de Huacho

Ciclovia en Lima Peru

2 lindas gringas mostrando el problema de la contaminacion en la ciudad de Lima

Se acuerdan de el...!!! Nuestro amigo Brendan... que otra vez lo encontramos... pero esta vez en Lima Peru... Que bien...!!!

Dos locos que no tienen nada

que hacer.. y mejor se ponen a descansar... en Lima

Entrevista a director del Programa para promover la bicicleta en Lima Peru. nota: entrevista en google group

El exito del Programa Zoom en las escuelas "alumna disfrutando de la clase"...!!

Entrevista a promotora "Maria

Isabel" del Programa Zoom en escuela nota: entrevista en google group

Entrevistas a coordinadoras proyecto Zoom Jenifer y Estefany nota: entrevista en google group

Paso para descansar en los amigos bomberos..

Crueldad animal.. Granjas de pollos en medio del desierto

Uno de los peores anuncios que e visto hasta este momento en el viaje

Foto con amigos.. de la policia de carreteras en nuestra que muy amables nos brindaron su ayuda

Foto en la ciudad de Ica con nuestros amigos ciclistas y una chevere entrevista con uno de ellos.. nota: oir en google group

Foto con los amigos bomberos en la ciudad de Ica

Un encuentro interesante...!! con nuestro amigo Guillermo que esta en su viaje.. pero lo interesante es que el es un caminante...SALUDOS AMIGO Y SIGUE ADELANTE...!!!!

Bike Movements in Peru

2008-05-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

We have run into some very interesting bike cultures and movements here in Peru. Besides Puno and Juliaca, we have investigated in Puquio, Nazca, Ica, Lima, Chimbote and Trujillo. Here is a summary:

Puquio: We had the pleasure of staying with Father Rueben in Puquio. We asked for his help in the church and he said “Of course!” and hopped on his bike to guide us to a house of the church where we could stay. He´s a small stout man but beat us up the hills on his mountain bike. The next day we got a chance to interview him, and you can hear it too! (Enter our Google Group and click on: “Entrevista a Sr. misionero de sagrado Corazon Ruben”). He absolutely loves the bicycle, and wishes more folks biked. He learned thanks to German priests who came to Puquio and taught all the priests how to ride and the benefits of the bicycle. Now he bikes all the time, everyday, and the church runs a school outside of Puquio where almost every single student has a bike and they teach biking within the school as well. He thinks people don´t bike much in Puquio because they prefer to be lazy and use motorcycles instead. He is an excellent example for the rest of the town, since not only is he a priest (someone people look up to) but also an older man and can be an inspiration to others to start biking even in their older years. If you are passing through Puquio and want to meet a biker, go to the main church in the Plaza and ask for father Ruben.

Nazca: On the coast we noticed that on average the towns have more cyclists than an average mountain village. This most likely has to do with the terrain, since the coastal towns are much more flat. In Nazca we saw some trici-taxis as well. Leaving the city, near the peaje (tollbooth) we ran into a cyclists with a tube with a junk valve. We gifted him a tube so he could get home to Nazca. We interviewed him and it turns out he has dreams of doing a long bike tour as well and wondered if he could do it on his bike. We told him, of course! Si se puede! Write us if you need any ideas or advice! (Google Groups: “Entrevista a ciclista -Luis- en Nazca -Peru-”)

Ica: I needed air in my tire as we were leaving Ica, and to the rescue came 2 cyclists, Jorge Bellido Melgour and Abraham Jimenez. Jorge is part of a successful cycling club (competitive sport) in Ica (can be contacted at patanny.Jv@hotmail.com) and Abraham is a long time cyclist. Jorge gifted me a valve adaptor for my presta valves and gave us an interview (Google Groups: “Entrevista a Jorge en Ica-Peru”). He talked about the love of cycling people in Ica have and his desire to do a long tour like us. Abraham accompanied us about 12km until the outside of the city (it was impressive, as he is over 60 and bikes hard, with his machete strapped to his frame!), and told us about his desires to work with other cyclists and the city to build bike paths and other bike infrastructure in Ica. Ica has a lot of potential to have an awesome bike movement!

Lima: Arriving in Lima, we biked about 20 blocks and thought we´d die it felt so dangerous to bike there. However, by the end of our stay we felt much more comfortable biking there, especially knowing that there are various movements starting and growing to promote the bicycle there as transportation. Andrea told us about a web site called Zoom (http://www.proyectozoom.org/), and we checked it out. It led us to many contacts both in the city and in project Zoom. That same day we got an interview with Stefany and Jenny who work with the city´s Proyecto Especial de Transporte No Motorizado (special project on non-motorized transport http://www.munlima.gob.pe/programas/tnm/index.htm). They explained to us the history of their project, why it started, and what they are doing to promote biking as transportation in Lima (Google Groups: “Entrevista a Jenifer y Estefany -coordinadoras Proyecto Zoom- Lima Peru”). They invited us to observe project Zoom´s (a project of the city as well as an NGO called FONAM and funded by the World Bank) classes in schools the next day, as well as a bunch of other events they were putting on all week long. So the next day we woke up at 6am to go to school! At first we went to an all girls school where Zoom promoter (as they call the teachers) Maria Torres was teaching young girls how to ride bikes. She teaches all day long, everyday, hundreds of young girls how to bike. Once they know how to bike, they are taught how to bike in traffic safely with hand singles, more advanced bike handling, basic mechanics, and more. You can hear about Maria´s experiences as a promoter here: (Google Groups: “Entrevista a Maria Isabel _promotora proyecto Zoom en Lima Peru”). Later, Sofia (who´s one of the school coordinators for Zoom) took us to another school (mixed) where we watched 2 other promoters teach a group of boys and later a group of girls how to do a quick break and turn on their bikes. I got a chance to talk to a student about biking: Google Groups “Entrevista a Marcela -alumna proyecto zoom”. There are kids who learn how to ride in 20 minutes to 3 hours thanks to Zoom´s very practical and intelligent technique (see it at: http://www.proyectozoom.org/contenidos/multimedia.php?cod=aprendiendo). Once a school has many proficient cyclists project Zoom organizes Zoom caravans where a group of students bikes to school together with chaperones. Zoom´s projects in schools are impressive and should be replicated in other cities all over the world. They told us they are working on the teacher´s (promoter´s) manual and that once they have finished they will distribute it. We look forward to using their example of in-school bike education to our own cities!
Later in the day we went to the offices of FONAM (Fundo Nacional de Medio Ambiente Peru http://www.fonamperu.org/) to meet and interview Paulo, the director of Proyect Zoom. He gave us a powerpoint that describes project Zoom (you can hear part of it here Google Groups: “Entrevista a -Paolo- director proyecto zoom Lima Peru”, and the other part is too big to upload but if you´d like to hear it just write me an email). It turns out Project Zoom is a World Bank funded project (I´ve never seen such a positive one!) and for that reason funding will run out next year, which is a huge bummer. Project Zoom works in infrastructure (bike paths) and outreach/communication and their strength is really their communication. Their school program is very successful, they have a program in universities as well, their materials are all well designed, etc. Cities that think they just need to put in a bunch of bike paths and the cyclists will come have a lot to learn from Project Zoom in Lima where the idea is that at the same time you create the safe bike infrastructure you are creating knowledgeable and confidant urban cyclists, women as well as men, by teaching ninas y ninos in school when they are still young and can learn faster.
That evening we were invited to go to Lima´s Critical Mass (our first of the trip!), organized by Lima´s only citizen-community run bike organization, Cicloaxcion (the rest is connected to the government). The mass is young—it only started a few months ago so they are still in the stage of recruiting participants (there were only about 14 of us). But they have abundant fliers with good information and we were able to get those out to thousands of people in a few hours. I spoke to the Cicloaxion (http://www.cicloaxion.org/) activist who was kind of heading up the ride (not exactly anarchist organizing as it is in other cities) Google Groups: “Entrevista a promoter org. Cicloazion Lima Peru” and he spoke with hope about the future of Lima´s bike culture. He thinks its strength is not necessarily the government connected projects but the citizen groups and he hopes more and more groups like Cicloaxion spring up. As of now, they are the only ones, which makes Lima very distinct. Unlike other cities like Quito or Minneapolis, and especially Santiago, Lima´s primary bike as transport promoting comes from above (the World Bank, the city) whereas elsewhere it comes from the grassroots (NGOS, critical mass, community organizations). It seems that Lima desperately needs those grassroots organizations in order to have a healthy, sustainable and thriving bike culture. When it comes from the top, any project can be swept aside if the mayor doesn´t like biking for example or when the World Bank grant runs out—basically it makes the movement much more fragile and also one-dimensional when it comes from above. That´s not to say that the projects the city and FONAM are doing right now in Lima aren´t really good successful projects. They are! But for a sustainable movement diversity is needed, and what Lima lacks is grassroots organization. Perhaps Cicloaxion is just the start of many …

Women and Biking Conferece: September in Quito... Join us!
One rad aspect of Zoom is that there are many women working in it, both on the organizational end and on the teaching-action end (the critical mass, by the way, was only men besides Andrea and I). I invited them to come up to Quito, Ecuador where in September Todas en Bici (a project of Ciclopolis) will have a conference on gender and biking. I want to use this opportunity to invite any and all feminist bike activists (meaning you are working or want to work to get more women and other marginalized groups out biking and you want equality in the bike movement) to come to Quito in September to participate in this conference! For more information, write to Fernanda at todasenbici@gmail.com.

Chimbote: Stopping to buy some pan, a man selling flour approached us asking about our bikes and excitingly telling us about his own bike with his own home-made rack. We gifted him a Zoom leg band and asked for an interview. He told us about why he loves biking and that Chimbote is a great place to bike. A primary reason that he bikes is because it is the most economical form of transportation. After the interview he gifted us honey and a smile… how sweet! (Google Groups: “Entrevista Ipolito Arquero Chimbote Peru”)

Trujillo: Here in Trujillo we have had an amazing cycling experience, but that is due mostly to the wonderful Casa de Ciclista/Casa de Amistad run by Lucho (aka Luis Alberto Ramírez D'Angelo) and the other cyclists who have been staying here at the same time (the website is: http://www.geocities.com/casadeciclistasperutrujillo/). We have been surrounded by bikes, fixing them, talking about them, and going on rides. But the city in general doesn´t have many cyclists... less than Lima and according to folks we have talked to many less than Arequipa. Why so few? One noticable aspect of the city is that there seems to be some amount of wealth and that perhaps more people can afford automobiles here. Other than that, it just lacks a culture of cycling. There are no real ciclovias here, although Lucho is planning to hold a meeting with the Mayor along with other bike activists to encourage him to start a ciclovia project. Lucho believes that the Mayor has money for this, so why not? Indeed, we have been very happy with the pedestrian street near the Casa de Ciclista... if the mayor can close a street to autos in order for pedestrians to walk in saftey, why wouldn´t he consider giving part of a street or two to cyclists? Especially if it is presented to him that Lima is doing it already, as is Quito, Bogota, Santiago, etc... Most big cities are starting to realize the importance of cycling here in South America it seems. There is definately great potential in Trujillo because there are various cycling clubs (for recreation and sport), as well as a well-respected Priest named Eugenio Bonniqui (immigrant from Germany) who is an avid cyclist and promotes the bicycle. He was, in fact, the Priest who taught our friend Padre Ruben in Puquio how to ride a bike, and thanks to him Ruben is now an avid cyclist as well! We had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Eugenio, who knows a lot about Peru and the world and absolutely loves bikes. He learned to bike and do bike mechanics in Germany, where the bike culture is very strong (he told us you can get to France only on bike paths!) You can hear a bit of our conversation in this recording: Google Groups "Entrevista con Padre Eugenio Bonniqui Trujillo". One thing that Father Bonniqui told us that stood out is that he is grateful to the bicycle for saving his life, as his doctor had told him "If you didn´t bike, you would have been dead already." The bicycle really is a life saver for many...

Summary: All that we have talked to agree that biking is the best form of transportation: it´s cheap, it´s healthy, it´s fun, relaxing, fast, and liberating. They look for help from the authorities and grassroots organizations to be able to promote biking as transportation. The bicycle unites people from all over the world from all different backgrounds.

Snow to Sand: Our Journey from Cusco to Trujillo

2008-05-09T15:43:00.001-07:00

Well, here I am, dedicated to finally holing myself up in a computer café todo el dia to get some blog entries out to ya´ll. I want to apologize to those who have been loyally checking our blog, but finding nothing new for nearly a month. Wow! So sorry. We have been busily riding, investigating, surviving, etc…and we wanted to do it in Lima but were too busy bike investigating (which was awesome in Lima!). Now we are in Trujillo, Peru the major northern coastal city, and are staying with the famous Lucho who has a casa de ciclista (cyclist house) called “La Casa de Amistad” (friendship house http://www.geocities.com/casadeciclistasperutrujillo/). It truly is that! When we arrived a few days ago we were met by Lucho and Carlos, a cyclist from Argentina who is also heading north. The next day Tyson (from the U.S.) came up, also heading north. Wow, we thought we were the only locos who go South to North (the majority do the opposite). It´s awesome, it´s a party, hanging out with 2 other rocking cyclists and Lucho who is so energetic and so amazingly passionate about all aspects of the bicycle it´s contagious! It feels so awesome to be with other touring cyclists, to feel that we aren´t the only ones, but rather part of something bigger. Lucho told us about a German who has travelled about one million kilometors on his bicycle throughout his life… he is a living legend, he has bike toured just about everywhere in the world! Over 900 cyclists have visited Lucho since he started his casa de ciclista the year I was born, 1985. What do we do there? Well, we hang out and fix our bikes together, chat about bike movements worldwide, ride our bikes together, and yesterday we went to his family´s house for gaunabana juice, the best juice I´ve had in my life! Lucho and his family are so awesome and generous and I certainly understand why they are famous and why every single cyclist we met going south recommended that we go there. So we are here for a bit in Trujillo blogging, fixing our bikes, taking care of errands and trying to get in a little rest in before we start the final leg of the trip: the northern coast of Peru and ECUADOR! We are so close really… probably about 1,700km left to go. And we want to do it in a month. Wow! It´ll be some hard work…but si se puede!

But of course, I haven´t written since Cusco! So I´ll give you a brief summary of our journey from the southern sierra to the northern coast.

Peru is, compared to most other South American countries, quite large and amazingly diverse. We have biked in frost-bite, teeth-chattering, llama munching, hail falling, mountain looming sierras and also in sweat-inducing, sand-blowing (in mouth, eyes, ears), easy rolling, ocean staring, flies buzzing coastal desert. We were curious about the people in Peru, because 2 different cyclists we met near La Paz told us they were treated badly by Peruvians. But our experience has been quite the opposite… Peruvians have been some of the most open and friendly folks we’ve met on this trip. We are especially in-debt to the some odd 17 different fire-stations (estacion de bombero) we have stayed in throughout our tour in Peru. The bomberos in Peru are awesome, well-organized and always welcome us with open arms to spend the night, take a shower, cook up some food and rest so we can continue the next day. They have been utter life savers for us, and we are indebted to their kindness… We have also stayed in Churches, schools, and community centers. We have generally been able to pick up our pace here in Peru, now that we are more accustomed to the life-style and in better shape. We have also, in a sense, become accustomed to being bone-tired and feeling un-rested even after sleeping 8 or even 9 hours. I guess that´s what the accumulation of 5,300 kilometers in 5 months can do to you… I think I´ll sleep 2 weeks straight when I get back to Quito!

We headed out from Cusco on April 5th heading to the coast. We chose the Nazca route as we heard it was all paved and less hilly that the road to Ayacucho. We had some surprisingly big climbs in the first few days, and at one point had to hitch-hike in order to not be stuck on the top of a mountain without water one night. We also biked to the lowest elevation that we had been at since Argentina, or maybe even Chile, where bananas and papayas grew. What a treat to eat tropical fruit up in the sierra! We spent a day resting in Abancay (the bomberos begged us to stay more, they were so kind), and headed off to Chalhuanca to meet up with Andrea Mosher, a woman from MN who found our web-site in the fall and decided to come bike with us a bit as she is interested in a lot of the themes that we are addressing in this trip. She found us en route as she passed in a taxi while we were bathing and clothes-washing in a rushing river close to Chalhuanca—and we were so confused at first, thinking some crazy gringa wanted to take a photo of us in the river! But it was Andrea! And we decided to meet up in the town. (Chalhuanca is where we first briefly met Carlos in fact, but who sped ahead as he hitched a ride up the major climb (7 vueltas) right outside of town.) It is a town full of ninos running around the streets, playing, and very curious about the 3 cyclists who just came into town. We stayed at the bomberos and tackled the 7 vueltas the next day… and just as we reached the top of this 12km, very steep climb it started down pouring and hailing, but luckily there was a small town and we were able to stay in a classroom. About 10 people watched us through the windows as we vainly attempted to light our stove, but we had been sold bad kerosene that doesn´t work (we thought it was the altitude but we tried it on the coast and no luck either). So we starved a little, amused by our giant audience, and went to bed early. We spent a good 5 days up in these mountains, subiendo y bajando many times… it was wicked cold up there, and the “altiplano” wasn´t exactly “plano” (flat). There was a layer of snow on the hills right next to us and in the ditches by the side of the road. But it was exciting because we knew in just a few days we´d be out of the cold mountains and down on the “flat” warm coast. In Puquio we stayed with a Priest named Rueben who was a cyclist and we had a great time with him, chatting about the German priests who come to Puquio and teach all the priests to ride in bici. We loved Puquio, it has to be one of the friendliest towns we´ve been in, and also very beautiful with trees and flowers and green things (something we haven´t seen a lot of lately).

In a town called Vado we stopped early (2pm) because I was feeling awful, and some kind folks in a store and their relatives from Cusco took us in, gave me tea, and let us camp in their house across the street. It is people like these who touch my heart and inspire me to, in the future, give more, be more generous, and be more open to strangers. From Vado we reached Nazca in just one day… we did 115.34km, our new record! It included, of course, a 72 km downhill from 3,800+ meters above sea level to less than a few hundred. It was fast, exciting, exhilarating, and we saw one of the biggest sand dunes in the world. In Nazca the bomberos took me around in their ambulance to various doctors and testing clinics and finally got me in to see a head doctor at the hospital and bought me medication. Wow, I felt so cared for, 5 men running around trying to make me feel better. We cooked them pancakes in the morning and took off to the north…Lima! We zoomed up the coast, hitting 100+ km a few days in a row. As we had hoped, it really was faster on the coast (*note: on this specific part of the coast, it´s not true for the entire coast! Up north it´s mountainous…) We got a chance to see some of the Nazca lines by climbing up a little tower, el mirador. We also saw the effects of the earthquake and how some cities, like Chincha, are still suffering a great deal. In fact, neither the bomberos or the churches could take us in as they were still in reconstruction from the earthquake. It was night and we couldn´t find a cheap hostel, and we were walking around the city nervously with the captain of the firestation looking for something when we decided to ask the highway police. They very kindly took us in, and not only that but the boss took a liking to us and gave us free dinner and the next day breakfast as well (!) from their own personal restaurant. He took photos of us with his little girl, and ate breakfast with us. How kind! And later, when we asked him to sign our letter of recommendation (that we started with the bomberos in Abancay so we are more legitimate to the folks we ask to stay with—it now has about 10 signatures) he informed us that it was actually illegal what he was doing for us (for “security reasons”) so he couldn´t do us that favor. Wow, that the “corrupt” police in Peru do! Hehe. Anyway, needless to say we didn´t mind his corruptness…and I really wish I felt I could get that kind of help from police in the U.S. (Highway police have been nice to us, they helped me hitchhike when I was too sick to bike up a climb, and others gifted us crackers they had bribed out of a truck driver J) Well, we made it to Mala and Cristhian was feeling bad, hurting from his bike seat and needing to go slow, so we decided for that reason (and the reason we heard it was highly dangerous to bike into Lima), to take a bus from Mala (which, like Chalhuanca, has a woman as the boss of the firestation!) to the centro de Lima where we met up with someone that Andrea knew from Couchsurfer.com to stay in his house.

Lima was fun, we met up with Brendan again (whom we stayed with in Cochabomba, Bolivia) and had a grand old time. We spend many days doing the bici investigation (read about it in the other blog entry)—interviewing, observing classes and participating in critical mass. I got to go visit a friend of a friend/ex-professor (Paul Dosh) named Jesus Valencia Silva in his invasion city of Villa el Salvador. This city is growing very fast, and it´s a group of invasions (meaning the people organize together and put up houses on un-used government property and then work together to get titles, water, electricity and create their new community) with communities as young as 1 year old (there is city now where 4 years ago there was just a sand dune!) The community consists of immigrants from all over Peru (the majority from the sierra) who have come to live near the capital looking for work. The people there have very good organization (each community has volunteer delegates...and Jesus is the president of a community of 40,000 people) and are fighting so that each neighbourhood has water and electricity and a decent life. It was very amazing to visit the communities, and I thank Jesus for being so generous with his time and showing us around. After 5 days of “rest” in Lima (but we were actually running around like crazy, or biking around like crazy rather) Cristhian and I said goodbye to Brendan, and Andrea (who took off to Arequipa) and headed up the coast.

North of Lima got tougher, the coast wasn´t so flat anymore (in fact there are quite a lot of small mountains to climb!) We had the luck to meet 3 very nice ladies (Erika, Nayra and Ana) in the street in Ancon who made instant friends with us, took us down to the beach to take photos and then invited us in to eat popcorn, tea and sandwiches and chat about our lives. Very lovely ladies, wonderful memories. After Ancon we stayed in bomberos in Chancay, Huacho, Pampamonga, Huarmey, Casma, y Chimbote. In Casma we were met on the highway by 3 road-bikers from Casma. They accompanied us about 30 km as we both headed to Casma. One of them, Alejandro, was a guide at some local ruins called Sechin, and invited us to come see the ruins the next day. We took him up on the offer, and had a very interesting experience. It´s always interesting to learn about the past cultures of a certain place, and I´ve always thought super important so we don´t forget the way of life of those who came before us, usually so we can strive to be more like them. However, this particular culture was… gruesome, cruel, violent. The entire ruins was a temple with pictures of decapitated bodies, bodiless heads, arms, legs, spinal cords and intestines, all with blood spurting out of it. Shocked? I was a little too…more so when our guide showed us this all with pride and told us he´s happy to know about the great Sechin and know that he has some of their strong warrior blood. Hmm. It sounds like not such a wonderful culture, they just liked to chop up bodies. They send buses full of school children to this site. Is this the cultural history the young generations should be learning… to be proud of their ancestors who were even more violent than our current culture? Which culture roots should we claim and be proud of, and which should we learn about in order to reject, and which are better to just not get too involved in learning about? The experience confused and disconcerted me, and if anyone has ideas please write me on this one… We do appreciate Alejandro for taking the time to show us around Sechin.

This stretch of desert has caused me to seriously try to cut all meat out of my diet (I was a vegetarian 10 years before this trip but I gave it up to be flexible to all situations in this journey) and Cristhian to consider becoming a vegetarian (Impressive!! Since he´s grown up being a major meat eater…). Why? The barren desert (it´s not like Argentina… there are absolutely no plants pure sand and sand and sand) is full of chicken farms which attract a million houseflies which land our your bike and you can pass right by the chicken farms and see them all squished together and chirping helplessly and each time a chicken truck drives by it leaves the stench of death and excrement in your nose… and to make it worse each port town has fish factories, Chimbote was the worse… I couldn´t breath when we entered the stench of dead fish was so strong, the smoke so thick, choking choking on this death, and the stench is every where you cannot escape it in that city, and imagine, people live there right under the smoke stacks every hour of everyday they breath the dead fish smoke… it´s a nightmare. So after these experiences the idea of eating dead flesh is more revolting than ever. And these experiences have reminded me of the politics of the meat industry, the fact that besides torturing and killing animals they pollute and contribute to global warming and make it so less humans can get the food they need (because the food that goes to feed animals to feed humans could go directly to feed more humans) and the list goes on. So! One more month of this tour and I will return to being a vegetarian, that is my promise. It is a very important personal choice that can affect the larger world greatly. If anyone reading this would like to talk about vegetarianism please write to me, I´d be happy to chat! In addition to the chicken and fish farms, I also noticed the intense use of industrial agriculture that seems to be growing here on the Peruvian desert coast. It´s disconcerting… you´ll be in the middle of sand dunes and then all of a sudden there is a valley covered toe to toe in green asparagus or sugar cane where there should be sand. My question is… where does the water come from? Does this use of land and water (and pesticides and herbicides) endanger people and ecosystem´s lives? It seems very probable. As Cristhian said, it´s like the mines we saw in the sierra, but more “pretty”. Speaking of mines, we were told by the bomberos in Paramonga when we asked why seafood was so expensive in this area that there is a mine down the coast a bit, and for that reason fish are scarce as the mine is killing them off. In addition, there are people who just won´t eat the fish anymore for fear of contamination. We learn these facts of death and with a heavy heart we pedal on, hoping hoping, always hoping… From Chimbote we biked to Chau and then to Trujillo where Lucho met us in the plaza and took us to La Casa de Amistad, and we´ve been here ever since enjoying thoroughly the casa de la ciclista! We will take off again on Monday with Tyson and Carlos and all 4 of us will have 2 or so days together until they split off to the mountains and we continue up the coast. We hope to be in Ecuador in less than 10 days! Here we come, Ecuador!!!

Thank you!

2008-05-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

Mucisimas Gracias… Many thanks!

We just wanted to write and say how touching the response to our call for help was. Thank you to each and every person who donated, you have been so supportive. It means so much to us. THANK YOU!

Sincerely,
Claire and Cristhian

P.S. … And if you haven´t yet donated and are wondering if your donation is still needed, it is—it´s not too late! Thank you.

Hola....!!!!

2008-05-07T15:46:00.001-07:00

Hola amigos que tal... este momento nos encontramos en Trujillo......
les cuento que a sido un viaje... muy muy duro...
muy agotador... y no hemos tenido... mucho tiempo para escribir en el blog... haci que antes de nada lo siento para las personas que nos estan siguiendo paso paso el chevere viaje que estamos haciendo...
durante nuestra travesia.. hemos tenido la oportunidad de estar con mucha gente que an sido muy amable.. al recibirnos.. y poder descansar despues de un dia de mucho sol... fulll.... pedaleo... y las buenas energias para continuar...
durante nuestro viaje... hemos tenido el chance de quedarnos con los buenos amigos... bomberos... de muchas ciudades que siempre nos habren.. la puerta que siempre estan listos para recibir una emergencia...o a un visitante... inesperado...

Estamos aqui...!!! Trujillo Peru

2008-05-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

2008-04-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hola amigos que tal...este momento nos encontramos en Nazca "Peru"

Esta historia comienza asi desde que salimos de Cuzco "al menos lo que me acuerdo"

Antes que nada les cuento que en el transcurso de nuestro viaje nos a ocurrido algo interesante ya que en este momento se nos a unido una amiga "Andrea" a nuestro viaje.. "les cuento mas luego"

Al seguir nuestro camino.. que por cierto fue muy dificil ya que nos toco subir a lo bestia para poder cruzar a lo que seria la costa de Peru.

Pudimos encontrar a mucha gente muy buena onda como la gente de Cura Wasi.

Que pena que no hayamos podido tomarnos una foto con los bomberos de CuraWuasi pero saben que se los recuerda y se les desea lo mejor..!!!

desde el momento que salimos de Cuzco... a sido una experiencia muy buena acerca de lo hermoso que es el pais de Peru con los lindos paisajes y la gente "Full Acolite" que se encuentra por estos sitios.

Los amigos bomberos que no se quedan atras al ayudar a la gente viajera... "se les agradece por lo vakanes que son....!!!

al seguir nuestro camino pudimos llegar a la ciudad de Abancay.. que la gente es muy amable y la ciudad muy chevere aunque este metida dentro de tremendo hueco... ja ja ja

2008-04-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

Este momento nos encontramos en Cusco... Por aqui nos a estado yendo muy bien... Conociendo un poco de la ciudad aaa y por cierto aqui nos fuimos al museo del Inka y encontramos una muy interesante foto... pero no se trata de un cuadro sino de una foto que estaba el la puerta del baño de las mujeres... mmm a claire le parecio muy interesante y a mi muy divertida por el nivel de imaginacion.... ja ja ja.

En el mismo museo se estuvo exponiendo una galeria sobre "la Papa" muy muy interesante...

Hemos continuado investigando el movimiento bike... y nos hemos dado cuenta acerca de que parece por aqui no practican.. mucho la bici como trasporte ya que la ciudad no cuenta con la devida imfraestructura como la de Juliaca.

Pero lo bueno es que aqui practican el ciclismo en forma deportiva,.... ya que justo el momento que pasamos aqui... se estuvo organizando... un evento llamado el "Mega Avalanch" que se trata de una competencia de dowhill.fue muy interesante poder ver ese evento ya que parece que atrae a mucha gente nacional "a nivel de Peru" e internacional....

Al poder seguir conociendo la ciudad nos dirijimos de una!!! hacia lo tipico para conocer por estos lados... "Hacia Machu Pichu!!!!!".

?? lo interesante es que parece que ahi tambien... an sabido vivir una especie de conejos... mmm pero con cola muy muy larga... pero son muy cheveres...!!!

Fue una de nuestras mas grandes experiencias... para poder estar ahi... ya que pudimos sentir la energia de lugar... y poder apreciar....mmm la locura??? de porque hacen una ciudad tan arriba... de una montaña... ja ja ja.

No es verdad... fue bueno para poder ver la increible... fuerza la grandiosa sociedad que fue en sus buenos tiempos en el imperio INKA... los tiempos del TAHUANTINSUYO

Nota: esta foto esta virada!!!

Y para no alargar esto... mejor les dejo con un par de fotos que hablan... por si mismas...

intercambio de "toma todo" con nuestro amigo Oswaldo.

Amigos de la Ruta

2008-04-04T16:22:00.001-07:00

El amigo Juan....

Justin...

Amigos pobladores

Cochabamba Bolivia...

2008-03-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

Pero para llegar a esa ciudad si sudamos la gota gorda ya que de lo que estabamos por la ciudad de Oruro todo el mundo nos habia dicho que para llegar a Cochabamba era muy cencillo o el tipico comentario "ALLASITO NO MAS ES" pero nos dimos cuenta que fue la cagada.

ya que todo es bajada pero nadie nos hablo de la montaña de 4496 m.s.n.m que tocaba pasar para llegar y ahi si... fua la BAJADA!!!!

Y al estar ya en la bajada pudimos quedarnos en una las muchas casas que hay por esa montaña y ver como hacian.. las "Chalinas" Artesanales

Y una de nuestras grandes experiencias en el viaje fue el haber estado en Cochabamba Bolivia con nuestro gran amigo Brendan,,.... quien muy buena onda nos alojo en su casa unos dias para conocer la ciudad el movimiento bike... "que no es mucho porque es un poco peligroso hay una entrevista en el google group" y la buena energia que tiene la ciudad " de los platanos·" que es como Ecuador ja ja ja

The Road from Cochabomba to Cusco...

2008-03-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

March 4: Cayhuasi to Carocollo 21km (starting 4:30pm)
March 5: Caracollo to a small town 40km worst rain, hail and headwinds we´ve had all trip!
March 6: small town to Patacamaya 50km left 1pm and met another cyclist! (Justin, OK, U.S.)
March 7: Patacamaya to Bilaque 53.4km met a Venezuelan tricyclists working toward the Guiness record! Chatted a few hours...
March 8: Bilaque to La Paz 53.7 Met yet another cyclist, this time french! Funny how many we met near La Paz...
March 9 and 10 Resting and taking care of business in La Paz
March 11: La Paz climbing to El Alto 14km 1.5 hours to climb out of the hole la Paz is in... jeje
March 12: El Alto to Tiquina 103km (Our new record!! Hehe) Lots of rain and some climbs
March 13: Tiquina to Copacabana 40km climbed up to 4,250 meters above sea level! And zoomed back down...
March 14 and 15: Rest and business in Copacabana, visted Isla del Sol
March 16: Copacabana to a bit further than Juli 74.5 km first tail wind and then head wind, the roads are quite bad in this region even though they are paved
March 17: Juli to Puno 73km stayed with the bomberos (firemen)! All firemen in Peru are volunteers and have good organization, therefore we are going to start staying with bomberos more here! So far they have all been very open and kind to us... Thank you!!
March 18: Stuck a day in Puno for bike mechanical problems
March 19: Puno to Juliaca 47.8km
March 20: Juliaca to Tune Grande 71.5 km
Got our dates confused! So now we have another March 20...
March 20: Tune Grande to Quishuara 77.17km
March 21: Quishuara to Sicuani 64km
March 22: Stuck in Sicuani in the firestation with a sickness
March 23rd: Sicuani to Cusipata 61km
March 24: Cusipata to Cusco 78.68km
Total as of March 24: 3,708.2km!

Help us get to Quito by bicycle!

2008-03-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hello dear friends of Movement Por Un Cambio,
We hope you have enjoyed reading our blog, seeing our photos and learning about bike cultures in South America. We are writing you with a request, that we wish we didn´t have to make, but life brings surprises. We are currently in Cusco, Peru and have completed slightly over half our kilometers (3,700... with 3,300 more to go) in over half our budgeted time (4 months 1 week out of our 6 months). This has occured for various reasons, the two main being: 1) We have stayed longer than expected in certain locations in order to be able to complete our bike culture investigations and 2) we have experienced, unfortunately, unforeseen sicknesses that have forced us to stay longer than planned in various places. For these reasons, it is impossible to avoid the fact that our bike tour will last several weeks longer than anticipated. We now expect the earliest we can arrive in Quito (assuming we have no major illnesses along the way) will be June 16, rather than mid-May as we had anticipated, even as we plan to pick up the pace of our biking. Unfortunately we only budgeted for 6 months, and therefore it will be very difficult for us to find a way to survive this additional month, even as we live as cheaply as possible, cooking nearly all our meals, camping and staying in firestations. We fear the possibility of having to take a bus due to lack of funds. Therefore we decided to write to you, our dear friends, and ask for support! If just a few folks donate $50, or if 15 donate $20, or if 30 donate $10, it will allow Movement Por Un Cambio to continue as planned and arrive in Quito, Ecuador purely by bicycle! It will allow us to complete our investigations thoroughly so that we can share them with bike movements all over the world. It will allow us to bike on and encourage others to bike too. With your support, we can do it! So please, donate today. You can use PayPal on our website, http://www.movementporuncambio.blogpot.com/, or mail it to: Claire Stoscheck-207 W. Clinton St.-Ithaca, NY 14850. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, your support is much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Claire and Cristhian

P.S. It´s Claire´s 23rd birthday today! Why don´t you donate $23 for her 23rd?

Hola amigos....!!!!

2008-03-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hola amigos que talll este momento estamos en Cusco "Peru" a sido una bestia el estar pedaleando todo este tiempo junto a mi compañera revolucionaria Claire.....

hemos vivido muchas cosas en todo este tiempo... y una de ellas...mmm al menos de las que me acuerdo mas recientes.... es el momento en que pasamos por la ciudad de Puno... ..

Una vez que esntramos al pais de Peru... se torno un poco diferente el ambiente... y no hablo del... clima.... ya que aqui en Peru como en bolivia... hace el mismo frio de siempre.... haci este con un tremendo solaso....

Lo cuirioso que hemos visto es que parece que aqui... la gente le hace mas a la bici....!!! es muy chevere ver en poblaciones... toda la gente que se mueve a travez... de eso y lo mas curioso es que parece que por aca "abajo" es sur de Peru... la gente se moviliza tipo como la gente de Atacames Ecuador... en triciclo o como le llaman por aca el "TRISITAXI"....

Parece que es una forma... muy comun de trasporte por aca desde ya ahace muchos años... y lo bueno es que es una manera buena de poder viajar cortas distancias.. muy barato... y sin los problemas tipicos de el trafico vehicular... mmm aunque en esa ciudad no es trafico vehicular... pero si trafico de triciclos... que yo le veo mucho mejor... que estar encerrado... en una caja de metal... estresado... y es hasta mas vakan.. esttra en un trafico "conjestionamiento" de trsitaxis... ja ja ja

Lo bueno de Puno tambien.. es que por aqui tambien.. hay un movimiento cicilsta... mmm al menos eso fue lo que me contaron... y tiene un Bike park... muy vakan... para poder practicar cicilsmo a otro nivel... segun parece tambien... hacen... mucho downhil... ya que por aca tambien... parece que son bien..ocurridos... y ponen las ciudades dentro los valles mas profundos entre las montañas.....ja ja ja

Lo bueno es que nosotros pensabamos que esta era una ciudad muy activa acerca del movimiento ciclista como trasporte... pero.... NNNOOOOO nos equivocamos y nos dijeron... los lugareños... que hay un movimiento mas grande en una ciudad llamada Juliaca... y sin... dudrlo para alla nos dirijimos....

Eso si nunca nos hubieramos imajinado... que para entrar a esa ciudad... a sido... la cagada... fue... muy dificil... entrar ya que parece que ya al acercarnos los conductores eran... niños... porque nadie respetaba al ciclista y yo y Claire varias veces nos salvamos de que uno o varios trailers... nos dejara como stickers pegados en la calle...

Pero ya al entrar a la ciudad fue un cuento diferente... ahi hay full... full... triciclos ooo...!!! verdad Tricitaxis...!!!! ahi si habia un conjestionamiento de triciclos... y uno se siente mejor cuando es parte de eso.... y les obligamos a los carros a detenerse... y poder`pedalear en paz... sin el molestoso ruido de los pitos...

Lo bueno tambien.. de esta ciudad fue la forma criosa como la gente se las ingenia para vender sus productos... ya que parece que ahi usan el triciclo... para todo... ja ja ja y eso demuestra que si se puede vender cosa sobre dos o tres ruedas... mucha gente utiliza este tipo de transporte para poder llevar sus productos de un lado a otro para que la gente transeunte pueda ver, Tocar, oler y a veces provar... ja ja ja y despues comprar...

Nos parecio tan bien.. que sin... duda... empesamos hacer entrevistas de porque esa ciudad llego a tener un movimiento de tranporte tan... inusual... al de otras ciudades.

Hay entrevistas de tiendas que venden... triciclos... y de algunos triciclistas... con la reportera estrella "Claire"

"si quieren oirlas pueden entrar a GOOGLE GRUUP"

Nota: no sean tan.... vagos.. y no esperen a que yo les cuente.... ja ja ja.

Ya al continuar nuestro camino... pudimos apreciar mucho... lo bueno que tiene Peru... y al llegar ya la tarde pudimos acampar cerca de una casa a lado de un rio que fue una buena experiencia de lo amable que puede ser la gente y de los cheveres paisajes.

A la mañana siguiente muy temprano tipo 9 am ja ja ja salimos para continuar nuestro viaje... de subida hacia "Abra La Raya" a 4338 m.s.n.m y al llegar despues de un buen almuerzo... segu

imos nuestro camino... de bajada.. y al estar ya en esas nunca nos hubieramos imaginado.. que nos hibamos a encontrar con mas ciclistas y para nuestra sorpresa "ecuatorianos"

"Que estan haciendo un viaje de para conocer las tierras de sudamerica y lo mejor de todo en bicicleta.

Juliaca: Tricycle Capital of the Americas

2008-03-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

No words can describe the joy of frolicking in the streets of Juliaca, dodging other drivers and stuck in traffic... but this time the traffic isn´t big noisy dirty trucks and mini buses, but TRICYCLES! Yes indeed, we have decided that Juliaca, Peru is the tricycle capital of the Americas. It´s full, full, full of triciciclistas, as the men (and yes they are almost 100% men) who ride the tricycles are called. One person told us there are 14,000 tricyclists in Juliaca, and another 50,000! Regardless, there are thousands, and at least 5,000 are out on the streets at anyone time. So, as you can expect, in a city of a few hundred thousand people, it makes its mark and the streets ultimately are majorly dominated by triciciclistas. Therefore, what fun!!! to bike around Juliaca, it felt like critical mass! But Juliaca has critical mass every day of the year... don´t we all strive to be like that??

We did several long interviews and talked with many tricyclists and were able to come up with the following information. Join our google group to listen to the interviews! They are all labeled "Juliaca"-- http://groups.google.com/group/movementporuncambio/

History
Juliaca is a very young city, only about 100 years old. It is a commerace city, where trucks come in from all over and most people make thier living off of thier own business selling goods. Although the truck traffic is terrible coming in and out of the city, once you are inside all you see is Tricycles. Tricycles have been used in Juliaca for as long as our interviewees could remember, but only in the last 20 years have they become something used for passengers. Before, they were only used to carry cargo (anything from beds to alfalfa to concrete to potatoes), and the person with the cargo would go along for the ride in the tricycle. Then, a few decades ago, tricycle manufactuers got the grand idea to design the tricycles to be more comfortable for the person who was traveling with cargo, and the idea to make tricycles that can be used for cargo, cargo and passengers, or purely passengers. That´s when the culture of using tricitaxis to get around started to kick in, and now it´s the main form of transportation within the city of Juliaca.

Study: While enjoying a 1 sol lunch (30 cents) we decided to perform a study. I counted how many tricycles and bicycles passed by us in two lanes out of a 4 lane street, and Cristhian counted the motorized vehicles. Who won? The cycles, by far! In 5 minutes we saw 65 cycles pass by and only 31 motorized vehicles. Now that´s bike culture for you.

Why so many Tricitaxis?
Like many other cities, Juliaca is flat with more or less wide streets, making it easy to bike in (although there are plenty of unpaved streets in the suburbs, making it difficult to access with cars or tricycles). There is also a lot of commerace within the city and therefore a high demand for short fast trips within the city. However, there are millions of other cities in the world with the same conditions which don´t have a single tricyclist and very few bicyclists. What´s so special about Juliaca? The only explanation we could find is that the culture of the tricycle is deeply ingraned in the culture of Juliaca... the people there have been using tricycles in one form or another for decades, and now the culture is so strong that indeed it is the DOMINANT form of transportation within the city. Everyone takes a tricitaxi! There´s no bike infrastructure to speak of, nor support from the local government for cyclists. This only proves that making biking a culturally acceptable and economical form of transportation, regardless of infrastructure, is the key for having a bike culture in a city.

Why do the people prefer to take a Tricitaxi?

When there are mini buses, motor taxis, and auto taxis? It´s the cheapest! To go almost anywhere in the city it costs 1 sol in tricitaxi, while a moto costs 1.50 soles and auto taxi costs 2. So the majority of people will always elect to take a tricitaxi, as it is just as fast and much cheaper. A triciclista doesn´t have to buy gas to run thier business, and therefore they can gain more and thier clients save money. Everyone wins!

In the Day of a Triciciclista

To be a triciclista is a tough job. Many start thier days at 6am and work until 6pm, and some work into the dark. Thier tricycles weigh about 120 pounds, and that´s without passangers. When carrying around a family or a woman with her 8 bags of cement, the load can be much more. These guys bike around with more than the wieght we do and for more hours than we do, every single day for years and years! It is truly impressive ... and as many tricicylistas told us, the major downside of the job is that it is TIRING, therefore most tricyclists are quite young and the older men have more trouble finding clients. On the flip side, being a tricyclist has its upsides. You can earn 15 to 20 soles a day, which is a decent wage. You can work on your own hours, flexible...meaning if you are studying or if you have another job, it´s not a problem. In addition you get good exercise everyday! In order to become a tricyclist, all you need is a tricycle and you need to pay the city a tax every year in order to have the right to operate. There are countless small factories of tricycles in Juliaca, and they sell the tricycles in payment installments. So although a tricycle is quite expensive (about $300 or 900 soles) someone can use the tricycle to pay off their debt over the period of months or years, depending on how good business is. There don´t seem to be any major barriers in front of someone wanting to be a tricyclist, and perhaps that is the reason why there are thousands and thousands of them in Juliaca. Of course, if you are a women there are barriers: it´s taboo, and it´s definately seen as "man´s job".

The Environment for other Cyclists in Juliaca

The fact that the tricitaxis are so prominent in Juliaca means that the streets are much more safe for other bicyclists. Therefore we were able to see women and children biking in Juliaca as well (though not many, of course). In addition, the tricycles made it so that Juliaca is relatively free of contamination! It´s a pleasure to breath in this bici-trici-city. The cycle culture in Juliaca is so complete that you can see any kind of business or service run on cycles! For example, there´s "Eco-Trici" that the people who pick up trash use, there´s people selling popcorn, C.D.s, bananas, corn, and anything else on a tricycle. Everything is on 2 or 3 non-motorized wheels!

The Future of Tricitaxis in Juliaca: Will they be taken over by motos?

When asked this question, most tricyclistas said no way, because the tricycle will always be cheaper and therefore clients will perfer it. However, one joven said yes the motos will take over because being a triciciclista is tiring and eventually people will opt for the easier option: to be a taxista in moto instead of bici. However, that was just one opinion and the majority of folks seem to think that tricycles are there to stay in Juliaca.

Puno

Puno is a city just south of Juliaca where there are also tricitaxis, although many fewer. Puno has the best bike park we´ve seen in our trip (Cristhian had fun playing on it for a few hours!), and you can see diverse people biking around. We made friends with two young women, one of which bikes just about everyday, and who was about to teach the other, her cousin, how to ride a bike! They want to try and encourage more women biking in Puno! You can hear our interview on our Google group.

North of Juliaca: Women Bicyclists!!

Juliaca was impressive, but still followed the traditional patterns of 98% of the cyclists being men. However, as we biked north into the region near Ayaviri we were surprised to see MORE women biking on the highway than men (and the highway is not safe)! As we entered the small city we saw some women biking tricitaxis and cargo on tricycles. Within the city we saw tons of women biking and children too! It was a very chill city with very little traffic, which might have something to do with there being women cyclists.

Peru in General:

We crossed the border from Bolivia to Peru and were instantly struck by a key difference: Peruanos bike more! At least in rural areas of Puno, the southern most district in the sierra of Peru. There is a significantly higher number of cyclists on the highways of Peru, which instantly made us feel good and welcome in this country.

Cusco: An exception from what we´ve seen in Peru

There aren´t any cyclists in Cusco, not a single one, it´s worse than La Paz, and La Paz has worse geography and traffic! It´s a very odd phenomenon and we just aren´t sure why we are the only ones biking here in Cusco. Perhaps if some of the funds the local government makes from such intense tourism went to promote biking there would be a great difference in the city of Cusco...

Overall we are pleased with what we have seen of bicycles in Peru. We are especially inspired by Juliaca´s culture of tricitaxis and hope to see trici-cultures sprout up in other cities. We hope to promote them in Quito when we return...

In Peru!

2008-03-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

We are in Peru! Yay. We crossed the border 2 days ago and now we are in Puno. We hope to arrive in Cusco in about 8 days, where we will give you all a big juicy blog up-date! But for now we just wanted to say "Hi" and that Peru is beautiful with many many cyclists. Bike-taxis are still all the rave! Until Cusco...
Claire and Cristhian

Estamos en -CUSCO- "PERU"

2008-03-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

Bike Culture in Cochabomba!

2008-03-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

Cochabomba: a perfect bike city...except (almost) nobody bikes
Entering Cochabomba was a bit frightening... more than 40 miles of suburban cities and the highway full of giant trucks and taxis that didnt mind cutting off cyclists one bit. We were much relieved to see a sign, "The Start of the Bike Path". How amazing, and what perfect timing as we were being stressed out. The bike path, which ran for about 8km from a suburban city to maybe 10 blocks outside of Cochabomba, was indeed more relaxing to ride in. However, it had speed bumbs and so as a cyclist you were forced to slow down before each intersection with cars. Now, if a city wants to promote non-motorized transport, shouldnt they be putting the speed bumps in way of the cars crossing the bike path, not vice versa? This was our first introduction to the poor design of Cochabombina bike infrastructure. We heard from a friend that there was an article about biking as transportation in one of the main Cochabombina newspapers, Los Tiempos, in the last sundays paper. We decided to check it out, so we went to the office of Los Tiempos and asked to speak with the author, thinking we could interview her about what she knew about bike organizations in Cochabomba. It turns out, she started interviewing us, and then took our photos, and thats how the article in Los Tiempos (which we put in the last blog entry) came to be. However, we also got a chance to interview her, and we learned quite a bit. Luz Marina Canelas--- First of all, she told us, there are currently no organizations promoting the bike as alternative transportation in Cochabomba, and as far as she knows, not in any city in all of Bolivia. However, her newspaper, Los Tiempos, has started a new campaign to celebrate their 55th anniversary called Los Tiempos Close to You (Cerca de Ti) in which the newspaper is working in 4 areas, one of which is the Environment and Ecology. Luz is in charge of this area, and has decided to chose the bicycle as the main thing to promote environmentalism in Cochabomba. She has started a publicity campaign on biking and will write at least one article a month until the summer about the benefits of biking as transportation. She also is working with private bisnesses to finance a large publicity campaign that includes posters, newspaper ads, billboards, fliers and more, all promoting biking. She does not want to work with the government because the politicians always politicize things and that will make it more complicated and a lot slower. She prefers to work with private companies, the police, the transit authorities, and others who are more stable than politicians and so things move along faster. The project is still in its initial stages, so she is still working things out and open to ideas. We told her we are impressed that a newspaper is taking the initiative in a city, and taking on the role of an NGO with respect to biking. She told us that she wants to promote biking in Cochabomba because it used to be a biking city, it was famous for having a lot of cyclists in the 1970s. But now the auto has taken over especially because there is an open door policy with Chile and old junky cars come in from Europe (the ones that no longer meet the environmental standards of European or Asian countries) and get sold in Bolivia dirt cheap. For this reason there are 80,000 autos in a city of 1million people, and the number of autos is growing. Thats a lot of cars for a Bolivian city. There are a ton of taxis and Trufis (fixed route taxis) that clog up the streets as well as private cars. Therefore there is chaos and curruption and no one controls the drivers and many are driving without liscences. But Cochabomba is a perfect biking city, says Luz. Its flat, the streets are relatively wide, the climate is nice, what more could you ask for? In addition there are bike paths, though she admits they arent the best, and the publicity for them is terrible. The primary bike path, which curves around a large portion of the city, was built 10 years ago and has never been popular. Now it is notorious for being highly dangerous and there have been many cases of robbery and assault of bikers. She said that at one point Cochabomba was number 3 in the world in terms of contamination, and for this reason the city government started El Dia del Peaton (the day of the pedestrian) the first Sunday of every september where the entire city is open only to cyclists and walkers. On this day many people bike, but other than that, there are very few who chose to bike. And why is that? Well there isnt respect from drivers, as is true in most cities, and also theres huge problems with insecurity. Many people have had thier bikes stolen and many just dont want to deal with the risk of getting one stolen. In additon, cyclists can be the victims of robberies and other crimes. Cochabombinos really feel the insecurity of the streets, and therefore dont let thier kids out on the streets to ride bikes. The sad thing is, when you go to one of the two closed in neighborhoods in Cocha, where you cant enter unless you have permission, you can indeed see kids out in the streets on thier bikes. But only in these closed, privileged places. The rest of the city, nothing. Its a sign that a lot needs to happen in terms of the reclamation of public space in Cocha. There are few bikers in Cocha, and even fewer women bikers. Luz thinks that for every 50 male bikers perhaps there is one female biker. She thinks it is because theres no custom for women to bike, and generally thier gender role (of domestic work) means they are in movement less than men. They also may decide to take a taxi or bus to not have to worry about parking thier bike or it getting stolen. Another important factor is that the traditional dress that many Cochabombina women wear makes it much more difficult to ride a bike (skirt and often times heels). Despite all the challenges, Luz wants to work to promote biking in order to lessen traffic and contamination in the city, as well as to help people lead more active and healthy life styles, in addition to opening thier eyes to a cheap and autonomous form of transport. Shes new at this, and isnt in contact with bike movements in other cities, and so it was a good opportunity to share ideas from Santiago, Chile (public bikes) and Quito (ciclopaseo) and other places in the world where the bike movement is more advanced. We wish Luz the best in her campaign to promote the bike in Cocha and hope that other people are inspired and form groups to continue the work in this beautiful city. If any bikers are traveling to Cocha, we recommend you talk with Luz at Los Tiempos and share your ideas about how to promote bike culture, or if not, you can write her at: lmcanelas@lostiempos-bolivia.com. After talking with Luz we decided to check out this notorious bike path ourselves. We couldnt have imagined how bad it really was until we saw it. Poorly designed, with tunnels so low you had to bend down low to pass, and which ended up serving more as public bathrooms than a bike path. There was also trash and glass and shrubs in the path, as well as holes and bumps, and the path went through forest-like areas which could clearly be dangerous at nighttime. Though we were biking in the middle of the day we didnt feel safe, and so the poor design of this bike path caused us to leave it after a few kilometers. We only saw about 4 other bikers on the path while we were there--its obvious it is barely used. We did however meet a friendly biker who is optimistic about bike culture in Cocha, and you can listen to our interview by entering the google group page Movement por un Cambio. Though Cocha doesnt currently have a bike culture, it did in the past, and it has the great potential to have one in the future, especially with Luz taking the initiative. All it needs is a few more dedicated activists to head up some campaigns and we think that some real movement could happen hear. If any Cochabombinos are reading this, we want to support you! Adelante! A Note on Arriving in Cochabomba from Oruro: We left Oruro late Saturday the 23rd of Februry late in the afternoon, and pushed against the headwind 35km to arrive in the farm Hornenco (sp?) where a very kind farm hand and his beautiful children took us in to camp by thier house and offered us good conversations, giant glasses of fresh yogurt from the farm and hot chicken soup. The next day we packed up while chatting with thier 5 kids who were so open, friendly, kind and smart. It was indeed one of the kindest families we have ran into during this trip and we thank them profundly. We headed out the next day and climbed well over 1,000 meters up until about 4,500 feet, and very tired we zoomed downhill 8 km to Japo a small town where the people have beautiful winter hats. It was late and we were freezing (still wet from a hail storm up top) and so we asked to rent a room to stay in. In the morning we got to watch the daughter work with her loom, weaving a beautiful shawl with designs of dogs and birds. Very complicated and hard work, and the girl said she learned in a day and if we stayed a day we could learn too! (I dont believe it!) We headed out expecting it to be all or at least mostly downhill (as everyone kept telling us, ohh its alll downhill from here!) but were met by more and more and more uphill. We probably climbed 1,000 meters again and finally at 5pm starting downhill...and down and down and down! 30km we sped down in less than 2 hours! We ended up doing 91km that day, finally stopping in Parotani hoping for a hostal, and insted sleeping inside a construction site where they locked us in at 8pm and let us out at 8am. A funny situation, one of many we have had, but all good! We left in the rain, with our new rain booties, and entered the giant sprawl that comes out of Cochabomba. 40km later we were in Cocha and we met my friend Brendan (from Macalester) in the main plaza, and I double biked him about 8km to the house he is renting. Its a great house with a beautiful and large garden and Brendan has been so very kind and generous to let us stay for so long. THANK YOU BRENDAN!! Weve had an amazing time in Cocha, seeing old friends, meeting new ones, seeing radical art, music, poetry and films, attending a good party, learning Tai Chi, eating Hari Krishner food, and biking around the beautiful (and dangerous) streets of Cocha. We are moving on now, heading out to La Paz, and though we will miss our lovely and relaxing time in Cocha we must move on... Goodbye for now!

Cochabombina Newspaper

2008-03-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

El mundo en bicicleta
Por: Luz Mariona Canelas
http://www.lostiempos.com/noticias/01-03-08/vida_y_futuro.php

2 amigosla estadounidense Claire Stoscheck y el ecuatoriano Cristhian Cuaces, se encontraron en una interesante cruzada: visitar varios países de Sudamérica con el propósito de mostrar los beneficios de la bicicleta y promover su uso masivamente.

Cargados de grandes mochilas, impulsados por sus amigos que los colaboraron con donaciones para su sustento y pedaleando por sus ideales, Claire Stoscheck y Cristhian Cuaces de Estados Unidos y Ecuador respectivamente, son una interesante pareja de activistas que realiza una dura pero satisfactoria travesía ecológica: cruzar varios países de Sudamérica en bicicleta con la finalidad de demostrar que ésta puede ser el mejor medio de transporte del planeta.

Partieron en Santiago de Chile y su meta final -en esta etapa- será llegar en junio o mayo a Quito, Ecuador, cruzado varias regiones de Argentina, Bolivia, Perú y Colombia, todo sobre dos ruedas y con un par de sencillas bicicletas que no tienen nada fuera de lo común, a diferencia de otros ciclistas que para viajar se equipan con cajas de cambio, llantas especiales y una serie de otros elementos.

Para ellos, sus botes de agua, ropa liviana para el calor y abrigada para el frío, además de sus carpas para acampar donde les pille la noche o el hambre, son sus principales implementos. A ello agregan sus energías, buen humor y preocupación por mitigar, de algún modo, el calentamiento global con este tipo de acciones.

Su reto

Como Cristhian y Claire, cientos de jóvenes de distintas naciones se suman al denominado "Movement for a change" (Movimiento para el cambio) y diseñan estrategias diversas para sensibilizar a la sociedad sobre la problemática medioambiental. Éstos en muchos casos reciben financiamientos de sus municipio, de organizaciones no gubernamentales o de la empresa privada, por constituirse en proyectos o programas activistas que además requieren se aplicados de manera sostenible para la obtención de resultados positivos.

Ejemplos como el "ciclopaseo" instaurado quincenalmente en Quito y semanalmente en Bogota, al igual que el Día del peatón anual cochabambino, son acciones que sensibilizan de a poco a las comunidades respecto a la importancia de la bicicleta, como una alternativa de transporte sano bajo toda perspectiva.

Lo mismo sucede en Estados Unidos, cuenta Claire, "varias ciudades han comenzado a construir infraestructura, ciclovías y a aplicar programas piloto para crear ciclópolis", es decir regiones en las que la bicicleta se fortalece. "Incluso han surgido talleres comunitarios" dice la estadounidense a los que llegan partes o bicicletas donadas en mal estado y son reparadas o reconstruidas para venderse luego a precios muy baratos".

Beneficios de la bici

- No usa combustible

- Es más barata

- No contamina

- Es ecológica

- No provoca atolladeros

- Es menos peligrosa que un motorizado

- Es saludable

- Mantiene en forma

- Fortalece al corazón y al resto de músculos del cuerpo

- Es más veloz porque no está sujeta a atolladeros

- No tropieza con la falta de espacios para parqueos

- Contribuye al equilibrio

- Desestreza

- Ayuda a la coordinación

- Despierta los sentidos

- Enseña a estar más alerta

- Ayuda a la respiración

- Quema calorías

- Es más segura porque no ocasiona accidentes tan graves

Nota de Claire y Cristhian: No vamos a Colombia, solo hasta Ecuador.

Bolivia: Dirt roads, llamas and Salt Flats

2008-02-22T15:09:00.001-08:00

Hello from Oruro, Bolivia, where the days are cold and the nights are colder! (We´ve been sleeping with 2 pairs of pants and three jackets, and still are cold!) It is now the 22 of February. We crossed the border around the 10th of Februry from La Quiaca into Villazon. After running errands and enjoying a bit of the gorgeous Villazon carnaval (very elaborate costums, our favorite were the miners because they were funny and were the only ones representing people from the working class), we headed out into the dusty unknown of Bolivia´s dirt roads--me with my new liscence plate that says ¨Pedaling to mitigate climate change". The first day was fun, getting used to the dirt road with it´s potholes, bumps (bachacitos) and sand traps. The second was tough, as we did 53km and we started to feel the constant vibrations in our bones... and our behinds! It was this day that I realized that my bike really isn´t cut out for this kind of mountain terrain (without front suspension and with smooth tires). But it held up! And so did we. We arrived in Tupiza as the night fell and found a cheap hostal (no such thing as camping in cities in Bolivia, that is truly an Argentine phenomenon). We stayed a few days as I got sicker and sicker (again!) and decided to take the tren to Uyuni because we knew the roads were terrible and my health as well. So we took off at 6pm--Cristhian´s first time on a train!--very happy that the train system still works in Bolivia (in Argetina it´s dead!). In Uyuni we rested and I got better, thanks to anti biotics (I´ve been on 3 different anti-biotics in one month! A new record for me...) and we took off to Colchani, a small town on the "coast" of the largest salt flat in the world (as they say), el Solar de Uyuni (and enjoyed watching the baby llamas that were all over the place!). We arrived at night and found a hostel, where a group of agentinos and estado unidenses were staying. They invited us to dinner and we stayed up all night talking, especially about US politics as one of the argentinos had lived there for 5 months. The next morning we awoke, and decided to cook breakfast next to a store in the main intersection in town. As would become normal in Bolivia, we attracted a grand audience of kids who were very curious about what we were doing. We conversed with and entertained them for a good hour, and then headed down to the solar. And there, our bikes shrunk and we blew them away! No no, just kidding, we just had fun messing with the camera and perspective because the salt flat makes you loose all perspective. We had wanted to cross the solar biking, and many tourers have done before us, but as we had heard in Tupiza, and as was confirmed when arrive on the shore of the solar, the solar was covered in a few feet of water, and there wasn´t anyway to cross it in bicycle--even the jeeps were having trouble! We hung out on the coast for a while, taking in the amazingness that is the giant sea of salt, and were surprised to see jeep after jeep full of tourists enter the water after taking a few photos of the beauty, and without thinking, leaving a thick line of oil on the coastline. They are destroying the beauty they have come to see... ironic and sad. Our advice to you--if you are going to cross the solar, cross walking or biking because if you go in jeep you´ll only help to ruin the solar. We were sad to not be able to cross in bici, but very happy to have had the chance to see the magnificent solar. We headed out of town and camped in a sea of rocks in the paramo. Good thing we went to the solar, because no one here sells the rock salt we need for our water purifyer! (yes we are purifying the water here after hearing many stories). The next day we biked a good bit, and walked too (as there are patches of sand that you just cannot bike through!) and camped behind a farmer´s house who had llamas, sheep, chickens and geese. We almost froze that night and realized we need to sleep in all our clothes! The next day we took off and right away ran into some road workers who had bikes. We asked them how long it takes to bike to Rio Mulato and they let us in on a little secret--it´s much faster if you take the bike path! They told us how to get there, and we found it (looking for bike tracks) and took the first bike path we´ve seen in Bolivia--that cuts right through the paramo! It was fun, a nice break from the bumpy road. It was perfectly the right size for bikes, and after cutting through the paramo it followed the railroad. I´m not sure it was faster (as we had to get off our bikes often to cross holes and bridges and the sort) but it was refreshing, and we think it´s great that the cyclists here take it into their own hands to make thier own bike paths and don´t wait on the government to do it for them. In Rio Mulato we bought food and purified water, and headed out again, finding some protection from the wind in a little hole in the ground. The sky was threatening but beautiful, and it looked like someone watercolored it. The next day we were siked to bike (we only had 100km more of dirt roads!) but quickly found out that Cristhian´s freewheel broke! We´d never seen such a thing, but it just broke in half. So I returned 4km to Rio Mulato where I met a cyclist who helped me out with information about how to get to Oruro. I found out that at times he bikes to Uyuni (about 90km) in 8 hours...which is a great feat on these dirt roads... and the most impressive thing is that this man has one arm! It is cyclists like him who inspire and motivate me. We spent a good part of the day trying to get a train or bus or truck to take us to Oruro where we could buy Cristhian a freewheel because we didn´t know how much longer he could bike on the broken one and we didn´t want to be stranded. After a bit we got sick of waiting and headed out biking, and that night camped 20km beyond the town behind a campesina´s house, where they gifted us hot soup at night (how kind!) In the morning the 7+ children formed our audience as we packed up to go. We biked fast that day, zooming along at 15km/hour (which is super fast for the dirt roads). We arrived in Sevaruyo happy, but there was a small problem, between us and the town was a giant river. But never fear, we thought, there´s always a way. So we decided to cross the river on the train bridge. It turned out to be a funny choice because, well, Cristhian crossed first, and I was struggling across with my bike, perhaps one third across, when beep beep! we realized a train was coming! oh no! But luckily it was a mini train which, presumedly, has good brakes. However, it wasn´t stopping, so I turned around and with all my strength I lifted my bike to my shoulder and began to run back to the side I started on, while a women below doing her laundry in the river yelled to me "Drop your bike in the river and run! Drop your bike!" But I thought, No Way am I going to drop my bike in the river, I´m gonna cross this bridge or die with my bicycle! Okay, maybe not so dramatic, but I felt very protective of my bike. I arrive on the other side just in time and dropped to the ground exhausted. Cristhian took my bike to cross it and I started crossing alone and just then, poof! a giant storm appeared out of no where (we haven´t had rain at all in Bolivia!) and dumped hailstones on us! So here I was in my little bike shorts crossing this long train bridge with hailstones stinging my legs and laughing because really the situation couldn´t get more hilarious. We finally made it to the other side and found shelter and 5 minutes later, there was a bus! And they told us they could take us to Oruro! Ironic, we waited a half day in Rio Mulato for a transportation to Oruro, and in Sevoruyo a bus appeared within minutes! So we hopped on, sad to not be biking but happy to be able to get a new freewheel without being stranded in the paramo. The bus was full of miners, employees of the Washington Group, Bolivia, a US corporation, and there was one man who was so siked that I a "Americana" he gave me a beer and cheered me. Haha. Ironic that the first person who´s excited that I¨m from the states is working for a US-based transnational that is exploiting the earth in Bolivia for silver. So! After all these great Bolivian adventures we are in Oruro and preparing to bike on to Cochabomba to visit some of my friends from college and other contacts. From there we will head on to La Paz, Lago Titcaca, and we hope to be in Cusco, Peru, within a month, where we will meet up with a friend from Quito to head on up to Ecuador! Cristhian has a new freewheel and we´ve washed our clothes. All set to bike on to Cocha! Until the next time... bike on!

The Land of Bikes and Sun Hats... Sombreros and Bicis

2008-02-22T14:00:00.001-08:00

Abra Pampa, Argentina

We rolled into town in the early evning, and the very first thing that struck us were the large quantities of sombreros (sun hats in traditional indigenous style) and bicycles. We giggled in excitement, as we always do when we stumble across towns or cities with a large number of cyclists. Here in Abra Pampa you see all types of folks, women, men, children, biking, and many of them are sporting thier traditional dress and the majority of them are sporting a sombrero.

Abra Pampa is a small city in the middle of the paramo surrounded by mountians and llamas. It is a lovely town with a lovely carnaval (we spent half of our carnaval there!), and is unfortunately highly contaminated with lead. The foriegn owned (no surprise) lead-processing factory entered the town about 50 years ago, and left 10 years ago leaving behind giant mountains of lead which, via wind and water, has contaminated every inch of Abra Pampa and a 15km radius around it. Children are born with high levels of lead in their blood passed on from their mothers and then the blood level increases with age as they drink and breath lead everyday of thier lives. Because of the lead some people are hyper active, others are larthargic, and all have memory problems. It´s a huge problem, and the family Baldarama, with whom we stayed, wants to leave and move to La Quiaca to escape the environmental poison, even as they continue to struggle in thier campaign to get the government to clean up the poison. It´s a very sad situation, because the company left without cleaning up thier mess, and the government doesn´t want anything to do with it, and the folks in the town don´t have the money or resources to clean it up. So what happens? The people of Abra Pampa continue to live in a sea of lead poisoning...

One very positive aspect of Abra Pampa is the alternative library there, run by volunteers, including the family Baldarama with whom we stayed (because they are friends of Mamondes-Baldarama, the family with whom we stayed in Amaiche de Valle). The library has books on social movements in Latin America, Indigenous movements, Indigenous culture, South American literature, etc... all subjects to help raise consciousness about human rights and environmentalism, and to help strengthen the indigenous movement. It´s a very positive place where they also perform ceromonies and give offerings to the Pacha Mama, in which we were lucky enough to participate. In Abra Pampa we learned a lot about the Indigenous movement, and la lucha para la vida (the struggle for life) that exists in Argentina and in all the area of South America that used to be the Incan empire (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina). The movement has spirit, and we wish our friends in Abra Pampa, Quilmes, Amaiche de Valle, etc... the best of luck in thier struggle.

As for the bike movement, we learned a lot from our friend Padre Quique, the pastor in the church in Abra Pampa who rides his bici everyday. You can hear his take on bike culture in Abra Pampa in the interview we had with him... just visit our google group http://groups.google.com/group/movementporuncambio Here is Padre Quique with his best friend/bicycle

Ironically the Mamonde-Baldarama family from Amaiche was there visiting at the same time as us! We had a marvelous time with them, the Baldarama family from Abra Pampa, and friends from the alternative library (like Luis, one of the only anarchists we´ve met on the trip). I also was very sick while in Abra Pampa, and Edmoundo (from the Abra Pampa family) helped to cure me by doing a cleansing (they believed that I was so sick because perhaps I climbed a mountain without asking permision from the Pacha Mama-mother earth, and so I needed to be cleansed and forgiven. They told us from now on we should ask permission to climb mountains, enter rivers or to camp, and we have done so.) The day we left they invited us to an asado (BB-Q... yes I´ve been eating meat during the trip...you have to be flexible in this type of thing) and a ceromony thanking the pacha mama for the cosecha (harvest) and for the tools that allow us to live our lives. The family blessed thier house and helped us to bless our bikes, which are our main tools in life right now--they are our mobility and our houses, and our happiness. We left covered in confetti and flour which they poured on our heads to represent the happiness they hoped for in our lives. We left Abra Pampa in happiness ...

Hola from Jujuy!

2008-01-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

We are staying in Jujuy with a wonderful family (casa de ciclista), having a grand old time doing ABC´s on our bikes and playing with the kids... we made bread on Sunday, and yesturday we all worked on our bikes together. My Velocity rims arrived in Correo Argentino today and they are being put together as I write. I am very excited. We hope to get moving in the next few days (although the kids want us to stay a few more weeks, maybe months... hehe)

Bike Culture in Salta, Argentina

2008-01-24T08:31:00.001-08:00

Bike Culture In Salta: What a trip! This city is crazy, really, the traffic is thick like pea soup and

the cars go fast, fast, fast! There isn´t a drop of space for cyclists. The city is colonial and the

streets extremely narrow, but the autos manage go go super fast anyway. It really wins the prize for the WORST CITY I have EVER BIKED IN. However, ironically, it is full of cyclists! Not

thousands but really, many, many more than one would expect considering the terrible conditions.

The cyclists are HEROIC in Salta. I really don´t know how they survive. There is absolutley no respect what-so-ever for cyclists. We felt this as we were almost run over a few times, but it has to be worse for locals because we recieve more respect as

foriegners. But somehow they manage! They are like ants, they squeeze in an out of traffic, they find a space in streets full of cars, they find movement in traffic, they make the impossible possible. They are incredible! Unfortunately, they are almost 100 percent men...

We spoke with a young woman who is a mechanic in a bike shop in central Salta, Mercedes Ganami (cyclesparra@hotmail.com) who told us that before there were a lot more cyclists in the city, using the bike as a means of transportation, but that just in the last 5 years the number of cars and motorcycles has increased hugely and due to this phenomenon Salta is loosing its cyclists rapidly. Hundreds and thousands of cars and motorcycles are taking thier place and filling the city with traffic, noise and smog. Motorcycles more than cars replace bikes because they are cheaper... but not necesarily better. They also pollute a huge amount and there are less regulations surrounding them so someone could have an engine on thier moto that pollutes more than a car and no one would say anything. We´ve seen so many motorcycles in Argentina, and everyone tells us they´ve only appeared in the last 5 years. It´s an amazing phenomenon--the motorcycle replacing the bicycle--and very sad. There´s no greater threat to the bicycle than the moto here in Argentina.

In Salta there are zero organizations working to promote the bicycle as transportation, even though there are many bike enthusiasts. Mercedes thinks this is because they just cannot get along well enough to come together on a project. However, Salta has 3 bikepaths-lanes. Why we asked, because there was a movement of people asking for them? Nope, nothing of the sort, the city decided to install them out of necesity because so many cylists were being killed on the main roads in Salta. Mercedes laughed when I told her I thought that 23 cyclist deaths in one year in New York City was a lot. She told me that Salta would far surpass New York in cyclists deaths, although no statistics are available (no one makes the effort to find them). So, there are some bike paths, but they are in terrible condition! The ones that are separate from the road are full of mountains of dirt and giant holes and the ones that are part of the street are full of cars, and the police don´t care one bit (even though they care a lot when you sit on the grass in main plaza! They kicked us out for sitting on the grass...hehe) Mercedes told us that although mountain biking is an extrememly popular sport in Salta you´ll never see a nice mountain bike in the city, because the people who use the bike as sport wouldn´t dare risk it in the city. Instead, they drive thier bike out to the hills to go biking--in their CARS. Those who use bikes in the city are the working class and most have old beater cruisers.

So the situation for bikers in Salta is... insane. They have to deal with traffic, narrow streets, aggressive and reckless drivers (Mercedes told us the requirements for driving an auto are very loose), and bike paths full of cars and holes. "If it´s so terrible for bikers here, why are do they do it?" I asked. Without hesitation Mercedes told me, "Out of necesity. There are plenty of people with no other option for transportation." It´s same answer I got from a man I met on a bike path. He told me that it´s awful biking in Salta, and not fun at all, but it´s his only option because it´s the cheapest form of transportation and he doesn´t have to be dependent on anyone to get to work and back, just on himself. As the cheapest and most autonomous form of transportation---the bicycle cannot be beat! That is why there are still cyclists in Salta despite the take-over by motorcycles. And why aren´t there more women biking? I asked Mercedes... It´s because it´s so dangerous and women in general have more fear of the streets, she told me. It´s true, you have to be super aggresive to survive the streets of Salta, and in a sexist society few women learn how to have the confidence to be aggressive.

It´s even hard for BMXers in Salta! We were told BMXers are looked down upon by the richer skateboarders. But as we left the city we ran into a dirt BMX racing track in the suburbs and we just had to stop! Cristhian took all his panniers off and we had a fun hour jumping over dirt bumps and playing with the little boys who were also enjoying an evning on the bike track!

Bikes are Useful!

2008-01-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

Water Filtering Bike! (post located at: http://www.ecospace.cc/water/water-filtering-bike-0108.htm)

Clean water from our taps is something that many of us take for granted. In some parts of the world, the collection of water, is a daily task that requires a great deal of effort and resources - and often the water still isn’t fit to drink. The award winning Aquaduct bike seeks to improve water transportation and safety for people faced with such challenges.

Over 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean water and in excess of 5,000 children die each day due to water related diseases. A family of four needs around 20 gallons of water a day to meet basic needs - drinking, cooking, washing and cleaning.

For people in the developing world, this could mean a daily walk of 3 miles or more to collect the water. 20 gallons of water weighs around 160 pounds - it’s a lot to carry. For those who have mechanized transport, the load may be lighter; but often the vehicles used are in poor condition and heavy on emissions.

Additionally, the water often needs to be sterilized through boiling - this is usually done on wood fires that contribute to airborne pollution and deforestation.

The Aquaduct is a pedal powered vehicle that stores, filters and transports water; aimed for use in the developing world. It consists of a storage tank, filter, peristaltic pump, clean tank and clutch.

As the person peddles the peristaltic pump draws the water from the storage tank, through a filter to a 2 gallon clean tank. That tank can be removed and taken indoors. When more water is needed, the tank is replaced, the clutch engaged and the person then peddles while remaining stationary.

The Aquaduct is the winner of the Innovate or Die Pedal Powered Machine competition. Entries surpassed expectations and in just 3 months, over a hundred inventions were invented - all based on the simple mechanics of a bicycle! The Aquaduct looks like a wonderful invention that could improve the lives of thousands and I sincerely hope it the team behind it finds the financial backing needed to get the invention to where it’s needed most.

Posted by michael on 22 January 2008

Fotos desde Mendoza hasta Salta-Argentina

2008-01-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

saliendo de Mendoza ciudad de las Heras---------------------------Acampando en un viñedo

Entrando a la provincia de San Juan---------Tatuaje

GAUCHITO GIL

Desastre en la bicicleta "7 huecos
en el tubo de la llanta por entrar
a descansar a un espacio abierto

a unos metros de la carretera" y

para nuestra buena suerte en

medio de
una tormenta de arena!!!

Caucete

Desierto de uvas....?!!!

Ruta

Difunta Correa "Vallecito"

Valle San Agustin

Parque Natural Provincial ISCHIGUALASTO

Ruta

Parque Nacional TALAMPAYA

Valle Union

Ruta

Pueblo de Pituil

Ruta

En la Ruta "Ofrenda a la Difunta Correa"

01 de Enero con nuestros amigos de Belen...!!!
rock en Belen!!

Los nacimientos

Cafayate

La Viña

Salta

Pista de racing en Salta

Ruta

San Salvador de Jujuy

Casa de nuestro amigo Benjamin y Ana