Ukodus Worldwide Bike Ride

To make a statement about human caused climate change, as a representative for the people I already know and for all the people that I am sure to meet along the way, it is my ambition to ride a bicycle around our shared planet Earth. My journey began just north of Boston Massachusetts USA at Jenness Beach in Rye New Hampshire. It has now seen me pedal across the continent to Heceta Beach in Florence Oregon, up to the Canadian border at Blaine and now all the way down to Quito in Ecuador.

These days I ride a somewhat overloaded teal blue 1983 Specialized Stumpjumper, a heavy duty old school mountain bike, which was acquired from Shift Community Cycles in Eugene Oregon.

*This GoFundMe campaign page is a good place to make contributions to purchase puzzle books and/or subscribe to my newsletter. When you make a gift I am notified via email and I will follow up with you as quickly as possible. Please forgive me if my response is not instantaneous. The latest update to this campaign was written on May 14th 2024 in Panajachel, a small city on the edge of Lago de Atitlán in Guatemala.

My plan is to ride a distance at least equal to the circumference of the Earth, which is 24,901 miles or 40,075 kilometers, to pass through a set of antipodes and to return to where I started. Antipodes are places on Earth that are perfectly opposite of each other. While there are many more to choose from, here is a sample of 5 pairs of antipodal cities. Each of these places is basically opposite of its partner to within roughly 161 kilometers or 100 miles:

Bogotá (Colombia) - Jakarta (Indonesia)

Machachi (Ecuador) - Pekanbaru (Indonesia)

Asunción (Paraguay) - Taipei (Taiwan)

La Quiaca (Argentina) - Hong Kong

Bahía Blanca (Argentina) - Beijing (China)

Right now, it is my ambition to arrive in Bogotá Colombia before attempting any additional antipodal points in South America. Though it would be cool to do so, I am NOT attempting to visit all of these cities but I do think it is worth the effort to go to at least a few places in South America that have opposite places on the other side of earth. Immediately before me now is the rest of Central America. I plan to ride through El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Then, in order to skip the un-bicycle-able Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia, I'll have to hop on some small boats and bounce through fishing villages in the Caribbean Sea. Even though I have some ideas of what I'll be up against and when, ultimately I will handle these foreseen and unforeseen circumstances as I go.

This trip began at my brother's house in Exeter, New Hampshire. First, I rode coast to coast across the United States of America, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, and then up to the Canadian border. Originally I just wanted to ride from coast to coast. The flash of inspiration to extend my Atlantic to Pacific cycle tour and go on an around the world bike ride came to me in a cornfield outside Decatur, Illinois. As it happened, I was listening to a Charlie Parker album.

Now from the very top north west corner of the continental USA I have bicycled allllllllllllll the way down through Washington, Oregon and California and into Mexico via Tijuana, then the length of Baja California before catching a cargo transportation ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan. I pedaled up the Sierra Madre mountains to Durango and down the central Mexican plateau through Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Leon, Mexico City, Puebla, Xalapa. Then I dropped all my elevation and visited the ancient city of Tajin, before riding through Veracruz, up the Papaloapan river to San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec, Salina Cruz and the lovely little town of Barra Copalita. My friend Karl flew in from Portland Oregon and met me in La Crucecita. We proceeded to ride east along the Pacific coast, out of the state of Oaxaca, up to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, San Cristobal de las Casas and Comitán in the state of Chiapas. We battled our way through outrageous heat, GI parasites and a cartel blockade to cross the Mexican/Guatemalan border at La Mesilla. Needless to say, it has been a wild ride.

At this moment of this typing I am in Panajachel on Lago de Atitlán in Guatemala. Karl wrapped up his trip and flew back home to PDX a few days after we arrived.

I have now cycle-toured over 18,000 kilometers or 11,185 miles. Without counting the breaks I take along the way, I have been in the saddle and riding a fully loaded touring bicycle for well over a year. It has been both exhausting and exhilarating. I am very frequently way outside of my comfort zone and almost always in a place I have never previously known. In many cases, places I had never even heard of. It has been very challenging but gratifying too. I am very grateful that you have taken a moment to join me in this effort. Thank you.

This fundraiser is set to $11,315 which is equal to $31 a day times 365 days in a year. I now believe that $11,315 is a sufficient sum for the first half of my journey. That is to say, I believe this will be enough money to ride a bicycle from the USA through Mexico and Central America into South America and then on to some number of cities which have antipodes.

GoFundMe disperses money on a rolling basis. As of May 14 2024 when this GoFundMe was at $6,567 the money had been spent (and I do want to emphasize the word spent) on:

$3,673 - Food and water

$1,540 - New to me bicycle plus repairs/parts

$476 - Campsites/various accommodations

$240 - Passport fees

$221 - SIM cards and cell phone data

$197 - New to me travel size computer

$167 - Misc

$53 - 180 day Visa for Mexico

As you can see, most of my money is used to buy food. That has been the case so far and I imagine will continue to be true as I continue. I am happy to report that almost all of my meals are from small family businesses and/or made with ingredients procured from local markets. The majority of my spending supports the enterprising people I meet in communities I pass week to week and day to day. Of course besides food expenses, as the miles go by, pretty much every piece of equipment I use must be fixed or replaced and there are a variety of other costs which arise. From where I sit right now, I can anticipate many more meals, campsites, visas, some vaccines and plenty of unanticipated expenditures too.

That being said, and this came as a bit of a surprise to me also, covering huge distances on a bicycle isn't so hard to do. It does of course take time but, for example, an incredible distance can be realized in a single month. To illustrate, I rode all the way from the top to the bottom of Baja California which is a distance greater than 1,576 km or about 1,000 miles in 30 days with many rest days, slow days and short days thrown in for good measure. From my experience now, time feels like the most salient factor. And as such, I am aware that I still have a long long way to go before reaching my first antipodal city. But, barring some type of catastrophe, I am already getting rather close to half my total anticipated distance of 40,000 km. Since distance is only part of my stated intention, the more challenging part, it seems, will be picking the 2 spots I intend to visit, figuring out all the logistics and continuing to secure the requisite funding.

It seems to me that our species is always stumbling forward at maximum velocity and there is just no way of knowing what is to come. I am sure all of us will experience many many more changes as time moves on and there is no doubt that a variety of profound fluctuations are currently taking place. From my perspective, we are in the incredible position of needing to fundamentally change multitudinous factors of our orientation towards each other and even life generally. As you must also believe, this is an incredible time to be a human being.

As people, we all have so much in common and yet every one of us is deeply imbued with at least one fully realized articulation of a distinct human society. The particular history, composition and commitments of our variegated civilizations create both a critically unique position from which to consider life and, with profound incongruity, a commonality in the enormous deficit we all have when these unending variables are juxtaposed against equally strong and sincere allegiances to different ones. That is to say that even though the basic necessities and passions of human life are so much the same everywhere, we are all inescapably bound to the ways of understanding that created us. Our species magnitude for survival, creativity and awesomeness by nature ferments an unending array of unrepeatable cultures. They may have a large number of identical features but somehow end up being exclusive.

Language is as good an example of this as any. Here in Guatemala there are over 20 Mayan languages spoken and while they may have some common characteristics each is a singular expression of a complete way of life. These languages are primary to the people who speak them. Spanish is learned later by most but it has no native relationship to words and grammar which are indigenous. This second language is a helpful and perhaps in some ways necessary part of life here but it is ultimately the adoption of a communication method developed over its own peculiar history from a completely different part of the world. As an example for clarification, each language on earth has a word for food, a substance we are all very familiar with, but just saying your word for food to a person who does not speak your language will not result in immediate understanding. Adding even more indecipherable words to explain yourself will not help at all.

At the risk of carrying this point too far, Guatemala also has many speakers of the Arawakan and Garifuna languages also. Which are both grossly unrelated to each other and all the Mayan dialects. I bring all of this up only to illustrate my earlier observation. If you are born somewhere in the world, it will be a specific place and you will be nurtured in the language and point of view which is the genius of that collective. It is as inescapably as it is novel. I am not suggesting that a person will not continue to learn as they grow older. I am saying only that you have to come from somewhere and it will be a significant contribution to your view of life.

As is manifestly evident, we must engage each other with our abundant perspectives nonetheless. Our openness to understanding each other is vital because there are so many questions which profoundly affect all of us every single day and over the course of generations. Though there are innumerable ways to consider my impact on the world, for the purpose of this trip, the issue I've decided to focus on is human caused climate change. In some way or another we all contribute and we all have to respond. While new illustrations of this global phenomenon arrive every day, NASA data confirms what billions around the world literally felt: temperatures in July 2023 made it the hottest month on record.

“Parts of South America, North Africa, North America, and the Antarctic Peninsula were especially hot, experiencing temperatures increases around 7.2 F (4 C) above average. Overall, extreme heat… put tens of millions of people under heat warnings and was linked to hundreds of heat-related illnesses and deaths. The record-breaking July continues a long-term trend of human-driven warming driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions that has become evident over the past four decades. According to NASA data, the five hottest Julys since 1880 have all happened in the past five years.” - nasa.gov NASA Clocks July 2023 as Hottest Month on Record Ever Since 1880

That is just not good. I have to imagine that the ramifications of this developing climate chaos will affect every single person on Earth and be a major factor of disruption for a long long time to come. Whatever you happen to believe might be causing it, I find myself firmly in the camp that human activity does have a significant effect on our climate. As a result, I believe that each and all of us need to find appropriate actions to mitigate our impact.

Just like you, I am on a never-ending quest to discover what it means to be a person passing through this world. While it is impossible for me to say exactly what prompted my commitment to this idea, because inspirations and constraints are so dynamic and personal, the enthusiasm for wide ranging bicycle travel is my way of maximizing face to face contact with other cultures, meeting lots of new people and simply becoming more aware of the geography and bio-regions of the world at large. I have chosen this trip as a focus for my life because it seems like the most challenging and rewarding thing I can do for an extended period of time.

For over a year I was figuring out how to fully launch off on this journey and what type of approach would work best for me. With an emphasis on total commitment, I have now given up almost all my physical possessions and the places I previously called home. With a few exceptions, I now only have the things needed for this adventure. Choices do matter and because, at this time, I can choose a much much lower carbon version of life, I must. From that perspective alone, living my life from a bicycle seat and visiting communities, as a guest, is deeply in alignment with my convictions.

As you can see I am taking the 'all in' approach. This is because, as you might agree, the best way to improve is to practice. There are so many disparate considerations in order to make this trip possible. For example, my Spanish is still horrible but much better than it was on December 1st when I first crossed the border into Mexico. My fitness level, comfort in difficult situations and route planning abilities are important capacities too. That is why I prefer the method of full embodiment. Learning as I go presents me with the richest possible environment to work through the skills and mindset necessary to continuously make progress towards my goal. Even though I now have a fair amount of experience touring long distances on a bike, I know that there will always be some new horizon for me to orient toward. In my approach, the practices, knowledge and gear necessary to maintain this style of life are best developed through total embrace.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my fundraising page. I also think it is cool to celebrate loved ones and strangers alike as they chase their dreams. Even though I am already out here doing it, this adventure is always in a state of ongoing expansion. I especially thank the people who contributed at an earlier stage as I was launching myself out into the world.

There is no way I could do this without you.

With my boundless gratitude,

joshua

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