She's Riding a BIKE Across Two Continents, ALONE!
I just didn't really even know what I was like getting myself into if something breaks or if you crash which like that's going to happen at some point how often do you get the opportunity to watch your clothes you don't want to know how long do you think it would take to ride a bicycle from the bottom of South America all the way up the continent over mountains around lakes and then crossing over through all of Central America and then up through Mexico which is a huge country and then halfway up the United States Olivia is a friend that I met while traveling for a few months in Peru at that point her Journey had taken about 10 months to get a little bit more than halfway up the continent what's more is that she's doing this epic adventure by herself biking through some grueling sections of road and asking locals if she can pitch a tent near their property in order to sleep in this conversation Olivia and I are going to talk about why on Earth she's doing this what she gets out of it and all the little details of what it's like to travel across continents by yourself I wanted to know if you could share like the route that you've taken and like the main countries and the main cities or towns that you've been through up to this point I started the journey in Puerto Natales in Chile and then I crossed over the border into Argentina and went through the Pampas through like the really windy section and then over into El Chaltén which is like famous mountain climbing center of South America and then did like a pretty crazy hike-a-bike section through NoMan's land in Chile and then follow the whole Carretera Austral through Chilean Patagonia crossed back over into Argentina through Bariloche through the Lake Region of Argentina went back over through Pucón into Chile up along the coast of Chile which is super beautiful kind of like the Big Sur of California but like in Chile and then back through Santiago and over the Andes and then I cross to the desert Northern Argentina all the way through that whole section up until Bolivia then cross through Uyuni (the salt flats) kind of crisscross the Andes through La Paz, by Lake Titicaca through Cusco then I did the whole Peru Great Divide bikepacking route through some mining roads or remote areas of Peru, all the way to Huaraz and then from Huaraz I crossed up and over the Andes once more and descended down into the jungle which is where I am right no. Yeah and I'll be continuing the journey North through Ecuador next, so who knows where? I haven't really planned the route out exactly so I don't know about how long did it take you to get from your starting point just simply through Argentina because that looks like a lot of land yeah it's far um well it took me about 10 months to do all of this like minus the two month break that I took in Colorado but it also really took my time...anytime I was in a town where I really liked I would stop and stay there for a week or so I think on this next like half of the trip I'm not going to have as much luxury to do that to like stop and stay in places for like a week but yeah took about 10ish months taking my time and I definitely did not take the most direct route through these places. A lot of times I took like the hard route the gravel roads the mountain roads and stuff because they were like more scenic. I was reading the blog post that you put on Medium and I think it was I think it was that that was talking about like the crazy headwinds and I mean just the whole thing there's like sections of it that sound pretty hellish, pretty insane! When you were even thinking about doing this was it just simply from the tip of South America back to Colorado. That was the only vision? That was the vision yeah and I don't think realized how hellish a lot of it would actually be when I had this idea in my mind did you know anybody that had done that before yeah so I read a book by Jedidiah Jenkins and he had done it and I was like okay I know it's possible I know somebody's done it before there's there's no established route because there is people that do this by bicycle but there's really like no established routes kind of like create your own adventure and especially through Peru I've taken like a lot of the rougher roads I'd say like probably like some of the most difficult sections of road that I've taken like since I last saw you from Cusco to Huaraz and then I would say honestly most recently the section from Huaraz over the mountains into the Amazon was like one of the most difficult sections of road that I've done on this whole trip, minus maybe the hike-a-bike section down in Patagonia it's just been like Peru...anything through the Andes has
been really really hard and I just didn't really even know what I was like getting myself into it kind of just looked at a map and I was like, "All right I want to get from here to here and what are the options what are the road options to take in between A and B?" and then there was really only you know you of like looking at the map on Google Maps and you're like I can do that but you actually that's what I'm doing right now I'm I'm smiling because I was I was on Google Maps I was looking at the place that you're at right now and how far away it is from Pucallpa, which is where I was, and then I zoomed out at the whole continent and it's like it's insane to think that you've gone from the bottom of South America to where you are now that's a lot of land yeah when did you have the idea of even trying this and when did you start the the adventure or the journey the idea conspired very quickly at least to the outside bbserver it would have like appeared to be a very impulsive decision although it I would say it wasn't it was something that I had thought about for a while I think maybe in some different forms. So, I read To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins which is an amazing book. It's about his like bike trip through South America. Part of like the idea came from that and then I also met Tom Turcich while I was in India so he spent seven years like walking around the world with his dog which is exactly as crazy as it sounds so meeting him and then reading that book I think those two people kind of like really inspired me and I was like okay it is possible to do some sort of like grander scale adventure like this and I just remember when I heard what these people had done I was like I want to do that too and it was just kind of put on the back-burner of my life for a long time and I really just thought it would never...something like that would never happen because I was too scared I was in a relationship I was married, etc., like all these other things. And then there came like a time in
my life a few years ago when everything was just completely like ripped out from underneath me um I split up from my partner, I lost a lot of money throughout that process...my job, everything was just very uncertain but I had saved up a chunk of money that was just sitting in my bank account to go and travel and go on an adventure and I had left it there and this was like I think it was before COVID actually and I never spent the money so it was just sitting there and then when all of this happened I was like, "What am I doing? If I don't do something right now, I could miss the opportunity...something could change in my life next year or the year after I need to go do it now." There was like just the sense of urgency that I need to take action and do just go on the adventure that I had always dreamed of like this was the time so I remember I was like sitting down at dinner with our friend of mine and just kind of like verbally processing like I want to go do something I don't know I want to do something that's going to like take me out of my comfort zone and then I idea of the bike trip just kind of came up like it just I verbalized it for the first time in my life although it was like something I had thought about I never verbalized it to somebody else and by like speaking that into existence I feel like it just kind of it was like making the dream more real by speaking it yeah um and it just happened so quickly like I'd say I actually remember the date exactly cuz it was the date of the RY X concert in Boulder um it was October 4th, 2023...no, 2022 sorry and then I think I bought the bike a week or two later and bought my flight and I was leaving in like a month so by the time I had the idea and by the time I flight down to Argentina it was like just about 30-31 days I think I had to like buy my bike get all the supplies get ready for this trip and just go which originally I was like that's going to be enough time but it was so cramped like the whole the week or two before I left on my flight I was incredibly stressed out because there was so many logistical I didn't anticipate each part of the bicycle I had to research and like make sure that it was going to be like a really high quality part of said it was going to be good for cycle touring like there's so many things you just don't think about like for example your bicycle seat like you're going to be sitting on this for literally a year so you need to buy the best possible bicycle seed the most comfortable bicycle seed that can enter like what all weather conditions, etc. You know, you got to like think
about this for your tires, for your tubes, for your pedals..."Do you want to strap in? Do you want to clip in? Do you want to not do that at all?" There's so many things you need to consider and I just was so overwhelmed with all the choices that I had to make and some of the choices I ended up just like making pretty like on a whim really not knowing a lot because I had to make a decision um there's a lot of small decisions and and now looking back I would probably do a lot of things differently but it is what it is at this point so are you describing like the process of ordering a custom bike and you're thinking about all these parts or you got the bike and then you're like ordering more or you're changing things out it was like I bought the bike I bought a touring bicycle that had a lot of things included but then I had to buy like the paneers and buy pedals and buy a seat and all that other stuff too because that wasn't included in the bike oh okay is it safe to say that you weren't a cyclist before if you're buying if you were just buying the bike I don't I mean like I learned to ride a bike as a kid yeah yeah right I bought the bike I got it I think I took it for maybe like two or three test rides up the canyon I just like rode up Boulder Canyon before taking out this trip I like was not a psychos at all damn and so this this was like you said October late October of 2022 so it's been a year you've had like your Oney year anniversary it's actually the one year anniversary would be like yeah it's coming up in like 10 10 days I think it's coming up they began a bicycle for basically a year just so crazy thinking about that the other day yeah and like you just came back from Boulder so you flew out for a couple of months and then came back were there other periods where you did the same thing no this that would have been the first and only break that I had okay yeah and then from what I've seen it's been like a single day involves I don't know like nine seven n hours just on a bike I would say it ranges like between probably four to nine hours depending on how I'm feeling yeah yeah that's pretty cool because I've seen a picture of your bike setup and it looks like you have some pretty good well the bike itself and the I for they call it but like the packs the paneers you would put all your stuff in paneers can you walk me through like the the bike setup that you have what's what's on it what are all those racks that we're looking at or the paneers and like what's in all of those packs sure yeah so I've got a Surly Long Haul Trucker which is kind of like the classic long distance touring cycle bike. It's steel, it's in indestructible I feel like and I can attest that because I've crashed a number of times on this bike and it's like still still kicking still fine um and this is an old bike too I bought it off of a guy from eBay that cycled across the country okay and then it was like sitting in his garage for like 10 or 15 years and then he just decided to sell it to me so um this bike is fantastic like if you're doing any sort of like ultra long distance cycle touring trip you really need like a steel frame bike because if you have carbon fiber or aluminum or something they can't like weld it if something breaks or if you crash which like that's going to happen at some point when you're doing a long trip so this Long Haul Trucker is amazing. I have a Brooks saddle which is super comfortable. I was pretty skeptical at first because I remember
looking at the seat and thinking "How am I going to sit on this for like a year?" and yeah it looks like a proper saddle like on a horse or something it's really comfortable I don't know how it works exactly but it kind of like morphs to your body and then then it's just it's comfortable and it is it look doesn't look comfortable but it is surprisingly so that um and so my two panniers in the front the little like white panniers that I have they're ort Le um and they I mostly. Can you explain what panniers is exactly? It's basically like saddle bags that um go on your bike. So, the bags themselves? Yeah. so I've got orle waterproof panniers and I I will say something I remember when I first started this trip I was thinking about skiing on my paneers and buying like really cheap like canvas or something paneers that weren't were not waterproof I can tell you you would not want to do that because it is going to rain on you 100% and it has like a lot yeah like you need to I think I I think I read something where you were saying at some leg of the trip it was raining so much that the jacket that you had that was waterproof reached its saturation point or something and it actually was no longer waterproof yes it was literally just soaked you need to have waterproof everything on the bike like for sure yes so I am so glad that I did not skimp and I got the waterproof like really panniers because you absolutely need that um so yeah anyways in the front I keep my food, my stove, my matches, my cutlery, my pan and stuff that I have like Sea to Summit...that's all in the front? Yes, this is all in the front. and that I'd
say the weight like varies pretty like it's it varies a lot because like if I'm doing like one day in between towns I don't carry a lot of stuff but if I'm doing a longer section through the mountains like I just did like my panniers are pretty heavy like my bike probably is weighing like almost 85-90 pounds um at that point my water filters in the front also in the back two paneers in the left one um I've got yeah by the way I'm looking at an Instagram photo that you have the picture itself is the bike from a side view yeah so in the back black panniers that you're looking at the Thule ones those panniers I I got to be honest I've had a lot of problems with those like the little clips that go on the rack have broken and like right now my paneers are hanging onto the rack by zip ties because that's like I okay so there's like zip tie on there right now because the little like knob broke and then I just like obviously you're not going to you can't just like stroll into REI and get a replacement part you know cuz like you're in the middle of nowhere so yeah my bags currently zip tied on right now which is great but yeah I have a sleeping bag, a sleeping mat from Sea to Summit and they're both like super lightweight like I think my sleeping bag and mat weigh like probably less than a pound and a half um but they're super warm and then I also have like a sleeping bag liner um which is great because like some days the sleeping bag's too hot so you can just use a liner sometimes it's so cold where you need the liner and the sleeping bag so you can double up um and I've used that in both different situations I have a rain poncho uh jacket from Sea to Summit that's also like an emergency tarp and I've used that in a number of different ways like there's been some times when it's been raining so hard at night that my tent just starts to like again reach its saturation point in leak so having the tarp as like an extra layer has been great and then also you're cycling during the day and it starts raining and like pouring you can wear the tarp the poncho um and then I have a small like bag with some of my clothes in it so I think I have like two shirts that I can wear when I'm not on the bike and then I have one shirt from conation Collective that I just wear that's like my cycling shirt that I wear there's one shirt it's like a Marino wool t-shirt so it's amazing cuz like it doesn't smell at all like even if you wear it like 3 days in a row it's like the material is just amazing it doesn't smell it dries really quickly uh it's like yeah it's like a good techy kind of fabric How often do you wash your clothes by the way or how often do you get the opportunity to wash? You don't want to know! Few and far between I mean like honestly it varies a lot but like whenever I'm in a big town where I can actually clean my clothes I will clean them but if I'm just like by myself in the middle of nowhere like I don't I didn't wash my clothes I wash them now um here in Tarapoto but I didn't wash them since I was in W which was like two weeks ago so yeah that's how it is well just so you know when I when I met you I I didn't notice a thing so they must have been clean pretty clean in p z to honest I was living a relaxed like comfortable pace of life it was great yeah that was a totally different thing I'm sure um nice yeah that's a that's a long time though I appreciate I've gone like camping and not washed things but at some point there's like you can start to smell yourself I mean you definitely like get to that point but like sometimes when I'm just like in the middle of nowhere it just doesn't matter you know like you're just dirty and you just kind of accept it and that's like part of how I don't know it just doesn't yeah but it does help to have like that's why I do have like my cycling clothing and then my clothing that I wear normally because like the cycling clothing gets really gross but I only wear that when I'm like riding and then my normal clothing obviously I'm not typically sweating as much when I'm just chilling and like walking around sleeping and stuff so at least having something clean and dry to change into is great like you definitely need that just for like a morale boost I think yeah and how do you map out where you're going to go like how do you how do you choose a route and then how do you even find it because like I'm sure some of these roads that you're taking are not well defined on a map and maybe like aren't even on maps or have all kinds of weird construction and stuff because you're going through some really rugged places so how do you map out where you're going to go and how do you actually find the the routes that you need to take um I think honestly it's less of like a like how do I find the route and more of it's like I'll look at the map and I'll be like okay where's the next big destination or bigger city where I want to go and I like look and I'm like okay I want to go to like for example when I was in W I was like I want to go see the rainforest I want to go see the Amazon so I looked and I was like okay well Tarapoto looks like the next big city in the Amazon and then I just kind of fill in the blanks based on like I want to get from A to B and this is how there's like 10 different ways you can go to get there and I I kind of just figured out like that so I mean honestly like this section of road that I just did was amazing like I actually want to write like an article on it because it was super beautiful like I think it was pretty comparable to like the Peru Great Divide bikepacking route that I did from Cusco to one is like a famous bike packing route that people will take it's like the number one bike packing route in South America I think what I just did was more beautiful than that but it's not documented like nobody there was no instructions or like any information how to do it I just kind of like looked at the map and figured it out and I would love to write an article on it because it was amazing because you're going from like a mountain climate to down to Jungle which is so cool to see um I don't know like I kind of just I just wing it just look and while you're on the road are you like using a GPS or is it just your phone that you're navigating with yes I use offline maps um so I have MapsMe I I use a combination of three different maps because all three Maps provide different information at different times um but like I would say Maps me is number one and then Google Maps sometimes says information that MapsMe doesn't have and vice versa and then I also use Gaia it's like a mountaineering app cuz sometimes you need to know like you look at the map and you're like oh I can do this 50 miles in a day but then you look at the elevation game you're like oh shoot this is going to take like two days um like really helpful for that sort of information um yeah I actually don't know MapsMe or Gia what is the benefit of using those I mean should definitely use that it's it's amazing I should especially when you're traveling like it's like an offline map that's extremely accurate um oh you you need to use it it's amazing okay I've never heard of it stuff oh it's so good I'll send you a link after this okay yeah yeah you'll never use Google Maps again like like when Google Maps doesn't work math me will save you so then from where you are now what do you kind of have an idea of where you want to go in Ecuador, Colombia and then how you're going to cross over into North America? I don't know if I thought that far ahead but as far as like Ecuador I think I'm going to cross through um Ilcabamba I think and then probably go up through like quink and Bonos up through Iquitos like I'll probably take the quickest route for Ecuador um and then Colombia I haven't really looked at yet honestly I I feel like Colombia is such a beautiful expansive country I'm like really excited for um I've heard that Columbia is like filled with a lot of uh cyclist so I'm excited to see what that looks like um I don't know yeah I haven't thought about like as far as like getting to Central between South and Central America I know that like you have the Darién Gap there I was think came out sailing around it but I'm not exactly sure yet I haven't thought about it too much are there any places on your journey back that you know you want to go to for sure like towns or anything yes so there's a bunch of like kind of smaller surfing towns in El Salvador and Panama that I would love to check out and then okay there's also like an island with a volcano on it in Nicaragua I actually can't remember the name of but it's kind of like a touristy hub it sounds like and then I mean honestly there's like so much of Mexico that I really want to check out like Mexico is amazing and I've heard the food is incredible like there's so many different towns like I would love to check out in Oaxaca, Mexico City I've never seen before and Baja all this stuff I'm I think I'm like really looking forward to Mexico honestly of everything yeah it's a big country and there's a lot there's a lot of beautiful places there for sure yeah I've hardly really seen Mexico so excited oh you've hardly seen i? No, not really honestly I've been to like what's the city at the border by like El Paso and Juarez I've seen like yeah which hardly could count I think that'll be interesting too CU Mexico I think especially if you're from the US you probably more than other countries since it's so close you think of Mexico as like a destination but people have a lot of fears around Mexico and I've never had any problems there but I've also never gone to like places that maybe I shouldn't go to yeah um so I wonder how that's going to be in terms of like planning your routes and whatnot I don't even know if it's maybe some things are overhyped too but um but I've also had local people tell me like oh yeah you shouldn't go to that town like it's it's dangerous and I'm sure you've heard everything but I've heard a lot on this trip I've kind of like i' just try to ask local people is it safe like on this whole section actually like over the mountains I was like really scared of because that guy had been robbed and stuff and I've asked the local people in each town that I've met and they know that I'm traveling alone too and I'm like they ask me usually this how the conversation goes they ask me if I'm traveling alone they ask me if I'm scared and I Sayes I'm traveling alone and like yeah I'm a little scared and I then I ask them like is it safe and they're like "Yeah it's tranquilo, it's peaceful here. It's fine, no worries." I'm like well it's fine then so yeah I mean like you know a town is safe and you see like kids outside like little kids playing outside at like 10 11 o'clock at night like playing soccer and football it's fine like it it's okay you know it's reasonably safe I would say so I felt very very safe like this whole section over the mountains that I was like really nervous about a few weeks ago now that I've done it I'm like it's totally fine like nothing I never felt unsafe at any SEC at any point during this whole part so yeah always well that's good were you did you know Spanish before starting this trip nope you didn't nope not even like zero Spanish yeah and you've been picking it up it sounds like you've been picking it up yeah I think I'm I'm picking it up like pretty slowly how's your Spanish mine is it's okay I can get around a little bit um yeah it's improved over the years and every time I I do go somewhere like I I visit a Spanish speaking country it improves a lot faster but it's not I wouldn't say it's fluent like I can have a ation but it's pretty limited still I'd say that's where I'm at too yeah I think that's really cool though that you're picking it up as you go because I mean I think I mean Brazil speaks Portuguese but everywhere else that you've been through is Spanish speaking country right Spanish and then a little bit of like some indigenous languages like Quechua and I think it's um amaru or something and how are you sustaining yourself while you're doing this like are you working as you're like working from a computer or did you just save up money and you're I just using that savings money and then I mean I I did go back to Colorado like for two months to go and work a bit but it's pretty much just this is mostly self-funded. I have some like sponsors and stuff like RMU, Sea to Summit, and some other like Colorado sponsors a Conation Collective also like has sponsored some my gear which has been super super helpful and I'm very thankful to have the gear that they've given me on this trip because it's been amazing and like it is really important to have Hightech like lightweight gear when you're doing something this long an Overland Journey but basically the trip is like self-funded um and I saved up money to do it so yeah are those sponsors asking for for like video or content because I know you're a photographer or videographer yeah uh like for photo content is that paid or is that they're providing the gear they're providing the gear okay yeah uh where is what was your headspace like before going on this trip like it sounded like you're going through a lot of stuff were you like processing everything and or were you kind of just like numb to it I think the head space that I came into on this trip was I think I was a little bit confused and dealing with a lot of emotions that I was uncomfortable with um from my past relationship from just life and like where I was at and I think I just I don't know this trip it it wasn't necessarily about like running away from things. I think people
make a very wrong assumption when they think that people who are traveling are running away from their problems. I think I wanted to run TO them, to confront them and the bike was just a very beautiful space to confront those problems because when you're on the bike for that many hours a day it's practically like meditation. You can't really run away from your own thoughts like you're just you're dealing with them I think a part of me wanted to go and confront those feelings and things that I was uncomfortable with and then also I want I just really want truly wanted to explore to go out into the unknown and like face things that I was uncomfortable with and I don't know I was just curious I wanted to see what was out there and I think the only way to really do that was to just kind of immerse myself in the environment that I was maybe potentially uncomfortable with and see what it was like and the bike was just the perfect to do that yeah just being on a bike for that long you probably are confronting a lot of things that are in your life maybe that you might distract your distract yourself from in if you were living in Colorado still but like in this environment it's like there's nothing else to do for miles and miles and the mountain range in front of you is probably barely getting any closer so it's just I imagine those thoughts are just there they're just present with you I think there was even a thing that I read where you were saying like the winds were so fast that you couldn't even listen to an Audi book or listen to music it was just the wind in your ears and then whatever was in your your head and so now that you've been on this journey where do you think your your your mind is at now like how are you how are you feeling what's been going through your mind So I would say like I felt like the first bit of the trip and the journey was really just like getting used to life on a bike and learning a lot of functional skills like how to be resourceful how to be patient when things go wrong and that sort of thing and there actually became a point all those skills were very important and I don't want to like dismiss those I think they were amazing life lessons that I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life um but there was like a point um right before I arrived in Cusco actually where I was like on my way to Cusco and I was like I just felt I I don't really know how to describe it but I was like disappointed and kind of angry with myself because I felt like I wasn't getting to the hard stuff that I wanted to confront and I was like what am I doing this trip for like I feel like I'm not learning I was I was getting impatient and frustrated with myself um on the way to Cusco and then ironically like that's when I ended up kind of getting stuck in Pisac and I was I mean that's where I met you and like where I was kind stuck there for like a month and a half I think a long time which is why I like my Bea situation for Peru it's a good place to be stuck in but um I feel like one of the most like accelerated parts of my journey where there was like a lot of personal growth happening was when I was in Pisac when I was in Cusco like doing Ayahuasca and doing San Pedro and that is definitely going to be an experience with me that I will carry with me for the rest of my life yeah I I think if I'm not mistaken I met you before you had done it for the first time or maybe right after it was your very first time but I know you were still doing you were still planning some ceremonies I think it was just right after like I had I had only done like Wachuma I think a few times yeah yeah that's right yeah yeah I think that was it because I met you at Kasa kamanja was it? No what was it called? La Chakan. Yes, yes. and so how many ceremonies did you end up doing of Wachuma and Ayahuasca I did three Wachuma and then I did three Ayahuasca in that order also because I think I was just like very afraid to do Ayahuasca beforehand and then doing what you would kind of like warm me up for that a bit personally I've had like a better experience or a better I don't want to say that like a better connection with Wachuma than I have with Ayahuasca just seemed to be so far out there that it's just like didn't feel applicable to my life. what do you mean by that? I felt like the lessons that I learned learned doing Wachuma were more easily expressable and relatable whereas Ayahuasca I feel like it there was like some inner healing happening but I can't really put words to it or I don't really I it's impossible for me to describe what happened when I did it though I felt better afterwards I just don't know how to like put words to the experience. What's one of the most memorable
experiences that you had from either one of those? So with Wachuma I don't know what to call it like a really it wasn't really like a vision it was just like an an old memory resurfacing from my childhood that I had never thought about since it had actually happened and I don't know why it came up but it did I like literally had never thought about this experience before it had happened but for some reason this is what came up so I think when I was about seven or 8 years old um my family would go camping at the State Park in New York called Allegany State Park every summer and my brother and I would like ride our bikes around the campground all day and go to the playground and buy candy and all that kind of stuff and one day we were like riding our bikes up the hill and I remember seeing like a trail of blood and milk just going down the hill like running down the hill was kind of a weird thing to see so we kept going up the hill and following this Trail and what had happened was a girl a young girl had was riding her bike down this hill and she hit an old woman that was walking that had two drugs of milk in her hand and when she hit the older woman the older woman like fell and hit her head and then the jugs of milk spilled and she cracked her head open and she died like right there. You saw her there and I like we saw so I didn't see her exactly because when we arrived there was already an ambulance and like there was a blanket over her and like yeah it's pretty crazy for like an 8-year-old to see basically someone die and like I remember seeing the girl that had hit her and she was like crying and stuff and this was like a weird kind of traumatic memory for a child to see and like I never ever thought about this before until I did it like this was like a memory that resurfaced for some reason and the way that I perceived this memory was like I was like oh my gosh I can't believe I experienced that and I was like was that actually real and I was like who can I go talk to this about I was like well of course my brother like I want to see if he remembers if this happened and like I had messaged him and like about it and I was like do you remember this happening he was like yeah yeah I remember I remember that whole day and like everything that happened and the way that I had perceived that I was just like so deeply thankful for the connection and the bond that I had with my brother um like it's something you can't really put words to like it's just like this very deep bond that you feel with like your sibling because you've literally there's no one that knows you as a peer that well literally no one like not even your best friend unless they like grew up with you like your sibling did but I just felt like I had this really deep love and connection with my brother through that experience that was always there but I became more aware of it um through this memory like being resurfaced and I think that was something like that I will carry with me for what did you feel like when that was happening in the ceremony were you terrified or were you just observing and like pretty calmly just thinking about it at all I was just observing and I was very emotional I think that's what a lot of these plant medicines do is like they take something they take your life and reality exactly as it is but it's like you're looking at it upside down and you just like see it from a completely different perspective and then you like come back to reality and you see things as they are in a different way yeah it's not your I don't know I think people have this like weird perception of like plant medicines and psychedelics like you're like hallucinating or something but like I don't really see it like that or like that hasn't been my experience it's like I'm very vividly aware of what I'm seeing and then I come back and I see things from both perspectives like you're really forever changed once you do them yeah I'd imagine being on a bike after that too is like a lot of time to process or U what do they say integrate yes to yes you and your brother are you like pretty close in age he's four years younger than me okay and do you ever get to talk while you're on your bike and just like traveling through countries oh yeah I just called him the other day I would imagine he's pretty supportive if you guys are pretty are close like that he is he's he's totally different than I am he's more of like a he likes his comfort zone and um he he's totally different but we get along really well in some ways I think yeah yeah yeah it's funny how siblings can be like so close and yet so different yeah that would be us but there's still that connection right yes um you mentioned this the word comfort zone and I remember when I met you I was that like topic was always in my mind because I would see the things that you were doing and I think of myself as like a fairly adventurous person especially compared to like generally just people around me maybe people in my family although some are adventurous too but um I see somebody like you and then it's like five levels beyond that because when I met you you were I think you were doing a filming project for somebody in which you were biking no running alongside them filming their Escapade and it was like the a whole 24hour period I think yes I hardly sto and then obviously you're doing this biking the whole expedition itself and then I've seen on your Instagram like all of these pictures of you climbing and like I'm I'm a climber like I go to the gym and every once in a while I'll go outdoors but the stuff I've seen on your page is like legit Trad climbing in the like mountaineering basically yeah and so I remember specifically having this thought when I had met you in pck about you you had asked me if I wanted to I don't know if it was join you for a ceremony or if it was something else maybe it was just like a day Excursion or something and I specifically remember thinking like I don't know if I'd be able to keep up with this girl like she's so beyond like outside of the comfort zone I guess so I'm just I'm really curious about your mindset on that being out of your comfort zone and like I'm sure you've heard for instance people like Alex Honnold they just this climber that does climbing without ropes right like yes I know him people feel like he or I don't know if it's actually a thing or it's just what people think but his fear response is like much less than normal people yeah what do you think about that for yourself your relationship to comfort and discomfort I think that I just have a tendency to push the boundaries of whatever I'm doing um and I always have so I think what I used to think was absolutely crazy like 10 years ago I'm doing now all the time and it's like not it's like not crazy it's normal to me and it just kind of pushed those boundaries all the time on this trip especially like before I I did this trip I had never camped alone in a tent by myself ever and obviously that's something I do all the time now that I'm like mostly comfortable with depending on the environment and the situation but like that's pretty normal to me now and it doesn't bother me at all I don't know you just kind of keep pushing yourself and pushing yourself and like I'm definitely uncomfortable on a weekly basis I would say sometimes I look at the map and I'm like wow I'm really nervous about this section of real this scares me um like more recently like this specific section coming from W like over this mountain pass I had heard that there was a cyclist three days before I left on my trip that was doing the same route that he was robbed at gunpoint like by like some narco people like while he Wasing literally like basically three days before I was doing this and I was like holy crap this is so scary and I did it anyways I because I mean like I I was going for it I had to do it I didn't know exactly where the robbery happened I just knew that it was somewhere within the vicinity yeah and like a little bit more careful about where I was camping and um what I did basically to try and keep myself safe was like and I would say like as a woman traveling alone I personally don't I don't love wild camping where I'm in the middle of absolutely nowhere by myself there's nobody around that freaks me out more I would rather go and ask permission from like a hotel or a restaurant or somebody's house a farmer or somebody and be like hey can I camp on your property and if they say yes and they know that I'm there I know that somebody's like kind of looking out for me or that they know that I'm there that makes me feel safer and obviously like I'm very careful about who I trust because like on a daily basis I'm basically meeting new people all the time um and I can pretty quickly like analyze someone just by talking to them for a few minutes be like is this somebody I can trust like this this okay and honestly most I really do believe that most people are good; they're not trying to harm you. So I try to like kind of gauge where I can camp and I've had a lot of really good experiences through that like a lot of times people will I ask them to camp and they're like no just like we've got an extra room in our house or like here do you want to have dinner with us or like nobody ever says no they're always like very kind and very welcoming so these are usually people in very rural areas right yes yeah I I find the more rural the area the more kind that people are I never try to do this sort of thing and like if I'm like in any sort of urban environment I just pay for a hotel because people like just don't really care as much when you're in an urban environment um I just stay in hotels um but in any sort of rural place where like a lot of times I'm passing through through these little towns and there literally is not a hotel like there's nowhere you can stay so you have to become resourceful and like be like hey can I sleep in the soccer field tonight and they're like yeah that's fine um yeah I think one thing I'm curious about is like what what do you think it is about you that makes you look at these things look at the the adventure that you're doing the risks that are involved and like just do it anyways because I mean for instance most people would be terrified to approach some farmer and ask if they can camp on their land most people would be terrified to even like even if they thought this was a cool idea they'd be terrified to actually buy the bike and then fly down to South America and do it knowing they've never cycled and knowing that they've never camped alone like what do you think it is about you that makes you say like well I'm just gonna do it I don't know have you always been like super adventurous and I think I think I've always been like this I've just kind of like pushed the boundaries of who I am um I think I like to like see what is out there and see what's possible and I just kind of like push those boundaries a little bit further and further each time I really think that a lot of this adventure I feel like I used to be really uncomfortable talking to strangers and then asking them for things like for example to like camp on their property or whatever like Camp the soccer field and all this stuff but like now that's pretty normal to me and I'm not afraid to do that anymore um I've just had to learn and you just I think a lot of it is like you just have to throw yourself into a situation where like there really is no other choice and then just kind of do it um but you have to take that first step which is like the hardest part in like taking this step and actually putting yourself in a situation where you're not in complete control of everything that's happening around you and that's really where the adventure kind of starts yeah you don't know it's going to happen which is scary because you're like letting go of control of you're letting control of what's happening yeah well I think I've heard somewhere that usually when you're doing pretty grand things like the why behind it has to be bigger than the fear that's there so for you like what what would you say is the biggest why about like why you're doing this why it's worth it to face all of these things I would say the why for me is like a very multifaceted reason. Like why would you do something so crazy like ride a bicycle through an entire continent? It's so crazy. I think I think the reason that I started this trip is not the reason that it's it is currently and what it's going to become it's kind of like transformed throughout my whole trip as I've also transformed as a person um I think when I started this trip it was like just a like a conviction like something I really wanted to go do I was so curious and I wanted to like see what was out there in the world and I wanted to see what I was capable of doing physically and also in like an adventure sort of capacity and I felt like there was a deeper reason as to why I wanted to do it but I wasn't really sure at first and I think throughout the trip it's given me a lot of time to reflect um being on the bike a lot and meeting new people all the time and going through like really difficult experiences I feel like it's kind of like softened my character a lot in so many ways like I'm such a more patient and flexible person than I was before I feel like I'm just kind of like unfaced by a lot of difficult things that have H that can happen or will happen now um because of being on the bike you're dealing with like you're just not in control of your environment and you just kind of deal with it and even though that could be in a very like physical way like I'm not in control of the weather or like where I sleep or all that kind of stuff but like I feel like those life lessons have applied in a lot more in ways that are just like applicable when you're not on the bike. I would say another big thing I really just
want to inspire other women to not be afraid to go and do things on on their own yeah to go camp alone to go on adventures to go out to eat by themselves like all that kind of stuff like almost on a daily basis I meet someone a woman here and they're they're always like amazed that I'm alone and just confused like how are you doing this like you don't have a husband you don't have kids they're always asking me this same questions every day and I don't want those things to be like seen as bad because I think they're really beautiful things too that like maybe one day I will also like that will be my life path but I also want other women to see that this is something that they can do too if they want to yeah let's talk about that because I when I was in Peru um around the same time that you were I remember thinking about specifically I just felt like I was running into including yourself I was meeting and running into a lot of very like strong independent adventurous women and it was it was really inspiring and there's definitely a part of me that you know I I I really admire that and at the same time I think it's still hard to deny that women face some very real um risks that men also face but probably not as much or as dire perhaps yeah um so I think for instance if I had a daughter I would love if she was adventurous and strong and independent and I would I would want her to raise her that way if I could um but it would be a special fear as well because it's just I don't know maybe that's my conditioning but I think that's a a reality too so for instance for yourself yeah what's your relationship to that and how do you what are some special considerations that you've taken as a woman doing this type of adventure yeah that's definitely a hard thing to talk about. I'll share like a story with you that comes to mind so I remember I think I was like in I was around the border of Northern Argentina in Bolivia and I ran into a group of like five German guys that were cycling they're just like on the side of the road that's how you run to other cycl you just see them on the side of the road which is kind of funny to just bump into some other foreigners just sitting there with and stuff so I stopped to talk with them and I think it was around 4:00 and I was like ing to get to the town before it was dark cuz this was also like I think it tup Pisa or something it was like a Border Town and honestly it was like kind of sketchy like most border towns are pretty sketchy because of the drug trafficking and stuff and um I think I left them they were like having their snack break and I was like all right I'm going to go because I want to get to town before it gets dark and so like I left I checked into my hotel and like got dinner and stuff and I got their WhatsApp number and they texted me around like 9:00 at night saying that they had just arrived into town and that they were going to the bar to like get some beers and stuff and that I could go and meet them and I just remember thinking like they just arrived this sketchy border town and they don't even know where they're going to sleep and they're just going to go and get drunk and then what they ended up doing so they like went to this bar had a bunch of beers and then set up their tents in like a park at like 11:00 at night to go and sleep in a sketchy like Border Town I was like I could literally never do that as a single woman ever like that's so even I honestly I feel like it's pretty reckless for them as a group of guys to be doing that too um but I was like wow I can't do that like the amount of freedom and like the fact that they could just go into a town at 10 o'clock at night with nowhere to sleep and just get drunk and I was like I just don't have that like Freedom like I have to be like I'm very very conservative I like I need to be in town or have my tent set up before six o'clock before it's dark like that's like a like I never go anywhere at night for sure like especially on the bike um so there's like those are a lot of considerations that I have to like take into account I'm also just very careful about like how I interact when I'm on the street when I'm anywhere like how I'm interacting with men um just kind of keep my distance and just acting I don't know I think a lot of it is like honestly how I conduct myself like I'm pretty confident but not flirtatious in any way and I'm like very careful about that how I interact with other men um usually if I have a question I try to ask women as much as I possibly can um and that's like not been a problem thankfully because like in South America women are just as as involved in like a working process as like men are which is great because like in some other places in the world it's like only men are working in markets and stuff and like here that's not really the case women work a lot yeah so yeah I just try to like usually ask women for help if I can um and I haven't like I can't really even think of like a close call that I've had on this trip where I'm like wow that was like a weird interaction because I feel like I try to avoid it before anything can have the potential bad of happening um like I've I've been completely fine in the whole trip I felt very respected and nobody has really like given me a problem um but I've also been very cautious too so I think that's part and how I conduct myself yeah I mean that's amazing considering how far you've gone too and I I know you you were saying like these German guys that you ran into were setting up a tent at night which was the big like thing that you wouldn't do but um but I mean you've obviously had your share of setting up tents in random places granted it's usually daylight like you said but um always I never would show up to a town especially a Border Town yeah and in a park like night I were you just could do that yeah is there ever fear that maybe like you're being watched or followed or anything because you're a foreigner and you're a woman riding through a place that you're not from um I mean like a fear yes that has never happened and I've like feel like I like think about that sometimes and I'm like watching but that that's never happened well I still have so many questions but I think we'll like come to the end so I think the last one that I want to ask you is is okay so let me premise it by saying like I've been recently I've been trying to create content that has been around I want it to be around traveling but specifically about using travel as a way to to grow to like expand So that obviously fit very well into our time in Peru because the all of the ceremonies and things we were doing there was all about that um and so I guess with that in mind up to this point like what do you think you've grown or what what has been a transformation or at least the start of a transformation that you've seen in yourself on this journey I think that this trip has given me an opportunity to stop and like reflect on my life and also be very present when I'm on the bike cuz it's kind of like a meditation when you're doing the same motion over and over your mind is like allowed to kind of wander and I think that's such a beautiful thing and I think I could have done that it is possible to do that without being on the bike but for me I think the best way to do to like go back and reflect in my life would be to do it actively um like through an active meditation so the the bike was like a really good solution for that um I think I've grown to be a lot more of a patient person throughout this experience like things go wrong a lot and you just have no control over your environment and over your situation and by immersing myself into to experiences that were really uncomfortable and that I didn't have any control and I think it allowed me to just relax and let go and like because I think that was like a problem that I had I was like a little bit of like a like I had to be in control of everything before um and if something didn't go my way it just like made me really anxious and I didn't like how that was like like I was just like a very rigid person in a bad way and I think that this trip has like smoothed a lot of that out and I'm so much more relaxed now than I used to be like I can I'm really like fairly unfazed by like when things go wrong I'm just like well that's how it is that's life like and I think those lefts can like those can be applied to so many different situations life outside of the bike um totally I think it would make me you're saying that's new for you yes yeah yeah I think that's definitely a new thing I think it would make me a better partner like if I ever am in a relationship with somebody in the future or a better mom or better wife or whatever um I think it would just like my character has been smoothed out a lot throughout this trip and I'm only like halfway done there's a lot more more growth that needs to be done and that will be done so I'm excited to see where it takes me yeah same I like I said I've been following your Instagram re
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