Dear eBike diary followers,

The last weeks of cycling in Colombia from the southern border of Rumichaca to the capital Bogotá, have been wonderfully mesmerising. On our way to the Laguna de La Cocha, we passed with almost no visibility trough the thick cold fog enveloping the paramo the Bordoncillo where we managed to catch a glimpse at the stoically standing Frailejones.

In the Putumayo department on a road called the death trampolin, that cuts trough the dense cloud forests between the valley of Sibundoy and Mocoa. We marvelled at the explosion of biodiversity and about humans and their ability to move absolutely everywhere regardless of obstacles.

The endless view surrounding the lowland jungle town of Mocoa filled us with that special hope that you get from an empty landscape. The hope that there can be a new beginning.

On June 22 the day the Colombian government, and the oldest insurgency in the Americas the Farc signed a permanent cease-fire. I was hoping to make a symbolic image of the historic moment, instead a lone red cow appeared out of nowhere for a few seconds, on a mountain pass between the Cauca and Huila departments. This made me hopeful for the Colombian peace process even if, most people I talked to on the road were sceptical.

In the town of San Agustin we saw the incredible monolithic sculptures representing the gods and animals of a culture that flourished between the 1st and 8th century but of which little else is known.

We had our first sight of the mighty Magdalena River in San Agustin at the beginning of its journey of more then 1500 Km, towards the Atlantic Ocean; and didn’t lose sight of the river until the town of Honda 500 Km later where we started to climb towards Bogota.

We had a scary moment at a bus stop in the town of Pitalito when (while changing a chain), we overheard a couple talking about the possibility of being caught on a nearby CCTV camera if they where to rob us.

We stopped in Villavieja to see the Tatacoa desert. From there we placed our FLYERS on the boat of fisherman Rolando Rojas to navigate the Magdalena for a few hours and cross into the neighbouring Tolima department.

The Odometer marked 11.000 Km when we crossed a hilltop from Subachoque and saw the town of Tabio about 40 Km from Bogota. 205 days had passed since we started in Santiago de Chile with my mother Pia back in December 2015.

The density and speed of all this is difficult to process. I found that at first what happens on the road stays on the road. It’s only in retrospect when you look at the images taken or write about what you have experienced that you can somehow appropriate the experience with a degree of normality.

Now back in Zurich after returning the FLYER to their owners, I’m on my old mountain bike again, on my first trip out to the super market I was fined 60 francs for passing a red light.

THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING!

Luca.

After cycling on the FLYER in Ecuador from Loja to Quito, Colombian photographer Juanita Escobar has now headed to Mexico on a work mission. Thank you Juanita ! The eBike diaries now continue together with Jason Baumann. The mission is to reach Colombia’s capital Bogota where the journey will come to an end. My friend Jason is a Swiss entrepreneur that has been based in Rio de Janeiro with his architect girlfriend Barbara for years. I owe Jason a big THANK YOU! for helping, together with Anne Oskam in the construction of the eBike diaries website. Welcome Jason!

After crossing together the entire length of Peru and a bit of Ecuador from Puno to Loja, Alex Kornhuber will now go back to his home in Lima, where his girlfriend Fiorella and their Dog Chasca Ñawi are waiting. My friend Juanita Escobar that has just arrived to Loja from Lima with two brand new back wheels for the FLYERS will take over tomorrow. I met Juanita a Colombian photographer by chance last year; while working in Colombia’s eastern plains on a story about cowboys. There she was a woman among hard men. I thought if you enjoy the life of the cowboy chances are that you might like the idea to cycle on an eBike trough a stretch of South America. She jumped on the idea! Her incredible work can be viewed here: www.juanitaescobar.com

There are so few, it borders on the incredible when you come across a long distance cyclist here in the Peruvian Andes. None of the ones we meet have an eBike. There is usually a warm moment of mutual recognition as fellows from the same tribe.

We exchange tips, talk about the state of the roads ahead, inquire about altitude differences and distances between places, about sleeping possibilities with hot water and where to buy the next provisions. Then comes the moment when we say that we’re mounted on eBikes. Most fellow cyclist start laughing and look at us as if we have committed something morally outrageous. Tribe expulsion follows.

We met 27 year old Lucineide Lima from Brazil travelling north out of breath, making her way up the 4210 meters high Saraccocha pass that leads to the town of Ocros in the Apurimac department. The meeting was short, we offered her coffee and some oil for her squeaky bike chain but she didn’t accept either. We left thinking that she must be the toughest woman on the continent and that obviously we’ll never see her again.

That night we slept in the town of Chincheros beyond the Saraccocha pass thinking about Lucineide and wondering how far she might have gone up the pass. The next day we leave Chicheros late at around 10AM on a long downhill ride. At the bottom of the valley one crosses the river Pampas that divides the Apurimac and Ayacucho department. A few kilometres after the river crossing, a cyclist appears further ahead struggling uphill. It’s impossible, but here she is; Lucineide again out of breath, damming the mountains, smiling and craving for the high-plateu plains.

Happy about the reunion we take a break and have more time to talk. Lucineide left the town of Florianopolis in southern Brazil, after selling her belongings six month ago.

She wants to travel around the world with her bike because travel makes her happy and pedalling is like a therapy. She hates the dogs that run after her on the road and hopes to never feel enclosed or trapped in life. She’s afraid, yes, because she’s alone and something could happen to her; but so far nothing bad happened.

On the contrary when she left Brazil, people warned her to be very careful in Argentina because Argentines supposedly were bad people. When she arrived in Buenos Aires on her birthday she found lodging at a family that organised her a beautiful birthday party. They bought a cake and Cachaza to make Caipirinas and presented her with the saddlebags for her bike. From that moment on her thinking changed towards Argentinians and Argentina.