After two days of sun, we loaded our bikes, navigated the outskirts of Arequipa and ascended gradually into the high mountain storms of Southern Peru. So… does anyone have any questions? I know we did. Before Lima, life was: born daycare school internship job retirement. After Lima, life is more like: born daycare school hey…
Author: Etienne Robert
Cycling Northern Peru
‘Nos disparó,’ I say. ‘Quién?’ Ceci says. ‘El güey ahí, gritando.’ ‘Cómo crees?’ ‘Si mira…’ Together we look over to the tiny man screaming at us in the distance, waving his gun, a plume of smoke rising over his head. ‘No manches.’ Ceci says. ‘Pues vamonos, no?’ ‘Un segundito,’ I say. My phone died a…
Cycling Ecuador
All I will say is that Richard Carapaz recognized us first. Ceci & I, we were minding our own business, we’d woken up in Colombia that morning (where Carapaz is not from), packed up our things, crossed the border into Ecuador, and perhaps we’d cycled 20kms on the Trans-Ecuador route we’ll be following for the…
Cycling Sumba + Wrap-Up
‘Well,’ Ceci says, as we ride along a peaceful seaside road. ‘I don’t think today’s going to add much to the overall uphill of the trip…’ Two minutes later, the road ends. ‘Huh.’ I say. On paper, the day was all downhill. All of 34kms with 600 metres of cumulative downhill. We even slept in…
Cycling Sumbawa + Flores
‘Kiri-kanan, kiri-kanan, kiri-kanan, kiri!’ It’s 0530, dark still. Ceci & I have stopped cycling to spy on a schoolyard. A sergeant is yelling in Indonesian, but the military singsong is impossible to miss. It’s the classic ‘Left-right, left-right, left-right, left!’ of a marching drill. The kids marching in line chant back in unison, matching the…
Cycling Bali + Lombok
Ceci sticks her tongue out in concentration. Or maybe it’s one of those stick-your-tongue-out selfie poses? She’s trying to capture the essence of two large demonic sculpture, but the tiny little screen on our GoPro makes it hard to tell whether they are properly in frame. It seems like they are carved out of sheer…
Cycling Java
Tutup, looks up. Looks up again. The morning breakfast of fresh greens falls out of her mouth. An expression of crosseyed bewilderment twists her face, followed by such an expression of joy that it almost looks like pain. Before she knows what her legs are doing, she runs. Runs, skipping and leaping wildly into the…
Cycling Sumatra
Banyu Hadi looks up. Looks up again. His face, still swollen from sleep, still dripping from the morning’s ablution, expresses many things in the next seconds. Consternation, first. The knit brow, the glance over his shoulder. Then, the true facial acrobatics begin. Confusion, perhaps even awe. Surprise certainly, fluidly transitioning into wide-eyed, slack-jawed, befuddlement; before…
Why? WAM 50k, 2022
It’s dark, soon to be 5am. After a 5 hour sleep, after three days of carpooling from Nelson, after some 300km of training, the WAM 50k stretches out before me like a serpent in the dark. There is no gun to run from, there is no destination to run to. Only an arbitrary line drawn…
Love in the Time of Corona – A Squamish Hibernation
Rain. How quickly things become normal. How quickly damp and cold becomes simply the way a body feels. Winter in Squamish creeps into the soul with such subtle artistry. And sure, at first we keep the inner-fire alive, stoking the low flames with memories of sun, the smell of cooking earth, of winters spent in…
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