Jaime rides a tandem bike around the world picking up passengers.
This article is one in a series of interviews with long-term international bike tourists. This time I talked with Jaime from Peace Pedalers to get his take on things. Jaime is riding a tandem bike around the world picking up passengers wherever he can.
Click here to see a slide show of the Peace Pedalers around the world!
World Bike Touring Examiner (WBTE): Would you please explain a tad bit about where you’ve been and where you’re going.
Jaime: I spent 2 years in Asia and Oceania, two years in Africa, and a year in Europe. Currently I am in my 77th country – Chile. A complete list of the countries is here. I’m now in Stage 3 of the journey and expect to arrive back home summer of 2010.
WBTE: How long have you been on the road?
Jaime: 7 ½ years.
WBTE: Had you done a lot of touring before?
Jaime: I had not done hardly any touring before we left. I did one test run just to see if we really wanted to do what we had planned, but no extended touring at all.
WBTE: What prompted such an extended journey?
Jaime: Going bankrupt in1999 was the actual catalyst. I lost everything in 1999 after running various reckless businesses with the idea of hopefully becoming wealthy and then living my dream to travel. At that time, I had pretty self-centered goals, and ended up putting myself many thousand dollars in debt. I finally realized that I needed to do what I really wanted to do which was to go out and travel.
At first I was only going to do a couple years, but it has now turned into an almost-8-year trip. This has now become my lifestyle. Basically what prompted that was just living from the heart after I went bankrupt. I realized what was important to me and I made a commitment to do only what I truly loved and to live fully from my heart. I decided to be detached from financial and reputation goals which would make me look good in the eyes of others and be true to myself. The idea of living from my heart has been driving everything since then.
WBTE: I know there are plenty of wonderful days when the sun is shining and you’ve got the wind at your back. But there are also days when it’s raining or you face a headwind or you’re climbing a hill that just won’t end. How do you get through those days? What keeps you going?
Jaime: Nowadays, if there are tough headwinds and a lot of rain, I just don’t ride – that’s where I’ve gotten over the last seven years. If I’m not having fun I don’t do it. For me, this is not a physical challenge to push my body to its max. I know I can do it – I know I can climb a million hills or ride a lot of miles. Sometimes I choose to do that, but if I’m not having fun I will generally stop and go someplace where I will. I’ve gotten a bit soft in my older days – I want to keep my batteries charged. It’s not about the hardcore headwind and driving rain challenge – I try to follow good weather.
I’ve actually had very minimal hardcore weather days. I’ve had mostly tailwinds and have pretty much defied the rules of tailwinds and headwinds. I can honestly say that I’ve had probably 95% tailwinds or no winds my entire trip. In most of the places where cyclists expect a lot of headwinds - like going from north to south in New Zealand - I had tailwinds every day. Most people cycle the other way because the trade winds should be favorable in that direction. I ended up riding the ‘wrong’ way because of a number of factors and ended up being the very rare person cruising along at 40 kph with a tailwind every day. That’s happened a lot on my trip – I think it goes back to karma.
One of the things I’ve learned is the idea of ‘live big; give big’ which is the motto of the trip. Love big; give big is the balance of giving and receiving. Every day I ride with an open desire of not only receiving, but contributing and helping and sharing; connecting, loving, and caring every single day. I have a tandem bike, a tent for three, two thermarests, two sleeping bags, two sets of clothes, two helmets, two sets of gloves... Everything is double and I am completely open to style out somebody for adventure, travel, and fun. Because of that, I’ve had a lot of really great things come back to me from a karmic perspective.
In other words, I haven’t had all that many really tough days physically. Emotionally I’ve had tough days when I miss home and feel confused and lonely when I say goodbye to somebody I’ve been traveling with for a long time. At those times I start to feel sad and go low. Too deal with that, I just let time pass. I’ve come to realize that you can’t fight low times - whether it be on the road or at home. You just have to let them pass. I have to give myself time and allow myself to cry if I want to and do what I want to do.
What keeps me going is this total passion driving from the deepest part of me to inspire people to get out there and banish their fears. I want them to get out there and share their skills and resources whether it be their education or their passions or financial resources. I want people to share whatever they can with the world and through this trip I am making a difference by sharing my experiences with other people.
I am also starting various charities – helping people start organizations to help their own communities. What drives me now is to see these things through to fruition and to inspire other people to make a difference as they go about their daily lives.
WBTE: As hard as it is to pick out one or two highlights – would you, could you? Tell us about a couple of those incredibly wow-ing, drop-your-jaw experiences you’ve had.
Jaime: One of my favorite stories is about when one of our bikes was stolen. We were in China, and it was only our third country out of planned 86. We had just put in 2.5 years of blood, sweat, and tears into getting the bikes custom built and we were totally gutted. Within 24 hours we went on a hunt and got the word on the front page of the local newspaper. We asked the community for their support and offered a reward.
Everybody in the community started calling the police and telling them that they must find this bike and they couldn’t let the foreigners leave the country with a bad taste of China. The call volume to the police station was so high that the station was nearly shut down – they couldn’t make or receive calls for almost 48 hours.
Because of that, the police ended up coming over to our hotel and taking us out to a 5-star dinner and begging us not to go to the media again. They assured us they would find the bike. Within the next few days they ended up doing a sting operation and found the bike being sold for $40 in a market. We got the bike back and rode off on Independence Day in 2002.
That’s a cool story about he community coming together and being on our side - our story was very different from just a regular bike ride. That kind of synergy – that give and take – that karmic energy – has protected us a lot on our entire trip so far. We’ve had a lot of magical experiences.
Another good story happened in Uganda. I hit probably the biggest low of my life after my mom left and I crashed emotionally. I spent four whole days doing absolutely nothing but crying and sleeping. Once I came through that I met a guy and gave him a ride. He was on the back of my bike and I asked him what his dreams were. He said his dream was to start a school for AIDS orphans in his community. I told him I would support him if he was serious about it. Over the next two years I helped him walk through various steps. He followed every suggestion I gave him and we finally ended up starting a school. He now has 165 students and it is growing fast. We also have a new school in the neighboring country of Rwanda opening soon. We got the land and are starting to build the buildings.
As a result of that project, I’ve become more a supporter than a leader in various projects. I look at myself as more of an incubator or consultant or friend or somebody who believes in the people.
WBTE: What about those days you wish you could forget (but you know you never will)? Those days when everything goes wrong and then even more goes wrong? Tell us about a couple of those.
Jaime: I think the story about our bike getting stolen is probably one of the worst. It came out good in the end, but at the time, we were pretty down. It was terrible for days when we were worried about the bike being gone. We were trying to figure out what to do – ride one tandem together or get a single bike. We were talking about worst case scenarios. And then in the end, it was all fine.
Some other crazy things have happened too. I’ll never forget the day we ran out of food in China. We saw on the map that we were coming up to a major city so we decided not to buy more food until we got there. However, once we arrived, we discovered the city was abandoned – there was no city at all. We decided we just had to ride with no food. We were all wondering what we were going to do - we had to ride over a high mountain pass. We took off and suffered through until we finally found someone selling honey up in the mountain. We bought jars of honey and ate that to fuel our bodies over the big passes.
Eventually, when we thought we couldn’t go any further, a truck stopped and the driver gave us some bread. We ate bread and honey until we made it to the next city. It was a day that never ended – we had to keep riding with no food.
Another bad day was in Zambia, Africa. I picked up a rider and built what I thought was a nice friendship. I took him out for a nice meal and he then asked me for money to buy beer. I told him I wasn’t going to give him money for beer. I bought him one beer and he kept asking for more. He finally stole my gloves and ran out of the restaurant. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was the first time in over four years that someone I had invited actually broke the bond of trust and stole from me. It was pretty gut-wrenching.
Just after that, I picked up another guy. My derailleur had broken – I no longer had a front derailleur and was stuck in one gear. I met this guy and offered to take him to the town so he could save on bus fare. He was a bad pedaler, so I had to carry him. Once we got to town, he told me I had to pay him because he took me all the way there. Basically, he was totally dishonest and said he had come with me to protect me. He said he wasn’t even going to go this way, but did it just for me. It was an awful day having to deal with both a broken derailleur and a dishonest rider.
That day I ended up breaking down and crying. A couple of days later another guy tried to steal my jacket and I broke down and started crying in the middle of the road. It was a tough time in Zambia
WBTE: You’ve toured through many countries and I know they each are unique and have their advantages and disadvantages. But, if you were to talk with someone relatively new to cycle touring, where would you recommend they go? Why?
Jaime: For somebody new to cycle touring, Holland in Europe is the easiest. Holland, Germany, France, and Denmark are my top four in Europe. In Australia, Tasmania is great – it really is a must. I thought Nepal in Asia was great. I also like Fiji a lot. So far in South America, I thought Uruguay was one of the best places I’ve been for a long time.
WBTE: Any special tips or advice to wannabe tourers?
Jaime: Don’t make excuses why you can’t do it. Just get your bike out and start riding. There is no way to make a mistake except not to go. Just set a date when you are going to go and start telling everyone you are going. Get your ticket and go. You’ll get in shape in the first few days. It might take a week, but you don’t need to wait – just get out and go. Yes, you could always be more prepared but you don’t need to over prepare. Half the fun is being a little bit unprepared!
The other thing I would recommend is to make it mean something. It should mean something from your heart. Don’t choose some random charity just to do so, but it should be something that you can really connect to. It should be something you can think about each and every time you take a pedal stroke.
WBTE: Thank you Jaime! I hope our paths cross a little bit farther south!
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If you enjoyed this interview, you might enjoy these other interviews with world cyclists:
Goat from Riding the Spine
Sean from Riding the Spine
Jacob from Riding the Spine
Friedel from Travelling Two
Sonya and Aaldrik from Tour.TK
Alastair Humphreys
Peter Gostelow
Tim & Cindie from Down the Road
There are also a number of families who have adopted a life on the road with their children:
Dorrie, Mike, and Gregory Williams
Contact me via email at familyonbikes@gmail.com
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