We are a husband and wife from France and England who decided to sell up to cycle for two years starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before cycling the world, Ben worked as an R&D engineer and Karen in distribution systems for ASDA, a UK supermarket. Ben had built his own bike frame before leaving and also designed the "world tour" tandem, which was ultimately made by Bob Jacksons in Leeds. Karen had very little experience in bicycle maintenance, but after nearly seven months as a professional stoker (!) had developed something of a passion and interest for bikes.
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During our trip so far, we have constantly used other cyclist's websites for information on routes across South America, the Andes, Central America etc. One of these websites www.antipodes.com, mentioned two female cyclists they had met on the road who had (as mentioned on their website) done some volunteering at Maya Pedal. So we found out about this extraordinary NGO via the cyclo-tourist grapevine. In all honesty the, thought of stopping in a place for longer than a few days to spend some quality time working was starting to appeal to us so after a detour to the beautiful Carribean side of Costa Rica, we decided to speed things up a bit and race across the middle of Central America to gain a "spare" week which we could convert into volunteering at Maya Pedal.
After a first contact, and a positive email invitation to work, we promised to call when we reached Guatemala and as soon as we were in Antigua, we phoned to arrange to start the following Monday, by which time some small problems with our own tandem would be resolved.
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On Sunday evening, we made our way to the village of San Andres de Itzapa, negotiating some tricky hills out of Antigua. Itzapa was bigger and friendlier than we had expected, even under the rain. We stayed at a small pension (40 quetzals) so we could get our bearings and start work on time the following morning. After six months without doing a proper day's work, we were a little out of practice at anything except pedalling.
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The welcome that we received at Maya Pedal was fantastic. Carlos was enamoured by the tandem when we arrived, (out of breath) up the hill to the workshop and headquaters of Maya Pedal. We were welcomed into our new home and shown around some of the extraordinary projects. Perhaps the most amazing is the "bicibomba" which uses pedal-power and a length of small bead-like packings to draw water out of a well up to 25m deep. You can imagine how impressed communities must be seeing 5-10 gallons per minute of such a vital resource splashing into a water reservoir. A huge oil barrel sized container can be filled in 7 minutes. Quite incredible! The bicimaquinas encompass ideas which help indigenous communitites improve their work, homelife and livelihoods using sustainable energy, rather than expensive and non-environmentally-friendly fossil fuels. The beauty is in their simplicity and
practicality. The bicimolino, a grinder which can be used for animals feeds and corn, nuts and coffee, has proved itself to be four times more effective than manual methods, as well as being far less tiring. The bicimaquinas aid the families tremendously but without fundamentally changing the way oflife that the Mayan communities have preserved.
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But how can these developments be made in a country with 35 years of civil war dominating its recent history? A country where there is no government help or financial aid packages. And a country where people do not always have the luxury of choosing organic or environmentally-friendly solutions over low-cost ones. It struck us that in the UK, people can afford to pay for novelties like pedal-powered fruit smoothies or organically-produced shampoos, mixed by a bicimaquina. But in Guatemala, the mass-produced option will always be cheaper and therefore more appealing.
Over the following week, we would see that the people behind Maya Pedal are the key to the group's success. Carlos, the talented and conscientious mechanic. Mario, who's infectious enthusiasm, experience and openness are second to none. And the numerous other community groups and families who use and are passionate about the bicycle machines and their future.
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Initially our first task seemed like my nightmare come true; a huge pile of bikes to fix. But after helping Ben out taking wheels off, fixing punctures and cleaning old BMXs back to a stunningly shiny chrome, I started to get a little more confident. I branched off on my own to organise wheels and categorise them, I translated a biciblender manual into Spanish and designed some posters to advertise Maya Pedal to volunteers.
My one small success of the week was dragging a Specialised Rockhopper frame back from the dead. I fitted new gears, brakes, seat, wheels and water-bottle holder and cleaned and adjusted everything. At one point, after only getting limited action on half of the gears, I asked Carlos if all his customers really wanted ALL the gears to work. I thought that maybe the element of surprise might make their cycling more interesting. But needless to say, I did work round it and got the bike up to scratch with, in the end, a pretty smooth transmission.
Doing a test ride from Maya Pedal on a bike you have just repaired yourself is quite scary as you have to be very confident of your equipment to drop down the steep hill outside! After a quick test ride, Mario, Carlos, Gwyn, Ben and I took off for the restaurant on our bikes, in quite an impressive two-wheeled possee. Still, even after a good run round and round the village, the bike didn't complain at all so I claimed a success for my mechanical skills and another bike to add to the Maya Pedal shop.
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The experience was fantastic for both of us. Ben was inspired to follow through his plans to build expedition frames, when we eventually stop cycling that is. He showed his true colours sharing his own learning and his ideas and experiences with Carlos and Mario. I improved my Spanish and learnt a lot about a small village, rather than a little about a big country, which is normally what happens. We were inspired by the stories of the villagers who had made the bicimaquinas work. Women who had once been too scared to raise their traditionally-woven skirts a little to pedal, let alone get on a strange-looking bike. Inspite of quite basic priorities, like trying to feed relatively big families, the people are Maya Pedal are making things work and changing their own way of life in a way that all of us, especially in more developed countries, should look to for the way forward to a healthier
and more positive future. Maya Pedal should be an example to us all in a world where we rely too readily on expensive and polluting fossil fuels for our power.
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The future for Maya Pedal looks very promising. We were joined during the week by Victoria and Gwyn from MiT, in Boston, a very prestigious university in the USA. MiT has not only launched an important project in conjunction with Maya Pedal, the bici-lavadora (bicycle-washing machine), but also, via its collaborations will help to levitate Maya Pedal onto an international scale. This will secure a prosperous future for the NGO and for those lucky enough to work with them. Maya Pedal is a truly inspiring place with truly inspiring people.
