|
|
Table
of Contents
Overview
Project
Summary
Ride
Summary
Expense
Summary
Special
Thanks
Overview
Stage 2 took us east from Santiago to Mendoza and north through the provinces
of San Juan, La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman, Salta and Jujuy before crossing
the border into Bolivia. In this section of the ride, we encountered challenges
such as a broken rear wheel, Christi’s lingering back injury and roads
without shoulders. We visited schools and organizations for the blind in
Mendoza, Salta and La Paz, and we appeared in the news in those cities as
well as in Tucuman.
The ride north to Bolivia took us high up
onto the altiplano at approximately 12,000 feet. We entered Bolivia at
Villazon on July 10th and continued north to Tupiza, Uyuni, the
salt flats and Oruro before reaching La Paz. Highlights include meeting
fantastic people in Argentina, seeing the world’s largest salt flat and
exploring the colorful and vibrant markets in Bolivia.
Total
to date:
Ushuaia
to La Paz
6073
km / 3765 miles
Dec
2011 – Aug 2012
|
Stage
1:
Ushuaia
to Santiago
3457
km / 2143 mi
Dec
2011 – May 2012
|
Stage
2:
Santiago
to La Paz
2616
km, 1622 miles
May
2012 – Aug 2012
|
Stage
3:
La
Paz to Panama City
TBD
km / TBD mi
Aug
2012 – Oct 2012
|
|
Stage
4:
Panama
City to Phoenix
TBD
km / TBD mi
Oct
2012 – Jan 2013
|
Stage
5:
Phoenix
to Fort Nelson
TBD
km / TBD mi
Mar
2013 – June 2013
|
Stage
6:
Fort
Nelson to Deadhorse
TBD
km / TBD mi
June
2013 – Aug 2013
|
|
The two main goals of our project are (1)
to inspire the visually impaired community to push beyond their boundaries and (2)
to communicate to the sighted community what it means and doesn’t mean to have
a visual impairment. To accomplish these goals, we visit schools and organizations
for the blind along the way and share with them our project, and we interact
with the general public to raise awareness about blindness.
Christi talks to the children at the
Corina Lona School for the Blind.
Visiting
Schools & Organizations for the Blind
Mendoza,
Argentina
We started our
visit with a group discussion attended by a handful of visually impaired
members of the community. The group consisted of two university students, two
young professionals and a retired school teacher. We shared with each other personal
experiences of life with limited or no vision, and we talked about our project
and how important it was to promote se puede (“you can do it”).
We talk to the students
at the Hellen Keller School for the Blind in Mendoza.
Next, we visited the Hellen Keller School
for the Blind. We toured the school, shared with the students our ride and
talked with a group of parents who have concerns and questions about raising a
visually impaired child.
We also visited two organizations in
Mendoza. Casa de Discapacitado provides rehabilitation services that include
orientation and mobility, independent living and vocation assistance. Uni
Redes provides community, education and recreation for young adults (age 18-40)
who have visual impairments.
Salta,
Argentina
In Salta, we visited the Corina Lona School
for the Blind. We shared our long and challenging journey on the bike with the
kids as they sat mesmerized and excited about our numerous adventures. Later, the
kids sang and danced for us. One of the school’s alumni, now in her fourth
year studying to be an English translator at the local university, assisted us
as translator.
Two kids dancing at the
Corina Lona School. Two
kids dancing at the Corina Lona School.
We were invited to the Universidad Catolica
de Salta to talk with the faculty about the importance of providing students
with visual impairments the opportunity to succeed in the university
environment. We also met with a group of faculty members who were developing
methodologies to improve the teaching process for students with various disabilities.
La
Paz, Bolivia
In La Paz, we attended a conference on
living with a disability at the Centro de Rehabilitacion Fisica y Educacion
Especial. Dr. Ricardo Quiroga (Director) invited us to share our project with
the attendees and to promote our message that people like us can be capable
with the right opportunities. We then toured the facility and met with the children
who were learning skills to prepare them for the future. We also spoke with parents
of visually impaired children and encouraged them to ensure that their child
develops the sense of confidence and capability in order to be successful
citizens in the community
Tauru visited the Instituto Boliviano de la
Ceguera alone because Christi was sick that day. He spoke to a group of adults
who were either partially blind or completely blind. They shared with him
their experiences of being visually impaired and encouraged him to communicate
to the world that they, too, are “normal” people.
Ariel (sighted cyclist)
helps two visually impaired members of Instituto Boliviano de la Ceguera ride
the tandem.
Raising
Awareness with the General Public
In
the News
The way we get the word out is at times
organic. For example, while updating our website in a café in Lujan, a suburb
of Mendoza, we talked to the owner about our project. An hour later, we were
invited to a ceremony hosted by the mayor of Lujan and a handful of city
officials to recognize our efforts to promote the abilities of the visually impaired.
At other times, we solicit news agencies to
help us share our project. For Stages 1 and 2, we were on Chile’s national TV
news and Mendoza’s and Salta’s local TV news in Argentina. We have also been
featured in a handful of newspaper articles. Our original project goal of
reaching 10,000 people has been surpassed!
Two Blind to Ride in the News:
Dec 5, '11: CBS & Fox News
(Phoenix, AZ)
Dec 9, '11: KPHO CBS News (Phoenix,
AZ)
Mar 21, '12 KPHO CBS TV News (Phoenix,
AZ)
Apr 24, '12: Adventurer (US)
May 6, '12: Bio Bio Chile (Rancagua,
Chile)
May 9, '12: El Rancaguino (Rancagua,
Chile)
May 11, '12: Rodadas (Santiago, Chile)
May 13, '12: Cooperativa (Santiago,
Chile)
May 14, '12: La Cuarta (Santiago, Chile)
May 14, '12: La Tercera (Santiago,
Chile)
May 15, '12: Channel 13 TV News
(Santiago, Chile)
May 16, '12: KPHO CBS TV News (Phoenix,
Arizona)
May 30, '12: Radio Lujan (Lujan,
Argentina)
Jun 1, '12: El Mercurio newspaper
(Santiago, Chile)
Jun 2, '12: Channel 7 TV News
(Mendoza, Argentina)
Jun 25, '12: Outdoor Magazine (Brazil)
Jul 1, '12: La Gaceta (Tucuman,
Argentina)
Jul 3, '12: Channel 11 TV News
(Salta, Argentina)
Jul 4, '12: Local newspaper (Salta,
Argentina)
La Gaceta in Tucuman
interviews us.
Other
Media
We use other methods to spread our word. We
continue to utilize social media as a means for getting the word out about our
project. Most of our communication occurs via Facebook, where we have 996
Likes (Aug 3, 2012). We also use Twitter to announce updates to our website and
YouTube to post videos we make along the way.
Our website continues to be the engine
behind our awareness campaign. We make regular updates with stories, photos
and videos of our trip progress.
Social
Media links on our website.
The
Green Cane in Argentina
In
Argentina, there is a distinction made between people who are completely blind
and people with low vision. The white cane is used for those who are completely
blind while a green cane is used for those who have limited vision. This is a
great idea because, for example, in the United States where there is only the
white cane, people get confused when a partial sighted person using a white
cane boards a bus and takes out a book and starts reading. In general, people
assume those with white canes are completely blind; whereas, in using a green
cane, people can know the difference between limited vision and no vision.
Two partial-sighted men with green
canes.
Stage
2 started in Santiago, Chile and passed over the Andes Mountains to Mendoza,
Argentina. We continued northeast through the desert to Salta and then swung
back northwesterly and started the ascent to the altiplano of Bolivia at roughly
3800 m (~12,000 ft).
Stages 1, 2 and 3 as seen on Google
Earth.
On the Salar de Uyuni on Bolivia's
altiplano.
Ride
Statistics
Start: Santiago,
Chile (May 21, 2012)
End: La
Paz, Bolivia (Aug 4, 2012)
Countries: Chile,
Argentina & Bolivia
Duration:
~2 ½ months
Distance: 2616
km, 1622 miles
Distance
to Date: 6073 km / 3765 mi
Flats to
Date: 9
Broken
Spokes to Date: 4
Crashes
to Date: 5
Police
Escorts
On the Argentinian side of the
Andes, we received a police escort arranged by Sean of Welcome Mendoza down to
the border. As we approached Lujan near Mendoza, we received another police
escort because we knew riding in a city was not possible for us. In addition, when
the officials of Mendoza learned that we were visually impaired cyclists, they
insisted on providing us with police escorts for approximately 100 km north of
the city to ensure our safety.
Two
Blind to Ride thanks the folks of Mendoza for the police escorts!
One officer stops
traffic while another leads us into Lujan.
Back
Pains
Christi
had such severe back pain at the start of Stage 2 that she was not sure whether
she could continue the ride or not. After three weeks of rest, we managed to
ride 1,000 km before her back acted up again. We ended up in Monteros, 50 km
south of Tucuman, for 10 days as Christi rested and received some chiropractic
work and physical therapy.
Andrea provides physical therapy
work on Christi.
Since the start of our trip in December
2011, we have spent $4846 for the two of us for food, lodging and
miscellaneous. We budget $700 per month for the both of us. Primarily, by
camping most of the time and cooking our own meals in Argentina and Chile, we
were able to keep costs low. Since being in Bolivia, we have been eating out
for all of our meals because it is more economical. Meals in Bolivia’s markets
range from $1 to $3!
The pie chart shows our total spends by category.
Clearly the bulk of the expenses is food. This data is from December 10, 2011
to end-July 2012; therefore, it is roughly for 8 months for a total of $4846.
This averages out to ~$337/mo for food, ~$126/mo for lodging and ~$142/mo for
miscellaneous for the two of us.
Other expenses do occur, like visas, major
bike repairs, etc... For the 8 months in consideration, these expenses have
been approximately $2000 related to this trip.
For the two and a half months for Stage 2,
we managed to stay under our $700 per month budget. This includes everything
from lodging to food to miscellaneous items like toiletries and non-food
items.
In addition, other expenses were incurred
that are not included in the Monthly Spends chart above. These
“Extra-Ordinary” expenses for June and July were ~$500. They include visas for
Bolivia ($270 for the two of us), replacement of the rear wheel, etc…
Christi dines on
chicharones in the streets of Uyuni.
We want to extend a special thanks to the
following people and businesses for supporting our project and for making it
possible financially. Their contribution enables us to spread our message that
everything is possible throughout both of the Americas and to the rest of the
world.
THANK YOU!
Thanks for your
donation!
Scott Parsons
Chris Chavez
Garry & Tina
Bruchok
DiAnn Galm
Bryan Johnson
Dale Miller
Raymond Landis
Renee Defeo
Dale Mallison
Laurel Arendt
Paul Wenz
Dan Sharp
Alex Biegel
Marilyn Geninatti
Georgina Gallagher
Scott Parsons
(thanks, again!)
Heather Devine
Doug Pace
Carly Antus
Christine Wallis
Patti Kuluris
Chris Lawson
Thanks to the Local
Supporters for Stage 2
© 2012 Two Blind to Ride
|
