The toll roads in Mexico are very expensive, most truck drivers and definitely the underpaid teachers cannot afford to use them, so they were going to occupy the booths and let everybody go free as a protest.

Unfortunately the guy that Ivana asked to give us a ride to Morelia had already paid. When he stopped to load our bikes in the back of the truck, he noticed the few dozen of people waiting and carefully asked ‘How many people need a ride again?’

We had not expected to get to Morelia so soon, but it was nice to have some time to cycle through the old city. Morelia is one of the reasons people should visit Mexico: it has a wonderful historic centre, full of culture and with loads of buildings that are older than anything in the US. The university city is full of young people and there are plenty nice places to eat, drink or party if needed.

We had been invited by our new CouchSurfing friend Monica to stay with her family, we were already the 3rd cycling couple they had hosted. Monica and her family took great care of us and we stayed much longer than planned. We still had a deadline to meet, but the generosity of Monica, her mother Yolanda, father Juan and brother Juan Pablo kept us relaxed.

Yolanda is not just a great conversationalist with a lot of knowledge about history, culture and politics, but also a great cook. She surprised us every day with new local dishes, made with fresh and tasty natural ingredients only.

A welcome relief from the fast-food stores that are popping up everywhere in Mexico and from the pre-processed chemical packages that are sold as ‘food’ in the many small supermarkets. She even gives free classes about nutrition in schools and every meal was a feast.

We got to rest and recover from the hot Mexican coast My cut healed well and left only a small scar in the shape of a ‘7’, which is actually pretty cool

Patzcuaro, the magic town

When we mentioned that we would have to leave soon, they said that we could not go without seeing Patzcuaro, and they took us to this historic town between Uruapan & Morelia: one of the few dozen ‘Pueblos Magicos’, a list of less than 30 ‘magical cities’ of Mexico. Places that give you that special feeling…

We enjoyed the lake, ate real quesadillas on the market, had handmade ice-cream at the main square and admired the historic buildings and culture. Many local artists are producing and selling their artesanias on the streets and in little shops around town.

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As in more historic places in Mexico it is illegal to have big loud advertising in the centre. All shops have the same colours and use the same fonts to advertise their name outside, which secures a wonderful low-key relaxed feeling.

So even though Burger King might have infiltrated in the main square commercial zone, you won’t know it is there until you are almost inside. But why eat there anyway, when there are delicious huge quesedillas for USD$0,50 and tons of unknown but cheap and tasty fruits instead?

Goodbye to Morelia

Monica had already taken us a few times to some nice dinners and walks in the historic centre of Morelia and even organised a CouchSurfing meeting for us.

It was hard to say goodbye to this generous family, as many times before we felt we had taken more than we could give in return. We felt privileged to be a part of the family for while and to see yet another side of the diverse Mexican culture.

Back on the road again, heading for DF. Paletas & hills.

If you are in another country and you are heading for ‘Mexico’, you are heading for the country. Once you are there and you are still heading for ‘Mexico’, everybody knows you are going to the capital with the same name. I must admit that I knew nothing much more about Mexico City than that it is one of the largest cities in the world, with accompanying pollution and crimes. Recently, it was known as the ‘Swine flu capital’, though all news sources in Mexico report that the flu originated in the US, so who should you believe?

Anyway, as we always like to see things for ourselves rather than trusting media copycats, we decided that we should at least try to visit the Capital.

Monica & Yolanda guided us out of Morelia and pointed us to the new toll road. Unfortunately the arrogant boss of the accompanying complex would not let us cycle, nor leave us waiting for a ride. All the guards said that once the chief would be away, we would be fine. In the end we managed to ask for a ride and get our bikes loaded on a truck while the driver was paying his toll.

The car dropped us off at Zinepecuaro, where we enjoyed the first of many ‘paletas’, locally made ice-lollies made with big chunks of pure fruit, like Guanabana, coconut, pineapple or my favourite, mango with chile: cold, sweet and spicy!

A steep road headed up to the main toll road between Guadelajara & Mexico city. The toll booth attendant did not even see us when we sneaked past. We could try to catch a ride here, but decided that we try some highland cycling instead. We regretted that soon as the next 15km was constant and very steep uphill.

Even though we were at about 2400m/8000ft, it was hot and we had run out of water on the long climb. At the summit we got a bag full of sweet strawberries from a street vendor, which we enjoyed between the pine forests of the highlands.

After an initial downhill there was another smaller hill to climb but then we could enjoy our well-earned ‘free miles’, all the way down to the city of Maravatio. We cycled into town and saw the sign of the Cruz Roja, the red Cross.

If you are ever cycling in a town and have no idea where to stay safely and cheaply, here are some recommended choices, in no particular order, but generally valid all over the world:

• The fire station (Bomberos in Latin America). They usually have nothing much to do and enjoy the company, usually have some extra rooms or at least a safe place to camp
• The Red Cross: same as the Bomberos, + benefit of providing medical help if needed
• The Police: even though sometimes they have a bad name, generally speaking it is a lot safer to stay between police men than between the thieves they are trying to catch

We got some water from the friendly nurses at the Cruz Roja and cooked our spaghetti outside the main entrance. Just after had put up our tent, the team leader cam out and offered us to stay inside instead and use the WiFi as well, which was of course gladly accepted.

It was nice to see young (most were between 16 & 20) volunteers, trying to help out in the community, while being educated.

The following day we still had some free miles saved and the kilometres passed quickly through gentle hills and green fields passing over small towns.

It was still a long way to the City and so we stopped at the next tollbooth, where we got a ride fairly quickly. Fortunately we passed the busy madness of Toluca city, and got dropped off right in Metepec, where Monica’s aunt & uncle live.

When we cycled to the charming main square to call them for directions, a group of young cyclists came up and started asking questions about our trip. They were really interested and also used the opportunity to practice their English. They guided us through the small streets, stopping cars to let us pass easily and even called Monica’s family when needed. It was great to have such a young and enthusiastic cycling escort!

We were received with open arms by Laura & Roberto and their son Beto in their house outside of town. To the west we could see the impressive massif of Volcan de Toluca, to the east were the high mountains separating us from one of the largest urban zones in the world, currently feared by the world because of some strange virus… Mexico City, here we come!

Ivana has a problem with birds. When they fly far away or sing cheerfully in the morning, she loves them, but when they get within her personal space they scare her. So when she had to go to the outhouse, where not only a toilet, but also half a dozen very ugly asthmatic ducks were to be found, she called in the troops.

To chase the ducks away I walked around the toilet, but suddenly the rotten wood bottom gave away.

I did not know how deep the hole was nor what I would find inside, but as gross scenes from Slumdog Millionaire flashed through my mind, I instinctively held on to the side of the outhouse.

Unfortunately whomever build this construction had decided at some point that it would be better to use nails that are too long, rather than not long enough and my arm got stuck on the end of a nice long and rusty one. As I was still gravity-assisted and going down, it ripped my skin open, holding on to a few cm (1”).

While the bleeding slowly started I walked back out towards Ivana and told her I had cut my arm. The farmer had just come in as well and told us that the army checkpoint on the nearby road had a small hospital, so off we went.

The Army doctor took a look and took me outside to clean the wound thoroughly with a healthy dose of pure stinging alcohol and a lot of pressure. As a small part of the skin was missing, he said that stitches probably would not work. He covered it with bandages, gave me some antibiotics and recommended to get a tetanus injection soon. Next patient please.

His fellow soldiers –they check cars and trucks for weapons and drugs- were interested in our trip and when we came back after packing our bikes they invited us for breakfast. We had had our breakfast half an hour before, but a real Bike Traveller never declines food.

We got some tortillas and beans, some meat and fresh juice, served with some nice chats about their work and our trip. To top it off they brought in a chilled guanabana, a large fruit with white flesh that was incredible tasty.

Even though I had some tetanus shots over a year ago in Argentina, a rusty nail in an duck-filled outhouse appeared to me the ultimate test that I did not want to fail, so it seemed like a wise idea to get another shot; there should be a hospital in the small village down the road.

The village turned out to be quite big, noisy and polluted and off the road, but with some help we found the hospital, where I was given the tetanus shot right away. Back to the road again, through a nice flat section lined with banana trees.

The next section was not just very hilly, but also known for its bandits and drug-traffickers, who use the small beaches on the rugged coasts to land their smuggling boats. We had planned to get a ride through this section as all the mafia apparently had attracted road-side robbers, attacking vehicles on the quiet road.

First we had to find a good place to hail a pick-up for a ride:

• The perfect spot is near a ‘tope (toh-pay)’, the annoying bumps that are placed on the road to slow down traffic. Cars have to almost stop here and it is easy to ask for a ride.
• If you are on a Quota/toll road, then the toll-both is perfect as well, assuming the guards let you stand there to ask.
• Near a corner, as most (not all) vehicles slow down in a curve, and we can see in time if it is a car or a full pick-up truck as it is no use to stop a car or a pick-up without space for our bikes.
• With sufficient open space for our bikes to be parked near the road and for the car to brake and pull-out.
• Not in a zone known for carjacking, drug trafficking & highway robbers as hitchhikers will be considered possibly dangerous and the cars offering a ride might be as well.

None of the above were available and while looking for them, the road started climbing without mercy. My arm hurt a lot when pulling at the handlebars at steep sections as there was tension on the fresh wound. Ivana’s knee was hurting again as well, so we just started asking passing cars while pushing our bikes up the steep slopes.

To our surprise a young girl, alone in a big pick-up, stopped and took us and our bikes. We picked her brother up on the way and they took us to their house, where their mum immediately invited us for lunch, treating us to quesadillas and avocado, yum!

We could have camped with them, but wanted to get a bit further, so we headed back to the main road and pointed our thumbs towards the sky near a small road-shop.

After several hours of trying, alternating turns in the hot sun, a car truck stopped that could take us to Maruata, which sounded fine to us. What was less fine was that several cases of beer were emptied during the trip and while the road was curvy and bumpy, the speed picked up considerably.

We were sitting in the back with our bikes and were relieved when we arrived near the small town. The first thing we noticed was a huge new building, that turned out to be a newly-opened hospital. Perfect timing, as I wanted to change my bandages and check if my cut had not been infected. We walked in the near-empty building. It was dark as the night-nurses did not know yet where the main light switches were.

A friendly nurse cut away the bandages, took an interested glance at the nasty-but-not-infected-looking wound and then started scrubbing it with half a bottle of iodine using all of her force, suddenly looking a lot less charming.

While I was painfully getting cleaner than the brand new hospital floor, a 14 year old girl walked in crying, fully pregnant and about to deliver. We both looked at her and her crazy mother (or grandmother?) that just laughed like nothing was wrong in this picture. Again I realized the luxury that my so-called ‘problems’ would almost always be smaller than those seen around me.

When checking the prescription the doctor had written out for me, we noticed it was the same as the antibiotics we already had and so we left the 3rd hospital today without paying anything. All the treatments including the tetanus injection had been free of charge. Not just for me as a lucky tourist, but for everybody. Only if I had wanted to buy medication, I would have had to pay. How is that for a ‘developing country’?

We cycled safely through the dark towards the beach on a bumpy trail, thanks to our headlights on our Santos bikes. Maruata beach is actually quite famous; for the surf and the turtles and it is simply pretty.

Now it was dark, but a few guesthouses and restaurants offered some light as well as some food and free camping. A couple of friendly salesmen that also had stopped here for the night offered to pay a room for us, but we explained that we rather be outside in our tent, as it would be cooler and without mosquitoes.

We fell asleep while the surf provided a lazy rhythm to the lightshows of the fireflies. Wat een dag!

30 May 2009: Maruata beach – Caleta de Campo: crazy hills, drunk rides and more beach

Our friendly host suddenly requested money for the free camping after all, but gave in after a brief protest from our side. We headed back up to the road and started cycling, again looking for a great place for our next ride.

There was none. This section of road was insane, a succession of incredibly steep climbs, directly followed by deadly downhills through blind corners on a narrow road with temperatures going through the roof. Rinse and repeat several dozen times. We now realized why the distance on the map had seemed wrong, but was right after all: if you could take this road and stretch it out, it would cover the true distance at least twice.

It would destroy the knees of Lance Armstrong, if he were able to get a fully loaded bike up here. So likely it would ruin ours as well and as the doctor had ordered rest for my arm we resorted to stopping pick-ups to force our next ride through this overheated madness.

IOf course few people use this road for long-distance and it would take 5 separate rides that day before we would get to our next stop: one friendly guy, a drunk couple that picked us up twice, a trio of young girls in an expensive new truck and a nice man that turned out to be a drunk idiot as well, tossing out an empty beer can out the window every few minutes.

We still managed to cycle about 50km ourselves that day and even spend our lunchtime waiting several hours for a ride at a small place in the middle of nowhere where small kids were cycling downhill on a bike without brakes without wearing shoes, for fun.

There we also got to chat with Orlando, an 80-year old Mexican that had great knowledge about geography and mountains all over the world. He was clearly very well educated, but now he just waited in the shade for his next customers: in exchange for free food and lodging, he sold gasoline for a local lady. Using his mouth and a hose he transferred the fuel into the expensive cars that stopped by, realizing that fuel stations were a rarity on this road.

We saw his eyes gleam when we told him about our trip, but our heart broke every time he spent minutes coughing and spitting after every filling-up of yet another car filled with rude people. It was a sad sight, especially with the wrongly spelled ‘Cevende Gasolina’ sign on the road behind him (‘Se vende Gasolina = Gas for sale).

The last drunk ride had dropped us off in a beach town and a steep but paved road dropped us right onto the beach. Ivana was exhausted so I went to check the places to camp. All the restaurants wanted cash to camp on their empty properties, even if we would buy dinner there. In the end the only place that would let us camp, was one that had the kitchen closed.

So we settled for a few emergency noodle soups and bought some cold beers to thank our hosts and quench our thirst Next door a children’s party hit a piñata (as well as one unfortunate small guest) to smithereens while thousands of small to medium-sized crabs that had appeared out of nowhere crawled around my feet, headed for the ocean. World On a bike in Mexico…

31 May 2009: Caleta de Campo beach – Uruapan: 80km + 200km in rides, up to the highlands!

The road had turned sane again and as our injuries felt better, we decided to make some more miles by ourselves again. The coastal road was a lot nicer here, with a fresh breeze coming up from the pretty beaches and hills that were doable for mortals.

We did try to use ‘lunch’ -the hottest time of the day- for getting another ride as we were now less than one month away from our deadline in Cancun, so all bits would help.

The small town was full of pick-ups, but it turned out that was just for the local fiesta, which in itself turned out to be a cockfight, illegal in the USA, a quite regular Sunday outing in Mexico.

Ivana talked to and helped some local kids that were trying to inflate a bicycle tire. Soon after they came up to me with their broken derailleur and a handful of parts. Though it had been a while since I fixed a derailleur as our Rohloff system has internal gears instead, I managed to turn into Bicycle Repairman and got all the parts connected and the gears going again.

I noticed that the initial joy on the little guy’s face had suddenly disappeared.

‘Comocuantovaser?’, he spoke swiftly but softly with a worried look on his face.

Como cuanto va ser, or ‘how much is it going to be?’, we translated. Poor guy, he was afraid that the gringo would charge him a lot for fixing his bike.

I explained him that it was free and that cyclists should always help each other out when needed and his face cleared up to reveal a bright smile.

Closer to the larger city of Lazaro Cardenas we got 2 short rides across the busiest sections and they dropped us off at the new ‘quota’, the toll road that was not on our 2 maps. We cycled some more along the road, assuming we would at some point encounter a tollbooth.

We noticed that there was almost no trash near the road, a clear sign that it was just opened recently, as all other roads in Mexico are lined with plastic, glass, paper, more plastic and styrofoam. As friendly as the Mexicans are, their own environment is one thing they do not seem to care about. When cycling you really see the extent of the influence of plastic waterbottles & chips: free roadside marketing that shows that thousands of Coca-Cola drinkers have no respect for nature, not even their own.

When we finally got to the crossing where the booth was, some soldiers advised us not to go further east, but inland instead to visit Morelia and to enjoy the cooler air. We looked at our map and decided that it might be a good idea to head for the fresh highlands instead of following the bumpy hot coastline to Acapulco first.

The first pick-up Ivana asked already had some bags in the back, but still agreed to take us all the way to Uruapan. And so within minutes we speeded up on a brand-new road through the steep hills of the highlands, ending up nearly 1800m higher in the fresh world capital of avocado’s.

The driver and his wife had planned to drop us off near a gas station, but intrigued by our little business-card they decided to invite us in their house instead.

We had a pleasant evening with the family Mendez. Again we ended up staying freshly showered and well-fed in the clean beds of new friends, wondering what the highlands of Central Mexico had in store for us…

When I found out that Tom Hubbard and his wife Sandy were living on our path, I wanted to meet them.

As a photographer, it is a pleasure to talk to Tom, who has decades of experience as a photographer and has worked with all the other great photographers during his work as Director of the Time-Life Photo and Digital Image Lab. Most recently, he was the Pro Photo Business Development Manager for Hewlett Packard’s new line of professional photographic pigment printers in North America.

Currently he is looking for new challenges. I told him that he should either start writing (e-)books or teach as he is filled with valuable information for beginning as well as professional photographers.

He has a –slightly confusing mix of- very useful websites, which are useful for BikeTravellers and other photographers:

• http://www.hubbardcamera.com/ with great tips for starting photographers,
• http://hubsidarkroom.blogspot.com/ about digital processing,
• more general photography tips in http://hubsphotographytips.blogspot.com/ &
• inspirational interviews at http://www.visionaryphotographers.com/.

And he is not finished, having many more ideas to share the wonderful world of photography.

He also finally got me to start organizing thousands of photos and was kind enough to give me a legal copy of Adobe’s LightRoom, which after some learning curve already is making my photo life much easier and my images much more interesting

Thanks Tom & Sandy, for your hospitality and sharing your knowledge!

• You need about 3 liters/ 96oz of water per day, this means 6 empty bottles per person, so a lot of trash
• They pay much more for their water than they should
• Though many say bottled water is ‘safer’, they have no idea if the water is better than that from their taps as ‘sourced’ water does not have to disclose the ingredients…
• ‘Recycling‘ is merely downcycling (see the excellent book ‘Cradle To Cradle’): the bottles are not reused, they are just used as a low quality source for other products that also cannot be recycled, so just a few steps away from being landfill where they will end up..

It has become a habit to buy and take bottles of water (‘hey, water is healthy, right?‘), promoted by the powerful marketing machines of Pepsico & Coca-Cola and the shallow promise of ‘recycling’.

I can tell you that I have been using the same 2 bottles: 1 PolarBottle & 1 1liter waterbottle all the way from Northern Alaska to California. That’s right: just refills, with pure, delicious water. No trash needed… Here is some information that might educate and even surprise you a bit. Most of it is also sponsored by commercial companies like Nalgene (refillable bottles) & Brita (waterfilters), but I rather support those companies that try to pevent more trash.

On the side of this post is a small set of images; all shot within 20 minutes, while cycling uphill, all empty waterbottles, thrown out of cars by ‘healthy’ people…

Facts

		In the United States in 2006, bottled water consumption reached a record 8.3 billion gallons, 185 million gallons of which was imported. The total amount spent on bottled water was over $11 billion. (Beverage Marketing Corp.)
		In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels. Nearly a quarter of all bottled water crosses national borders to reach consumers, transported by boat, train, and truck. (Earth Policy Institute)
		It costs more money to drink bottled water than to put gas in your car–up to five time more–due mainly to its packaging and transportation.(Earth Policy Institute)
		Bottled water companies do not have to release their water-testing results to the public, whereas municipalities do. (Natural Resources Defense Council)

Links

• Container Recycling Institute
• Earth Policy Institute
• National Resources Defense Council
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Bottled Water Blues
• Local Drinking Water Information. How is Your Tap Water?
• www.drinktap.org

(from http://www.refillnotlandfill.org/facts.html)

Learn the Facts

(from http://www.filterforgood.com/learn_the_facts.php)

Why is bottled water waste a concern? Here are just a few reasons…

• Americans used 50 billion water bottles in 2006 and sent 38 billion water bottles to landfills, the equivalent of 912 million gallons of oil.1, 2, 3, 4
• If laid end to end, that’s enough bottles to travel from the Earth to the Moon and back 10 times.5 If placed in a landfill or littered, those bottles could take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.2
• The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power 190,000 homes.6
• In 2006, the average American used 167 disposable water bottles, but only recycled 38.1
• Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles in 2006. However, the U.S.’s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles – more than $1 billion worth of plastic – are wasted each year.1

Ditching bottled water keeps Mother Earth and your wallet green.

• One Brita pitcher filter can effectively replace as much as 300 standard 16.9-ounce bottles. So you can get great-tasting water without so much waste. Talk about refreshing.
• The average Brita pitcher filters 240 gallons of water a year for about 19 cents a day.7 Put in perspective, to get the same amount of water from bottled water would require 1,818 16.9-ounce water bottles a year.8
• For about $10 each, you can purchase a 16-ounce or 32-ounce Nalgene bottle, saving you hundreds of dollars a year on bottled water.
• Hydration at its best – carry the water you need and reduce your impact on the environment – one Nalgene bottle can last for decades, making it easy to stop buying single-serve bottled water to fulfill your everyday hydration needs.

Many people drink bottled water because they believe it to be of a higher quality, cleaner and better-tasting, but that’s not necessarily true.

• In the United States, 24 percent of bottled water sold is either Pepsi’s Aquafina (13 percent of the market) or Coke’s Dasani (11 percent of the market). Both brands are bottled, purified municipal water.1
• If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, try Brita. Nine out of 10 consumers say “Brita clearly tastes better,” according to an in-home usage study. They preferred the taste of Brita water – filtered through pitchers – to tap.9
• Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, told The New York Times that “there is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water.”10
• In the U.S., public water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requires multiple daily tests for bacteria and makes results available to the public. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water, only requires weekly testing and does not share its findings with the EPA or the public.10

Notes/sources:

1. Fishman, Charles. “Message in a Bottle.” Fast Company Magazine July 2007: 110.

2. Arnold, Emily, and Janet Larsen. ” Bottled Water: Pouring Resources Down the Drain.” Earth Policy Institute. 2 Feb. 2006. 28 June 2007.

3. Larsen, Janet. “Bottled Water Boycotts:Back-to-the-Tap Movement Gains Momentum.” Earth policy Institute. 7 Dec. 2007.

4. One oil barrel = 42 gallons (Energy Policy & Planning Office, Ministry of Energy, Thailand)

5. The average 16.9-ounce bottle of water is 8 inches, or .67 feet, tall, meaning 38 billion bottles would cover 25,333,333,333.33 feet, or 4,797,979.80 miles. The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 238,987 miles, so 38 billion bottles could travel from the Earth to the Moon and back more than 10 times.

6. “Not Disposable Anymore.” P.O.V.’s Borders. 2004. PBS.

7. This cost assumes the purchase of a $25 pitcher (one filter included), plus 5 replacement filters at $9 each, for a total yearly cost of $70, or $0.19 cents a day.

8. Each filter produces 40 gallons of water and the average Brita owner uses 6 filters in a year, to produce 240 gallons, or 30,720 ounces, of fresh-filtered water. 30,720 ounces is equivalent to the water found in 1,818 16.9-ounce water bottles.

9. Brita Pitcher System In-Home-Use-Test compared to tap water. 2005

10. Burros, Marian. “Fighting the Tide, a Few Restaurants Tilt to Tap Water.” The New York Times [New York City, NY] 30 May 2007: Section F, Page 1.

For those new to Couchsurfing, WarmShowers.org and the Hospitality Club, these are networks of people opening their house and/or local knowledge up to other travellers, supplying them with free lodging (a ‘couch’, though it can be a spare room, a sofa or just a spot on the floor or in the garden).

Couchsurfing is the largest , currently there are almost a million members inviting strangers into their homes, following the mission of Couchsurfing:

“CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.”

WarmShowers.org is an older, but much smaller organisation (less than 10,000 members), but it is especially focused on BikeTravellers.

“The Warm Showers List is a list of Internet cyclists who have offered their hospitality towards touring cyclists. The extent of the hospitality depends on the host and may range from simply a spot to pitch a tent to meals, a warm (hot!) shower, and a bed.”

This has some advantages:

• the hosts generally have cycled themselves, so you do not have to explain why or how you do it
• They usually have storage space for your bike
• They might have spare parts, but at least useful tools
• They know all the local cycle routes and the best way to get out of cities etc
• They are very friendly and almost always will answer positively to any requests

The disadvantage is of course that there are fewer members, but usually the ‘quality’ is more important here than the ‘quantity’.

The Hospitality Club is the second largest organisation, with currently about 330.000 members. Their mission is similar:

Our aim is to bring people together – hosts and guests, travelers and locals. Thousands of Hospitality Club members around the world help each other when they are traveling – be it with a roof for the night or a guided tour through town.
The club is supported by volunteers who believe in one idea: by bringing travelers in touch with people in the place they visit, and by giving “locals” a chance to meet people from other cultures we can increase intercultural understanding and strengthen the peace on our planet.

Joining any of these 3 organisations is free, takes just a minute and everyone is welcome. Members can look at each other’s profiles, send messages and post comments about their experience on the website. Of course you can become a member of all of them, it will increase your chance of finding a host and to meeting new travellers. You can be very clear about what you can offer and what you request: if you only want to meet up for a drink, that is ok. If you have a backyard where people can pitch a tent, that is perfect as well. if you want to offer a spare room and serve dinner that is wonderful, but not required. if you need a week’s notice, that’s no problem (though many travelers, especially BikeTravellers, cannot tell exactly when they arrive as it is dependent on wind..)

We had only ‘Couchsurfed’ a few times so far, but Samir was a professional. Even though they had surfed only a few times themselves, he gave us all kind of tips about how to find hosts and how to use Couchsurfing more effectively, though these are mostly true for the others as well:

Samir’s CS tips:

• Sign up for local CS groups (the ‘Amsterdam’ or ‘California’ group etc, any group of the place you are travelling in), so you can easily get in contact with members and post message in the group.
• Check for people who are online in your area (CS shows where you recently logged in from). This is actually how Samir found us, he just checked which CS-ers where near him and checked our profile!
• Of course, if you want to be hosted, you will need a complete profile, so add much information about yourself.
• Try to meet other CS-ers locally if you are new. This way they can see you face to face, and vouch for you.

Why would you sign up with any of these organisations?

To give

• You can help travellers finding a safe place to stay, or even just help them out with useful information or just a cup of tea or a warm shower & a washing machine. Travellers do not need fancy places, just a roof can be great.
• You can save travellers a lot of money, they otherwise had to spend on expensive hotel rooms. This money is much better spent on travelling more, food, a museum etc!
• You meet many different people: travellers with great stories about their hometown/-country, travelling tips and much more. It is a free way to get a good bite of ‘strange’ culture!
• You can show the world, that not all strangers are bad people and that it is easy to help a fellow human being; even though the media will try to convince you to believe the ‘fear culture’ (don’t trust anybody, axis of evil, discrimination etc). Fear is big business, with the weapons industry leading the way…
• To show that the Internet is a great thing. Our generation is empowered by it and can use it to make the world a better place.

To receive

• To find hospitality in unexpected places by unexpected people and restore faith in humanity.
• To get first-hand knowledge about the place and area you are staying in.
• To save a lot of money which is much better spent otherwise
• To see how people are really living in the place/country you are staying in. No Hotel can teach you about local breakfasts, the way people talk to their kids etc in foreign countries!
• If you are a cyclist, it is a great way to have a day ‘off’: when you know your gear is in a safe place, you can go for a ride, without luggage, or walk into town, without a bike for a change. If you do not have to watch your bike, you can visit museums, shops, a swimming pool, library, or simply have a siesta in the park. You would see cities, you would otherwise have to pass.
• You might be able to freshen up (a Warm Shower) or even do some laundry and generally load up your energy levels.
• If you like pets, you will love the chance to play with the dog or cat (hosts generally have pets, unless they travel a lot themselves )

We already met so many wonderful people, many of them are mentioned in the ‘1000 Americans’ Category. Most of them we would never have met, if it was not for the 3 initiatives mentioned here, and without them we would have camped more, but also learned and seen a lot less…

Of course you must always use your own mind when deciding to stay with somebody as in culture, both online as well as offline, there are a few less good people trying to spoil it for the rest. Whatever you do, in the end it is always your own responsibility/choice, but do not let this stop you from travelling and meeting new people.

Unaware hosts

We have stayed at several people, who either had no internet connection, and/or no idea about the organisations above. Still they invited us into their homes, becase they wanted to help us out, dry us, feed us, listen to our stories or share theirs.

They found  us on the street, in front of a library, looking for a place to camp, or stumbled upon our website and invited us: spontaneous Warm Showers!

They are great hosts, who offer help from their hearts without even thinking about the huge internet resources. As one host said: ‘You know, they should make a website to connect travelers!’. When we told them about the 3 mentioned above he was pleasantly surprised