Cyclecor

So there have been no blogs for a while as i have lost myself in a fairytale land which is Ometepe… Sleeping on the beach, swimming in fresh water springs, picking mango’s from tree’s, swimming at sunset and climbing volcanoes have just been a few of the activities taking place on this magic island…

The island itself is about 30 years behind there are no paved roads, the stores have only very basic food and the people are the most friendly I have met in Central America. In saying that the other night while camping on the beach (photo’s to come soon) some kids stole my shoes but I figure I am better out with out them, they STANK! So have been riding and travelling around barefoot which has been good fun…

Unfortunately I left Adam a couple of days back, which was sad to say goodbye as we had travelled through a couple of countries together, through thick and thin… He taught me many things about my bike and also about “ghost riding the whip” (youtube for more info…ha)…Anyway many blessing big man which hopefully cross paths again.

The bike struggles around the island due to the poor conditions of the road, but it feels like i am riding on a deserted island so it has been wicked to mix it up from the Pan American…

Wilba

Have spent the last day in Granada a beautiful colonial city, with a very similar feel to Havana…. Have really enjoyed just doing nothing hear, cycling the streets of the city and NOT being the travelling circus that we usually are….

We ended up buying a football and finding a couple of local kids in the neighbourhood and playing a heated game… We set up on the side of the church and went into battle there… It’s incredible to interact with the locals this way, gaining respect from sport it is best way to break the culture gap and pick up some new Spanish slang. (for the record Australia/California beat Nicaragua 9-7)

Will be out of contact for a while, as the plain is to get a boat to the Island of Ometepe were there is high volcanic activity at the moment, and is the headline of all the local papers (should make for some good photos)… Then we are trying to jump on a boat and cross the border from Nicaragua to Costa Rica down a river, which should be interesting… It will be quite remote and limited internet access, so it is bye for now (maybe a week). And look forward to sharing some stories soon…

Willcadden

The “Why”… The “why” is the question of your life, the “why” is what motivates us to become the person we were meant to be, the best version of ourself, it is an embryo that yearns to be born, it is a template for heroic living that is inside all of us.

The “why” is what we need to ask ourselves, but think carefully before you answer with your ego. The “why” needs to be found in the school of silence it needs to bubble up from deep inside you. I asked myself the “why” today on my bike, as my legs were burning and I was struggling to keep any food down in my stomach… And the answer that came up was in the moments of your greatest challenge how centred are you as a human being, how can you learn to evolve and become better..!

Today was epic… 165km, 10 hours 43 minutes in the saddle, at about 35 degrees. After having a rest day it was an absolute pleasure to jump back on the bike. We left Esteli at about 8ish after fuelling up on some baked goods from an awesome bakery. The first 10km was climbing up out of the valley and feeling fresh we flew up the first hill. We knocked out about 56km in the first 2 hours and stopped at the first small town with fruit and veg stores that hurt my eyes the veggies were so brightly coloured. So instead of having a coke this morning I bought a whole watermelon and ate that instead… We met some friendly locals that gave me the heads up on where to go in Panama and also in Columbia…

I don’t want to bore with the middle section of the day as it was flat, hot and long… Just got into a trance like state, following the white line in front of me…

The end of the day is were things became interesting… 130km in was a town Tipitapa, it was about 35km to Granada and about 4 o’clock… Adam and my legs were extremely heavy, the slight up hill felt like crawling would be a better option due to the extremely slow pace, but we pushed on… I new my body needed more fuel but i could barely keep my food down. About 20 km out Adam tire started to go flat, completely zapped of energy, it was nearly a TEST to see how we would handle ourselves… We fixed it and struggled along only to find in Masaya 15km from Granada the tire was flat again but this time on a main road with people everywhere. To add to the mix as we were trying to fix the tire a drunk local guy was hassling us, with barley the energy to talk let alone think and speak in Spanish, we struggled to fix the flat and get ride of the drunk local.

It started to get dark as we reached Granada and to reward us for passing all the tests assigned, we met a local (hero) on a bike, Carlos who ended us escorting us through Granada showing us some of the sites then taking us straight to our hostel… It was a pleasure to put on my compression socks and lie with my feet up for 20 minutes before smashing a enormous feed…

One of the most intense days of my life, but amazing in reflection. The next few days we are spending exploring Granada then we are going to try and cross the border by river in a couple of days time…

Will.i.am

So today was meant to be a rest day, but in the life of Will Cadden that seems near impossible… Anyway we decided to go find a waterfall which was 10km out of town on a dirt track and thought it would be a good idea to ride there…WRONG. As they say piss poor planning and preparation equals piss poor performance (this was ringing over in my head when I was walking home with my bike on my shoulder, with a flat tire, in 35 plus degrees, with no water or food, no sun cream and with no shoes on a dirt road….great…

The “rest day” started well, got up a 6am, had breakfast, then decided to ride to this waterfall. The road that the book said we could take was more like a fire trail and my bike copped a battering… Anyway we ended up walking 5km with the bike on our back…

However it was all worth it as the waterfall was stunning, set in the middle of no where with a 36m cliff face… We went swimming out under the fall and was extremely refreshing to chill… However this was short lived when I realised my back wheel was flat and we had to walk the whole way out with bike on my back…

So much for a rest day… Was thrashed when I arrived back at our Hotel… To make matters worse I went and had a few Pilsners with a Swiss and Israeli couple… After not drinking for nearly a year I was back in vintage “lightweight Will Cadden form”… Should be a interesting ride tomorrow. Am heading for Lake Ometepe where they are evacuating the island as the Volcanoes are erupting. Perfect…

As I have have many hours on my bike to think through different things, recently I have been turning the cogs in my mind over depression and other things that have helped me live a more fulfilling life… Exercise is a fantastic way to release chemicals in your brain that make you happy but I think they key is finding your purpose in life. Find the work that you are intensely passionate about, that drives you to get out of bed, this is where you will begin to find happiness. It is about a life of significance (where can you make a difference?) not about success.

The most important advice I was given was; don´t use your logic, (listen to your intuition) stop listening to the commands of a crowd and begin to listen to the voice inside that you can hear when you stop listening to the ridiculous amount of distractions in the world (T.V, News, DVDemon’s, iPods, Internet, family, friends etc etc)…. Only you have the answers and NOT until you enter the school of silence and listen for these answer´s, will you find out what your life is really meant to be about…

How many people in this world are obsessed with their work, have stress related diseases and who can’t slow down? I could name a few…. They can’t slow down I believe because they use their routine to distract themselves and to reduce life to only it´s practical considerations… And they do this to avoid recalling about how uncertain they are about why they live… So it is important to stop occasionally and ask your self what is real? What is really important and what is the purpose of my existence…?

Anyway cycle time today pumped out a tough 96km up and down, through mountains and valleys… We crossed the border at about 9.30am, only to bump into a friend Jason on the border, that I became friends with in Guatemala… The scenery again was stunning… When we stopped at the first town a number of school kids came up to us quizzing us about where we had come from and where we were going…

We past through a range of rural towns and on the way up a massive hill we grabbed onto a truck and rode behind him until the top (I needed an arm work out considering my top half has been neglected and only my chicken legs have been receiving punishment). After pulling over the hill we dropped again into a beautiful valley with Tobacco plantation´s everywhere. Was good getting to Esteli had been a very very hard and long day.

Wilba