Cyclecor

¨To transcend pain you must first experience it. Or to put it another way, how can you really know the joy of being on the summit of a mountain unless you have first visited the lowest valley… Most people have grown from there most challenging experiences. And if you meet with an outcome you did not expect and feel a little disappointed, remember that the laws of nature always ensure that when one door closes another door opens.¨ (R. Sharman)¨

So today really challenged me on all levels… To start the day the head wind i was cycling into was beyond a joke, it took me 2 hours to ride 18 km (this would usually take about 40 minutes). After turning back onto the Pan American Highway i thought i would be in for smooth riding but no this was not the plan for the day… It was so windy I could barley cycle in a straight line, as i cycled closer to the border i passed a set of wind farms, this must be the windiest place in Central America…

At the border to Costa Rica things looked like they were to get worse as the line for exiting Nicaragua was 500m long. I ended up meeting Ricardo who i ended up paying US $3 and was transferred to the front of the line… On the Costa Rican side it took an hour and a half of waiting to get my stamp…

Into Costa Rica i was trying to organise a game plan in my head, i thought i might camp as at this stage Liberia looked to far away. Anyway keep trucking one kilometre at a time. The winds did not stop all day and i decided i was going for Liberia. I was feeling quiet off as the winds had dehydrated and exhausted all my energy just trying to keep on the side of the tiny shoulder of the road… While i was having an interesting (actually terrible time) i was passing some spectacular landscapes with volcano Tenorio on my left most of the way.

About 25km out from Liberia the chaff i had was very bad, so bad in fact i had to ride out of the saddle for about 5km (they don´t see Paw Paw cream in CA…Great). To add to the frustration i was feeling from dehydration, chaff and little energy a truck skimmed me and knocked me off my bike sending me skidding off into a fence and grazing the whole right side of my body.

With 7km to go I was near boiling point but because there was only a small distance left this gave me hope I would be there soon…..Wrong. The 7 km took me 1 hour and 30 minutes as the head wind was about 100km an hour. I was so thrashed i could barley keep my bike on the road as the wind was so strong and I kept falling off the shoulder. I reached breaking point and had my first dummy spit, i yelled at the top of my lungs, jumped off my bike threw it on the ground and broke my sunglasses… Really positive.

I made it to Liberia at 6pm about 11 and a half hours on the bike… Grandpa Will could barley walk so had dinner and was in bed by 8pm… I am sure there was a lesson somewhere in the day, I certainly could not see it last night…

Am very late to leave this morning it is already 10am and I am meant to be cycling to Monverde up in the Hills…

Bye for now

Wilba

“Each progression you make physically you learn more about your spirituality (in terms of understanding your limits and capabilities), this results in hightened state of self knowledge or spirtual awareness”. (Bruce Lee)

Back on the road after an amazing time at the finca. Lot’s of cleansing and inspiration from that place but my feet began to get itchy… As a result jumped on the bike early 5am and rode to the othe side of the island a place called Muagalpa to catch a ferry accross to the mainland… Ometepe is a very special place rurual and untouched something out of a fairy tail and I will certrainly miss it.

Anyway got the ferry accross back to the mainland and cycled through Rivas past a big Baseball stadium (Nicuaguain’s are obsessed with baseball with kids playing it in ever backyard) and towards the coast… It seriously has picked up in the heat and must be the hottest part of the year at the moment (really good planning on my part) and by 12 it was easily 40 degrees… S although was only a couple of hours on the bike reallly felt it…

Got to San Juan del Sur which is a touristy beach town… Dumbed my stuff walked outside and ended up jumping on a ute with a bunch of surfers heading to a different beach… Ended up at a stunning beach, surronded by massive cliffs and perfect right handed barrels… An American fella from California let me use his board and I surfed the whole afternoon until sunset…

Am leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow and am looking to camp on the beaches and do as cheap as possible… Also have a change of plans i am now flying to india to meet Jimbo in May and then study some Aruvedic Medicine…

Good to be back.
Will

Have been reading a lot at the Finca (www.inanitah.blogspot.com www.flickr.com/paulandgaia) and came over this interesting quote about depression,

“In many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman or medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask you one of four questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?” (Gabrielle Roth)

When was the last time you got up early for sunset, surfing and silence, when was the last time you went for a brutal run that tested your limits, when was the last time you did something spontaneous that got your heart and soul pumping or when was the last time you let go and got your boogy on… ha.

Get stuck in
Willcadden

“You have to honour the man or women that you are. Respect your body, enjoy your body, love your body, find, clean and heal your body. Exercise and do what makes your body feel good.” (Don Miguel) Listening to the word’s of Don the big fella I have decided to stay at a permaculture/spiritual farm (pretty much heaven on earth) and get my cleanse on. There is many medicinal plants and enough fruit and veg to sink a ship with. I am thinking of staying until the 10th just resting my legs before i cycle down to Panama.

I am staying hear as the food, energy, people and views are amazing… We pick fresh vegetables and fruit each day and cook on an open fire. I am learning how to make fresh yoghurt, chocolate with fresh cocoa beans and many new recipes in the kitchen. I am helping out with the construction of the spiritual space and also maintenance of the vegetable gardens… This place is laughable it is so beautiful. I am just cleansing my body from all the shit food that i have been eating on the road, and fuelling my body with fruit and vegetables for the next week

This place is giving me loads of inspiration for the centre that i am going to construct one day. And the guy that runs it Paul is a super chilled German dude who is well travelled and loaded with wisdom and travel stories…

I am over and out until about the 9th or 10th where i plan to jump back on my bike and enter into Costa Rica… So i will leave you with another quote from Don “we don’t need to know or prove anything, just to be, to take a risk and enjoy your life, is all that matters. Say no when you want to say no and yes when you want to say yes. You have the right to be you. You can only be you when you do your best.”

Stay FIIIT
Will.i.am

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