Bikes Without Borders: San Pedro De Casta

A few days ago, we drove up to a small hilltop village outside of Lima, called San Pedro de Casta. The village sits at 11,000 feet and is home to about 2,000 people. We were there to ride horses up to Marcahuasi, the Stone Forest, and then decend all the way down to 4,000 feet - a descent of about 8,000 feet.

But we were also there on behalf of Bikes Without Borders, a charitable organization we started a few months ago, that distributes used bikes from North America to communities in need in the developing world. The idea was hatched a few years ago in another small community, this one in Nicaragua. Touring the scoolhouse in the remote village of Penas Blancas, I asked some of the children where they lived and how they go to school. Many of them responded that they lived far away - up to 2 hours - and walked to and from school every day. Most of these children walked 3 or 4 hours every day to spend 4 hours in school. Instead of walking, I thought, these kids could be studying, helping out their families, or playing, as children should. Not spending 20 hours a week walking.

For most of us in North America, the bicycles is a form of recreation, but in the developing world they are an invaluable form of transporation where cars are rare. To make a long story short and to stop my rambling, I brought a few bikes with me to San Pedro the last time I was in Peru (in May), and this time I had a few more. I was anxious to see what, if any, impact the bikes had made and if I was wasting my time and money bringing more bikes here.

I met up with one of the teachers at the school where we dropped off the first bikes. He greeted me with a huge smile and a vigorous handshake. When he saw the 2nd shipment of bikes, his eyes lit up. I asked him how the previous bikes were doing and if the community was using them.

He laughed heartily and patted me on the back. 'The bikes are incredibly popular,' he said. 'We are renting them out for 10 centimos a day (about 3 cents), and there is a lineup to use the bikes.' He explained that local farmers were using the bikes to get to and from their fields, whice were often far away, and that the bikes were especially popular with the local schoolkids, who loved riding around the mountains with them. They had even implemeted a program at the school whereby if a student achieves a certain grade, they get a free bike for a day. He looked at the new bikes and told me with a nod and another big smile that yes, these bikes will be very used, and the community is very grateful.

I should mention the bikes came from Huntsville, Ontario, where one of our organizers, Kristi Macdonald, collected the bikes and organized a bike tuning party before bringing them to me in Toronto. Her work and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated by the people of San Pedro!

To say I was moved and inspired by San Pedro de Casta's appreciation and innovation regarding the Bikes Without Borders program would be an understatement. In the coming months, we will be launching a new website at http://www.bikeswithouthborders.org/, soliciting sponsors, and organizing community events across Canada. If you want to get involved, please e-mail me at mike@sacredrides.com (my bikeswithoutborders.org e-mail will be set up when I get back from Peru.)

You can also call me at 647-999-7955 if you have money, your time, or bikes to donate to the program.

Mike