Sharing Stories of my Warmshowers Guests

Today I want to curate some websites that are not on Steem.

What? Curating off-steem sites? What's the point of sharing content outside the steemverse? We might as well curate the internet as a whole...

Don't worry, I'm far from sharing random stuff I found online. In fact, all the links in this post are to web pages of people I've actually met, by hosting on warmshowers, to be exact. Just a before New Years I hosted another couple with whom we exchanged a lot of stories from the road, showing each other the photos we took. They weren't the first ones. Ever since I started hosting about a year ago, my cyclist guests have showed me their websites, and I've been following their journeys ever since. So why shouldn't I share them on steem?

My most Recent Guests: Stunning Photography by Helene & Aymeric

Let me start with the couple that inspired me to this post: Helene and Aymeric are a couple from France (like most of my guests), who are riding from Anchorage, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina (like virtually everyone on this trail). Their website is filled to the brim with the most amazing photos. The two are not only highly skilled photographers, but with the help of their drone they manage to take shots and videos that have clearly the potential to soar. It doesn't even matter that their site is only in French, as flipping through their pics makes you enjoy the trip almost as much as if you were on it. I have selected a few, just to give you an impression, though there are hundreds more of similar amazing quality.

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Good Story Telling: Pascal & Tiphaine

Another wonderful couple cycling down to Patagonia, is Pascal and Tiphaine from Quebec. Though they started their trip in the Southwestern US, they are following the same route (more or less) down to the southern tip of South America. Pascal's website is a beautiful example of a well designed blog. It mixes great pictures with well digestible chunks of text, all adding up to a great story that's fun to read as it develops. It also has a link to the book he wrote about another bike journey of his across Australia, and from Singapore to Europe. I just finished reading it, and it gave me the final push to finish my own book about the bike trip down the US West Coast.

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Sustainable Food Production: Worldfoodorama by Kalima & Sylvian

Not all bike rides are only about fun and games. Some cyclists make it their mission to visit people and places with a certain objective. These two riders from France are going around the world to visit different types of farms, gardens, orchards, communities, etc. where they grow food using other than the mainstream methods. These include chinampas in Mexico, agroforestry in Peru, and urban farms in North America. Apart from all this, their blog also features lots of spectacular pics of their trip, which they are about to complete on their recumbent bicycles. Certainly worth checking out!

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Lots of Community Connections: Beto Sobre Ruedas

This guy is simply amazing! I met Beto in Northern California while I was touring myself. Since then numerous guests of mine mentioned him before and after he came to visit me in Mexico City. Being from Guadalajara himself, he's also riding Alaska to Ushuaia, but at a much slower pace than others. This also lets him accumulate stories, meet lots and lots of people, and get in touch with the communities he crosses. Since he is a super cheerful and outgoing person, he ends up being interviewed by radio stations, or giving talks at local schools, inspiring kids to do the same, or follow whatever crazy dream they may have. Though his website hasn't been updated lately, it is already a breathtaking record of his adventures down to Colombia. I'm sure the rest will follow soon.

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Not Everyone Has a Website

Some of the cyclists I've hosted don't bother having their own web page. Instead, they tend to use Facebook, Instagram, or Polarsteps to record their trip. Three guests of mine, each with a story more incredible than the others, are Yann, a passionate skydiver whose journey is more than just a bike ride, Marie, whose documentation of her ride may be more metuculos than anyone else, and Yvan, who actually went up to start his trip in Tuktoyaktuk, the town on the arctic ocean with a road connection.

So if you feel like doing some exciting armchair travel, I suggest you check out these sites, brought to you by real-life cyclists. Their adventures will feel a lot closer than any pre- and re-digested "documentaries" or "travel stories" for the masses.