Goshen College Graduates Return From Pan-America Bicycle Journey
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
GOSHEN – Goshen College graduates returned to Indiana Thursday night after an 11-month, 10,300-mile bicycle journey from Asuncion, Paraguay, to Goshen. Abe Stucky, Michael Miller and Levi Smucker, all 22, began their journey on May 21, 2013, in Asuncion, Paraguay, a month after graduating from Goshen College. They shipped their bikes there from Indiana in boxes. They rode through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico and the U.S. They arrived back in the U.S. on March 10 and entered Texas and went to Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, and arrived in Indiana April 14. They started off the trip with 14 other students from Goshen College by taking a three-week class studying the Mennonite religion in Paraguay. “In late 2010 on the couches of a Goshen College dormitory room, the dream for a pan-American cycling adventure was born. As roommates and friends we all shared a passion for biking,” Stucky said Thursday night at a host home in North Manchester. Their mission during the trip was to learn about sustainable farming practices in Ecuador; opening themselves to new perspectives of faith; and worshiping with churches across South and North America. They stayed with host families along the way and bicycled with a tent, sleeping bag, clothing, food, water, a small cooking pot and water filter and bike tools. “Our bike and gear weighed 80 pounds,” Miller said. “We rarely paid for housing and found places to sleep at night.” “We averaged 70 miles a day,” Smucker said. Stucky said one of the major challenges of the trip was being away from home and getting to know people on a 24 hour basis and then moving onto another location. “You developed a lot of short-term relationship with people,” Stucky said. Miller said one of the challenges was travelling on a budget. They all saved funds for the trip. “It’s amazing how inexpensive one can travel in Latin America on a shoestring budget. A lot of the food is inexpensive,” Stucky said. “We could buy bananas in Ecuador for 5 cents per banana,” Stucky said. Smucker completed a medical internship in Ecuador and Nicaragua. He will attend medical school this fall at Indiana University. “They had universal health systems there and if people are ill they can go to a clinic or nearby hospital and can get treated well,” Smucker said. “What we would consider third world countries have better primary care than even the U.S.” Some places lacked proper irrigation systems and people suffered from chronic diarrhea, so the students worked with water filters to help the people. They spoke about the weather, which varied by elevation as much as location. “We were in a lot of tropical areas so it was funny receiving emails from our family talking about the snow several feet high and we were sweating in central and south America,” Smucker said. “We were high up in the mountains sometime and had to put every single layer of clothing we had on.” They talked about how their bikes held up during the journey. “I had 14 broken spokes on my bike,” Stucky said. Miller had 21 flat tires and Smucker had 17 flat tires. Stucky said he got bit by a donkey while working on an organic farm in Ecuador. “I got too close to the donkey and it bit me in the chest,” Stucky said. They visited the Panama Canal. There were several bridges they chose from to get over the canal. “The difficult part was crossing the Darien Gap between Columbia and Panama. We had to take a series of small motor boats,” Stucky said. The students stayed at the home of Dorothy Bumbaugh, 77, a North Manchester resident, Thursday night. Bumbaugh and her late husband, Barney, were members of warmshowers.org and often hosted people who bicycle across the country. Dorothy Bumbaugh continues hosting bicyclists on her own. She puts her name on the website and they can contact her through there, then she checks on them and where they have stayed, while guests can post about how they are while staying with them. Bumbaugh said she has had a young gentleman from southern Indiana at her home twice on his way to visit his parents in Goshen. Two brothers from Bremerton, Wash., who were traveling to India to help with an orphanage also stayed with her. Bumbaugh said she and her late husband started riding about 12 years ago and she still bicycles about 20 miles a day in the summer. “I enjoy hosting all these young people, and although I am not on a route where a lot of people are traveling, I have hosted several and had a few that I was not able to at the time,” Bumbaugh said. To learn more about the journey visit panamericacycle.wordpress.com
