Riding For Love To The Planet

The project of athlete Ronald Benites for protecting the environment and our health across Piura Region.

All photographs from Ronald Benites Archive.

 

CHULUCANAS, Peru - Modern times imply to live fastly, it is said. But how much fast? For our partner Ronald Benites, it may be as fast as a bicycle, which he has run around 840 km or 520 miles of highway inside Piura Region, with two purposes: to make the people concious about the care of Earth, and to educate about using a transportation mean that produces no significant impacts on the environment, benefits the health instead.

The vehicle, created in actual Germany in 1817, has been during 20th century one of the most popular transportation means  across Piura, especially the coast, and very particularly at the rural zone where it competed with animals of burden. Currently, its using at Piura's cities is relatively restricted and at the countryside, the bikes as well as the animals have been displaced by motorcycles and even vans.

Is it convenient to retake the bicycle as an efficient and clean system for going from one place to another one? Speaking in terms of air pollution, a survey by the University of Piura made in 2017 at Open Plaza Commercial Center, Castilla City, found there were 402,592 micrograms of suspended solid particles per a cubic meter of air, that means three more times than allowed minimum limits. Paradoxically, the levels of carbon-based toxic gases have been irrelevant according to the same survey.

FACTORTIERRA have not found, until researched,  similar measurings at rural zones where motorcycles as well as vans are using the petroleum-based diesel as a main fuel, although many agricultural zones across the region are certified as organic.

Meanwhile  problems in environmental health start to break out, the excessive consumption of alcohol and tobacco in a personal level, the bad feeding habits, and the sedentary lifestyle provocate diabetes cases in 8% of the regional population and hypertension in 15% regarded, according to a Pan-American Health Organization report released in 2015. It points out that diverting toward a healthy feeding and practicing sports could prevent those cases, and even the cancer, in 70%.

Having that philosophy in mind, Ronald (against his many friends' advice) decided to use the bicycle for educating about to care the planet and to care our health. He launched his own project called Riding For Love To The Planet, and he made it alone along the time. eventually, he has combined it to another that consists in using the free space of the house for having an orchard. This second one was named Seed And Crop Health, which pilot works at his big backyard.

while, he got a white t-shirt, stamped his project's name in green letters, plus the biker tights, the vehicle, and without a major logistics, he started to pedal. "People looked at me wondering, whispering, becoming to ask me where I was from," he tells.

Once he arrived into his destination, the protocol was exactly the same: speaking out about environmental protection, about doing sports, and inmediatly he requested the people to sing on  his t-shirt as a commitment to be part of the initiative.

"The consumerism produces contamination that is going to affect us, the future of our kids and grandkids," has been the recurrent form how he begins his speech, for advocating later against the decadent environmental culture. "The contamination affects every living being on the Earth," has been his major-impact message.

Because of precaution he has taken, he has not suffering from any accident until now, but the bicycle did suffer from some pricks on the wheel. "I had to walk once until 4 km or 2,5 miles looking for an inflator to lend," he remembers. And, of course, the finish of every trek ends with his body exhausted and highly vascularized. At the moment, he funds everything by his own, but he do not discard to have a sponsor if a greater impact on the message is required to generate.

 

Public Agenda, Citizen Initiative
The fight against contamination is already on the regional agenda of Piura as well as the Peruvian Government's. In fact, the Ministry of Environment is advocating campaigns to reduce solid residues, the plastic in special. About this particular, the Congress is pulling a rule to limit one-only-use, particularily bags, straws, food cans. At the deadline of this story, it is even passing a rule for promoting benefits to people going to work on a bike.

In cities, as Sullana, a municipal project to classify the residues was launched, that has come discontinuing little by little. Ronald himself and many friends who he works out with at the gymnasium cleaned the accumulated trash at Piura River's Chulucanas rim. Only during the first day of work, they gathered around 200 kg or 441 pounds. The next week, Chulucanas Campus' Sedes Sapientiae University students joined them.

Ronald's purpose is running the most part of the region as he can, bringing the same environmentalist message, changing consumerism for circular economy, improving the life quality. The next journey is going to be announced on his Facebook account.

 

Ronald's Trails
Ronald has gathered approximately 520 miles on his bicycle (considering round trips), those were not made in one only moment, neither consecutively, but different dates. Coming next, a graphic brief of them all.

Piura-Paita
Distance:53 km (33 mi)
Start Altitude: 22 m (72 ft)
Finish Altitude: sea level.
Run time: 3 hours 40 minutes.
Notes: Drivers at the highway are not characterized for respecting the cyclists lane. His university's friend accompanied Ronald along the way to provide him logistics. The whole trail was made across the desert strip known as despoblado to continue into the coastal plateau, and finishing at a beach of Paita City.

Look at the photo album.

Chulucanas-Morropón
Distance: 42 km (27 mi)
Start Altitude: 92 m (301 ft)
Finish Altitude: 131 m (430 ft)
Run time: 2 hours 15 minutes.
Notes: Drivers did not respect the cyclists lane neither. Cyclist Jeimy Ramírez Núñez accompanied Ronald. The route finished, actually, on the bridge over La Gallega River, a tributary of Piura River. That trail was beneath an intense shiny sky among the Equatorial Dry Forest and croplands. "Every running I went through placeswith a very beautiful landscape, I asked myself why we destroy much the place where we live," Ramírez said FACTORTIERRA.

 

Chulucanas-La Encantada
Distance: 9km (6 mi)
Start Altitude: 92 m (301 ft)
Finish Altitude: 85 m (278) approximately.
Run time: 30 minutes.
Notes: First alone route among the Equatorial Dry Forest.

 

Chulucanas-La Pirca (Yapatera)
Distance: 5 km (3 mi) approximately.
Start Altitude: 92 m (301 ft)
Finish Altitude: 120 m (394 ft) approximately.
Run time: 35 minutes.
Notes: During the return way, the bicycle wheel priked and Ronald did not carry any inflator. The predominant ecosystem is dry forest, although there are croplands irrigated by Yapatera River.

 

Chulucanas-Canchaque
Distance: 100 km (62 mi)
Start Altitude: 92 m (301 ft)
Finish Altitude: 1198 m(3931 ft)
Run time: 6 hours.
Notes: The sky was partially sunny that day. A stop is recommended to buy fruit in Malacasí town (Salitral District, Morropón Province), one of the most rainy places of the region, at the coast. It starts at the dry forest, ends at the

Look at the photo album.

Canchaque - Huancabamba
Distance: 51 km (32 mi)
Start Altitude: 1198 m(3931 ft)
Finish Altitude: 1900 m (6234 ft) average.
Run time: 5 hours 30 minutes.
Notes: Two pricks just climbing uphill. Here Ronald joined a 12-cyclist squad. The activity was organized by Piura Riders. A detail is the distance and the altitude can be tricky. Actually, you have to climb up from Canchaque to Cruz Blanca Pass. 3150 meters or 10,335 feet high. Just then, you begin to go downhill to Huancabamba Valley. The pass marks the divortium aquarum between Pacific and Atlantic. So, it starts at the cloud forest, reaches the páramo, eand goes down to the cloud forest again until the last straps of dry forest existent near Huancabamba City.

 

Chulucanas-Huancabamba
Distance: 151 km (94 mi)
Start Altitude: 92 m (301 ft)
Finish Altitude: 1900 m (6234 ft) average.
Run time: 12 hours 50 minutes.
Notes: The same problem with drivers of bigger vehicles. Many people saw Ronald wondering. Necessary stop in Canchaque to have a meal. The Sun was one of the major problems, as well as muscle cramps. But maybe the huge technical inconvenience was Ronald going up on a 26-ring bicycle instead of a 29-ring bicycle, ideal for the route.

 

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