EPISODE 33
Zigzagging Across the Americas
Ever dreamt of dropping everything to cycle across continents? Meet Yann Tourman, who did just that, embarking on an epic bicycle adventure in 2018 that’s still rolling! Beginning with a spontaneous decision in New York to bicycle to the tip of South America, Yann’s journey has been anything but conventional. Hear his astonishing tales of a Canadian winter crossing (all the way to Vancouver Island!), a mid-winter hitchhike to Alaska, and a nine-month zigzag across the USA before heading south. Although COVID interrupted him in Costa Rica, four years later he restarted his trip right where he left off. Now cycling in South America, Yann is once again relying on the profound kindness of friends and strangers, his philosophy of trusting the world, and his desire to give back through volunteering. This is a story of resilience, resourcefulness, and human connection on the open road that will inspire your own adventurous spirit.
Episode Transcript
Yann: Yeah, and in Colombia again, like, I think the reasonable thing was, you know, just bike touring around Colombia and then heading south to Ecuador. But I think that’s a recurring theme, at least with me, right? That I’m not gonna do this straight line.
Gabriel: You just heard Yann Tourman, who has been zigzagging his way through the Americas since gap in between. Yann does not consider himself to be a cyclist, or a videographer, or a bicycle mechanic, but he more than makes up for that in resourcefulness and joviality. Travelling on a miniscule budget, Yann has relied on the profound kindness of friends and strangers alike to pedal from New York due west, north, east, and of course south towards Ushuaia, at the very tip of South America. I caught up with Yann in Ecuador, just before he rolled out into the jungle.
Sandra: You’re listening to The Accidental Bicycle Tourist. In this podcast, you’ll meet people from all walks of life and learn about their most memorable bike touring experiences. This is your host, Gabriel Aldaz.
Gabriel: Hello, cycle touring enthusiasts! Welcome to another episode of The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast. We begin this exciting installment with three announcements. Two pertain to the previous episode, and one to this one. Those of you who listened to “Touring with Type 1: a Journey of 10,000 Miles” with Erik Douds, know that the Filmed by Bike Festival kicks off on May it to Portland, Filmed by Bike Bike is offering a virtual pass that allows you to stream all of the films until the end of the year. And remember, listeners of the show can use the code TOURIST at checkout to score a 25% discount on the virtual pass. Erik’s cycling partner, Annalisa Van den Bergh, is organizing her own virtual cycling event, which is already underway. The Cycling With Virtual Summit celebrates women from all walks of life who have used a bicycle as a vehicle for freedom, storytelling, coping, and connection. The Cycling With Virtual Summit was actually inspired by cycling’s impact on Annalisa’s life with Type 1 diabetes. She and Erik hosted the first event back in 2020. For more information, see the links in the show notes. Lastly, I am excited to announce that The Accidental Bicycle Tourist is finally available on YouTube Music. This had been on my to-do list for a long time, but it was actually today’s guest, Yann Tourman, who gave me the push to make it happen. Yann contacted me on Instagram with exciting stories to share. Although I don’t know anything about Yann, that’s about to change. Yann Tourman, thank you for being a guest on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast.
Yann: Yeah, hey Gabriel. Thank you for having me. This is indeed exciting and I’m looking forward for our conversation.
Gabriel: Yeah, it should be fun. So first of all, I want to know where you are and where you’re coming from and where you’re generally headed.
Yann: Yeah, so at this moment I’m in Ecuador and specifically I’m at a campsite near Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador’s tallest volcanoes, and I’ve been lucky because for the past five days, I think, it didn’t rain, or almost didn’t rain, so I have beautiful skies and the weather is great. It’s a bit cold, but overall it’s just beautiful.
Gabriel: It hasn’t taken long to make a connection to previous episodes because Cotopaxi is one of the places where previous guests Melanie Schautt and Giacomo Turco bicycle together.
Yann: Yeah, I think it’s like one of the most famous routes here in Ecuador. It’s part of the Trans-Equadorian Mountain Bike Trail and one of the highlights of the country. From there I’m gonna head further south to Chimborazo and all the highlights that Ecuador has to offer.
Gabriel: More generally, your starting point and your ending point?
Yann: That’s also not as simple of a question, because I started in 2018, like six years ago.
Gabriel: Oh wow.
Yann: Yeah.
Gabriel: What were you up to in 2018, before you got started, and what made you get on the bicycle?
Yann: So I was traveling for a few years before, mainly hitchhiking. I hitchhiked along Australia, in Europe. I hiked. I never had biking in my mind. I was never a cyclist, but then I got this opportunity to be in New York at a summer camp and I just thought, well, I’m already here in North America. I’ll just go all the way down to South America. I was like, you know, hitchhiking goes super fast and hiking, you know, walking, is pretty slow. So the simplest thing that kind of preserves your independence, I think, but then also you have like the speed, that would probably biking. And I just started reading online and there are great sources of information, like Facebook groups and just blogs of people that did it before. And that’s it. I bought everything I thought I needed and hit the road.
Gabriel: Just to back up a bit further, where were you born, or where was your childhood?
Yann: Oh, so I was born and raised in Israel. My family is French, but my parents immigrated to Israel when they were in their 20s. I always had family kind of like spread out all over the world, like both in France and in the US. So I think I always had this thought that the world is reachable. I knew I wanted to travel and I had this curiosity in me ever since I was young. And yeah, when I reached adulthood pretty much, I just thought that’s it. That’s what I want to do. Try and see what the world has to offer. And I just started.
Gabriel: Okay. After some traveling, you got to New York and it’s in New York City that you decided you wanted to do a bicycle ride. Did you immediately set out to go to the tip of South America? A lot of people who are getting started have a more short term goal like, “Oh, maybe I can make it to Chicago,” or something like that.
Yann: Oh, that’s funny. So if you’d ask my mother, she would tell you that I was just going for a few months. The way I saw it, no, I always knew – I think I even told people – I was going for like five years. I knew I wanted to get to the tip of South America. I already had this magic city, like Ushuaia, in the back of my mind, I think like most of us. But then when I looked at the map, oh my, New York is very far from Mexico. Well, let’s see how it goes. I went north to Canada. Also, I needed to kind of leave the US, you know, visa issues. So I went up to Canada and it took me about a week. And I remember the first day I was at my uncle’s in Brooklyn, which is the south of New York, and crossing the city, oh my God, it took so long. And I thought, this is hard. This is not easy. But then, you know, the days went by and you kind of get the routine and the idea, you ride your bike every day, find a way to camp. I remember when I made it to Canada, I just felt, whoa, this is an international trip. This is nice.
Gabriel: And what was your initial goal in Canada?
Yann: Oof. So that’s… I was so clueless. I crossed Canada between September and February, which is the winter. And coming from Israel, I did not know what Canadian winter meant.
Gabriel: So you crossed the whole of Canada, all the way to Vancouver?
Yann: Yeah, Vancouver Island, to be honest.
Gabriel: Vancouver. Oh my gosh. So okay, again, when I pictured Canada, I was thinking, okay, he’s going to take it slow. He’s going maybe to Toronto, maybe to Montreal, but you spent months, winter months, going to Vancouver Island. Okay, that is nuts. So you got a lot of snow.
Yann: Yeah.
Gabriel: Ice.
Yann: Snow, ice and salt.
Gabriel: Salt, yeah.
Yann: The snow plowers, that they put salt to melt the ice. And yeah, that was really harsh on the bike. I will say that at that point, I was also able to kind of get hitchhikes with pickup trucks to cover some distances, because Canada is huge.
Gabriel: Yes.
Yann: And it was so often miserable. Whenever I could get a ride, even if it was just for, you know, a few miles, you know, like fifty miles, I was like, yeah, that just spared me like a day. Definitely, Canada was challenging. But I had so much fun, because people would see me and it was just surreal, I think, to be in Canada in the winter, crossing it on bike.
Gabriel: Nobody expected to see you.
Yann: No one, no one. Usually I wouldn’t check the weather until I hit the first snowstorm. And then I was like, maybe you should, maybe you should. I learned the hard way how to kind of manage this situation. But I was so happy and proud of myself. I think when I reached Vancouver, which is kind of warm, it’s not as extreme, the weather, I was so happy. And also I was ready to get a relief from biking. So I actually left the bike in Vancouver, with someone that I’ve met. And I went hitchhiking to Alaska on Yannuary 1st, that’s what I did. That was also quite a challenge, I would say.
Gabriel: The hitchhiking was.
Yann: Yeah, because I was just going further north in the winter and just being alone.
Gabriel: Sure.
Yann: I met this guy in Tofino, which is the west end of Vancouver Island, so like really west of Canada. And he was also such a traveler. And I remember when I talked to him about that I wanted to go to Alaska in the winter, you know, everyone’s reaction was, “Oh, you’re crazy.” And he was just so chill about it. And he was like, “Oh, yeah, sure, you should do it.” And then he gave me a winter clothes. And I even stayed at his house then later at Calgary. So just such a nice positive guy. Yeah, I just remember like his view of things, that was, like, really refreshing. Such an amazing and positive attitude towards me, towards people that are traveling, and especially in unconventional ways. So that really boosted my, I would say, like mental strength. Yeah, that was another very interesting and intense part of this journey.
Gabriel: But what made you do that? You’ve just been through a ton of snow and ice and you then thought, “Well, let me go further north.” People’s instinct would be to go south, but you went further north on the hitchhiking trail.
Yann: I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment in general, just being out there. And I did kind of like the Canadian people and, you know, the reactions that I’ve got. And I just thought, huh, that could be a nice challenge, right? To try and tackle this part in the winter.
Gabriel: Did you get some rides from truckers and other commercial vehicles?
Yann: Yeah, yeah, definitely. So trucks is the way to go, of course. And I hitchhiked, like, 24/7. Because they are driving 24/7. And I would get to like truck stations or yeah, like big gas stations. And even at night, I would just go with anyone that would have picked me up. My last ride was a guy that I waited in the same spot for a few days. And then I saw Alaska license plate. And I just went to him and he took me and we spent three days together.
Gabriel: Oh, wow.
Yann: No, that was such an intense part of the journey three weeks. I was very happy to be back on the bike, to be back on warm-ish weather and tackle the US again.
Gabriel: Good. After your hitchhiking adventure, you were back on the bike and this time you headed south into the United States. Did you follow the West Coast or did you do something more random?
Yann: So in the US when I entered, they kind of questioned me for like half an hour. I remember at the border. “Where you going?” “What type of tires you have?” All these questions.
Gabriel: Wow. What kind of tires?
Yann: Yeah, all these… like half an hour. And I asked for eight months, because I heard that you could ask for eight months, and they sometimes give you eight months. But then they came back and they told me, “Well, you got your eight months and we wanted to wish you luck and give you an extra month, from us.” So in total nine months. I was like, whoa, I didn’t even know it was possible. I’ve never heard of anyone getting more than they asked. And you know, nine months for a tourist on a bicycle.
Gabriel: Maybe it was because of the bike. I mean, obviously they were interested.
Yann: Yeah, they kind of wanted to see my reaction. And once they saw it, they were super nice with me. So, to your question, I went down the West Coast. When I reached San Diego, I went back to Chicago.
Gabriel: Okay, right. A slight detour from Ushuaia. Wow.
Yann: Yeah, I spent eight and a half months in total. So it was basically down the West Coast, up to Chicago. And then from Chicago, I went down the Mississippi River all the way to New Orleans, throughout all the southern states. That was an amazing experience. I really enjoyed that part of the trip. And then from New Orleans, I went to Key West in Florida. So yet again, quite a detour. I had so much fun. And I was like, you know, I received nine months. So I’m going to use these nine months. And at that point, I was traveling for over a year, only spending this time in US and Canada. And I had such an amazing time all over. I went back to Texas and I crossed the border from Texas into Mexico.
Gabriel: So you ended up crossing more towards the eastern side of Mexico rather than the west, where you would have crossed in San Diego. You ended up going in the other side.
Yann: Right, exactly. I think it was the eastmost crossing point or something like that. It was in Tamaulipas. And then in Mexico, I had so much fun, you know, West Coast, crossing the mountains. I think at that point, I was like, ah, I think I can do it forever or something. I had this mindset. Yeah, that was fun.
Gabriel: I’m trying to picture this in my mind as you mentioned all of these points. I see New York and I see the tip of South America in my mind. And then I see this crazy line that you’re drawing, that is going in all of these directions.
Yann: It’s completely like a zigzag kind of thing. I stayed in places and did volunteering, probably like every few weeks.
Gabriel: And I guess for accommodations, you probably had a combination of camping and WarmS howers and maybe random people that you met. That’s the usual assortment. Is that what you did too?
Yann: I called random people. I called it door knocking. So a lot of door knocking. Usually I wouldn’t like knock on doors. I would see people at their yard or something. And then I would ask them if I could camp. And many times they would end up inviting me into the house.
Gabriel: Right.
Yann: Like you mentioned, and I also had Couchsurfing. That’s something that I think it’s important, at least for me, because I’m not that of a capable like traveler. But having all these tools with me, I really feel it enabled, even me, to travel and do this amazing, or fun, journey in the way that I found. Nice.
Gabriel: As you said, oftentimes it starts off with just asking if you can camp on their land. And before you know it, they’ve invited you for dinner and then maybe for breakfast and you stay up chatting and you meet so many people from all walks of life that way.
Yann: Yeah, exactly. This is the fun part, at least for me, because I mean, you know, riding a bicycle, that’s okay. But really these encounters with random people. And then they kind of, “Oh, you’re going to this town. Oh, let me talk to my aunt,” or “Let me talk to my friend.” And then they will have you, and you kind of create these social networks. Yeah, it just works.
Gabriel: You’ve been doing it since 2018, much longer than any tour I ever took.
Yann: No, I’m not doing it straight. Then we had COVID. So I did take a break for a few years. And this is another thing that was a challenge, to go back to it. Maybe I’ll skip in time a bit to COVID in Costa Rica. And all of a sudden, I’m sure everyone remembers all the borders kind of closed and people just stayed at their house. And I couldn’t go further south to Panama. I didn’t want it to go back. And I had a feeling that, oh, it’s just going to be for a few months. So I found yet another place to do stuff, garden work and construction. At that point, I was doing all these things like cleaning, gardening. I stayed in Costa Rica for a few months. But as we all know now, COVID didn’t go anywhere. I left my bike and my equipment at the place where I did this volunteering. And I went back to Israel in June of normal life anyone could imagine. I had a girlfriend who lives together in Austria. Actually, like we moved to Austria and I had a job. I was a data analyst. So like a super, you know, regular job. All this time, I would talk to anyone and I didn’t tell them, “Oh, my bike trip ended in Costa Rica.” I would just tell them, “Hey, I’m going to continue this one day.” And I think people didn’t really realize that I was serious. Well, fast forward to 2024. So we’re talking four years, right? I told my boss, “Hey, you know, I love the company. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work here. But I’m quitting and I’m going back to biking. And I just found myself back in Costa Rica at the end of 2024. And I just continued from the exact same place to where it stopped before COVID. And that’s it. I’m continuing this journey. I thought about it every single day since I stopped. I knew that is what I wanted to do.
Gabriel: And you found all your gear was there and your bike was there and you just pulled off the covers and shook off the cobwebs. You were ready to keep going.
Yann: That’s it. So I found my bike. It was the most… like the rustiest thing you could have imagined. I have a few photos on my page, my Instagram page of like how I found the bike, because Costa Rica has this like exotic weather. Let me tell you that it was not in a riding condition when I found it. But I basically just purchased, you know, a new drivetrain and everything I needed. And most of my equipment was still there in usable condition. When I first got there, it was a bit of a shock. Oh, okay. There are still things I need to repurchase or… even panniers, I remember. It was not easy to find good panniers there. Then things started working out and I approached people and this very nice couple from Warm Showers sold me their panniers. So I just gathered equipment from places, and there I was continuing this trip from the same place.
Gabriel: Incredible. And what about your relationship then? It’s not always the easiest thing to tell somebody you’re heading to another continent for a long time.
Yann: Yeah, definitely. I think you can’t have everything in life, right? So relationships and work and your career. So right now I’m a solo traveler in all sense of being solo.
Gabriel: And your goal is still the southern tip of South America?
Yann: Always, and always not going in a straight line. The one thing that I did have in mind when I relaunched that trip was how I’m going to cross the Darién Gap. I think that’s one of the biggest issues right, for bike tourists.
Gabriel: The Darién Gap is a 100-kilometer, or 60-mile, stretch of mountains, swamps and dense rainforests, separating Panama and Colombia. As it is impossible to build roads in the region, the Darrién Gap is the only break in the Pan- American Highway. People attempting an overland crossing on foot, mostly migrants seeking asylum in the United States, face not only the treacherous terrain but also dangerous animals and armed criminals. Travelers, especially those with a vehicle, go by sea. Crossing options range from making a booking through a shipping agent to hitching a ride on a yacht or other boat.
Yann: The way I saw it, my fantasy is to do it by boat but I’ll probably just get a plane which is the easiest and most convenient way in Panama. I think I probably went to like five marinas and talked to people. I wrote on paper, “Hey, I’m a bike tourist. I want a ride to Colombia, if anyone is interested.” As I told you I was marina-hopping in Panama with no much success. Basically, I found myself at the evening, so that was Christmas Eve, so saw this Chinese restaurant, and I felt so helpless. I went there and I said, “Hey, do you guys have any food left? I’m hungry, and if I could have a bit of like leftovers or something.” And I think the owners kind of saw how desperate I was. They gave me something if I was eating outside. I thought this is ironic, it’s Christmas Eve and here I am feeling like very in a low point of my life, after failing of finding yet another boat. And then this guy passed in a truck, and he kind of looked at me, and he started, you know, talking to me and he said, “Well, come. Come with me.” And, you know, I loaded my bike and we drove to his house. Well, he basically invited me to his, like, family Christmas dinner, which was super fun. He took his kids to like English school. So, you know, that the kids that they they talked to me in English. People, at least in my experience, in Central and South America, it’s mostly Spanish. And then the highlight for me of this evening is that the uncle came up to me and asked, “Hey, would you agree to be Santa Claus for tonight?” Fuck, yeah. I was never Santa Claus. And they had like the full costume, like with shoes and the beard, everything. Here I was at midnight just walking as a Santa Claus. It also padded my stomach because I wasn’t big enough. That story, it was so random and this is where somebody reached out to me, like I didn’t talk to them. People maybe think, oh you just went with this random stranger guy? And yeah, I trust my instincts when it comes to people and it usually doesn’t disappoint me and that was so much fun. Then the adults, we had this party and I went to sleep at 2 a.m. They continued celebrating.
Gabriel: It sounds like a great experience.
Yann: Yeah, yeah. So this is definitely something that I cherish from this low point of going into this restaurant and asking for food to be the Santa Claus. And that was also you know a time in this trip that I kind of knew the culture of like just people that traveling around the world by boat. That was also amazing, to see people that traveling for years in their boats. And I ended up taking these small speed boats from Puerto Ocarte and made it to Colombia by boat.
Gabriel: Oh so you did go by boat in the end. I thought you would. I thought, “Nah, Yann’s not going to fly.”
Yann: I was a bit of a control freak. Just the idea of like putting the bike in the box and letting other people maintain it, like you know putting it on the plane because usually when you load the bike to these boats, you have people that do it. But I was at this marina for a few days and I kind of got to know them and help them before I took the actual boat. So when it was the time to load my bike, I was like, I did it myself. And throughout the boat journey I always held my bike. It just gave me this kind of comfort to be in control and see that everything is okay.
Gabriel: The idea of the bike on the boat, it reminds me of a previous episode called “Life is Wild” with André Plumeau who was a bicycle tourist who ended up learning to sail a sailboat so he could sail across the Atlantic. He would take the sailboat, sail on with a crew, and then bike on some island and then go to another island. A fun one as well. Okay, so then you made it to Colombia.
Yann: Yeah, and in Colombia again, like, I think the reasonable thing was, you know, just bike touring around Colombia and then heading south to Ecuador. But I think that’s a recurring theme, at least with me, right? That I’m not gonna do this straight line, and I actually went all the way to Venezuela, and I entered Venezuela, which was yet again an interesting experience.
Gabriel: Yeah, I want to hear more about that, because the reputation of Venezuela is not good at the moment, and there’s all these warnings that you might even be held up by the police.
Yann: Oh yeah.
Gabriel: So what was your experience in Venezuela then?
Yann: You just said it. Of course I knew about the warnings but I also talked to other bike tourists from South America that had entered Venezuela, and everybody just said how amazing the people are. I contacted a local biking community in Maracaibo, a city next to the border where I intended to cross. And they were so helpful, and they already arranged, like, places for me to sleep at and just told me, “Hey, we’re gonna take you to this place and that place,” and I was so excited. I talked to locals and I even received an official letter of invitation from one of the municipality officials of Venezuela. I was ready, and the border crossing went well. It was quite easy but then, yeah, unfortunately, as you said, there are police control points, which was okay. But then I just arrived to like a major one, that had other government organizations, and that’s where I had a bad experience. So I was interrogated for hours. They took my phone, they searched my photos, my WhatsApp conversations. It was really not easy and they told me I would stay there for a few nights till they find everything that there is to find. And I told them, “Hey, I’m just a traveler.” Like, eventually they did let me go after a few hours, but then even after I was told I couldn’t just go by myself. I talked to the French ambassador. I’m also French, so I travel as a French person with my French passport. And then the ambassador just called me and he yelled at me, “Just get out. Get out of this country. There’s nothing we can do to help if anything happens to you.” I felt all this pressure and I thought, bike touring is about exploring and discovering. I was offered police escort to some place and I was like, “Nah, if I can’t go out by myself, that’s not what I came for. So, unfortunately, after about a week I went back to Colombia. Let me tell you, when I got stamped back into Colombia, I was so relieved, because I was in such a pressure. During that time I didn’t want to scare my family. I kind of didn’t talk to anyone about it. I was just, let me handle this situation by myself, and only then after I started to process what had happened, and what it could have happened. So, to me, unfortunately, Venezuela wasn’t this an amazing of experience. It was quite the opposite, which is unfortunate because the people I’ve met there like even the few encounters, they’re great.
Gabriel: Yeah, so a couple of follow-up questions. One. When the police let you go, was there, let’s call it a fee, that you needed to pay?
Yann: That’s funny. So eventually, when they let me go, and I told the family there what had happened they told me, “Wait, why didn’t you just pay them at first?” And I was like, “Oh, I didn’t even think about it.” It was like these two guys, young guys. They probably just waited for me to offer something, and I was so clueless and I just thought, oh they just want to verify some things. You know, they kept saying, “Oh, our jefe (like, our boss) is not answering, so you need to wait.” And the hours just went by so, no, I didn’t pay anything. But then I was told, “Oh, you should have just paid them something.” But I am happy I didn’t pay anything, and they just let me go.
Gabriel: After a while, they just gave up on you. They’re like, “Okay, he’s willing to spend a week here. Let’s let him go.”
Yann: Yeah.
Gabriel: And then, the other question was, did you get to meet up with the bicycle club?
Yann: I’ve met a few of them. So the first village where I slept was actually the parents of one of the people from there. So I didn’t actually meet the person, but their parents.
Gabriel: I know just a few people from Venezuela and of course they’re lovely people, and the situation is terrible. I still remember being told that if you drive a nice car in Caracas and you park at a shopping center, even in the garage, when you return your nice car will be on four bricks. It won’t have wheels, it won’t have a stereo, it won’t have a battery. Most people avoid it these days, unfortunately. Yeah, I think what struck me the most when I crossed was to see the police or military officials, that were the only ones at the cafe or bars. So almost there weren’t people outside, which also kind of made me a bit nervous. Because of course you know you always look like someone that is not a local, nowhere where you go. I just wanted to avoid any of these
Gabriel: How was your time in Colombia? Much better, I hope.
Yann: Yeah, I think what struck me the most when I crossed was to see the police or military officials, that were the only ones at the cafe or bars. So almost there weren’t people outside, which also kind of made me a bit nervous. Because of course you know you always look like someone that is not a local, nowhere where you go. I just wanted to avoid any of these encounters.
Gabriel: How was your time in Colombia? Much better, I hope.
Yann: Oh. Amazing, man. I loved Colombia so much. I’ve only spent four months. When I returned from Venezuela, I got another, like, 90 days. Yeah, I just went anywhere I could. Like Boyacá, it’s like this famous departamento most people go to. Yeah, like Medellín, the coffee region, the Cauca Valley. I just enjoyed so much of Colombia, and I would stay longer if only the weather. So, I want to be in Peru around June, so I get like a the nice dry season. Colombia was so great, and it was so simple. I would just camp anywhere. Outside of restaurants, outside of gas stations, outside of just anywhere. People just let you stay. The biking community there is just crazy, right? Like biking is such a major sport and you meet these cyclists and they’re always so excited and even people there just go on like bike touring for a week, for example, and like I’ve met so many local bike tourists. Yeah, I had a great time in Colombia.
Gabriel: Colombia is really crazy about cycling. Even in Bogotá they close down the major streets on Sundays for bicyclists to take over and…
Yann: Not only in Bogotá. I haven’t actually been to Bogotá, but I found it in Medellín. And then in pretty much every other big city, they had it.
Gabriel: Cool.
Yann: So that was such a nice thing to see. You could just like bike or walk or run or whatever.
Gabriel: Yeah. Did you ever feel unsafe in Colombia?
Yann: Yeah, so pretty much in the area of Cali, it is more dangerous and I know of other bike tourists that I’ve met, that they told me that they skipped these areas taking a bus. I didn’t. I biked through these places, and the one bad thing that happened to me, and this is a bit of, I found it funny. So I reached to a gas station and I decided to camp there, and so I left my bike, you know, for a few hours at the gas station. So, you know, not leaving and going away, but I was just hanging around the cafeteria. And what I found out the next morning is that someone stole my orange vest, but that’s it. Just my orange vest.
Gabriel: Huh!
Yann: The place where I stayed, I felt it wasn’t very safe, but I thought, you know, if this is the only thing that they chose to take away from me, that’s something that I could give away. And this is something important, maybe if someone is listening and is thinking about Colombia, because I think as foreigners we hear these stories about Colombia and all these like movies or series. I think I never felt unsafe or almost, besides maybe that place, I’ve always felt so welcomed by people. People would just like greet me and had me and talk and they are always so curious and positive. So Colombia was truly a good experience, with amazing and astonishing views on the Andes.
Gabriel: I do have to ask you since you mentioned the theft and you’ve been on the road for so many years, on and off, I have to imagine that wasn’t the first thing that was stolen, the orange vest. You probably had, unfortunately, some other losses.
Yann: Oh yeah. Yeah, this brings us back to California. I parked my – well, park is a big thing – I hid my bike and I had a, like, a security chain, like a lock for the bike. But, you know, the panniers, nothing really locks them, or secures them, to the bike. I went to a supermarket to buy some food, and when I went back to the bike, took me a few seconds to realize what I’m seeing in front of me. The bike was there, but the four panniers were gone.
Gabriel: Oh no.
Yann: You know, as bike tourists, I don’t need to explain to other people what it means, because people would, “Oh, did you have your laptop with you?” And I was like, “I don’t have a laptop with me but that was my life.” My clothes, my kitchen, my sleeping bag, my everything gone. And when I went to the local police station, it was in a very small town in southeastern California, the cop asked me, “Why are you even here in this town?” Apparently it was like a notorious bad town or something. I told them, “Well, you know, I arrived here. It started to get late so that’s it.” Because I was on my way to Slab City. Salvation Mountain. I don’t know if everybody knows this. Do you know this?
Gabriel: Yeah, I know it was, if I remember it correctly, it was just a single man who made it his life work to build up this mountain with – I don’t know – discarded stuff and it was just some kind of shrine or something. It’s a bit vague.
Yann: Well, yeah. You got it pretty right. So it is kind of like a shrine. There are, like, rooms inside and it’s just such a crazy place and around, it’s called Slab City. It’s another, like, full story, this place. I knew I wanted to see this place, and I contacted someone from there, and they invited me. I heard before that it’s better to get there when you know someone and not just to kind of pop out, because these people, they’re not always very welcoming towards just tourists. So I was on my way there, and it’s just in the middle of the desert in California. Yeah, that theft happened, and I remember I thought, God, I don’t even have something to have, like a water bottle or food with me. So I went to the Walmart at this town, because I did have my wallet with me. I didn’t leave it at the bike, and I bought a bag,like a small bag. A woman that was next to me – I think maybe I talked about it with the cashier or something – and when she heard what had happened to me, all of a sudden, she paid for me. She paid for these things and I also was like a toothbrush and toothpaste, like very basic things. And she said how much she was sorry that this had happened to me. And I remember that was such a… you know, more of like the financial aid, it was such a nice thing to say, and that happened because I was like, oh, okay. Well, humanity isn’t that bad. But definitely this was a challenging time, after all of that happened. I was never able to retrieve like the quality of the stuff that I had. For example, like a stove, like a really good stove that was stolen. But you know, like you said, when you travel for years on the road these things happen, and it’s a question of how you deal with it, and remember that there is no one that can deal with it other than yourself. You should be the one to get shit together, I think.
Gabriel: Ultimately, that’s what you sign up for, but it’s still nice that after you had that terrible experience that somebody helped out, because I think, what people don’t realize, if people hear about the stuff they might just go, “Oh, that sucks,” whatever. But when you’re on a bicycle, like you said, that is your whole life, all piled into those four bags. If somebody takes that, they’ve taken most everything. You’re left maybe with your wallet and your passport.
Yann: Yeah, exactly. But even after, like, I would add, that kind of motivated me. I was maybe lucky in the sense that it happened eight months after I was already traveling. So, basically, what I did is, I sent emails to the companies. So, for example, my sleeping bag was from, like, a medium-sized American company, and I just emailed all these companies and said, “Hey, I’m traveling for this and that years and it would be really a help if you provide me with this object or if I could get a discount or just whatever.” You know, there are people at the other side that read your email and they can get excited about what you’re doing and say, “Hey, sure. I want to help this guy.” So definitely this is a recommendation for others. And I would receive so much help from these commercial companies.
Gabriel: Oh, cool.
Yann: Yeah, and that was so nice, and I remember one of them, the CEO, he was a bike tourist himself, and then he sent me on top of what I asked, like a full set of biking clothes and I was like, “That is so nice.” Like, I never had biking clothes. I’m not a cyclist. That was another thing that really boosted my mental strength. When this happens, that sucks. You’re left with nothing pretty much. But then people kind of reach out and they see your struggle and they help you and I feel I was so lucky and fortunate for this and for the help I received at that point.
Gabriel: I think that’s an incredible idea that you had, after having that loss, to get in touch with these companies and tell them your story. In general, I’m getting the idea that you really do your homework, in terms of reaching out to people, whether it be this knocking on doors, as you call it, or riding ahead to tell people that you’re coming. And I think that’s really a great resource for other bicycle travelers. I think a lot of people don’t do anything like that, and it seems to have really paid off for you.
Yann: There is a game – well I’m not sure it’s a game – but this thing that you kind of fall back, and then somebody behind you reaches their arms and kind of catch you before you hit the ground.
Gabriel: Oh, the trust fall.
Yann: Yeah, this trusting. And I feel, as bike tourists in general, we play this game with the world every single day, and there is always somebody that reaches out for us, like, before hitting the ground. I also play this game in the way I see it. It’s part of the tools, right? Like we have Warm Showers or Couchsurfing. This is another tool that we have. I like to make use of it. I enjoy it tremendously, like the meeting with the communities – and this is also like a recurrent theme in bike touring – I think like as bike tourists, that we just cross communities in different places. Part of the enjoyment is reaching out to people.
Gabriel: In some way, people do get something from you as well, because they hear about your stories and your travels and, I don’t know, it feels like they get something from hearing about the world through your experiences. So you give back a little that way.
Yann: It’s kind of like an exchange in that sort, and I do must add, like at least for myself, remember that on top of being a traveler, I can also do other things. I’m not just receiving from the world. I can also give to others. Ever since I left Costa Rica I didn’t really do any work exchange or volunteer, and I kind of missed it, the sense that on top of sharing my story and, you know, being nice to others, I could do things. You know, I have my physical strength.
Gabriel: That brings us more or less to present day, that you went from Colombia to Ecuador.
Yann: Yeah, this is even a nicer story. I was just riding my bike and I saw this campsite and I went there and asked them for water. And when I saw how nice it was, I basically told the owners, “Hey, could I do some volunteering here for the weekend?” Was a few days ago and that’s what I did for the past few days. I just stayed here, did some volunteering with them, and it was super random. I was working like seven, eight hours a day, chopping woods with a machete. Actually clearing a path in this reserve where I’m at. So that was fun. I like these kind of stuff. Just popping into a place asking if there’s something I could do and it worked out. Super nice people. I had some rest from biking and met some of the people that came here to travel.
Gabriel: And for people who want to hear more about your adventures, what’s the best way to follow you?
Yann: I mean, I have my Instagram. So it’s like just @yann.tourman. And then, anyone that messages me on Instagram and we can connect also, yeah, WhatsApp.
Gabriel: No YouTube channel.
Yann: I have a very bizarre YouTube channel. I have a video that is, like, a one- minute long, called “Astoria Bridge and a Goat,” which is pretty much me crossing the Astoria Bridge, which is like the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington states. I have record crossing the Astoria Bridge and then immediately cut to a video of a goat. So no, no video. No, no interesting YouTube channel.
Gabriel: So, but wait. Why did you switch to a goat? Is it Greatest Of All Time, or what?
Yann: Oh, no, no. It was just a goat that I saw, that somebody that hosted me, and he had a goat and, no, it was it’s kind of a joke. My…
Gabriel: Okay.
Yann: My YouTube channel is just full of five one-minute long, very bizarre videos, so I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.
Gabriel: I must say that is unique. I’ve never heard anyone say, please do not watch my YouTube channel. It’s very bizarre.
Yann: I have my Instagram photos, but I don’t have any, like, special camera or a drone or anything like that. I’m not into these things. I don’t know how to edit and do these things. If you message me, I’ll answer that’s for sure.
Gabriel: What are your earliest memories of a bicycle?
Yann: Well, I was never a cyclist. When I was younger, I was a runner. I ran a marathon when I was eighteen. So with a bicycle, I used a bicycle, I think, when I was 13 to ride to, like, a nearby bakery, like, for five kilometers. But then, one day I had a small car accident. I kind of hit a car. The bike kind of went off, and nothing really happened. I was so embarrassed and I didn’t tell parents. I went back home I put down the bike. So that’s how I started running, because I still wanted to get to this bakery. Ah, it’s such a funny story. For I think, five or six years, I never touched a bike. Only when I lived in a city by myself, that I kind of realized, oh, like a bicycle, it’s a great thing to kind of commute around. around. Fifty dollar bicycle. But it was never a hobby. I wasn’t afraid of how dealing with a bike when I started this trip, but certainly knew that I don’t know anything about bicycles, not even changing or fixing, you know, like a puncture. Whatever I know now, I learned on the way and it’s not much. So I’m not one of those, like, mechanics that carry all this gear. I can change my own, like, a tube, like an inner tube, but that’s about it. So definitely I would say that, yeah, my earliest memory of bicycles, probably from when I was 13, and it wasn’t a good memory.
Gabriel: Again, having done so many thousands of kilometers you must have had some kind of breakdown somewhere, and if you don’t really have the tools or the knowledge, how did you deal with it? Tell about a breakdown you had, because I know you had one.
Yann: It was also around this Astoria bridge. Well it’s a long bridge. I think it’s like five miles.
Gabriel: It’s a long bridge yeah.
Yann: My chain broke and, oh my, at that point who would have known that a chain can even, like, break? Maybe it’s a bit embarrassing, but I just waited for a pick-up truck to pass and I waved at them, “Hey, can you just take me this next town?” Well, I think it was basically Astoria. It was like ten miles. I made it to a bike shop. Oh, one other thing that happened in the US, in Texas, it was yeah, I think one of my last days there, I was on a highway where I really shouldn’t have been. It was like a 70 miles hour highway and then I had this puncture, and I think at that point I didn’t have anything to fix it. And it got dark and I was like, well, this is so embarrassing, but I ended up, like, dialing sorry. I’m stuck on the highway with my bicycle.” And after a few minutes, this super nice cop came. We loaded my bike and he took me, yeah, like ten miles to the nearest town. Yeah, I was a bit embarrassed, because I was like, oh you really shouldn’t depend on the authorities when things like that happen, but that I was like, this is dangerous.
Gabriel: Okay, so basically you feel like even if you do have a breakdown of some kind, you can get out of it by getting help from others. Because, of course, if you’re in a really remote area, where nobody comes by, then your plan doesn’t work but I guess you haven’t been in any super remote areas. Is that true?
Yann: Again, like I did have a puncture, like, in the coffee region, in a place where there was nobody. I fixed it myself. I think the more you you’re on the road, the more you realize how many things can get wrong with the bike. It is a simple system, but not that simple. So I use what I have to solve my problems.
Gabriel: Fair enough. So what was at this bakery that you loved so much that you were willing to even run to it?
Yann: Ah, so I live in such a small village, like 200 people small village, in Israel. And there was nothing, really nothing there and I just – ah, freedom is a big word, right, for a 13- year-old kid – but I just felt, oh, I can just take myself. I do’t need to ask anyone. I don’t need to wait for the bus. I can just go with myself. And this bakery, it was just there, and I kind of feel, I would make this non-clear connection maybe with Ushuaia, that Ushuaia is just there. So for us, I think most bike tourists, also the ones that I’ve met on the way, it’s really, like, the journey. Like, I don’t think any bike tourist just leave the bike and fly to Ushuaia and like, “Ha! I’ve made it, Fin del Mundo,” with the famous sign. The bakery that was there, to me it was just freedom, I guess.
Gabriel: The bakery symbolized freedom. I think that makes sense. And if you get some delicious baked goods in the process, well, all the better.
Gabriel: The transcript for this episode is available on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist website. I welcome feedback and suggestions for this and other episodes. You’ll find the link to all contact information in the show notes. If you would like to rate or review the show, you can do that on your favorite podcast platform. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram. Thank you to Anna Lindenmeier for the cover artwork and to Timothy Shortell for the original music. This podcast would not be possible without continuous support from my wife, Sandra. And thank you so much for listening. I hope the episode will inspire you to get out and see where the road leads you.
Yann: And post on YouTube Music. Yeah, I’m an advocate of YouTube Music.
Show Notes
You can find Filmed by Bike’s pass options, including the Virtual Pass, on their website.
Annalisa van den Bergh’s Cycling With Virtual Summit.
Yann Tourman’s Instagram page, @yann.tourman.