As the section name indicates, this is the Blog. In this site you will find thoughts I have sometimes. Thoughts that I need to express so that maybe once, someone read... You will agree in some topics, in others probably not. Maybe I will write things that I won't agree in the future because my mind changed... In principle, the issues will be related to the world of cycling as a way of urban transport, but I do not discard writing about other issues. Time will tell. I just hope that if you arrived here, you find something that interests you!

Climate change, carbon dioxide levels, natural disasters, Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen summit 2009 are terms common for all of us nowadays... But all this things, really affect us in our daily lives? Can we do something? Something as simple as using the bike as transportation, can have any effect? Some time ago I read The revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock (author of the Gaia hypothesis ). In this book, James Lovelock analyzes the current situation of the planet, providing a personal a scientific point of view. Although the book seemed quite apocalyptic , and, according to James Lovelock there is no turning back, he proposes different actions we can take to save our ecosystems. The most controversial is to promote the use of nuclear energy rather than wind and sun, just the opposite of what suggests the environmental movement... What will say about it environmental associations? Making an appointment of one of the most apocalyptic phrases caught my attention the book:

It would be easy to think of ourselves and our families as incarcerated in a planet-sized condemned cell -a cosmic death row- awaiting inevitable execution. The days and years will pass, the seasons constinue and we will be fed and entertained, and if we have faith we will ask God for a reprieve. Some like Sandy and me will probably cheat the executioner and die before our time is due; the cruel consequences will come for our children and grandchildren.

For sure, a pessimistic view of the future of the planet...

Some time ago I read an excellent chronicle of the Catalan journalist Gabriel Pernau Pernau, "A la Xina en Bicicleta" , a book of the chronicles of a four months bicycle tour from Barcelona to China. In this book, the author makes you live is own trip. History, landscapes, people and thoughts. I enjoyed the book and I want to share some fragments from it, encouraging those who like this type of chroniques to read it. You will enjoy it!

To start, a thought on what is tourim and the effect of mass-tourism:

"Travelling in remote countries where few tourists or travelers arrive is very rewarding. Allows contact with people in a frank and direct way. You can learn more about how they live because their existence has not yet been disrupted by the arrival of people. For people living in those countries, we are eccentrics who do not stop doing atrocities and that are leaving a trail of money there. It's nice to know some different ways of life and different behaviors. But there, when you see a familiar face, say for example a German, which seems minimally to yours, you jump into his arms as if you had been intimate friends for years who did not see for a long... " (A la Xina en Bicicleta, Day 45, Turkmenistan)

"Travelling is, by definition, an exit to the outside. But, what I see, is also an internal journey that takes you to meet with yourself and appreciate what you have. And this is, I believe, the great discovery of these four months travel. A parenthesis in everyday life that, at least once in life, as a travel, study or staying locked at home, everyone should be able to do "(A la Xina en Bicicleta, Day 58 , in Uzbekistan)

And finally, a thought that makes you think about what is and is not a hero:

When we were alone, Nazim, who has more or less my age, told me: "You are a hero to me, I would like to be like you, and do a project like this." He talked seriously, and made me think: "Hero I, who live in a rich country where I do not lack for anything to live, and I came here on a journey half eccentric hal adventurer to see how bad you live? No; I'm not a hero, heroes are many people that I found along the way, people without almost anything who offered me everything; heroes are those who have to struggle every day to survive because they have no choice, or those trying to overcome a war. They are the true heroes." (Day 61, a l'Uzbekistan)