La Vuelta Puerto Rico: Adventure Impact Project

Using adventure to create positive impact for the people of Puerto Rico as they recover from Hurricane Maria

Prologue: Posted on my GoFundMe account on Feb 3, 2018…

On February 20th 2018, I am returning to Puerto Rico for an adventure & impact project. A year ago I spent a few weeks there recovering from an intense expedition in Peru in need of both physical and emotional respite. Puerto Rico delivered that for me, and then some. I met some great people who I really connected with, friends now for life, and I am excited to return and join them in some important work.

As you are all well aware, Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria nearly six months ago. The US media is not doing justice to the lack of resources that many people on the island are still experiencing. Power, access to clean water, having clothes to wear, etc. Many of the mountain communities are still completely cut off by landslide debris.

My good friend, Puerto Rican native, US Army veteran and musician Nelfer Hernandez has been spearheading relief efforts in his community of Isabela and around the island. He’s been collecting donations from companies and organizations and organizing convoys to deliver supplies up to the mountain communities. He has been doing this since Day 5 post-hurricane and while the intensity of the immediate post-disaster has calmed down, there is still a lot of work to be done and needs to be met.

Because I am always coming up with some sort of crazy idea for an expedition project, I am going to combine adventure with impact and use this platform to make whatever positive difference I can for the people of Puerto Rico. I am going to attempt to circumnavigate Puerto Rico all on coastline (as much as possible) on my fat bike, using a small packraft to navigate river crossings and ocean paddling in the sections where I am not able to ride my bike. Along the way, I will be doing my best (being as respectful as possible to the people who have experienced so much trauma and loss) to document my journey through photos, IG stories, and Facebook Live whenever I can.

Via my social media platforms I want to tell the story of Puerto Rico's post-hurricane recovery as seen through my eyes, through observing, listening, interacting, and hopefully also through the eyes and voices of people living in the communities along the coast and in the mountain areas I pass through. I will volunteer my expertise as a physical therapist, body-mind wellness facilitator, and my personal experience with trauma and recovery to be a resource for people in whatever situations I may find myself in.

I will be spending some time based in Isabela helping Nelfer with his efforts in the mountains, and I am looking forward to getting my feet on the ground there, witnessing what is really happening and offering my support however I am able. I will also be visiting another good friend, Jennifer Forshee, a yoga and meditation teacher and massage therapist who lives in Luquillo. She has been tending to the emotional and spiritual healing of people affected by the storm by providing her yoga, meditation and massage services free of charge, and has been building a beautiful wellness center in the main plaza of Luquillo where she can create a space for healing services and wellness retreats and workshops. When I make it all the way around the island riding and paddling counterclockwise to Luquillo, I will spend some time with her there.

I am starting this GoFundMe page because some of you, my wonderful friends and those who follow my adventures, have expressed some interested in contributing with financial gifts to my impact work in Puerto Rico. I am looking to specifically assist Nelfer in his efforts to provide resources to the remote mountain communities. They are needing clothing, water purification systems, food, medicines, and money to fund the convoys driving up into the mountains. Basically the people of the mountains in PR are "camping,” not by choice, and with no resources.

I am starting my fundraising campaign with a $400 amount, because it costs $400 to fund two convoys of supplies to get up into the mountains. Two convoys carry enough resources to reach 2,000 people. I would love to fund at least one convoy with all of your help, and I will be contributing my own financial resources as well. I will also be reaching out to my brand partners and sponsors and other companies in the outdoor industry, both for financial donations to the people of Puerto Rico and for donations of relevant products that would be useful to them.

I will be in Puerto Rico for a month, from Feb 20-Mar 20. I will be collecting donations throughout the time that I am there, and I will be documenting all aspects of this projects throughout.

**Some of you have asked me if I’m going through an organization or nonprofit. I am not, and here’s why. Because I have close relationships with people on the ground in PR, I know some of the details about NGOs and nonprofits that have popped up in the area and are doing things that are not in the best interest of the Puerto Rican people. Some of them are corrupt, and it can be hard to tell who is in cahoots with who. Because of this, I am going alone.

I’m choosing to work with two good friends who I know and trust, and who are already doing a lot to help out their people on their own and with groups of their friends. And I’m also choosing to volunteer my skills in whatever capacity arises as I travel around the island on my bike. The skills I bring are enough, and I don’t need an organization to go through to do my work. I trust that I will end up in the right places at the right times. I am comfortable traveling alone in this culture, and I have also had plenty of practice staying safe traveling alone by bike. Some of you have expressed concern about people in crisis taking advantage of me. I am not concerned about this. I know there is nothing I can do or say to mitigate any risk 100%, but for me personally the risk in this situation is worth the reward. And that, for me, is enough. Thanks for your support.**

If you feel inspired to contribute to helping the people of Puerto Rico in this way, I thank you with my whole heart. This place and the people here mean the world to me and I am fortunate to be able to go there in person and do what I can with whatever gifts and resources I can bring.

In love,

Liz

Epilogue: Two Months Later…

Wow. I wish I could put this experience into words in a way that would put you, the reader, in my shoes and on my bicycle seat over the course of this incredible month. I have many stories to share which I will have to roll out over time, maybe years of time, with patience. This trip was a lot.

Edit: I’ll post links to blog posts about this trip here as I write them. Again, there’s more to this trip than I could ever share in a lifetime, and it may be slow to process. But I’ll do my best. In the meantime, read on below for a summary of how the month went.

Day Zero

Day One

On February 20th I arrived in Puerto Rico with my fat bike, bikepacking gear, tiny packraft, and a whole lot of donated products in a box. I met a kind Warmshowers host in San Juan, Stephen, who picked me up at the airport and took me to his lovely little home in San Juan, where I built my bike on his covered porch in the dark to the sound of driving rain. The next morning I headed west into the unknown.

Over the next month…

I biked and biked and camped and paddled and biked and camped and got lost and stormed on and found again and paddled and biked and ate street food and drank cheap beer and lounged in hammocks in the heat of the day and hung out with bums and kids and street dogs and jungle horses and iguanas and fishermen and biked and biked and paddled and flipped my boat and all my everything in the surf and learned about tides and ripcurrents and how to ride them, and how to surf my boat into shore, and biked some more and slept on deserted beaches and biked and paddled and biked and biked and laughed and cried and biked.

I saw devastation and beauty. I sat with people in trauma, despair, optimism, hope for the future, and pride for their island. I came to the island with over $3000 worth of donations from my friends, family, and followers, my own pocket, and my brand partners, that I literally gave away to people as I rode, helping them buy food, water, helping with their efforts to try and keep their families sustained and their livelihoods and businesses alive. I came to the island with literally pallets full of hammocks donated by High Hopes Hammocks for people who had no beds, water filters donated by Sawyer to help provide both families and entire communities and schools with a way to filter water, and solar lights donated by Luci for folks who had no power. I rode my bike and paddled my tiny inflatable boat over 500 miles around this island. I met people who wanted to share the story of what I was there to do. I was on a radio show and on TV (in Spanish, ha). I had people stopping me on the street, already knowing who I was and what I was doing. All thanking me for loving their island and coming to help, thanking me for not being afraid of coming here alone. And all asking how they could help me.

The people of Puerto Rico, many of whom had lost everything and who I had come to help, were so excited to give everything they had to me, inviting me into their homes and offering me the last of their clean water to shower and drink, and places to hang my soaking gear after getting caught in the rain. People who found out about me through their granddaughter who follows me on Instagram, who drove all the way from their home in the mountains down to the coast to collect me and bring me home to spend some days with their entire extended family, cooking me seven-course Puerto Rican meals and giving me a bed to sleep in and the warmest hospitality. A whole crew of construction workers who noticed me on the side of the road with a flat tire, stopped to help, and when I told them I needed an additional tool they loaded me and my bike into their truck, turned around and drove us all the way back to their construction yard to get the tool, all wanted to help me fix my bike, and drove me right back to where they had picked me up — being over an hour late to get to their job site that day. People coming up to me at food carts and cafes and wanting to buy me meals. The people of Puerto Rico absolutely. blew. me. away.

And I was able to help them as well. I had the opportunity to do physical therapy work in Isabela when Nel was contacted by a nurse friend of his, Krista, who was trying to facilitate a team of US volunteer doctors — none of whom spoke any Spanish. Nel and I jumped at the chance to help out, both acting as translators and me acting as a physical therapist and triage leader. So, so, so many people needing medical care, so many without help, so many facilities destroyed and medical providers themselves having to prioritize taking care of their own families. I did so much teaching of families of injured people, people with disabilities, older people, the family of a man who had sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident just before the hurricane who wasn’t able to get the care he needed after the storm, who had no idea how to help him or deal with his paralysis. I did absolutely everything I could.

Nel and I delivered my donated products and a bunch of clothing he had collected to families, communities, schools, churches, in the mountains and on the coast. We drove, hiked, slogged through mud and vines and jungle. We played music with people and laughed with their kids. We did our best to bring joy in the midst of suffering. We were welcomed with open arms and huge smiles.

I got to see Jen’s community center in Luquillo in its process of coming to life; her new space for helping so many people through her yoga, meditation, massage, and energy work. I went to her yoga classes, rejuvenated my own body and soul, and talked to people about pain and positioning and functional mobility and stability for wellness and healing. I spent hours lying on the beach with Jen, recovering, talking about my journey over the past month and her personal experiences in her life and work since the storm — feeding each other’s souls with energy and friend medicine.

And finally, I rode my bike full-circle, back to the place I started, my friend Stephen from Warmshowers’ house in San Juan. Nel drove up and met me at Stephen’s bar, and we celebrated the end of my journey with great beers and food in the pouring rain with everyone who was in the bar. Everyone wanted to hear stories, and I didn’t have many words. When we were finished I rode slowly back to Stephen’s house, packed my bike, and flew home the next day.

It was a whirlwind and a lifetime all in one.

I had an adventure for sure, and I hope I was able to make a positive impact in my own small way for the people in Puerto Rico and this island community I have come to love so much. I wouldn’t have seen it coming with what these people had been through, but their generosity, hospitality, and kindness certainly had a massive impact on me. I love this place so much and can’t wait to go back.