Many people think about it, but very few decide. Vanessa and Juan Miguel, Koke to their friends, took the plunge eleven months ago: traveling the planet by motorbike, on a BMW F800GS model 2011,… and something else. “We traveled a lot, but there came a time when we needed to feel more free. My father’s illness tied me down, and when all that was over, I decided to do something he also loved and supported: traveling the world.
Koke tells ABC from Argentina. With a mattress corethe nickname of this Madrid native rooted in Toledo since his childhood is not due to the Atleti midfielder, but to the footballer Koke Contreras, who played in the 80s in Las Palmas, a stopover for Christopher Columbus during his expeditions towards the New World.
Before embarking on the journey of their life, with the same adventurous spirit of navigator, the couple lived between the city of Toledo, in the district of Polígono, and their hometown, Recas, where they lived and worked until for them to get involved. head.
Koke, who turned 49 on October 2, has given classes and trained teachers across Spain in yoga, chi kung, tai chi, philosophy and meditation, in addition to being a writer and therapist. Vanessa, 44, earned her salary as an administrator and went to train in Gestalt therapy, yoga and biodance. “We tried to spread all this knowledge around the world.” And they are there.
A leap into the void
His journey began in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Toledo on November 16. After working hard in recent years, they decided to leave everything and sell all their possessions to realize one of their dreams: to travel around the world without rushing.
This leap into the void, as it is called, has no return date. “At first we thought about two years, but today we prefer to enjoy the present moment and let life guide us. No plans“.
In Morocco, they found themselves stranded in the middle of a mountain, without cover and without being able to contact anyone. In three hours, two cars passed, but they couldn’t help them.. The driver of a third vehicle arranged with a friend to send a tow truck 60 kilometers away and they had to wait for two hours. Already towed to the nearest town, and while they repaired a damaged wheel, Chance wanted your host to be someone residing between Morocco and Toledo.. He made their task enormously easier and “the next day we were able to continue on our way.”
In front of the town hall of Toledo, on the day of departure. Photographed in the Sahara and Namibia with a giraffe
In Africa, they say, it is strictly forbidden to enter a wildlife reserve on a motorcycle. “But you can always find a local who knows the area and opens doors you wouldn’t normally find as a traveler.” And it happened to them in Namibia, where they met a couple who took them on a tour to experience being among elephants, lions and giraffes.
In their capital, Windhoek, they had a small accident with a taxi driver. Their car suffered almost no damage while Vanessa and Koke fell to the ground. Their motorcycle started leaking fluid and they tried to lift it, but they encountered something unexpected: the taxi driver and the people around them were throwing the motorcycle to the ground every time they tried to raise it.
After several attempts, they managed to lift it with great effort. But when Koke came on board, they threw him to the ground and beat him. “Luckily I had the deal.” He got up and fought with the taxi driver, who stole the key to the motorcycle he was on board. When Vanessa went to take it off, she was punched in the temple which swelled her face and ended up in hospital. The Spanish embassy recommended that they file a complaint and they managed to track down the taxi driver, who was arrested and “left in prison for a while.”
A police checkpoint in Nigeria; with children in Gambia and passing through Mauritania.
In the Republic of Congo, they have accessed a reserve of gorillas from zoos or which need to be readapted to wild life. It was a “super nice” experience that they recounted on their social networks, but malaria caught Koke, who had to be hospitalized for six days in Angola.
To enter Guinea-Conakry, on the way to Ivory Coast, they had visa problems. They had to pay for a new transit authorization and only had four days to cross the entire country, but with a warning:“If we didn’t do it on time, we would be in serious trouble.” The roads and structures in this territory, formerly known as French Guinea, are in poor condition and it takes a long time to move forward. “Also, there was an explosion at the main refinery and there was no gasoline in the country, so everything was very complicated for us.”
To “get a liter”, Koke and Vannesa queued and slept at gas stations. They also bought fuel on the black market and drove for hours and hours.“until exhausted”, to leave Guinea-Conakry within the stipulated period of four days. They managed to reach the border with Ivory Coast within the stipulated time, but did not recognize the visa they had been issued, making it difficult to leave the country for around three hours.
Extortion and kidnapping
Vanessa and Koke knew that visiting Nigeria is not recommended, but that one must cross it to continue through West Africa. And they did: “Once you enter from Benin, there is only one exit… Cameroon. And as you travel across the country, extortion and kidnapping are the order of the day.“.
Travelers to Toledo tried to avoid paying questionable taxes at the many police and customs checkpoints they encountered. “They were still angry with us for refusing to pay, so we had to ‘threaten’ them by telling them we were going to film it and their superiors would see it.”
It was “pretty tense,” even on a barge loaded to the brim from Orion, Nigeria, to Limbe, Cameroon. But in the Cameroonian port of Idenao they wanted to charge them much more if they wanted to remove the motorcycle, so they had to negotiate for more than two hours until they managed to ensure that their vehicle Don’t stay on the boat.
Passing through Mauritania, at a gas station in Guinea-Conakry and Ivory Coast, during the African Cup.
Koke and Vanessa explain that their project is not exclusively to travel around the world. “We make the values of our work known,” they say. This is why they taught in schools and NGO accommodations. And even “We have been invited to attend a frequent flyer event in Argentina soon organized by the Zapp family, well known in the travel world, and Iati Seguros.
From the Southern Cone, where they are currently located, they want to travel across America in the coming months, starting from Ushuaia and arriving in Alaska. They tell it on their social networks and created the site inlightyou.com on the Internet. Moreover, they have in mind to write a book when they finish the adventure of their life, the one that Koke’s father could not do.
