Cuenca Expats Magazine, Special Issue

Photos by Joan Monterde

Our dreams are the food of our soul; our look at the world helps us improve our world. My name is Joan Monterde and I am a Catalan from Barcelona traveling the world by bicycle. I remember as a child riding in my father’s car when I saw through the window a couple traveling by bicycle. Since then, I always had in my eye and in my heart to be able to travel the world by bicycle. So far, I have visited and traveled 15 countries in the world. Three years ago, I started my journey, which was an important change for me because I left everything to fulfill my dream. I wanted to do it continuously, leading a nomadic life.

In my project of Un Mundo en Bicicleta I offer my work as a photographer and filmmaker to humanitarian foundations that work to improve the lives of the poorest children and also help the women of the communities improve their economy, because they are the ones who suffer the most from poverty.

I also organize my own projects to raise awareness of these realities, such as working with the children of Puerto Iguazu who live in garbage dumps.

The idea is to get them out of this environment of extreme poverty by conducting workshops for families to help them sell products or teach them how to grow their own food and maintain food sovereignty. This is a big project and a long-haul challenge in which I am supported by volunteers I have met on my trip.

At the moment, I am in Cuenca collaborating with the foundation Casa de los Niños, and I must say that it has been a very enriching experience. I invite you to visit my website to discover the work I am doing. My intention is to continue cycling in Ecuador for a while, but at the moment I have a broken bike.