With the entrance in June, Ana Santidrián and Edurne Caballero embarked on a journey that will depart from Zaragoza and travel the north of the Iberian Peninsula. It is not a simple trip what the girls will do: in the 2,500 kilometers they will cycle, they will visit the community and agroecological projects that have been created to boost life in the rural environment, with the aim of collecting and disseminating everything they see below. “We want to know the alternative projects of the rural environment by acting as a bridge to make these projects known to society,” says Caballero.

Building bridges between urban centres and rural areas

The two cyclists left on 1 June of the newly created cooperative supermarket in Zaragoza and so far have known many projects from Zaragoza, Navarra, La Rioja and Burgos: from those who produce honey and propolis or baskets of vegetables, bakeries, restaurants and ecological shops, community gardens… to those who bet on a life model different from those related to food.

More than projects, they try to tell stories about people behind them. “We look for different projects, but what we really find are the land and people: many times they talk to us why and how they have come to that, what has driven them, the problems and difficulties they have had on the way…”. Behind each initiative are the stories of people and they think it's interesting to share them to serve as inspiration or an example to other people.

After passing through the Tudela area, they will return to our destination in August

The members of the Biela and Tierra project have already passed part of the Ribera de Navarra: In Tudela, they were getting to know the social gardens of Mejana and the School of Sustainability of the Helianto collective, visited the company Alcaravan de Arguedas, and from there they moved to Lodosa e Sartagudo to get to know the communal garden promoted by the municipalities and to visit the agroecological farm experimental of INTIA. All these projects are well explained bielaytierra.com in the Cuaderno de Landa section of the web.

Now they will continue through Palencia, León and Asturias, but in August they told us that they will return to Euskal Herria: on 8 August they will enter Karrantza and visit the eleven projects we have in our lands: Muturbeltz Elkartea, Conservas Masculinas, Caserío Pikunieta, Centro Alimentario de Azpeitia… We will have to be attentive!