Oil and Water Project

Veg oil hasn´t been a big problem to get. This small restaurant called Pompy´s in Armenia happily gave us enough waste veg oil to drown a small horse.

This is a special plant in Mexico, Central and South America that is being studied as a potential oil bearing crop. Titus, John´s assisstant has been here 3 months doing a feasibility study. There is a lot of world wide interest in this. We found plenty of it beside the road.

John Loke has been living in Colombia for 14 years working for CIAT (Center for International Agriculture in the Tropics). As the main researcher for Biofuels in Colombia, he works with the farmers to help educate the availibility of different alternative fuels in the region.

He took us to tour a variety of different Bio-Ethanol outlets here in Colombia, including the 2nd largest factory in the country making biofuel from Sugarcane.

The problem is that they use coal to produce bio-ethanol which significantly reduces the energy potential.

They are starting to use the mulch from the waste products of the sugarcane, but are still a long way off from fully going away from the carbon industry. The photo below is a pile of sugarcane mulch.

If they are using a non-renewable resource to create a “so-called” renewable one, dosen´t that still make it non-renewable?

We visited a farm that is making bio-ethanol from the bi-product of the coffee industry once the beans are separated.

They use the bean shells to produce fuel, and they use the waste timber from the coffee plants for fuel to produce it.

When you meet John you can tell he is a creative guy, however the second you step into his backyard it is apparent that he is a border line genious.

He is undertaking a top-secret project-experiment with a grant from the Dutch government to research alternative ways to produce ethanol.

He is using solar energy to heat up the ethanol before it goes into the boiler (the place that uses the most energy).

Next, he uses the exhaust from the boiler to further heat the alcohol before it goes in signifcantly reducing the amount of energy needed to produce ethanol. He can do it by burning only the waste products of the plants he is using. It was pretty inspiring to work with John in Colombia.

The mayor of the town sponsored us to go paragliding from far up above the city that afternoon.

Then we went horse back riding up in the mountains until late at night!

We gave a demonstration to a small farming community outside of Armenia, Colombia. It was one of the most well recieved presentations that we ever gave. This is a community that John has been working with to promote bio-ethanol in the area.

We had all kinds of folks from farmers to people trying to promote eco-tourism.

One of the local restaurants donated a bunch of veg oil, and the kids took turns pouring it in our tank.

We were surrounded by police and military twice before we even put in on the San Juan river, Colombia right outside of Medellin. It definitely gave us a strange “where the heck are we feeling” and we wondered what was going on in the area that needed so much attendance.

The San Juan is the most commonly run river in Colombia, definitely a classic. There is a lifetime worth of first descents to be had, and this is one place out of all the rest we have seen where we are already planning to come back and get them done.

Aaron “Capo” Reitig joined us for a quick run, and then road with us down to Cali.

Colombia is one of the more over looked countries in the world for whitewater kayaking.

Sorry we haven´t had the chance to post. Things have been a bit crazy for us lately. We have oficially made it to Medallin, Colombia, and have some great plans to maximize the rest of our time here in Colombia. In the next days, we will be paddling around Medallin, conducting presentations to farmers, government officials and university students and pressing oil with our vegetable oil seed press with some Kesser Beans we´ve been collecting from the side of the road.

Gorillas???? heeeya..

Wouldn´t you think it would be kind of a bummer driving all day on Christmas?  Maybe, but definitely not when you happen to be driving one of the most beautiful roads in the Western Hemisphere.

The Panamerican Highway through Colombia is one of the most infamous highways in the world.  The scenery is stunning.

The high altitude towns and villages are like none other we had ever seen.

What hit home the most were the Desplacados.  These are mostly farmers that have had to flea their homes because of too much violence and the pressure from the Gorillas (one of the minority opposition groups here in Colombia).  Kids in the farming communities are forced to join the Gorilla movement at age 12.

The road to Medallin is lined with people that have made small plastic and stick houses, and are waiting for someone to help.

The entire community here in Colombia helps to support these people, until an answer can be reached.

This family has been living in this small two room house on the side of the road for 7 years.

All three of them share this small bed.

African Palm oil is super thick and pumpkin orange.  We hooked up with about 60 gallons of this stuff in Cartagena which should about get us to Cali, Colombia.

Seth met John on a biofuel chat page some time ago and he offered to provide assistance on our trek through Colombia.  He showed up with his assitant, Titus and his family, Viviana, Liliana and nephew Christian.  John works for CIAT, a multi-national agricultural research and development company based in Cali, Colombia.  He has adopted a biofuels program and is beginning to produce bio-ethanol.  Titus is a graduate student from Holland doing his thesis on the feasibility of different oil bearing crops.  They are joining us on our mission through Colombia, and we are helping them collect samples of different oil crop samples.

We are going to try and put these Kesser Beans thorough our oil seed press.

But first, they wouldn´t let us leave the North coast of Colombia without taking us to Taygan National Park to surf!

We got to get the full spa treatment, mudbaths and all.