Many of you may already know Zoluart — the wonderful woman behind the dudes in the header of my blog. Karolina Zolubak is my soul sister and a lady who has made her dreams become reality. In one year, she has gone from doing her first drawing into being a professional illustrator. In this guest post, Karolina gives her recount on a year full of personal achievements and changes.  

This beautiful drawing was sent to me one night at 5AM by Argentinian Enrique Demarchi (who I’ve never met) as a recognition for my solo female cycling. “Not everyone would get on a bicycle and pedal through South America, especially as a woman”, he said and added that it’s something remarkable. As I know I’m not the only one, I want to dedicate this drawing on to all solo female cyclists, especially those eight who have inspired and keep on inspiring me along my way. Here’s who they are!

Sometimes it seems extremely difficult for men to realize that even though you travel alone, you do not sell sex. To some men, a solo female cyclist seems to be the perfect example of someone in desperate need of money and physical pleasures. So much so, that these men take the initiative to stop by the road and offer their charitable employer services to female cyclists. But how can you know a woman does not sell sex? Read these easy guidelines to find out.

CauCaribe is a music group from Popayán, District of Cauca, Colombia. As the name itself reveals, the group plays mostly traditional Colombian rhythms from Cauca and the Caribbean, such as different variations merengue and cumbia. The lyrics of the non-instrumental folkloric songs tell about the history of Colombia.

Jackie Ross, 72 years, accidentally ended up living in Ecuador after 15 years on the seas and 40 years in the tropics. Before retiring, she sailed on ships and yachts all across the world, mostly in the South Pacific. Now, Jackie lives in the small coastal town of San Clemente, where she is actively involved with local people. She also learned Spanish from zero at the age of 65 (so, be careful when you say “I’m too old to learn new languages”!). Here’s a woman out of the box!

In Quito, Ecuador, I gave an interview for Teleamazonas, just before leaving for the coast. The questions have been answered quite many times previously, but never before have I had my answers translated into Spanish sign language! Also, never before has my name been Sisi Koronen (who needs those extra consonants anyway?! Unfortunately, these don’t show on the video).

Today is Mother’s Day. A day for families to celebrate mothers, if they are present, and a day to commemorate them if they are not. My Mother’s Day this year has been a day that I will quite surely remember for a long time – not because of its beauty, but because I have lived for a while in a reality which I wish no one had to live in.

There are not many all-female bands in hardcore punk in general, and in Latin America even less. In fact, at the moment there is only one: ¡Tomar Control! These four ladies – July, Carmen, Malena and Luchita – have been playing together since 2014 and have since then released one album. I went to their band rehearsal on a Friday night to listen to them play and to interview their singer on how it all began.