(expanded and re-edited from an Insta post)

I’ve been meaning to write something about Yeshe – aka @yeeesshh – for a while… and the recent Rider and Rig at Bikepacking.com, about Cjell and Monēworld, reminded me.

Yeshe has a Monē bike too in fact, except it’s one he built as an ad hoc intern for Cjell himself – a task that involved stooping his 6’4″ frame within the confines of the fabled Monē Wonderbread Truck/Bike Workshop, parked up in Silver City, New Mexico, where Cjell conjures up custom frames and handlebars for discerning cyclists the world over. It’s quite the post-apocalyptic klunker, a real sight to behold but darn it, I forgot to take any detail photos… extra disappointing as it includes a whole host of his little artistic extras.

Did you catch those pink socks?

This is because Yeshe is a fantastic illustrator with a knack for leaving everything he touches with his own visual fingerprints. During our ride, his notebook was never from hand – a mini tome of ink doodles and a pictorial journal of his trip through the Oaxacan valleys and sierras. Leafing through it at the end of the trip was a great memory jogger for us all, and I could have filled this post with its pages – there are rhino beetles, cacti, cookies, coffee cups, seedpods, ferns, mushrooms, and much more…

Just a sample of Yeshe’s Oaxacan Journal… plus some off-the-wall spoon designs.

And then there’s the spoon-scoop he carved from the offcut my landlord gave me – its very character is Yeshe through and through.

Yep, that’s Cjell reading Dr Oliver Sach’s Oaxaca Journal to Yeshe while he carves the little number pictured above.

Or, the cacao beans he brought back from Mamapacha to make his own small-batch chocolate (check out his Insta page to see the beautiful packaging that accompanies it). I could go on… but I’ll just mention the corn he sewed upon his return to New Mexico, intercropped with beans and squash to bring nutrients to the soil and protect it from bugs, as is the Zapotec tradition.

Vroom vroom.

Never one to shy away from the Big Stuff in a conversation, the trips I’ve enjoyed with Yeshe have invariably been wonderful on many levels, whether in New Mexico or more recently in Oaxaca. I look forward to others!

But where to stick them?

Here’s a couple of the stickers he sent me as examples of his beautiful and thoughtful work, but really you should check out his @yeeesshh feed and Vimeo page for more!

Same trip. Different hairstylist.

Watch and be soothed…