The movie that started it all

About a year ago, we had a typical movie night at home with my brother and my roommate. We sat together to watch "Motorcycle Diaries". What an impact this movie had on us. If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and get a copy. The movie tells the story of a young Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, later to be known as "El Che Guevara". El Che is one of the biggest Latin American revolutionaries and was mystified after presumably being murdered in a American CIA-organized military operation. But the movie talks about his roots and the events that made him from a shy medicine student to an icon representing freedom for the latin american people. The majority of these events take place during a road trip (hint! hint!), which the movie focuses on. He embarks in this adventure to drive along the continent, from Argentina to Venezuela, accompanied by his best friend and driving a motorcycle that looked like it was made out of World War 2 surplus inventory. It was nicknamed "The Mighty One". During this voyage el Che encounters first-hand the reality of a struggling South America outside of his protected life in the city. The further he went the more he felt the burden of guilt from all the years he spent unaware of the reality beyond his life. After the trip, Ernesto Guevara found himself transformed. I believe it was the intention of the director to leave it to the audience to judge weather the main character was changed for the better or not. I personally believe, and surely many others with me, that after his journey he became a better man. Stigmatized by some, idolized by others, if we judge by the accuracy of the facts in "Motorcycle Diaries", nobody can deny the nobleness of his purposes and ideals.

We had all thought about doing something big while we were at this stage in life. We are now living by ourselves, working and making our own money, and having the summer free for plans. It had to be something we could not do easily, something that takes advantage of our current circumstances and we could not do later on in life. After the movie, the idea lighted the bulb above our heads. We've heard of people trying to do the road trip to South America before, more than half of them didn't do it, and from the one's who attempted it only a few got as far as they wanted to. Since the idea came up we have been planning and waiting for the perfect time, timing is key for this kind of thing if you want to keep your life rhythm going (school, work, apartment, bills, etc.). After about a year of dreaming we got our window of opportunity lined up for the summer of 2006. For me it was truly beautiful timing, I would be graduating on May and working like crazy for the next few weeks to save money and then off to the road ahead with no job, class, or commitment to come back to. There's no word to describe the feeling of being able to cruise the land with no deadline or thing to come back to. It would probably be the only time in my life I will be able to do so.

About 8 months ago the planning got serious. We were originally 4 guys, but one backed up eventually because of school and classes. The idea was a continuation of what it became almost an urban myth among the community of young Hispanics in the DC metro area. I gotta lay down a quick background on this "community" because of the impact it had in my life. It’s a very small community, mainly all with the same story of how they ended up living there. Their parents were diplomats, work for the navy or army or air force, or worked for some international organization like the World Bank. All of these are quite common in DC, one of the political power centers of the world. All the countries have their biggest and best embassy in Washington DC and send their most qualified people, with their families and kids. All these kids end up getting to know each other and build friendships over the years. The rotation of posts for military and government positions is common every 2 to 4 years, so we get new people all the time, and some of them, like myself, stay to finish school or to pursue some other goal. So we get new blood every year from all over, making this "community" quite interesting and ever changing.

At the end, there were three guys left on board. My roommate Erick, my brother Gabriel, and myself. Right after school ended I took it upon myself to put any skill I had to plan and prepare for the trip. I have a sense on how to gather and sort out relevant information, this came up to be very handy. I did LOTS of research on the internet, made contacts, called people, found people, got the pertinent information, what to do, what to avoid, where to go, what to buy, etc. We all got our hand into this as the time went by. It’s been a long time since we dreamt with this trip, and now we're on the final countdown. We will be cruising south on Monday, July 10th 2006. Point of departure: Gaithersburg, Maryland. Final destination: Lima, Peru. Expected distance to be traveled: 5,300 miles or 8,400 km. 8 days to go!!!!!

I want to leave a blueprint for future travelers that have had similar plans to drive around the Americas to show them that it is possible and how to go about doing it from start to finish. I want to prove that is not only possible, but also an experience worth having. I will certainly remember this for the rest of my life and will tell the stories from this journey to my grandsons. My brother talked to one of the few people that did a similar trip not so long ago under similar circumstances. The guy was a recent law school graduate and he mentioned that he learned more in this trip than in all the years through college and law school. Pretty powerful statement uh? Look forward for my postings in the next couple of months about how we planned and executed this plan to cruise along the continent.

Here's a map highlited with the places I've visited so far. I will post another one after the road trip with all the new countries we cruised by.

Yeha, that's Antartica you see there as one of the countries I've been to, but that's a whole other story. Look forward to that one in another blog.