I recently was looking through the pictures from this year's Hopkins 4K for Cancer ride (click link on the right side). Back then, that trip was amazing, and it still is. But after experiencing Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia (sadly I didn't make it to Colombia), a USA cross-country trip is, well, tame! The highest point on the 4K trip was just over 12,000ft, but we spent over a month (freezing my ass off, mind you) over 13,000ft. I also thought I took a lot of pictures back then, hah! My count this time is just over 10,000 pictures, and if you include the others' photos that number goes up to more than 20,000. Now you see why I really had to limit myself posting to this blog, haha. In 2005, it took me 2 months riding with the 4K group to go from Atlantic to Pacific waters. In Tierra del Fuego, I saw both Pacific and Atlantic waters in a single day, crossing an international border while I was at it as well! Basically what I'm saying is while the US has quite a bit to offer, the world as a whole has so much more and it's not that inaccessible either. Miami, for example, is closer to Colombia (my next destination, I hope) than to San Francisco!
Looking back, there have been a few important, personal lessons learned from life on the road with a bicycle and from meeting a different crowd of people. I'm not at all afraid to be out of my element so to speak, to visit other places. People are people everywhere, we worry, hope for, and laugh at the same things. You just can't be afraid to dive in and strike up a conversation. One of my favorite pictures is this one because it shows more than just the beautiful scenery, in a way it represents the coming together of two cultures. There, we were passing through the road blockade in Potosi, but instead of riding right through I stopped to talk to the people and ask them why they were protesting. In my med school application essay, my opening line was "Fear breeds motivation." While not incorrect, it doesn't capture the whole essence of the word fear. In this case, I see how erasing fear of other cultures can open your eyes to a whole new understanding of life and what the truly important things are. I remember on a bus sitting next to a Bolivian man, we had a fairly long conversation (this being at the end of the trip when my Spanish was at its best). During that, he was so fixated on the vast difference in wealth between the US and Bolivia. I tried to explain to him that money isn't at the top of the list in order to lead a fulfilling life. What happens when you have everything you could want and then some, as is the case here? Driving back home from the Detroit airport, I saw all these expensive cars on the road and I thought to myself, so what? It doesn't impress me, it's just something for trivial people. Nevertheless, the man was still interested in coming to the US to find work ($5/hr vs. $5/day) and perhaps a new wife as well (I told him he needed to learn English to have a shot at that). To be honest, I felt as though I could, and did, get closer to random people down there than is at all possible here in the US. When was the last time you stopped to have a small conversation with a stranger?
Let me talk a bit about the three countries I visited.
Argentina - It probably has the best balance between modern, comfortable life, beautiful scenery, friendly people, and absolutely incredible (oh my god!) food and wine. I'm especially talking about 'asado', which is basically grilled meat. The people just love to have a BBQ, it's their national passtime. Almost every single house has some sort of non-portable, concrete-based grill. It's that important to them! For people who love camping, who love to just have a good time listening to music and grilling the best meat you'll ever taste (oh..my..god!), this is the place to go. Not to knock on the Chileans, but once (actually not the only time) we were riding along the Lago General Carrera when a passing car stopped to ask us what the hell we were doing, where we were going, and how was the trip so far. Argentines? You better believe it. They are incredibly friendly and open to strangers, curious and unabashed is perhaps a better description. There is just a love of life in the air in Argentina. Another time I met Jesus while riding alone, he was on his motorbike and me on the pedal bike. We both stopped, started chatting, and had a little photoshoot for about 10 minutes. It was great!
Chile - This is the land of rustic beauty. Sorry to say, but they weren't as friendly as the Argentines, and the food wasn't as good either. And for crying out loud, someone tell them to speak...more...slowly. I couldn't understand almost ANYTHING they were saying because they all speak like damn auctioneers! Ok, rant over. Inch for inch, the volcanoes and mountains in Chile are second to none. Perhaps my favorite day trip was hiking up to the top of Volcan Calbuco. I'd even suggest the government of Chile declare all of the Carretera Austral to be a national park. There's a reason why Torres del Paine was great, but not absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous, and that's because I'd been seeing terrain like that for weeks prior to my hike! There are really only two problems with Chile. First, since it's so long and narrow, you have to travel forever to get from place to place. Second, I just wish they would be a little more friendly :-( Certainly they have the most money and education of South America, but remember what I said above? Those don't impress me much anymore, well...the money part, education should always be a priority.
Bolivia - This is the country of extremes. Sometimes I hated it the most, sometimes I loved it the most. It is the most rewarding, but most demanding as well. Warm showers, for example, were hard to come by. Llama meat isn't that great, but you can't really get any other kind of steak. The fresh fruits are like ambrosia, though, and the scenery in the antiplano is like a Dali painting, certainly offsetting the need for coca leaves at such high altitude and low temperatures. The jungle and lowland regions were by far my favorite, despite the 100 or so bug bites I got during my time there. The girls, haha, I was warned about by Julian. They aren't the prettiest, until Matan and I started looking around the Yunga region and started seeing these jaw-dropping gorgeous women. God if there was ever a place to search for models...Despite everything the modern world has brought Bolivia, things really haven't changed. The people to this day carry their identity as though the Incan empire was still around. As much as people love their SUVs and trucks here in the US, the Bolivians actually NEED them to get around (sometimes literally impossible otherwise). Unlike in Argentina, it still blows my mind that their national passtime is protesting. For a whole country to just shut down for a few days is unbelievable, but that is business as usual.
I'm not sure how I'll return, or when for that matter, but I do hope to get back down to South America. If anything to show my family what it was like. Speaking of which, anybody who is planning on traveling in any of the three countries listed above, I can really help and truth be told probably know more than most travel agents booking trips. Maybe something pressing might come to mind, but this will probably be the last post on this blog unless anybody asks specific questions that I can answer for the benefit of everyone. Other than that, it's been a wonderful trip and I would like to thank everyone who kept tabs on me during my ride. Markus is still on the road until the end of the month, so make sure to follow his blog as he may continue riding in Asia fairly soon... Alright, that's it for now, ciao ciao!
