The Open Roads of Latin America

 Although I live practically at the doorstep of Latin America, for many years it didn't capture my interest beyond just cursory curiosity. I had rudimentary knowledge of its history and its geographical wonders. Motorcycle Diaries changed all that in two hours. It was 2004 and we had two hours to kill and walked into a Landmark Theater picking this movie at a recommendation of a friend not knowing it was Che's story and with no expectations. The movie changed everything for me. I became restless to see all the glorious landscapes and meet the people of this fabulous continent and although not as adventurous as the young Che, I've headed South for many a vacations this past decade.

One thing led to another and I was reading Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Eduardo Galleano and even biographies of Humboldt, Darwin and the scientists of the age of discovery all featured this magnificent continent. South America changed these men and in its own way it changed me. Setting aside motherhood, I would rate the W Circuit as the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done. These days when I am closeted in my home my mind wanders to all the places I saw in the beautiful continent down below and nostalgia overwhelms me. As a vegan I found Latin America an easy place to find food - rice and beans and fresh fruit and vegetables were available everywhere. From the mercain peppers of Chile to the heart of palms in Ecuador, coca tea in Peru, and simple pico-de-gallo in Costa Rica I never once felt out-of-place as I sometimes did when I traveled in Europe. Despite the dark history of colonialism I also found in places like Ecuador and Peru the Native Americans of South America were not rendered invisible. Many people I met in these travels claimed mixed heritage.

Arenal Volcano - Costa Rica

Napo River - Amazonian Ecuador

Chinchero weaving - Peru

Incan terraces Sacred Valley

Machu Pichu

Mayan Ruins - Belize

Rio-Frio Caves, Cayo Belize

Patagonian lakes - Chile

Mirador Del Torres - W circuit, Chile

I just wrapped up Janet Browne's first volume of Darwin's biography (Voyaging) which covered his voyage with the Beagle. No experience or no person was trivial for Darwin. Despite a Victorian mindset, he was willing to learn from anyone and from anything. Without the five years of traveling with the Beagle, and his encounter with the natives of Tierra Del Fuego, Darwin would have never become Darwin.  Similarly, whatever one thinks of Che, one cannot deny that his motorcycle travels opened his eyes and changed him. In this age of hyper-specialization we sometimes force our kids to pick and choose too early. We forget that personality changes more than we think and as David Epstein reminds us in his book Range, unanticipated experiences will lead to unanticipated goals and growth.  I know I am very fortunate to have traveled through this continent and seen these sights. While I cannot claim to have been transformed like Darwin or Humboldt or Che, these experiences made me re-learn history and question my assumptions and biases.

I am still processing what travels through South America has meant for me, but there is no denying that they have touched me in unforeseen ways. These days when we talk about privilege my teen is often frustrated how even these discussions are so anthropocentric. She constantly questions the privilege that our species claims over other species and the arrogance that is associated with that privilege. In the last five hundred years the theories of Copernicus, Darwin, and Turing have slowly chipped away at our privileged position in the universe. Humility instead of hubris is needed as we face new and unprecedented challenges in the coming decades.Traveling in South America is a lesson in human geography - a reminder that our landscapes affect us and we affect our landscapes. I remember much hue and cry was raised when Hugo Chavez gifted President Obama The Open Veins of Latin America. Both its veins and its roads have much to teach if only we are open to learning.