 |
|
“The problem is that, unversed in the local language, their vision framed by the boilerplate of literature, [travelers] often fail to see the new land with their own eyes. Gradually, a kind of self-creating travel circuit emerges, reinforced by travelers who have read the same books; the route becomes populated by people enthusiastically confirming one another’s prejudices.”
–Taras Grescoe, End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists (2003)
I just finished reading James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential, the first piece of crime-genre fiction I’ve read in years. It was complex and engrossing, and I had a hard time putting it down on my recent transit flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was particularly struck by how different it was from the 1997 movie of the same name — and it left me with a lot of respect for whoever adapted it into a screenplay, since the screen version of L.A. Confidential does a very good job of using the same characters to tell a rather different and more condensed story. I had a similar reaction when I read Michael Ondjaate’s The English Patient: I found the book to be a much different story from the movie, though both versions worked well for me.
There’s an old clich
“I don’t believe in doing work I don’t want to do in order to live the way I don’t want to live.”
–Edward Abbey, The Fool’s Progress (1988)
A couple of days ago — after over three months and nearly 14,000 miles of driving across 12 countries — the Drive Around the World expedition reached the end of the road in South America. Based from the city of Ushuaia (a staging area for Antarctic expeditions), we drove three hours southeast on Route J, which ended at a radio station along the Beagle Channel. This is as far south as one can drive in the Americas.
This milestone also marks my departure from the Drive Around the World expedition, as I am due to write stories about Rio and the Mississippi River in coming weeks. It’s been quite a ride these three months, and a privilege to be able to travel from San Francisco to the Straits of Magellan overland. It was also quite a trip to travel with eight other people after all these years of vagabonding by myself. I’ll miss my DATW teammates, and I hope to catch up with them somewhere in the world before long, as the expedition continues to Oceania, Asia, and Russia in coming months. Check out the DATW journal to see what we’ve done recently, and where the team is headed next.
At the moment, I have just landed in Buenos Aires, where I am making preparations to head to Rio for the 2004 Carnival celebrations. I’m due to write that experience up for a magazine, but I hope to at least share some photos here soon!
“In some ways, Europe and America are more alike than ever. The level of commercial interpenetration, the number of young people choosing to study and work across the Atlantic, and the spread of a common mass culture from Disney and The Sopranos to reality TV and Pen
“Fortunately, embracing the spiritual side of travel doesn’t require that you don a robe and lose your mind. What we know as personal travel, after all, is the historical legacy not of exploration or commerce, but of pilgrimage — the non-political, non-material quest for private discovery and growth. Indeed, regardless of whether or not you consider your vagabonding journey to be “spiritual”, self-motivated travel has always been intertwined with the personal workings of the soul.”
–Rolf Potts, Vagabonding (2003)
“We clutter the earth with our inventions, never dreaming that possibly they are unnecessary — or disadvantageous. We devise astounding means of communication, but do we communicate with one another? We move our bodies to and fro and incredible speeds, but do we really leave the spot we started from? Mentally, morally, spiritually, we are fettered. What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning?”
–Henry Miller, World of Sex (1940)
[Above: A girl in traditional Incan clothing, near Cusco, Peru.]
Greetings from the mountain resort town Pucon, Chile. I am posting this blog in advance, since in coming days I will mostly be out of contact, as our Land Rover expedition travels the remote “Astral Highway” through southern Chile into Argentinian Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
For now, I wanted to post photos from our journey through the amazing country of Peru. Each text description below pops into its own picture window.
Drive Around the World Land Rovers camped for the night on a desert beach in northern Peru.
An aerial shot of DATW vehicles driving past the mysterious geoplyphs of Nazca.
An aerial shot of DATW vehicles in the desert plateau of southern Peru.
A rare, llama-like vicuna on the Peruvian pampas east of Nazca. (A coat of vicuna wool is said to sell for $5000.)
Flamingoes hanging out at a 15,000-foot Andean pass in the Peruvian altiplano.
A boy and his dog in the highlands near Cusco.
A kid and his falcon in the highlands near Cusco.
A Peruvian man sporting a fedora in a small Andean mountain town.
A night-time shot of the lovely city of Cusco, a one-time colonial town and former Incan capital.
An Incan guitarist performs in the streets of Cusco.
Rolf and an expedition Land Rover in a posed publicity shot.
Sheep in the road in the Andes.
Justin and Nancy digging a Rover out of the mud near Puno.
Yes: They do eat guinea pig for dinner in Peru!
