Diary & Travel Reports from the saddle

Passionate Argentina, 30 November 2003

Hi,

I am still very much alive and well. It's over a month since the last update. Stopping to summarise the progress of one's whole purpose on this planet every few weeks can be challenging and occasionally I don't want to.

In fact I was trying to figure out the Brazilians before emailing you, but that seems to be impossible because the place is so big. Then so many things started to happen, like miles under my wheels and lots of contact with motorcyclists.

Buenos Aires reminds me of Europe, particularly Brussels in fact, though far bigger. It's similar to London with at least 10-20,000 motorcycle dispatch riders though no-one can give a real figure and the government has no clue.

They ride like the crazy Parisian riders and hang out on the Avenues in the center drinking beer and smoking marijuana. The car drivers on the other hand are more of a threat to motorcycle safety than any other place on earth. At least that is how I feel after being (softly) rear-ended at a traffic light the other day. Even if I had punched the guy I'm sure he would not have understood what he did wrong! Like every city there are far too many cars.

There is something special about the relationship between Argentinians and their country, some talk about it with a passion, a fire in their eyes. They say you cannot live here unless you love it. Their history is a bit of a love affair. A military government took power soon after the death of Peron and his much loved and famous wife Eva. Many innocent students disappeared at the hands of militants. The bikers' rights organization was banned. Only one generation has passed between then and now. Even now people seem to be afraid to stand up and speak out and there is big distrust between the people and any sort of organisation. The most common question about my ride and motivation for addressing the riders about their rights is 'who is paying for it?' Once they know that is nearly all my own money they are much more comfortable.

I think the people are slowly building the confidence once again to improve their society, the biggest problem being corruption seemingly at all levels everywhere. Motorcycle theft is the biggest problem in this city, and the police are accomplices, imagine that! A few people think things will never change, some think it will take another generation and others believe it can start now. I suggested that a bikers rights organization could help in some small way towards freedom and democracy, the response was, yes, but only by a miniscule percentage. He was right, but it is better than nothing, because presently everyone else is doing Sweet FA, apart from making the revolution around a coffee table. A lawyer told me things probably cannot change without bloodshed. I'm sure that the bikers can carve out a niche without the need for that though.

I am staying with my great new friends Sandra and Javier Kaper and family, friends of Ricardo Rocco, and with them am promoting my presentation tomorrow at the 4 x 4 Café.

They started an internet discussion list among the motorcyclists about their rights. Argentina seems to have the most corrupt traffic police in the world and a new BA rule under discussion is that your bike will be confiscated if caught riding helmetless. About 50% do so now. I am impressed by Argentinian bikers' readiness to help foreign motorcycle travelers, there is even a national network standing by to pamper us! I tell them the best way they can help us is by getting organized, promoting their own rights locally and nationally, and participating in our global movement. They pamper us but ignore the big and legitimate needs of their own!

I hope to meet the local UNICEF boss here next week to talk about health services for children in Argentina's rural northern provinces. We have a motorcycle solution to a big problem, as shown by a letter (on my webpage) from the Secretary of Health in Jujuy Province that needs 50 small motorcycles. Bolivia does more for their poor rural populations' health than does Argentina. UNICEF was instrumental in the establishment of Riders for Health in Africa many years ago, an organization unequalled in giving more 'bangs for bucks' in terms of rural populations' health.

Next Wednesday I'll be heading south once again. It is nice to be in line with the seasons like this, although the TV news showed heavy snow (the first for 20 years in November) in Ushuaia at the tip of South America, 3,000km away. I'll be there on 31 December. On the way I shall stop to make a few presentations here and there at motorcycle meetings. I will use the 6 weeks of nature to chill out a bit, maybe catch a ride to Antarctica on a passing iceberg.

BRAZIL

Rio de Janeiro - The free parts (sponsored by Rotax after my carelessness) for my engine rebuild were delivered by DHL accompanied by a $2000 tax bill! All the people in the vicinity immediately became aware of the issue at hand, as I stole the parts out of the van and told the delivery man to get lost. No-one was prepared to help with the getaway, and the police were on their way. I cradled the large box in my arms before sadly giving it back. So close yet so far away. It was another week before I had the parts in my possession with a tax cost of $200, kindly resent differently.

Some of this time I camped in the workshop of Quicas in Barra de Tijuca, who had offered his place to do the bike work. Other nights I was a guest of Dr Ben Gilbert, a well known researcher of medicinal cures found in Amazonia, university professor and one of the most amazing persons I have ever met. He lives just beneath the Sugar Loaf. This is the famous dome shaped rock from where you can look west and see Christ's statue way up on the mountain. I joined Ben for 6am swims in the sea nearby and also at the Anglican Christ Church and All Saints, which itself was a bit of a landmark on my spiritual journey! (Thanks Simon and Ruth.)

Ben told me the truth of the rainforest. The destruction continues unabated despite the best attempts to stop it. The mighty dollar has won. The rainforest will totally disappear in the coming years. Nobody protests now. Nobody replants. Goodbye.

Oh let's ignore it. Suffocation can't be that bad. Rio is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the different suburbs being separated by dramatic solid rock mountains, the bays, beaches and boats. The curved Copacabana beach is impressively lined with white high rise apartment blocks. At the first hint of sun, Rio people head straight to the beaches that are usually packed by 10am. There is a lot of gaiety (old sense of the word) in Rio, with their year-round preparations for the famous anything-goes carnival in February.

In Sao Paulo, a massive city, I found some of the people to be arrogant and selfish. I stayed enough time to change my tyres (many thanks eventually to Metzeler for the Pirellis, along with Casa Fernandez and Red Baron.) Further south in Brazil the people warmed up considerably. In Florianópolis in Santa Catarina State I stayed for a few days at La Toca, a room set aside for motorcycle travelers by Cicera Paes, and made my presentation to the riders. Many thanks to Touperas MC and the three months old state motorcyclists' organization AMO-SC.

The best organized and most effective bikers rights group I have met since the USA is AMO-RS, the state rights group in Rio Grand do Sul, Brazil's most southern State. I visited the President Leandro Balardin in Cachoeira do Sul and made my presentation there. This group successfully stopped a state wide rule mandating number plate number on helmets and clothing a la Colombia. They then went on to defeat the same proposal on a national basis.

(Incidentally the head of the AMO of Rio de Janeiro office twice refused to meet me, even once when I was in the room next door in his own offices. I think he will be gone soon.)

URUGUAY

Sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina on the Atlantic coast. There is one thing the Uruguayans would like you to know: they are peace lovers. What with just a 3-4 million population, everyone in Uruguay knows each other. They are extremely friendly. I stopped to ask some policemen for directions. Within a few minutes they had me sat at their desk in their kiosk tucking into a big plate of pasta and sauce whilst they were on the phone making contact and getting directions for something called the Motorcyclist Center in Montevideo.

The country inland is flat and windy. Cattle rearing is the main activity, the grass is so good it grows right up to the sea. I was wonderful to see hundreds of thousands of newly planted trees, hardly enough to compensate the continuing destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil but nevertheless a heartening sight.

I stayed with Pocho for a few nights, the most famous Uruguayan motorcyclist who had traveled the Americas on his 500cc Honda and founded the motorcycle center, sort of an information point and cafeteria. Pocho's bike has an oven. He fits a home made exhaust for his trips, one that has a second chamber wrapped round the silencer, in which chunks of meat are cooked on a spit, during 160km.

Fortunately there was a meeting of club representatives that I was able to address about motorcycle rights. I am hopeful that they will participate in a Latin American initiative though there are few national or local issues right now. I apologize for now staying longer in this happy and friendly country.

Motos x Salud

Lastly, concerning health deliveries in poor rural Latin America, there are three categories of health ministries:

1. Those that do not use motorcycles but have a great need including southern Mexico, Ecuador, Paraguay and northern Argentina.
2. Those that use motorcycles extensively but have a big need for maintenance and training: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru and Bolivia.
3. Those that use motorcycles but the money for maintenance is stolen: Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica.

Now that we know where we stand we can start to do something. Unfortunately the only thing holding us up is the tax status of Motorcycle Outreach. This is the US organization we founded to support motorcycles in health delivery. We have been waiting on the Internal Revenue Service now for a year and a half. Without the necessary letter confirming 501c3 status we cannot submit projects to funding agencies. We have a project waiting to go and a foundation that said the idea was 'very very interesting'. We need the IRS letter now. Furthermore Charly from Paraguay will be trained, at his own cost, as well as Ricardo from Ecuador for whom we're asking funds (we need another $2500). It makes sense to train these two Latin Americans together for a variety of reasons. Your prayers or your checkbook about this would be very much appreciated please.

Lastly please let me know if you would like to receive Spanish updates, they are on my webpage. They are not straight translations of these, they are even less frequent but a little more focused. And shorter.

Cheerio, Simon

A solo fundraising round the world ride on a handmade motorcycle.
Supporting Doctors Without Borders and Health For All.

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