Riding the Americas

by Alastair Humphreys

  Cycling Through Colombia

  Cycling is a popular sport in Colombia and Tom was often overtaken by speedy cyclists in proper outfits on shiny racing bikes. Usually he was faster than other people on bicycles – children on their way to school, farmers heading to market with a couple of chickens or a pig tied to the backs of their bikes – but in Colombia he felt slow and heavy as his bike was loaded down with camping gear and supplies. Riding at this snail’s pace did, however, give him a chance to chat with equally slow locals. Tom always enjoyed riding side-by-side with other cyclists and finding out more about the country he was in.

  One sunny morning, Pedro and Maria were cycling to the market to do some shopping for their mum when Tom caught them up.

  “¡Hola!” called Tom.

  “¡Hola!” replied the boy and girl. “¿Cómo estás? How are you?”

  “Muy bien, gracias. Very well, thank you! ¿Cómo te llamas? What is your name?”

  “Me llamo Pedro. I’m called Pedro. Maria es mi hermana – my sister.”

  “Me llamo Tom” replied Tom. “I’m cycling round the world, alrededor del mundo.”

  The children laughed. Cycling to the shops sounded easy compared to cycling round the world.

  “Isn’t is dangerous? A bit crazy? ¿Un poco loco?” asked Maria.

  Now it was Tom’s turn to laugh. So often when he told people about his adventures they would ask exactly the same question. Tom thought back over his journey and how often people had treated him kindly. A few people think every country in the world is scary. Most people think that a few spots are dangerous. And everyone always wanted to offer advice.

  “Don’t go to that country!” he would hear. “It is very dangerous.”

  “Watch out for the people there – they are all robbers.”

  When Tom first heard warnings like this he used to get very worried and think, “Oh dear! I don’t think I should ride through there.”

  But over the thousands of miles he had ridden, Tom had learned that the best thing to do was to ask them a question: “Have you been to that country yourself?” Almost always the person had to admit that he or she had never actually been there and so really didn’t know what they were talking about.

  Tom remembered Sergeant Sharif and Sergeant Amarri – border guards in two different African countries who had stood staring suspiciously across a border gate at each other for years. Tom had persuaded them to have a chat with each other, and they became good friends. So he was used to people thinking that the world was more dangerous than it really is. The reason that he laughed especially loudly when Maria asked if his adventure was dangerous was because they were in Colombia. Of all the countries that Tom visited in South America, nothing had got people more worried than Colombia. For many years it has had lots of problems and been known as a place to avoid.

  Tom explained this to Pedro and Maria. “Everyone told me that Colombia was dangerous! They told me I should not visit.”

  “Colombia’s not dangerous!” cried the two children together. They were pedalling up a steep hill at the time so were all a little out of breath. “This is our country and we love it. We are good people.”

  When you see wars and fighting on the television news it can be hard to remember that, amongst the bad things, most people in those countries are just nice, normal people like you and me, trying their best to get on with life as peacefully as they can.

  The three children arrived at a junction in the road. Tom needed to turn right – derecho; Maria and Pedro were going left – izquierda. But before they said goodbye Pedro said to Tom, “I hope you enjoy the rest of our beautiful country. You will have a good time here. Just be careful when you get to the United States. Now that is a dangerous country. I know it is – I’ve seen it in the movies … ¡Adios, amigo!”

  Tom laughed and waved goodbye, shaking his head. The more people he met, the more he realised how similar most of us are.

  Colombia’s villages were small and sleepy, often set on the bank of a clear river that ran along a bed of polished stones. Children played games outside their homes and grandparents watched from gently swinging hammocks hanging in the shade beneath banana trees. The mighty mountains of South America had shrunk to steep hills by the time Tom got to Colombia. But now, even these had faded out into hot, flat, dusty plains. Tom was getting close to the end of South America. It was an exciting moment – it meant that Tom would be halfway to Alaska!

  At last, he rounded a corner and there in front of him was the sea. No more mountains to climb. No more guinea pigs to eat. He had reached the end of the continent. Nine months after dipping his fingers into the cold sea down in Patagonia, the gentle Caribbean water was a gorgeously warm end to his ride through South America.

  Tom sat down on the beach next to his bike. He took off his socks and shoes and wiggled his toes in the warm sand. He was happy to have reached the ocean once again. He felt proud to have ridden all the way up South America. He knew that many challenges still lay ahead, but right now it was time to celebrate. He reached into his pannier and pulled out a ready-made, double-sized banana sandwich that he had been saving especially.

  Tom was a very happy boy.

  Canals and Crocodiles

  The area where South America and North America connect is covered in dense jungle. Tall trees are packed tightly together, reaching up towards the sky. The ground is covered with undergrowth and deep swamps. Snakes curl round tangled creepers and monkeys swing high through the canopy.

  Even in our modern, crowded world there are still places in the world that you can’t get to by road. There are still a lot of wild places out there. The only way to move through this jungle is to hack your way through with a machete. Tom certainly could not ride through on a heavily-loaded bicycle.

  Instead, he needed to sail round the jungle. Tom could then cycle from the bottom of North America up through the small Central American countries of Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize. Then, after riding through Mexico, he would cross the border into the United States of America and ride north into Canada reaching – at long, long last – Alaska.

  Tom set sail on a small sailing boat towards Panama.

  The Panama Canal links the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is a shortcut for ships between the two oceans. Before the canal was built, ships had to sail all the way round Cape Horn at the foot of South America where Tom had ridden from: a journey of 8000 miles that took about two months in a ship. So taking a day to sail 50 miles through a canal is a much better alternative for ships! Cape Horn is also very dangerous because of the wild and stormy seas down there. Tom was looking forward to sailing through the canal – the world feels very different from a boat.

  After the crossing, though, he couldn’t wait to get back on his bike, his favourite place. The weather was hot and sunny. But each afternoon at about 3 o’clock, clouds began to build in the sky – big black thunderclouds. Tom knew what was about to happen. He was going to get very wet! As if on cue, the first raindrops fell. In moments the rain was harder than any Tom had ever seen. It bounced on the road and rattled on the roofs of cars. Passing traffic splashed through puddles, spraying Tom with even more water. It was good fun. And the tropical rain was nice and warm.

  He was soaked to the skin in seconds. Tom’s equipment was wrapped safely inside plastic bags to stay dry, but his body and clothes were as wet as if he had just stood, fully dressed, under a shower. In fact, these were Tom’s showers. He didn’t get the chance to wash very often, so these rainstorms were a chance to clean up a little. If you want to cycle around the world you have to get used to being a bit smelly!

  Under some trees, three boys sheltered from the rain. As Tom passed, they held an enormous lizard up in the air. The lizard’s feet were tied together to stop it running away. The boys had caught the lizard in the jungle and now were trying to sell
it to someone to keep as a pet. Dangling by its back legs, the lizard didn’t look very happy at being taken out of the jungle. Tom felt sorry for the lizard. But he also knew that these boys were really poor and that in many places in the world it is hard to earn enough money to live on.

  But Tom didn’t think that a lizard would be the most sensible pet to take with him on his journey round the world, so he just waved at the boys and kept on riding into the rain. Just then the rain stopped, as suddenly as it had begun. The clouds disappeared and the sun came out. The road steamed as it dried in the sunshine. And Tom steamed too as he dried out! This mixture of sunshine and rain is why plants grow so well in tropical parts of the world.

  Lots of rain also means lots of rivers. The road ran close to the sea so the rivers were wide and slow as they neared the end of their journey. On the right side of the road was jungle. The jungle was hot, green, dark and noisy with squeaking, roaring, clicking, singing creatures. On the left hand side, the roaring green waves of the Pacific Ocean smashed onto a thin sandy beach.

  Tom enjoyed stopping on bridges and peering down into the water below. If he looked carefully he often spotted crocodiles! They lay half-submerged and very still. They looked just like logs in the river. Tom did not know whether the crocodiles were sleeping or waiting to catch their lunch. Whichever one it was, he was not going to take the risk of going for a swim!

  The days were hot and sweaty. Tom could not cool off by swimming in rivers like he usually did because of the crocodiles. Instead he would treat himself to a drink of refreshing sugarcane juice when he reached a village. The sugar that we use at home comes originally from a woody plant like bamboo, called sugarcane. In every village someone would be selling the juice, squeezed from the cane through a mangle and served with ice and a squeezed lemon. It was delicious!

  Volcanoes, Jungle and Desert Mirages

  Costa Rica has six active volcanoes and today, Tom was going to see one in action. When he arrived, he pitched his tent on a patch of grass at the foot of the volcano. Throughout the day, smoke spewed up into the sky. Once night fell, Tom could see that glowing molten lava splashed and spurted out of the top, creating a red and orange glow above. Rumbling sounds burst from deep down inside the heart of the Earth.

  Lava is liquid rock, so hot that it has melted. The centre of our planet is filled with boiling, liquid rock. (It’s called magma when it’s underground, lava once it’s burst through the surface.) When it finds a crack in the surface of the Earth, the lava squeezes or bursts out, over time forming a volcano. Tom shuddered as he thought ahead to all the volcanoes he would cycle past in the weeks to come – an evil dictator used to get rid of his enemies by throwing them into the bubbling craters!

  Fireflies flashed in the sky around the tent as he watched the volcano’s display. It is incredible that a tiny insect can make its body glow. This is how fireflies send each other messages. Tom couldn’t quite work out which muscles he needed to squeeze in order to make his own bum glow!

  He liked to begin as early as possible because his favourite time of day to ride the dusty jungle roads was dawn. Once the sun climbed high into the sky, the temperature rose and all the sensible animals settled down to snooze through the hot part of the day. Only one stupid animal could still be seen: a sweaty young boy called Tom! He had so many miles to ride before he arrived back home that he could not afford to spend hours and hours sleeping like the local animals.

  But at dawn, the jungle was still alive. Animals and birds called from the dark, humid forest that surrounded him. It was a thrilling, wild feeling to cycle through here. Tom saw brightly coloured, poisonous tree frogs, a large hairy tarantula, brilliant toucans and a lazy hanging sloth. There was the constant racket of shrieking parrots and, noisiest of all, the howler monkeys – which are the loudest animals in the world. Their call can be heard three miles away. Once, nearby in the trees, he even heard the coughing call of a jaguar.

  Tom pushed down hard on his pedals with excitement. He was in Guatemala now, on his way to Tikal, the ruins of an ancient Maya city. Like Machu Picchu, Tikal has been almost completely swallowed up by jungle. But it is much older. It is almost 2000 years old. Only a few magnificent stone pyramids still stand amongst the trees. These pyramids were like the grand churches or mosques of their time, used for worship.

  Tom found it amazing to stand on top of the highest pyramid, stare around, and see nothing but jungle in all directions, while funny little animals like raccoons – called coatimundis – snuffled around his feet looking for food. He tried to imagine a great Maya city here but the thick jungle felt as if it had been here forever. He tried to imagine standing at the top of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, or the Statue of Liberty and seeing nothing spreading out below but jungle for as far as his eyes could see. Tikal was once an important city to which everyone in the region flocked. But now it had faded, declined and almost totally disappeared.

  As Tom pedalled north into Mexico the jungle disappeared, too, and gave way to desert. The road also improved. It was a joy to ride on smooth tarmac again; cycling feels so fast and quiet on a good road. The hot black road shimmered in the heat in the Sonora Desert, the hottest desert in North America. Roadrunner birds scampered to and fro. Snakes basked on the road, absorbing the warmth into their bodies. As he cycled past they slithered in S-shaped curves away from his wheels into the safety of the desert. Off in the distance, mirages teased young Tom. They looked like delicious lakes. He dreamed of dunking his head and drinking as much cold water as he could, as he was very hot and sweaty and thirsty.

  “It’s too hot!” Tom complained (forgetting his promise in Patagonia never ever to complain about the heat again!)

  He pedalled on, dreaming of jumping into a lake with all his clothes on. But there was not any water out here at all, only mirages. Tom had to ration his drinking water carefully. He wished he could tip a whole bottle of water over his head, but he knew that he had to save it for drinking. He thought about how much water he wasted at home – having a shower for ages or brushing his teeth with the tap running. Out in the desert, every drop of water counts.

  Whenever he came across a small village, Tom stocked up on bananas and tortillas. Tortillas, made from corn, are the Mexican version of bread, round and flat like a pancake. Wrapped around a banana they make a good Mexican-style banana sandwich! Tom toasted his tortillas on small campfires amongst columns of tall, spiky cacti. Shadows from the fires flickered across the dark desert floor.

  As much as he loved banana tortillas, Tom also liked the delicious chicken tacos that are sold in every village in Mexico. He wanted to make them when he got back to England, so he copied down this recipe:

  INGREDIENTS:

  Thin strips of chicken breast

  Thinly sliced onion, red and green peppers, tomatoes

  Garlic, red chilli, coriander and lemon juice

  Tortillas

  Fry the chicken, onion and peppers in a hot pan with a little olive oil.

  Make the salsa (the best bit) by chopping up, really small, red onion, green pepper, tomatoes, coriander and chilli. Mix it all up and squeeze on some lemon juice and a little olive oil.

  Once the chicken is cooked, pop it all into a tortilla, fold it carefully in half, and eat your taco!

  If you are brave, add extra slices of chilli, or a big dollop of guacamole (avocado mushed up with onion, chilli and oil).

  Delicious! Sabroso!

  Even though there was a proper road in Mexico, the desert was gruelling to ride through, because the days were so very long and hot. But at night it was cold, and ice formed on the outside of the tent, so the nights here were tough as well. As Tom sat huddled beside his campfire, he noticed that the moon in the sky was growing a little smaller each night. By the time the moon was new again he would be in the United States of America. This was the biggest country on his journey so far, and he was excited to go and ex
plore it for himself.

  Hollywood and Giant Redwoods

  Crossing from Mexico into the United States of America was a shock. Tom was used to crossing borders – showing his passport, getting it stamped, riding into the next country. But the USA felt different. People spoke English, which made life easier, even though Tom had learned quite a bit of Spanish. But the real shock was being in a rich country. America was the richest country that Tom had cycled through for a long, long time – since Europe at the beginning of his ride.

  As he cycled through the USA, Tom looked around in amazement. All the roads were smooth, even the ones through small villages! There were road signs at junctions! Taps had safe drinking water! Shops had food for sale!

  These things had felt normal to Tom before he began cycling round the world. But now that he had seen so many poor countries, he had learned to appreciate things that didn’t used to seem important.

  In most countries people looked at Tom cycling past on a bike with his panniers attached, and thought,

  “Look at that boy! He has a bike and all those bags. He must be really rich!”

  Now, in the USA, people looked at Tom and thought,

  “Look at that boy! All he has is a bike and those few bags. He must be really poor.”

  Tom didn’t care if he was rich or poor. He felt like the richest person in the world because he was out having a brilliant adventure and spending his days doing something that he loved.

  Quite a lot of the USA looked familiar, even though Tom had never been here before. This is because American films, television, cartoons, comics and music are so common around the world. As he cycled along, he kept spotting tiny details of American life that made him feel as though he was cycling through a film set rather than it being real life. He saw yellow school buses like on TV, post boxes on stands at the bottom of people’s gardens, doughnut shops and the police cars he was used to seeing chasing bad guys across town!