In San Jose, Costa Rica summer 1968, after serving two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Puerto Limón, Costa Rica, I bought a CD-175 Honda and rode the Panamericana to the States. I was in Mexico City for the Tlatelolco Massacre and the 1968 Olympic Games.
Reading Touring Ted's post made me remember returning to Costa Rica years later and yes, the Panamericana was finally totally paved, and yes Costa Rica was no longer the only country in the world without a road to its' principal port, and yes, IBM and other multinational companies were employing tens of thousands of Costa Ricans, and yes locally owned co-operatives were displacing the multinational fruit companies and yes the Colegio de Limón finally had a real gym instead of the basketball court my students and I built, and yes the people, not only the Port, Police and Hospital had telephones, and there was much less malnutrition and yes, the first aid station I helped to build in the jungle (now called rain forest for funding purposes) was replaced by a modern hospital, and yes there were hippies and surfers roaming the sandy streets of Cahuita, yes my students had done exceptionally well, Quince became a very successful professor and author, another became Costa Rica's Ambassador to Jamaica, and my girlfriend Kumari's brother became the Minister of Education. Somehow during my many visits to Costa Rica the pain of the paving of the Panamericana was lessened when I learned how well my students had done. Meeting their children and knowing their world was a much better world than the world their parents knew....and when I lay in bed at night and remember I was a part of all that, I feel good inside.
After riding South America in 2004, I rode South America two more times, finally settling permanently in Pinamar, Argentina. I do not resent or miss at all not having GPS and not having a cell phone and I don't miss rolling into a village and asking around if anyone had a room to rent for the night or where I could hang my hammock or put up my tent.
For you see, I have changed too. I have learned to bush camp. Argentina is a big country and it is more rural than developed, you can even discover this without gps, just look at a map. But most importantly I have learned it is the people who are important, not the place.
I married Kumari, and we were the very first bi-racial couple on Chuck Barris's NewlyWed Game broadcast nationally on NBC television 04july1969. After, I helped cover the immigrants and the Chicano student protests as a cub reporter with he LA Times and I worked with Ruben Salazar during the Anti Vietnam war protests.
It was people along the way, their friendship, not riding the Panamericana, not riding 65,000 K through South America, not riding from Spain to Turkey and back and not riding Mexico and the Southeast and Southern States and not even riding California that have made worthwhile differences in my life. Enjoy the photo of my then girlfriend Kumari and my 1968 CD-175 Honda.
And know, here I have shared a little scenery you might find interesting.

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