Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB

Here is a copy of an article posted in the New York Times a few weeks ago on that very subject:

On the Trail of the Young Che Guevara

December 19, 2004
By RACHEL DODES

WILL ANTONIOU, a 17-year-old student from East Hampton,
N.Y., is graduating early from high school. He was planning
to take a six-month tour through Asia before starting
college next fall at the University of Southern California.
But after seeing Walter Salles's film "The Motorcycle
Diaries," he changed his mind.

"I am going to South America," said Mr. Antoniou. "And what better route to take than the one Che did?"

The image of Ernesto Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary
who became known as Che and helped Fidel Castro seize
control of Cuba in the late 1950's, has inspired countless T-shirts, tattoos, posters and radical chic berets. Now, the early life of Che, as portrayed in "The Motorcycle Diaries," appears to be inspiring South American tourism.

Carolyn Midland, 25, was so moved by the film that she quit
her job and moved to Buenos Aires. Granted, Ms. Midland was closer to the project than most people: she worked in publicity at Focus Features in New York, which distributed the movie.

"I saw the movie early on, and I knew I had to go," said
Ms. Midland. Before moving at the end of October, she had
never been to Argentina, but had spent 12 days in Peru last December. (Her last day of work was Sept. 24, the day of the film's release in the United States.)

"Latin America is on fire," said Todd Sotkiewicz, president
of Lonely Planet Americas, the guidebook company, adding
that passenger travel from the United States to Latin
American destinations was up 22 percent in the first nine months of 2004, compared with the year-earlier period. Expecting a surge in South American tourism, Lonely Planet joined with Focus Features to produce a promotional guidebook that was handed out to moviegoers.

Mr. Salles, the film's director, said he was not terribly surprised that the movie - based on Mr. Guevara's published journals by the same name - is receiving such an enthusiastic response from adventure-seeking tourists. "The book is in itself an invitation not only to travel, but to experience and be changed and transformed by that experience," he said. "So if the film is generating the same kind of spirit I can only take it as a compliment."

Indeed, Mr. Salles himself had long wanted to follow the Guevara route by motorcycle. Thanks to the film, he got to follow the route three times - twice for location scouting and once for filming - but had to travel via 4x4 instead of on a motorbike.

"The Motorcycle Diaries," which has been described as "
'Easy Rider' meets 'Das Kapital,' " traces the early
travels of Che Guevara, then a 23-year-old medical student,
and his friend Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old biochemist. Guevara and Granado left Buenos Aires in December 1951 on the back of a sputtering 1939 Norton 500 cc, dubbed "The Mighty One," and traveled for eight months - covering more than 8,000 miles.

Guevara and Granado motorcycled as far as Santiago, Chile,
and then hitchhiked and sailed their way north through
Chile, Peru, Colombia and finally, Venezuela, where they
parted ways as changed men. (Guevara went on to become a revolutionary and was ultimately captured and killed in Bolivia in 1967. Granado founded a medical school in Cuba, where he still lives.)

Whatever one's opinions of the latter-day politics of Che Guevara, Mr. Salles's film succeeds in capturing the rugged beauty and romanticism of the South American landscape - a fact that some enterprising tourism companies have used to their benefit. For example, Journey Latin America, a London-based company, is promoting two "Motorcycle Diaries" Tours from Buenos Aires to Lima in 2005.

The trips, which do not involve any traveling by
motorcycle, last three weeks and cost approximately $4,500
to $5,000 a person, not including air fare to and from
South America.

Tim Walker, Journey Latin America's marketing manager, says interest in South American tours has increased sharply since the release of "The Motorcycle Diaries," in Britain in August. And bookings for South American tours are up 30 percent so far this year, he says.

Other tourism companies offer a more rugged interpretation
of the journey. MotoDiscovery, based in Spring Branch,
Tex., has been running motorcycle expeditions through South America for over 10 years. Its founder, Chip Mascorro, says the film "gives us another marketing hook."

Mr. Mascorro's next big tour, which starts in Santiago,
Chile, on Jan. 16 lasts 32 days and costs $6,950, including
the shipping of clients' motorcycles from Houston to
Santiago. This trip is also much more luxurious than
Guevara's: The rider-to-bike ratio is 1:1 - as opposed to
2:1 for the Guevara-Granado journey - and all travelers are equipped with "dual purpose" bikes, which feature enhanced suspension, enlarged fuel tanks, and high-traction tires for off-road riding. (Most riders either take a BMW R 1150 GS or a Kawasaki KLR 650; MotoDiscovery also offers
rentals.) In addition, participants are accompanied by a support vehicle, which will carry luggage, food, and medical accoutrements.

Travelers should bear in mind that parts of the route
followed by Guevara and Granado can still be dangerous, and that outside of the major metropolitan areas, knowledge of Spanish is very helpful. Tourists from North America should also remember that the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, and June, July and August can be cold in parts of Argentina and Chile.

For hard-core Che Guevara enthusiasts, there is yet another option. On Oct. 4, the Bolivian government opened up the "Che Trail," which allows visitors to follow the path of Guevara's last march before he was captured in the village of La Higuera by the Bolivian Army.

Some are skeptical that tourists would be inclined to enter
the heart of Bolivia to visit the site where Che Guevara
was killed. "You have to really be a Che stalker to do
that, really," said Mr. Walker of Journey Latin America.

But one can never be sure: Che Guevara also kept a diary
while in Bolivia. And that diary is currently being made
into another film, this time by the director Steven
Soderbergh. The movie will feature Benicio del Toro in the starring role.